The Armor of God - Part 2 - Suit Up

In this episode of Speaking of Faith, Bishop DeDe and Adam continue to explore the themes of faith, Christian nationalism, and expanding on the armor of God as described in Ephesians 6. They discuss the importance of understanding the armor not as a tool for offensive warfare but as a means of spiritual protection and internal strength. The conversation emphasizes the need for love, relationship, and recognizing the divine in others, while also addressing the dangers of dehumanization and the call to live out one's faith authentically in a complex world.

Takeaways

• Christian nationalism is misleading.
• The armor of God is about internal spiritual warfare.
• We must recognize our own temptations to dehumanize others.
• Truth and righteousness are essential components of our faith.
• The armor of God prepares us for peace and justice, not conflict.
• Recognizing the divine in others is crucial to our faith.
• Our safety comes from God, not from power over others.
• The armor of God clarifies our purpose and identity in Christ.
• Dehumanization harms both the marginalized and the oppressor.
• We are called to love and be in relationship with others.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Faith and Christian Nationalism

05:51 Spiritual Warfare and Internal Struggles

12:01 The Role of Faith in Spiritual Warfare

17:53 Clarifying Our Purpose Through the Armor of God

23:10 Conclusion and Reflection on Ephesians 6

AI Disclosure: To support our staff in their limited time, many of our episode summaries are first generated by AI and then edited by the Communications Director to accurately reflect and preview our podcast episodes.

Transcript

Bishop DeDe (00:03.074)
Hey friends, this is DeDe Duncan-Probe. I'm the Episcopal Bishop of Central New York. I'm here with our Communications Director, Adam Eichelberger, and we are here to speak about faith, to talk about what matters in our lives. The Episcopal Diocese is from Canada to Pennsylvania, Utica to Elmira, and all the beautiful people and places in between. And our conversation the last few weeks has been about Ephesians 6, the armor of God. And I want to refresh that, we've been speaking a lot about Christian nationalism over the last, months. That is a conversation we're going to continue to have in the diocese because I think it's very confusing. I think that Christian nationalism can sound like it's a great idea because don't we want to live our faith out loud and have society reflect the gospel of Jesus Christ? The answer is personally, yes.

But what we don't wanna do is conflate empire with the gospel of Jesus. Jesus has come to us for salvation for all people and we're called to be about that salvation. And that is not something that is, where it's coercive or where it's exclusionary or where someone has to be involved in it. God is a God that embraces our ability to respond in relationship.

And so we are invited into that relationship, not commanded into it in that way. But here in Ephesians six, we get into the armor of God and that having done all to stand, we stand therefore in God's grace. So in this time when there's a lot of Christian nationalism and people saying that, you know, the US should enforce Christian dogma. We know that that is not the way of Jesus, that God invites us into relationship.

God commands us to love one another and we take vows to respect the dignity of every human being. In earlier podcasts, I've done a lot of talking about our baptismal covenant. And so all of those things weave together in form of a backdrop against what we're going to talk about today, which is Ephesians 6. we had covered 10 and 11 last week.

Bishop DeDe (02:24.094)
that finally be strong in the Lord and the strength of our power, that our safety, our being comes from putting on the whole armor of God. One of the ways that the passage we're going to be talking about today gets co-opted is people will talk about the armor of God as if it's offensive, as if we're putting on the armor of God to go fight something. The armor of God is about a spiritual warfare.

It is about a fight, but it's that internal fight that we all know when we're tempted to do a wrong thing, when we're tempted to see another person as less than human, as less than beloved, and when we're tempted to see ourselves as less than human, less than beloved, that we're not as good as the other person, that we are wrong somehow organically. Those things are.

are a temptation that can break us down and keep us from knowing the peace of God that passes all understanding. So let's get into Ephesians six. I'm gonna start reading at verse 12. I commend to you, of course, the whole epistle of Ephesians, but we're gonna focus in on chapter six, verse 12 and forward. And here we go.

For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day and having done everything to stand firm.

Stand therefore and fasten the belt of truth around your waist. Put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet, put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Bishop DeDe (04:41.262)
Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.

what an interesting powerful passage this is and what a timely timely passage. I want to write off say that I do not preach about partisan issues so if somehow you want to interpret this as I'm talking about a political party or candidate or something please know that is not the case. I preach about Jesus Christ solely and so here in this writing from Paul

We're talking about the cosmic powers of this present darkness against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. I think we right away have a sense of what that is, but sometimes it can be convicting because we kind of like some of that evil. We kind of like to look at other people as if they're less than human sometimes, as if there's something wrong with them because they don't agree with us as somehow we're superior to someone else.

