'Struggle' From the History of the American People by Jacob Lawrence |
A sermon given during Holy Communion at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 29th October 2023 (The Twenty First Sunday after Trinity) based on readings from Ephesians 6.10-20 and St. John 4.46-end and the Collect for the week: Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace; that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
From strength to strength go on, wrestle and fight and pray;
Tread all the powers of darkness down and win the well-fought day.
Words from our opening hymn – part of a poem by Charles Wesley based on the text of our first reading from Ephesians. The language may seem dramatic – perhaps even unreal - to some. But for Charles and his brother John - the founders of Methodism - that fight against the “powers of darkness” was no mere figure of speech. The poem was written at a time when Methodists suffered from physical as well as verbal abuse.
Just a few months after taking on the lease of the
chapel down the road in West Street – where he frequently preached from the
pulpit under the gallery to my right – Charles’ brother John Wesley was
violently attacked by a mob in the West Midlands, after preaching in the open
air.
He wrote in his journal how he was dragged through
the streets by his hair, the crowd shouting “knock his brains out; down with
him, kill him at once.”
The violent reaction not a response to what John
Wesley had said – but a result of fear. Fear of difference; of the fervent,
extemporary preaching. Fear of change. Fear that the popularity of Methodism –
particularly amongst the working classes and women – was a threat to the
established order.
Fear. Three hundred years later, we don’t have to
look very far to see how that unseen power is having very real consequences for
the lives of all in the Holy Land, in Ukraine and in so many other places
around the world.
The
Evangelical Revival in Britain and America which John Wesley and his
contemporaries inspired, paved the way for the growth of what became known as
Pentecostalism. The movement spread fast because anyone who possessed the power
of the spirit could baptise, preach, perform acts of healing and speak in
tongues - allowing them to be understood in other languages. It wasn’t long
before these linguistic skills were put to the test. Pentecostal missionaries
set sail for Africa, following in the footsteps of those from more established
denominations.
The spiritual warfare described in Ephesians 6,
became their guiding text.
Believing
Christ’s return to be imminent, the battle to bring as many people as possible
into the light of the gospel was urgent - made even more so by what they saw as
the growing ‘threat’ of Islam in Africa. Armed with the gospel - what Ephesians
describes as the sword of the Spirit - the Pentecostal missionaries went into
battle.
They
interpreted the traditional approaches to healing they encountered - including
the use of witch-doctors - as examples of the “spiritual wickedness” described
in Ephesians. Burning parties were held at which newly professed converts
would cast talismans, charms and other ritual objects into huge bonfires.
But
as Pentecostalism grew exponentially, the influence of what the movement saw as
the “dark power” of African tribal religion - which the missionaries were fighting
against - also began to spread. The intense, dramatic and fervent attacks they
made against it had seemingly made such practices more real - enhanced their
status and power - in the public consciousness.
C.S.Lewis
understood this. In the preface to his popular novel “The Screwtape Letters” he
wrote:
“There
are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about devils.
One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel
an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. [The Devils] themselves are
equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the
same delight….”
Each
chapter of his novel is a letter from Screwtape - a senior Demon - to his
nephew Wormwood, who is in training to capture and devour his first human
soul.
Screwtape
offers practical advice on how to corrupt humanity, much of which involves
capitalising on the chinks of division caused by small, everyday sins. Envy of
another person’s success, irritation with how someone looks or behaves,
contempt for a different point of view.
Lewis
believed that it is in these seemingly petty everyday events that that most
people in Britain encounter the unseen forces of the devil today.
Like
the Wesleys before him, Lewis knew that the battle between good and evil is
no mere figure of speech. Writing amidst the rise of fascism and the
horrors of the Holocaust, his book shows how the most destructive, horrific
sins start as small ones. “The safest road to hell [he wrote] is a gradual one - the gentle slope, soft
underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
Portraying
the “wiles of the devil” through a systematic sequence of letters from a
manager
to his trainee, Lewis revealed how the theatre of spiritual warfare is no
longer in the urban squalor that provoked the Evangelical Revival - or even the
concentration camps of Nazi Germany. But in the places where such evils are
conceived.
For
Lewis, the devil found his home behind the desk of a quiet, clean, well lit and
comfortable office. He believed that God and the devil are a reality – the
illusion is our conviction that they do not exist.
Like
the Wesleys and C.S. Lewis, it is hard to see how the author of our first
lesson could not have been influenced by the context of physical violence;
written at a time when the Roman Army occupied Ephesus, now in modern day
Turkey.
In
the closing passages of the text we are called to fulfil the promises we made
at our baptism - to fight against principalities, powers, the rulers of the
darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places.
The
author draws on elements of a soldiers uniform as metaphors for the divine
grace we have received for use as armour in this spiritual battle. We are
instructed to put on God’s armour - "in full". A belt of truth, a
breastplate of righteousness, shoes of peace, a shield of faith, a helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit - the Word of God.
John
Wesley cleverly observed that no armour is mentioned to cover our backs - so it
is no use trying to deny or turn away from the threat; the reality which the
metaphor of spiritual warfare seeks to convey. The fear, envy, greed, jealousy,
pride, the anger. It is no hiding from the reality of these unseen forces, which
we know through their destructive effect on each of our lives and on the world
around us.
Nor
- as the example of the Pentecostal missionaries in Africa demonstrates - is it
helpful to dwell excessively on or overplay the metaphor. As many have
commented on the militarisation of language in other healing contexts – the use
of phrases such as “they lost their battle with illness” - is offensive and
harmful.
Both
denial and overuse of the language of warfare, struggle, battle against dark
forces - generate anxiety, for different reasons. A state which is the very
opposite of the “quiet mind” that we prayed for in the words of this week’s
Collect and which we are all searching for.
C.S.Lewis
saw this as yet another effect of the devil’s dark forces. Screwtape, the
master Demon, writes: “There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for
barricading a human’s mind against the Enemy [by whom he means God]. He wants
men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking
about what will happen to them.”
In our gospel reading we encounter
a man full of anxiety. He had heard about the miracles Jesus had performed and
travelled to plead with him to heal his son, who was at the point of death. As
he made the journey from Capernaum, that man’s mind must have been racing with
“what if’s”. But when Jesus said to him “thy son liveth” he believed. His mind was
quietened. And at that very moment of pure belief, out of sight and miles away back
at home, his son was healed.
An act of faith which would have spooked Lewis’s demons. Screwtape writes. “Do not be deceived, Wormwood [he
wrote]. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human…looks round upon a
universe from which every trace of [God] seems to have vanished …... and [yet]
still obeys.”
In that moment the nobleman in our gospel reading becomes a metaphor - for the
perfect believer. The model Christian soldier. One who wears God’s armour in
full and carries it well. His faith in our salvation in Christ - his hope in
the face of all the odds, his knowledge of God’s love for us – reveals our path to victory.
He shows us that the very real battle against the unseen forces of fear, envy, greed, jealousy, irritation, contempt, pride, the anger which beset each of our lives and hold us captive through anxiety - can be overcome through faith.
We’re here to strengthen ours - in prayer, worship and fellowship. To repent and be pardoned for those times when we have failed to recognise and respond to the spiritual battles we each face. To be fitted again with the armour of God - before going out to stand firm in the name of his truth, justice and peace.
In the words of our offertory hymn;
Oft in danger, oft in woe,
Onward, Christians, onward go;
Bear the toil, maintain the strife,
Strengthened with the Bread of Life.
Image: The American Struggle by Jacob Lawrence
Link: A shorter and amended version of this sermon was given at Choral Evensong on Sunday 29th October and can be read at this link.
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