Sunday, 26th August, Trinity 13: Proper 16
Joshua 24: 1-2, 14-18. Joshua assembles all the Israelites at Shechem (modern day Nablus)
and challenges their loyalty. Loyalty can quickly fade if it loses touch with
God's loyalty to us, not as a set of facts to shame us into temporary
commitment, but as the framework within which we live our lives.
Ephesians 6: 10-20. The armour of God is not a popular metaphor in the modern church
because it is deemed militaristic. However stupid that may be, it must be noted
that all the armour is purely defensive save one, the sword of the spirit,
which is the word of God!
John 6: 56-69.
Last week we emphasised the humanity of Jesus which is
absolutely central to any Christian theology of human salvation and this week
the stress is on the spiritual dimension. "It is
the Spirit that gives life. The flesh is useless"(verse
63)
The twin themes running through our readings today
are loyalty to God and the spiritual dimension of our faith and life.
What you find again and again both in the old and
the new testaments are lists of all the good things that God has done for us,
as a spur to us to respond with a similar loyalty to God.
Joshua gathers all the Israelites together and they
are challenged to renew their loyalty to God and in so doing they are reminded
of all the wonderful help they have received from God, starting back with the
exodus from Egypt all the way through to God clearing their path to take
control of the promised land which ends with the desired result;
“Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is
our God” (verse 18)
How can we learn from this? Because we so quickly
forget.
Let me use an example from Louise and I’s recent
history. In September last year we decided that Louise really had to pursue the
call that she had received to become a professor at Exeter university.
But that was a mammoth undertaking.
Although she had been headhunted she still had to
go through the whole official selection process.
I needed to find and secure a post near to Exeter
within commuting distance.
We had to move 300 miles changing job, house, part
of the country, friends.
We had a house in Newcastle we had to sell to all
the other stresses.
It was one of the most stressful moves we could
have dreamed up and our prayers were for our path to be made straight – that God
would smooth out any bumps in the road. And those prayers were more fervent
than usual.
What we experienced was truly amazing.
The finding of two new jobs a new house and
re-locating from the North East to the South West was achieved just one week
apart from each other.
All the bumps, and there have been some, like being
stranded in a snow storm in East Budleigh for three days, the vicarage being on
a six month let, were all smoothed.
And we were delivered to this wonderful part of the
world where we are thriving.
God’s help, God’s loyalty to us was palpable, and
the only repayment that God requires is that we stay loyal and true to him in
all our doings.
Now each one of us in this church this morning will
have your own personal story to tell.
Because God is faithful. In just a couple of
moments think about how God has been experienced in your life, about his
faithfulness to you.
It could be in a series of little things or in big
things for God is Lord of all.
God has been faithful and loyal to us corporately as
a church as well. He doesn’t want to see
us fail. He asks for our loyalty and renewed commitment to him.
When we do that we lay ourselves open to spiritual
warfare. That sounds grandiose, but the devil won’t come at you with a
pitchfork, breathing fire.
He comes at us in the niggling doubts and fears in
the small hours, uses arguments with our loved ones or grievances in the church
to ferment discord, to throw us off beam. He works through cynicism and
defeatism, using our worst traits against us. The battles are being fought in
our hearts and minds and souls.
They are spiritual battles, and we need spiritual protection
against the wiles of our enemies.
God’s Holy Spirit is available to offer all of us
that protection. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the
gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
the spirit which is the word of God.
These are protections offered to us by God himself
and it is up to each one of us to put on this armour – to utilise them for our
own benefit.
The alternative is that we face the father of lies,
undefended and unarmed, and he is far more experienced in spiritual warfare
than any of us will ever be.
In this battle it is exactly as Jesus characterised
it. “It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is useless. The words I have
spoken to you are spirit and life” (v. 63)
The final exchange in our gospel reading today
brings together those two strands of loyalty and the life of the Spirit in which
many people had deserted Jesus.
John 6:66-69 English
Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)
66 After this many of his disciples turned
back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want
to go away as well?”68 Simon
Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life, 69 and we
have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of
God.”
Amen
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