And that temptation is so human and we see it so often in ourselves and in those around us. Who's in the in club? Who's in the outs? Who's in the, you know, who's the popular person and who is less than popular? These spiritual forces are evil because they dehumanize. They in some way say that there are people who were good and evil.

There are those people God loves and those people God hates that somehow we're not all people saved by the grace of Jesus in us. So in this time when we're thinking about spiritual temptation and what's happening in the world, it is so important to be aware of and stay tuned to the ways in which we can get caught up in seeing them as the problem instead of our own hatred within us, seeing someone else as the person that needs to change.

Bishop DeDe (06:47.296)
instead of once again coming back and saying, how can I be more about the love of Jesus? It is easy to become co-opted by fear. Fear is what very often is our temptation into these places where we feel threatened, therefore we fight fire with fire. But Jesus is, and here Paul is talking to us about fighting in a different way. Therefore take up the whole armor of God.

that you may be able to withstand on that evil day. So what is this armor? The belt of truth, speaking the truth. How often we have trouble speaking truth. We don't wanna say the hard things. We don't wanna talk about the difficult things. Now today, in this time, we see this where people are afraid to talk about things that matter to them.

for fear of the separation that's happening in our world. If you don't agree with me, then you're subhuman and somehow you're not as good as I am. But speaking truth is to say, know, I don't really know, but this is my opinion and I'm willing to learn. Truth is that we don't know it all. Truth is that God is love and commands us to love. Truth is that there is never a good enough reason.

to hate or dehumanize another. That whatever reason we may make up in our mind, God loves that person and loves us. And so the truth is, we come to this place of faith with humility and grace. It's by the grace of God. Not because we're so special, not because we're so good, but because God's grace is so big. God's goodness is so large. And so the belt of truth that girds our way is what we wrap around us.

If you think of the bell holding up our pants, it's what holds up our pants moments that we have that truth. The breastplate of righteousness that what protects us from these temptations is when we keep forward and wrapped around us what is righteous. Mercy, grace, forgiveness, compassion, these things that sometimes we can devalue because we're seeking power.


Bishop DeDe (09:10.306)
to see that our ultimate power comes in our righteousness protecting us. And that we put on the helmet of salvation. And that our feet are, or that we put on our feet whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. I think it's interesting that Paul here is like, whatever makes you ready, whatever you need to prepare yourself for the gospel of peace, put that on. Whether it's reading scripture, praying, whether it's

you know, a way of thinking, but what spiritually gets you ready to talk about the love of Jesus Christ, make sure that we're walking the path of peacefulness, not the path of rightness, being right or being better than someone else, but the way of peace and reconciliation, that we're seeking harmony. And then I think the,

The confusing part about the armor of God is the shield of faith and especially the sword because we picture it with a shield of faith and the swords of Captain America or an Avenger, you know, and this idea of offensive, you know, the sword of the spirit. But the sword of the spirit, and we know this from Galatians five and we know this from other passages, we're talking about the fruit of the spirit, love, gentleness, peace, self-control that...

Bishop DeDe (10:34.006)
When we have these things, when our life is wrapped in God's mercy and grace, when we've wrapped ourselves not in how right we are, but in how good God is, when we have reminded ourselves that the Spirit of God always is calling us to separate what is holy from what is defiled, this sense of, in other passages, that cutting right to our very soul when we've been convicted.

of what is true and right. I'm always reminded of there was a friend that I had who one time was so certain that she was right about something. And we had an argument about it because I of course thought she was wrong and I thought I was right about it. And so we really kind of had a big blowout about it. But we were the close enough friends that we sat down and prayed together and as we were praying a passage came to mind.

And I thought, I'm wrong because I've been, I have been selfish in this area. And while we were praying, unbeknownst to me, something had come to her mind. And as soon as we finished the prayer, both of us almost simultaneously said, I'm so sorry, because we realized the truth that it's, that it clarified. And I think if we're going to think about the spirit of God, to think about it, clarifying what is true. It is so easy in this time to get confused.

about goodness or grace, mercy and healing. When we need to protect ourselves and when we need to be assertive in saying no, you may not do that or no, this is not the way we should behave here. The spirit of God is what helps us have clarity, what separates out our temptation from selfishness, from the goodness of what God's calling us to be. Now I've talked about a lot of things, Adam, so I'm gonna welcome you into this conversation here. Because as you look at the, as you think about the armor of God and in this time and this present darkness, how does this speak to your faith?

