G. I. Jesus August 26, 2012 Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B Ephesians 6.10-20

            Archaeologists rooting around in the rubble of ancient Sardis happened on the bones of a solider who fell in the thick of the fighting. He fought for the Lydians against the Persians about half a millennium before the birth of Christ. His bones tumbled from the ruins of a mud-brick wall in which his corpse clearly served as no more than mortar: No embalming, no grave-goods, not a single artifact to mark his identity.

            But they knew he was a soldier who fell while doing his duty. His bones told the tale.

            The muscle insertions on his upper arms indicated that he habitually hoisted a shield with his left and swung a sword with his right. The cracked bones in his left forearm indicated that he had wielded it as a shield long after the enemy’s blows hewed his own shield to slivers. His right hand clutched a stone – caught up as a weapon of chance, perhaps after his sword broke. The compressed vertebrae of his neck betrayed the constant weight of a helmet.

            Now that’s a faithful soldier: so dedicated in duty that thousands of years in an unmarked grave fail to erase the imprint of his armor.

            “Put on the whole armor of God.”

            Paul admonishes the Ephesian believers to fight in full harness, to live such daily discipline in Christ that their very skeletons preach the gospel long after their tongues fall silent. Those marching orders remain unchanged for today’s spiritual warriors.

            Cling to faith in the risen Christ as the all-encompassing explanation against which the schemes of the skeptics shiver. Wield the Word of God with such persistence that even if they finally pry the written book from your hands you can battle on because you have hidden it in your heart – and etched it into your bones. Walk through life with a head habitually hung low because nothing but humility can bear the weight of a salvation given by grace alone.  

            Christ bears yet the scars of His service, badges of courage for all eternity in the presence of the holy angels. (Rev 5.6) One day when the graves gape and groan to lose at last their mortal prey (1 Th 4.16), and we rise to meet our Lord in resurrection bodies beyond our present imagining – may they yet be scored with the souvenirs of our soldiery which will shout forever to the praise of God!

Full Battle Rattle,

Doug