What are we wearing?!?

 

Therefore put on the full armor (clothing) of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able withstand, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:13

Growing up, I was often very aware that I didn’t have the “right” clothing.  Air Jordans were too much to pay for tennis shoes my mom said…even when I tried to convince her they were so much more than tennis shoes.  I mean, how did she expect me to make it in the NBA without those cool shoes that clearly would improve my game the moment I laced them up?  I didn’t have the “right” kind of jeans or shirts that the popular, in-crowd, was wearing.  I still hear my mom saying, “You go to school to learn, not for a fashion show.”  So, I am fascinated with Paul’s invitation to put on the clothing of God.  I know when I read this passage, I think of Sir Lancelot, weighed down with metal armor that glistens and glimmers in the sun as he rides a noble stead to save the day.  I think of putting on some kind of protection against all the words that are heard and hurled around carelessly in the world today.  After all, the rhyme that goes, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” is not true at all.  Each of us carries the comments we collect from others in the luggage and baggage of life.  We collect these words that come out to visit at 2 a.m. in the morning for a conversation. 

But the more I live with this passage and the gospels and the words of Jesus, I wonder if the armor of God isn’t anything we would picture the knights of the roundtable wearing, not made of metal or graphene or anything that remotely resembles a material that is seen/deemed as strong.  No, the clothing God put on was coming to us in the flesh of Jesus Christ.  God came to us human size.  God entered the human condition fully, without any kind of protection from or barrier between the realities of life.  Not only that, God’s “armor” was on full display on the cross where God faced suffering and struggled and death. 

This reality reframes this passage, God’s “armor” doesn’t look like what we’d expect.  We prefer “armor” to be a barrier and blockade against all that threatens us.  But God’s “armor” is open, vulnerable, and willing to embrace all the brokenness of the world.  God doesn’t deflect or defend the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles” (thank you Shakespeare).  No, God’s “armor” opens God’s whole self to all the hope and harshness of life.  I encourage you to hold the tension.  In what ways are we still seeking faith or reassurance or a salvation plan that would shelter us from the storms of life?  In what ways would we prefer protection against the hurt and harm of the world?  In what ways would God’s coming to us in the “armor” of a vulnerable infant, living a human life of being misunderstood, betrayed, deserted, facing death, and showing us a way to life give us a different set of clothing to put on?  I am not sure God’s wayless way is any more fashionable than the Hush Puppy shoes I wore to school, but perhaps it is a way we might “put on” especially today.  Amen.