Adam Eichelberger (12:43.291)
So Bishop, think that especially as we think back about this previous conversations that we've had about the armor of God, and especially as we look at like these items, like this armor that we're putting on, it starts calling to mind when I think about spiritual warfare, which is where we were with this conversation as we move through. It reminds me of my upbringing in the church. And like I mentioned before, it becomes this boogie man, but it starts making me ask questions about and be really mindful and praying about what

Bishop DeDe (12:48.632)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (13:00.024)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (13:12.535)
actually is sin, which is an ugly word that we don't like to talk about a lot because I think that for many of us, I'll speak for myself, the idea of sin is our bad behavior, the bad things that we do that God cosmically wags his finger at, and that's not actually what sin is. what I see in scripture is this, Jesus himself,

Bishop DeDe (13:25.836)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (13:30.67)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (13:38.541)
in the gospel of Matthew says that there is one unforgivable sin and that is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which makes me kind of again, harken back to my, my CCD or my church school classes where it was like, what, what, don't take the name of the Lord in vain. So I make the con I make the connection that, well, if I say I blaspheme the Holy Spirit, then I'm not going to be forgiven for that. And that's not what that is. What does the Bible actually tell us is that the spirit of God

Bishop DeDe (13:43.246)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (13:50.669)
Yeah.

Bishop DeDe (14:03.566)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (14:08.089)
resides within every single person. It says that we ourselves are temples of the Holy Spirit. So to me, when I hear about this unforgivable sin, what that says to me is I am committing the unforgivable sin when I cannot recognize the Spirit of God, the presence of God in every person, those I agree with or I disagree with. And especially those who seem to become

Bishop DeDe (14:10.658)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (14:16.621)
Right.

Bishop DeDe (14:30.733)
Hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (14:36.609)
marginalized persons in our day. When I'm not able to see them as human beings worthy of dignity, then I am committing a sin that is unforgivable. But it reminds me that in this struggle, when I other people, I'm given the opportunity to turn away from that and recommit to that gospel truth of the dignity of every human person. What Jesus doesn't do

Bishop DeDe (14:57.666)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (15:05.239)
Send people away because they didn't do the right things or say the right prayers. That's not what he does He calls us into himself and he asks us to actually know our neighbor So as I am putting on this armor to prepare myself, I'm not getting ready for battle I am equipping myself to go out and to see The person who I don't understand because I acknowledge that I'm coming from a very different perspective of other people

Bishop DeDe (15:10.232)
Mm.

Bishop DeDe (15:33.995)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (15:34.231)
I am my own person, I have my own experiences in history and other people have theirs. I need to be able to put these things on about preparing my mind, doing what I, putting on what I need to do to carry out or preach that gospel of peace to prepare myself to further advance the kingdom of God. That's what I hear in this. I need to remember that I need to know my neighbor.

Bishop DeDe (15:38.731)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (15:54.882)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (16:01.826)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (16:02.041)
That's what I'm hearing in this because when I see what's specifically in our world, in our country, in our area, I see a lot of othering. I see a lot of turning away, not being prepared, not doing the work of being able to go out and see the actual presence of God in other people. And so that's what it's calling me into in all of this.

Bishop DeDe (16:13.034)
and

Bishop DeDe (16:18.764)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (16:25.825)
Yep.

Bishop DeDe (16:29.43)
And I think that's right. And the thing that is interesting here is we're putting on the armor of God so that we may be able to stand. If we go back to the first of this, you where we started off, that when you've done all that you can do to stand, stand there for. you know, and to actually recognize that being strong in the Lord and the strength of God's power is to give over. So when we put on the armor of God to give ourselves over to truth, to give ourselves over to righteousness,

Adam Eichelberger (16:38.747)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (16:58.538)
is to clarify who we actually are and who God is. And so in many ways, I think the armor of God, the more that I've sort of sat with this passage, then the more that we've talked about it and prayed about it, is that it's a clarification. All of these things are coming at you. These, you know, darts of the devil as you were the evil arrows and stuff, and this present darkness where you can't see in it. And there's all of this confusion when you look at this passage, you can see it speaking about.

these temptations to be confused and lost and unseeing, uncaring and ungenerous and opposed to the love of God in us. That the way we withstand in that time is the clarity that knowing God brings, which is the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation and the belt and the sword and all of it. And what you're saying about preparing ourselves is so essential.

