Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity John 6:56-69 Ephesians 6:10-20

I had to go through my wardrobe the other day, looking for something to wear to a party. I know, it’s great to be invited to a special event like that, but after the initial excitement comes the question: what do I wear? The question might relate to what would be fashionable, or it might be about hitting the right note as to colour or style. It can be such a trap! Fortunately, there is also such a thing as ‘vintage’, meaning anything that is ‘of an age’, and in the context of clothing between twenty and fifty years old. Now that suits me fine; no pun intended. After all, I want to look reasonably nice in what suits me, not being draped in the latest expensive but unflattering fashion. That leads me to another question: how do we decide what is really important? Not only in the context of an invitation to a party, but when it comes to the way we live our lives. That goes deeper, no doubt. And even there, in terms of life style, there is such a thing as ‘fashion’. Let’s think about it for a moment. Do we live our lives by certain principles because we know them to be right or because they are convenient or even popular? And how does the answer to that question affect our behaviour? In other words: what is the yard stick that we use to help us ‘get it right’?

We are at a time in our history when we are seeing a lot of unrest in the world, economically, socially, reflected in nature, and many of these problems can be brought back to human failure. Failure, that is, to consider ‘the other’ and to understand that freedom comes with responsibility. From the very beginning, the biggest problem of humankind has been pride: the idea that we have a right to everything we want when we want it. As the story of Adam and Eve tells us, it makes us very vulnerable to the lures of the devil. And that’s another thing:

Many people don’t believe that there’s something like spiritual warfare, or that there’s a struggle between good and evil. They certainly don’t personify evil and call the devil by his name, or they make a joke of it. But Jesus knew what he was dealing with. The temptation in the desert – as recorded in the other three gospels – has made that perfectly clear. As he says in today’s passage in John 6, ‘It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.’ In his work, of teaching and healing and performing miracles, Jesus often speaks about the fact that it is the people’s faith that has healed them or helped them receive what they are asking for. And it seems that their faith also recognises the struggle between good and evil, God and the devil, far more easily than we do today.

Now, I know that we have all the advantages of science to help us understand illness and how it can be cured in many cases. Science can be a blessing and it can be complementary to faith. But it isn’t science that will win the victory over evil. Science cannot give us love, grace, mercy, kindness and the like. In that sense, for faith to really flourish it needs to accept the Son of God and the work of salvation that he has done. As Jesus has said: ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.’ Many don’t like this and leave; they are not able to see beyond the physical and don’t appreciate the spiritual dimensions that Jesus is talking about.

When Jesus asks the disciples whether they too will want to leave him like those others, because they find his teaching too hard, Simon Peter says, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’ What an amazing statement! The Spirit of God gave Peter this insight, as Jesus had indicated.

So, where do you stand? The enemies of the Christian believer are not human but spiritual, as Paul warns in Ephesians 6. Therefore, we need to wear the armour of the divine protector: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. So wear it. It may not be the most popular. It may not even be fashionable. But it helps you to stand in the strength of God’s power when you need it most. Amen.