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“Does This Match,” Rev. Jason-Paul Channels, 8/23/15

“Does This Match?”

A sermon preached at

Heart of the Rockies Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Fort Collins, CO

by the Rev. Jason-Paul Channels

August 23, 2015

Ephesians 6:10-20 (CEB)

   10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and his powerful strength. 11 Put on God’s armor so that you can make a stand against the tricks of the devil. 12 We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens. 13 Therefore, pick up the full armor of God so that you can stand your ground on the evil day and after you have done everything possible to still stand. 14 So stand with the belt of truth around your waist, justice as your breastplate, 15 and put shoes on your feet so that you are ready to spread the good news of peace. 16 Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.

   18 Offer prayers and petitions in the Spirit all the time. Stay alert by hanging in there and praying for all believers. 19 As for me, pray that when I open my mouth, I’ll get a message that confidently makes this secret plan of the gospel known. 20 I’m an ambassador in chains for the sake of the gospel. Pray so that the Lord will give me the confidence to say what I have to say.

 Many of you may not know that I am color blind. The first questions I usually get when I share this with people are: 1) so you can’t tell red and green apart? (the answer to that is that I can really only see two colors of the spectrum the red, orange, yellow as one stripe I see a yellow and the blue, indigo and violet I see as blue). 2) how do know what color a stop light is? (the vast majority follow the pattern of Red on top or on the left…you’d be surprised how many people really only look at the color and never noticed that they are always in the same place). 3) What color am I wearing? (Which for obvious reasons I can not answer right now). When people hear I am colorblind they quiz me on colors and what things look like to me If I can not see the colors they see.   And just for the record no…I never had granimals to help me match my clothes though I did once think I could get rich selling similar sports-themed things for grown men.

Colorblindness does give me an out when faced with that dreaded question “Does this match?” or its variant of “How does this look?” Now I don’t know where people learn about this fashion and matching thing. I don’t know if I missed that day in second grade when everyone got the information or took the pill or if maybe it happened while I was taking my colorblind test. But somewhere along the way we were supposed to acquire information that allows us to KNOW that something goes together or not. That something matches or clashes. And it seems I am not the only person to have missed this at least according to some of your wives…I mean people.

For the most part being colorblind is no big deal. Yes it means I can not do some things in my life but it does not create any real issues or struggles.   But people do look askance at those whose clothes don’t match, whose outfits don’t go together. They are often identified as less, less trusted, less valuable, less knowledgeable, less with-it because what they are showing to the world does not match. Now I can’t say I understand this, but I have heard enough comments over the years, even in church, to know it matters to people.

But what does any of this have to do with a sermon you ask? Well lets take a look again at today’s text. So stand with the belt of truth around your waist, justice as your breastplate, and put shoes on your feet so that you are ready to spread the good news of peace. Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.

I imagine after this letter was read to the church at Ephesus that there were some follow up questions like: Can’t we be barefoot? Can I carry something other than a sword? I’d really like to be an archer instead. Do you have that in purple? Justice doesn’t go well with my skin tone. Now those were funny questions but I suspect there were real ones as well. I suspect that people really wanted to know if they needed to have all the pieces or could they mix or match. I suspect they wanted to know if they could trade out some of those things for the things they really wanted to wear in their lives. Maybe a breastplate of fairness not justice or a sash of what’s convenient instead of a belt of truth. Because they knew that this ensemble seemed impossibly difficult to pull off. That to have that as your outfit you would have to MATCH!

If that was what they were supposed to wear then their actions and words and deeds and beliefs would have to match. They would have to be able to articulate and live out these beliefs and practices they had been learning about and trying out and exploring. And it must have seemed like an impossible task. Can you imagine trying to get together your entire set of theological beliefs and put them on and make sure that they all match? That they don’t disagree or contradict or shift to be convenient in one situation and then in a different one? And to do so without the Bible. Remember that if Paul was the author of the letter, then it was probably written from Rome during Paul’s first imprisonment (3:1; 4:1; 6:20), and probably soon after his arrival there in the year 62.   Long before any of the church councils could define issues of faith, and before the codification of scripture, before widespread literacy within the human memory of the time when Jesus was alive on earth! Paul was asking people to make sure their theology matched their practice and their words.

There has been a practice for many years in Christian tradition to write one’s set of beliefs down to capture the full scope of one’s faith statements. This is sometimes called a Credo…which means I believe. In seminary we were tasked with writing a systematic theology paper (maximum 30 pages) to capture all of ours. As a spiritual practice and a challenge to make their faith lives match others have written whole books (sometimes in multiple volumes). Luckily as Christians today, we have centuries of Christian thought and writings to help us. We have time for mental and spiritual reflection. We have resources and traditions and practices passed down to us and shared with us. We have opportunities for Bible study and conversation. We have the chance to lead in worship to teach children and adults we have coffee shops and bars and hospital rooms and gravesides to share our faith in practical times and ways. We have lots of opportunities that serve as kind of a granimals for theology. A way to help us know when our actions and beliefs and proclamations match (or clash).

But the truth is many of us have not examined all of these parts and pieces of our faith lives that closely. It is almost like we got dressed in the dark. We have this saying our third grade Sunday School teacher taught us, we have that faithful-sounding phrase from the cross-stitch pillow our neighbor gave us, we have that scripture verse everyone repeats and recites that wasn’t really from the Bible but Ben Franklin, we have whatever the preacher preached on that last Sunday we were in worship, and we have the Bible in the language of Jesus himself (the KJV), we have clothes from our childhood and ones we just got at Christmas and we try to mash them all together and wear them as one outfit, as one coherent faith.

If even the Bible does not agree on everything theologically…how can we possibly expect ourselves or each other to have a faith that matches without work and effort and struggle. Both intellectually and emotionally. In our heads, our hearts, our guts our tears lie experiences and knowledge to help us to create a coherent and applicable and functional and dynamic faith. But in order for that to be possible we have to work at it and struggle with it and be intentional!

This fall as we launch our preaching series on The Faith We Share Melissa and I will be leading a book study on “A Faith of Your Own: Naming What You Really Believe” as a way for us to do some of that intentional work of exploring the deep categories of faith definition and what each of us as an INDIVIDUAL believes RIGHT NOW about those categories. It is wonderfully accessible book and is designed to lead us into reflections and conversation as a way put on these various theological garments and see what fits together.

Most of the time people have no idea that I am colorblind until I put on dress clothes. You see before I got married and had Amy around to help me know if I was matching I had to a) remember what the sales person had put together when I bought the clothes…or b) take a chance at my own fashion design. Now the disasters are fewer on Sunday mornings thanks to Amy but before I had an in-home check I had to wait until I got out in public to see if I matched. There were many times I am sure I was a fashion disaster. Just as I know there are many times I am still a theological stripes and plaid wearer…just trying to figure out what all goes together so that what I share with the world about my faith matches instead of clashes. So, as Paul wrote, that others can see when I share my faith “I’ll share a message that confidently makes this plan of the gospel known.