When I was fresh out of college, newly married, and, starting a new, young adult life, our country went to war. The night the Gulf War Invasion was announced, our local church was having choir practice. Someone ran into the building late for rehearsal and announced that it had begun.
Sensing the gravity of the moment, we stopped what we were doing, left the choir loft and the entire choir knelt down around the altar in prayer. We prayed for our country, our servicemen, the Iraqi people, and so forth. It was a passionate, weeping kind of prayer. We knew already that people were dying. People made in the image of God. People for whom Jesus died. We knew we are at war. We knew this, but not much else.
We were not sure of how our side would fare. Most assumed that we would prevail but at what cost? How many of our service members would be injured or lost? I was draft age. If this didn’t go well, I was a prime candidate to join the ranks of our military should the draft become necessary.
But, as we now know, our initial military activities were even more successful than anticipated. It was during this initial invasion, now referred to by many as Gulf War I, that the term “Shock and Awe” was coined. A reference for a military action involving such overwhelming force that the enemy is both so practically and psychologically overwhelmed that they surrender almost immediately.
Our country is well-resourced for warfare. Shock and Awe have become a buzzword for forceful, overwhelming action, that utterly ends the will of an enemy to even continue fighting. This well-earned bravado about our country’s military capabilities can be a source of comfort against foreign foes who might otherwise invade and endanger our freedom. But this perspective on warfare can also limit our imagination for how we handle other problems as a people; “give a man a hammer, and he’s tempted to treat every problem like a nail”, they say.
When the Bible mentions spiritual warfare, it can create some confusion about what it is we are talking about. Our relative familiarity with conventional warfare can hobble us a bit when the Bible starts referring to warfare of a spiritual nature.
Here are a few examples:
Ephesians 6:10-11 – Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
2 Thessalonians 3:3 – But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 – For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
1 Peter 5:8-9 – Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
James 4:7 – Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Romans 8:37-39 – No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
John 16:33 – I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
1 Corinthians 10:13 – No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
The verses above are only a partial list of Biblical teaching about an altogether different type of warfare that we Christians, are to be engaging in on a regular basis. February 22, is the start of Lent for 2023. On that date, Ash Wednesday, we will assemble in worship for a very solemn, and crucial worship service. It is an opportunity to remind ourselves and those around us of what role we all get to play as we join Jesus in his mission field.
At some point, you will hear me declare this invitation to Lent:
Brothers and sisters: God created us to experience joy in communion with
him, to love all humanity, and to live in harmony with all of his creation. But
sin separates us from God, our neighbors, and creation, and so we do not enjoy
the life our Creator intended for us. Also, by our sin, we grieve our Father, who
does not desire us to come under his judgment but to turn to him and live.
As disciples of the Lord Jesus, we are called to struggle against everything that
leads us away from love of God and our neighbor. Repentance, fasting, prayer, and
works of love-the discipline of Lent- -help us to wage our spiritual warfare. I
invite you, therefore, to commit yourselves to this struggle and confess your
sins, asking our Father for strength to persevere in your Lenten discipline.
~LBW, Ministers Desk Edition, p.129
“Repentance, fasting, prayer, and works of love-the discipline of Lent- -help us to wage our spiritual warfare” That’s correct. Warfare. A spiritual warfare that is waged very differently than war between nations. Our enemy may present itself as flesh and blood problems (people, conflicts, situations that challenge us) but in fact, our enemies are Sin, death, and the Devil.
The weapons we deploy include repentance, fasting, prayer, and works of love. I’d like to invite you to think of Lent as a kind of training season. Armies have war games, and Christians have Lent. A season to focus especially on the things that draw us closer to the Lord and one another. The disciplines of Lent renounce everything that is wrong with the world, and with ourselves.
Repentance: working to identify and change things about our lives that run counter to God’s ways devastates the work of the Devil in our lives and paves the way for a better life starting now.
Fasting: teaches us to bring our bodies under submission to our wills and learn to trust in the Lord for the strength to sustain the loss of food, etc.
Prayer: brings us into a closer connection with God. Prayer changes us and more closely aligns our lives with the Lord’s.
Works of Love: The discipline of focusing on and serving others, profoundly changes us. Start small. You have all heard of Random Acts of Kindness. Go on a RAK mission throughout the forty days of Lent. It will change your life!
I challenge you all to be praying and dreaming of how to keep Lent this year. We have a few weeks yet to talk it over and coordinate with our spouses and friends. Seriously! Give it a try. It will change you.
Pastor Mark
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