Lovely Feet

Ephesians 6:15

The gospel of peace is the good news that Jesus has made peace between us and God. We stand in this peace. We are destined for this peace forever. Our current and future peace give us firm footing as we face war and struggle on every other front.

Rooted in peace so we can fight the battle.

We have peace now with God. We get a foretaste of future-forever peace as we pursue and deliver peace within our community.

... and we get to be the messengers of that peace to one another and to others. I want lovely feet :D.

Pulling the Rug Out at Youth Group

Having the Rug Pulled out from underneath me.

I have lay awake at night feeling my marriage was threatened. My family was threatened. My home was threatened. My livelihood was threatened. My life as I know it was in danger.

We all have conflict

Is that Spiritual Warfare?

Yes, it happens in the everyday

Ephesians 6:15

What is the peace?

Shalom (peace and completion), not temporary truce.

Peace with God

Ephesians 2:14-18

Peace forever

And tasting that peace now.

What is the armor?

Readiness that comes? (motion. Solid ground, foundation. No one can pull this rug out from under you. Steady footing. Rooted in peace.

This is a peace that cannot be taken.

Peace in Spiritual Warfare

In the everyday conflict, you can stand firm. You know that this conflict is temporary. Rooted in peace with God. Rooted in eternal peace to come.

You – Putting it On

Set your feet. In winter football, we put our cleats on.

You are no longer, ever, far or separated from God. Your peace with God is assured. Your future peace is purchased and guaranteed. This battle is temporary.

And that gives you the firm footing to walk into the next battle. To continue being the frontier.

We put on peace together.

More than most of the armor, this is a hard one to put on alone. If we are all armored up, perhaps we can’t reach our feet. If you’re in the midst of battle, of conflict, of tension and struggle, it is hard to remind yourself of peace in the midst of it.

We can be messengers of peace to one another.

Readiness of the gospel of peace (the good news of peace) echoes this passage from Isaiah:

Isaiah 52:3-7

Christ was the messenger of peace to us.

We are messengers of peace to one another.

I want lovely feet.

Communion

He, Jesus, purchased our peace

Isaiah 53:4-6

Isaiah 53:4-6

4 Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Conflict and Struggle

There was a beautiful moment last night with my children. They were playing together in the frontyard. It was beautiful yesterday, they had the squirt-guns out. They were all laughing and talking, not just my kids but a good group of neighborhood kids.

And (this was beautiful) no one was crying. No one was shouting at the other. Anna and I didn’t have to intervene and resolve a war.

Temporary Peace. A Truce. Whether we see it as moments of peace interrupted by conflict or moments of conflict interrupted by peace. Which you choose says something about you and how your week is going, doesn’t it?

Did anyone have a conflict free week? Everything went perfectly? My week, this week was actually pretty beautiful. Comparatively calm.

Did anyone have a conflict free year?

The Calm between the Storms

We have things going on! Conflicts and tensions. Battles…

We are a small church, so I could make a little list.

Is that spiritual warfare?

We have this grand language of spiritual warfare against “powers and principalities and spiritual rulers…” But that battle gets expressed and played out in our actual lives. That is, every spiritual battle we are in has a physical/mental/relational battleground. The opposite is true: every physical/mental/relational challenge we have has a spiritual component.

And that doesn’t mean there is a demon behind every bush. It doesn’t mean Satan is responsible for everything that goes wrong in your life. But it does mean that this “spiritual warfare” is the stuff of real life. It happens in your real life.

Waiting for Isaiah

Story of family living in fear of invasion. Losing family. Losing home. Losing life.

The Fear of War

I have never had the fear of invasion. … but I know what it is like to lie awake at night afraid my family is falling apart. Afraid of losing my home.

Right alongside the joy of life and love, we know conflict and tension. We know what it is like to struggle, to fight.

And lately we have been talking about spiritual warfare. But we all know that every conflict and tension in our lives has a spiritual dimension… and every spiritual fight has physical expression and affect. That is how we experience it.

Peace. It is something we usually experience temporarily in between fights.

Ancient World Problems

In the Ancient World, one lived under the constant threat of invasion and destruction. The history of Israel is just such a story. Refugees from Egypt, they invade the land of Canaan. Really, on a tide of blood, they wipe out the people living there and take up residence. The next 400 years are a story of conflict and tribal warfare. Of being conquered and their cities raised, and reconquering the tribe who conquered them.

In the region, they can see layer upon layer in the cities, very few cities making it a generation before being raised to the ground, then having something built over it. A new city over the old, and then a new city on that. Layers of war, layers of destruction.

The kings rise, and on the tide of King David and King Solomon the wise, the Israelites achieve dominance in the land of Canaan, a dominance achieved by warfare, subjugating the neighboring tribes, sacking their cities and ruling over them. But… after Solomon, civil war and the country splits. More conflict back and forth… until Israel to the North is conquered and Judah is subjugated, then Judah is finally conquered.