Cause we kind of trot out like, you we got it on lock, you know, we know, Hey, you know, I got this, I'm good. And we go bolting out there. And then when we get there, just as you're saying, we can't see other people. Cause what we're actually looking for is our own validation. We can't see other people. Cause what we're looking for is our own safety in something other than God. And what we're called to do is to find our safety in God alone.

And to put on these ways of being, these are being things, to have the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. Yes, it involves doing something. The sort of the spirit to be, you know, have self-control involves a doing, but it begins with a being that our purpose and our clarifying understanding is as a child of God. What God is in me.

Adam Eichelberger (18:48.283)
Mm.

Bishop DeDe (18:50.786)
that and that wonderful, it even reminds me of Mbutu a little bit, the god in me sees the god in you. And that sense of putting on the whole armor is actually invitational to be, which is totally different than when I used to read this passage, what I would imagine.

I would be imagining kind of the Avengers thing that we're going to go out and we're going to fight these cosmic battles and we're going to, and the way we battle the devil is with our, you know, certitude or whatever. And if we look around, we can see that that kind of theology and thinking didn't work. It doesn't work. It feels good because it's so human that the way that I win is power over some.

Adam Eichelberger (19:15.771)
Mm.

Adam Eichelberger (19:28.164)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (19:38.168)
But as we mature as people and especially as people of faith, we realize that we never win when we have power over someone. We only win when we have relationship with someone. That the love of Jesus Christ is about reconciling with this. It's about a being gospel. And so whenever we're trying to be superior or find our safety in our power over.

Adam Eichelberger (19:50.8)
Mm.

Bishop DeDe (20:06.412)
We're demonstrating our weakness, our lack of real ability. We have been corrupted by this lack of clarity. So, you know, so I think that this is such an important passage right now because I think we lack clarity. We're trying to figure out who's right and who's wrong, you know, and there's all of this power mongering happening. But as people of God, we're called to be with others, to be in relationship with.

Adam Eichelberger (20:15.32)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (20:34.099)
and we will never find our way to holiness when we are condemning others.

Adam Eichelberger (20:39.971)
Absolutely. And the last thing that kind of jumps out to me as we've been reading this over and praying this over all of this stuff, this armor of righteousness, the shield, the sword, it doesn't say that we're leveraging these things against people. It says nothing about using these things against people. It is entirely for us to combat these things that marginalize, that degrade, that...

Bishop DeDe (20:53.662)
No, that's right.

Bishop DeDe (21:02.797)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (21:04.537)
take away from that spirit and presence of God in every single person. And so you're absolutely right, Bishop. We have let this be co-opted as weaponry and tools for war rather than preparations for peace and for justice.

Bishop DeDe (21:10.06)
Yeah.

Bishop DeDe (21:19.692)
That's right. And yes, I would say we are at war, but it is a different kind of war than a human war. A human war is all about who wins. But with the spiritual forces and power, just as you're saying, when we dehumanize others, this is where the truism of love your neighbor as yourself really comes home. When we say love your neighbor as yourself, it is a truism. If I love my neighbor,

I am going to experience love because I'm acting in a way that is in concert with the way I've been created to be. But when I marginalize, when I dehumanize, when I other someone, when I cease to care about their wellbeing, I receive that as well. That's the log of my own eye. That is where I receive back dehumanization. And I think one of the things that I keep being

I keep seeing as I look at this world is the way in which dehumanization dehumanizes everyone. It dehumanizes the person who's being othered and it dehumanizes the person who's actually doing the othering, which is so bizarre. That is so not how we tend to think of it as humans. If we can beat someone down, we somehow feel like, know, might is right. But in God's economy,

Adam Eichelberger (22:28.709)
Absolutely.

Bishop DeDe (22:43.446)
When we have beaten someone down, we have beaten our own soul. We've committed a sin against our own being. And that is so complex and deep. Well, this has been a great conversation, Adam, and I really hope that the listeners, as you're listening to this, read Ephesians 6, ponder it in your own heart. Think about the ways in which this idea of armor of God is clarifying.

that it shields us from getting lost, that it shields us from dehumanizing others and thereby ourselves, and that it is a clarifying call to the way in which we can live in this time. As we go forward in this podcast, we're gonna continue to talk about these places in our world and what's happening around us, and we're gonna continue to speak of our faith, to speak about how we find God in this time that we may be people alive with the love of God.

Sharing that with our hurting world. So in this time know that you're beloved that that you are a person that is created for holiness and may you find peace in your own time as you put on the armor of God as You prepare yourself to be about this good news Blessings to you all and I look forward to seeing you at the next podcast