Dear friends in Christ, with Veterans Day still in so many people’s minds, I would first like to express my gratitude for all those who have served in times past and those who continue to serve alongside me in service to our country.
I have been in the Army for 15 years, serving as part of the Indiana Army National Guard. I spent half of that time as an Ordinance Officer and continue to serve as a Chaplain. This time serving on both sides of the aisle as it were, has given me a unique perspective of what it means to be a soldier and warrior. Often, the language of Scripture uses the imagery of a cosmic battle, such as in the Psalms.
God describes Himself as the Lord of Sabaoth, that is, the Lord of angelic heavenly armies.
This language also extends to the church, it is the church militant, the fighting church, but St. Paul warns us in Ephesians saying: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12). This then should teach us how we are to at least in part view our faith. We engage in a spiritual battle, in which the devil seeks to first weaken our faith and then destroy it.
Perhaps, naming the devil as the primary enemy of faith makes some of you roll your eyes, as if I am invoking a boogey monster, but I have yet to find a better explanation for the problem of evil, than the one presented by the Christian religion. If Jesus lives, risen from the dead, then those events recorded in the Gospels must also be true, including His temptation by the devil in the wilderness (Matthew 4).
Yet, notice St. Paul’s words, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Ours is a spiritual warfare, in which we must engage daily during this earthly life. Christians do not get to take days off from being a Christian. We wrestle daily against the temptations of either our sinful flesh or the devil. This perpetual spiritual warfare will in turn leave you weary and wrung out. But there is a remedy for this. Jesus says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Yet, despair not! The Lord has provided His Christians a holy catholic (universal) and apostolic Church in which they can take refuge and find refreshment. It is in this Church, and not on the golf course that Christ has promised to be in mercy for you in His Word and Sacraments to refresh your souls.
The VII Article of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession puts it this way:
Therefore, in order that we may not despair, but may know that the Church will nevertheless remain [until the end of the world], likewise that we may know that, however great the multitude of the wicked is, yet the Church [which is Christ’s bride] exists, and that Christ affords those gifts which He has promised to the Church, to forgive sins, to hear prayer, to give the Holy Ghost, this article in the Creed presents us these consolations. And it says Church Catholic, in order that we may not understand the Church to be an outward government of certain nations but rather men scattered throughout the whole world [here and there in the world, from the rising to the setting of the sun], who agree concerning the Gospel, and have the same Christ, the same Holy Ghost, and the same Sacraments, whether they have the same or different human traditions.
Winston P. Grieser
Pastor-St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Kewanee
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Kewanee Voice.
***This column is sponsored by the Kewanee Ministerial Association