So people lived with the constant real concern that their life, at any moment, was going to be burned to the ground.

Isaiah writes in the 8th century and the people are watching to the East as Assyria, modern-day northern Iraq, Assyria’s empire is growing and growing. And, on its way to Egypt it is going to swallow up Israel and subjugate Judah.

And as the people are concerned, they are scared, the prophet Isaiah writes of a day coming when they don’t have to be afraid.

Isaiah 52:3-7

3 For thus says the Lord: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.” 4 For thus says the Lord God: “My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing. 5 Now therefore what have I here,” declares the Lord, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail,” declares the Lord, “and continually all the day my name is despised. 6 Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.”

7 How beautiful upon the mountains

are the feet of him who brings good news,

who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,

who publishes salvation,

who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

It goes on to say the people in the city are singing for joy, and they party.

But this lovely feet bit…

This is rocky, somewhat grassy, but dirty hilly land in Jerusalem. And a messenger is dispatched to run cross-country, in sandals. Running. In sandals. On dirt. These feet aren’t lovely. They are nasty. I have a friend who periodically runs cross-country in sandals. You don’t bring the sandals inside! Nasty.

… but he bring this message: don’t worry about Assyria invading and destroying your land and taking your children as slaves and likely killing you. They have brought peace. Everything you were afraid of, fearing, the total destruction of your way of life, of your life: you are safe. There is peace.

And you would fall and kiss the feet of anyone who brought you that kind of news.

Lovely Feet

Ephesians 6:13-15

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

Shalom

Not just an absence of war.

Everything right and in its place. Everything fitting and working together. There is no hostility, but there is also completion and completeness. There is the beauty of things working and things working well.

Absence of conflict, we know, may just be the moment before conflict breaks out. There is still tension, there is fear, there is anticipation. Shalom, peace, is the full resolution of that. Not only no war, but no more reason for war. No more reason to worry.

Peace for my city. Peace for my people. Peace for my family. Peace for my home.

Peace with God

He is our peace, reconciling us to God. That is the good news. That is the gospel of peace.

Ephesians 2:14-18

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Peace – eternal Sabbath rest

Spiky Shoes

Roman caliga, a half-boot which could be studded with sharp nails to enable a firm grip.

Readiness

It is a preparedness for action. It is an ability to not only stand but to move when required. To take the offense, to take the battle to the enemy if necessary.

A couple times this last winter, we played football in the snow. And we have these magical shoes called cleats. They have these spikes on the bottom that dig down into the ground looking for solid footing, even when the ground is uncertain, when the footing is treacherous, the cleats give traction.

So that Brandon can juke me and make me dive in the wrong direction entirely while he runs away. True story.

Gospel of Peace

The “good news” of peace is that every moment of circumstance is temporary. Right now you need these wicked studded shoes, the good news of peace with God, the good news of future peace on earth, because you need to dig in and fight. Stand. Press on.

How Do You Put It On?

How is it Spiritual Warfare?

Lovely Feet

You were at war. You know what it feels like to be at war. In your family. With your kids. With your spouse.

You need peace.

Rooted in peace so you can fight the battle. You have firm footing. You have it. You have a solid foundation: you have it. Stand in it.

“feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace…” That doesn’t change your current circumstances. It is the good news of your eternal circumstances, but that lets you stand firmly in the midst of your current circumstances.

How does “peace” help me in my current circumstance? Great, I have peace with God. I have peace coming in the future. And maybe I have a foretaste of peace, kind of, in my church family.

It doesn’t change my current circumstances. But it does say this: this is temporary. Good news: peace is coming. Eternal rest, eternal fulfilled Sabbath. It’s coming. This is temporary.

Parents of kids in diapers: this too shall pass. Peace is coming.

Parents of teenagers: this too shall pass.

Stress at work: this too shall pass.

Next Step – Foretaste of Heaven

And that peace builds together. Ephesians 2 continues, he is our peace, he bought us, brought us peace with God and so…

Ephesians 2:19-22

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

This is the Church!

But it isn’t so that we can hold hands and sing Kumbaya! It isn’t unity for its own sake. It is because we are in the midst of struggle of conflict. We have our eyes on the spiritual dimension, but that spiritual dimension plays out in they physical and relationship.

It plays out at work. It plays out in politics. It plays out in our families and in our homes. This is our present battlefield.

And we get to be the messengers of that to one another, because we need to hear that over and over.

Perhaps more than any piece of armor so far, we put this on together. When I am in the heart of battle, I need you to be messengers of peace to me. “Stand firm. “

Pray for peace. Be the messenger of peace. I want lovely feet.

The unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:1-7

4:1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.