"All Hell Has Broken Loose"

Ephesians 6:10-20

Ephesians 6:10-11: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil.

[Prayer]

I used to work with a woman who described her own moments of intense anger with the words: "Hell flew into me!" Those are pretty descriptive words: "Hell flew into me!" And don't they really describe us all from time to time? We all have our temper tantrums and such. We all have times of being rudely impatient, nasty-mouthed, sarcastic, snide, and ugly with those around us. And moments of self-righteous condemnation, catty gossip, cruel innuendoes, and unmerciful criticism. In moments of anger and frustration we lash out at our employees, bosses, spouses, children, friends, fellow church members, store clerks, bank tellers, and just plain old innocent bystanders. Hell flies into us, and before we know it, it flies right back out in all sorts of destructive ways.

Hell flies, or creeps, or sneaks, or otherwise insinuates itself into every person’s life, including every Christian’s life. Hell is all around us as we live out our lives as sinful people in a sinful world. In this time between our Lord's resurrection and Second Coming, this in-between time when the Kingdom has already come but has not yet totally triumphed, evil exists and sin is real. Though both are doomed, neither is willing to die quietly or go gently away. They attack us, seduce us, and infect us, causing us to do evil things, sinful things, ugly things, ungodly things, inhuman things.

Even the great saints of Israel and the church were not immune. Moses had his temper tantrums. In his younger days he even committed murder. Joseph had his youthful pride and arrogance. Jacob betrayed Esau. David, the man known as God's beloved, did horrible things. Peter was a pompous braggart and lying coward. His fellow disciples fought among themselves like jealous little children to be Jesus' favorites. The Apostle Paul, author of today's text, bewailed his helplessness in the face of sinful impulses in his letter to the Romans. He made reference to his thorn in the flesh: maybe a physical affliction, maybe a deeply rooted emotional problem, quite possibly some personal form of sinfulness with which had to wrestle for years.

Hell can fly into the greatest of God's Saints. The best Christian can be seduced by evil. None of us is immune to temptation. And if we're to be totally honest, no human being, Christian or otherwise, is ever totally successful in resisting it. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. None of us is righteous, no not even one. Like Paul, we all do those things that we would not, should not do. And in the process hurt ourselves, betray those we love, and do great damage to the cause of Christ.

In today's text Paul is coming to the end of his letter to the Christians in Ephesus. He has been exhorting them to throw off the old life and put on the new. In his exhortations he has taken seriously the staying power of that old life. It is insidious. It is tricky. It will cloak itself in the garb of righteousness, propriety, citizenship, and profitability. It will seek out the chinks in a person's armor: points of pride, assumptions of self-sufficiency, unresolved conflicts, old grudges and hatreds, self-righteousness, our deepest insecurities, and deep seated feelings of inferiority. It will infect our purest motives, highest ideals, and most honorable of intentions. It will sabotage our spiritual journeys, tripping us up in all kinds of ways, especially during those easier times in our spiritual journey when we risk becoming over-confident.

So Paul, well aware of his own struggles to live a faithful, holy, and healthy life, writes, in the words of Eugene Peterson's translation: "Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle alone. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued... God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential... Pray long and hard. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up..."

Good words to remember - and practice - as we live in a world, a society, and even a church where all hell is constantly breaking loose. Greed, envy, and power struggles define the market place, political arena, and even the ecclesiastical courts. Petty, and not so petty, jealousies, feelings of envy, backbiting, and strife plague all our human systems: our families, marriages, friendships, work place relationships, and even the local church.

God's people are besieged from outside by a dominating secularism that denies not only God's power and authority, but also his very existence, and seeks to revoke centuries-old moral and ethical beliefs and practices. We are besieged from within by often well-meaning but usually misdirected brothers and sisters, who in the name of modernism, secular accommodation, and ancient heresies wrapped in pretty new packages, want to turn the church into something other than what it's created and called to be. And sometimes, some of us who oppose them are willing to use some awful and ungodly tactics to win what we perceive to be God's war. In the process we, too, inflict great damage on the cause of Christ.

We need to put on the new life in Christ like we never have before. Part of that involves putting on what Paul calls the whole armor of God: truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation. We need to pray, as Paul wrote in another place, without ceasing. We need to be well -grounded in God's Word. We need the loving, caring, nurturing fellowship of other Christians in worship, prayer, study, and support groups. We need places to be honest about our wounds, weaknesses, and failures - places to honestly explore and find healing for all the chinks in our spiritual and emotional armor. We need to honestly and diligently search our own hearts and souls for places of weakness and woundedness - and places of excessive pride. We each need at least one Christian friend with whom we can be totally honest about everything: someone who will listen without judging, provide constructive criticism without condemning, help us discover the Scriptures most applicable to our unique situation, and when necessary, work with us through times of confession and repentance, and provide guidance while we work at undoing the damage we've done to ourselves, others, and the cause of Christ.

All hell has broken loose around us. And if we're honest enough to admit the obvious, it's pretty much broken loose within us. Maybe it flew in. Probably it simply sneaked in through some chink in our armor. However it got there, it's there.

Our first task is to root it out by way of confession, repentance, apologies to those we've hurt, and changed behaviors and attitudes. Our ongoing task, by way of disciplined spiritual living, is to put on the whole armor of God, leave it on, and take seriously the need to have it on even when Christian living seems easy.

God's Word is an indispensable piece of this armor. Prayer is a very necessary part of it. Bible study and prayer. Prayer and Bible study: places where we seek God’s truth, learn of righteousness, practice peace, maintain our faith, and reaffirm our salvation.

“Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power… put on the whole armor of God… for our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil…” Amen.