Ephesians 6:10-20
A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Dr. Howard W. Boswell, Jr.
Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 23, 2009
Kenmore Presbyterian Church
Kenmore, New York
The idea for this sermon started when some of our children, youth, and adults marched in the Memorial Day Parade to promote Harry Potter and the VBS Disciples. I drove my PT Cruiser, bedecked with balloons and streamers, as a support vehicle and rolling candy re-supplier. Somewhere along the route, a woman took issue with the idea of doing a Vacation Bible School about Harry Potter. She cried out, “How can you do it? God and Harry Potter don’t mix.”
While everyone has the right to an opinion, I disagree with the woman’s: God and Harry Potter do mix. Besides introducing many children, not to mention more than a few adults, to the joy of reading, these wonderful stories offer lessons about, as the children learned this week, the importance of friendship, the place of food as a source of life and joy, the need to make wise choices, the power of love to protect us, and the call to go out into the world.
Now, I’m nowhere near the Harry Potter scholar Nancy is, but I watched all of the movies and listened as my wife read the last three books to our family and I believe Harry Potter has a great deal to say about God. Though J.K. Rowling never invokes God by name in the books, she believes in God, even calls herself a Christian, and doesn’t believe in wizardry or witchcraft. J.K. Rowling stands in a great tradition of literature, which reaches back to the beginning of Christianity, which uses story to explore what C.S. Lewis once called, “the deep magic,” which explains the mystery of our redemption through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. In every book, Harry Potter suffers to save others. Ultimately, he lays down his life for his friends.
Also, the Harry Potter Books explores the reality of the realm of which Ephesians 6:12 speaks, “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 in the heavenly places.” I asked Nancy whether we could find a movie clip to illustrate this point, but I realized it would be impossible. From the first book to the last, the Harry Potter series tells of a struggle between the forces of good, led by Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix, and the forces of evil, led by Lord Voldemort and his death eaters. The entire curriculum at Hogwarts prepares the students to participate in this battle. Most of the action of the books deals with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, later assisted by Dumbledore’s Army, learning how to defend themselves against the dark arts.
Now, you may wonder whether I believe in wizardry and witchcraft or not. Of course not and neither does J.K. Rowling, but I believe we’re engaged in a battle. Like many in the Ministry of Magic, many members of the church choose to ignore this struggle. We believe that God is in the heavens and all is right with the world. Yet, we only need to pick up the newspaper or turn on the evening news or surf the web and we will soon find out how false the second part of the sentence is. Ephesians 6:10-20 offers us a specific strategy to defend ourselves against the dark arts.
First, we must be strong. Yet, our strength does not come from ourselves. Ask the children what protected Harry from Lord Voldemort. They will tell you it was not only his abilities or his gifts. It was a form of deep magic. His mother, Lily gave his life for him and it protected him. His father, James fought to protect him and Harry’s Patronus, a spiritual shield of sort, took the form of a stag, which was his father’s animal alter ego.
Too often, we believe we must be strong in ourselves, but if you ask anyone who’s really struggled with, say, addictions, he or she will tell you the first step is to admit you’re powerless and seek your higher power. Bringing the letter to the Ephesians to a close, Paul makes this very point. He tells his readers, “Be strong,” but he adds, “in the Lord.” To drive the point home, he adds, “and in the strength of his power.” He only echoes what the prophet Zechariah said, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”
Second, we must stand. Now, “stand” does not mean we must “stand for.” Last week, in my sermon, I mentioned how we face “a spiritual threat,” a challenge that goes unmet. Now, I was vague about the precise nature of this threat, because I’m not completely sure what I mean, but I believe we find ourselves in the position of some of the characters in the Harry Potter books. Throughout the books, the Ministry of Magic appears unwilling to accept the reality of the ongoing threat posed by Lord Voldemort. They believe they have everything under control. Yet, nothing can be further from the truth.
The Ministry of Magic reflects the leadership in most churches, including this one. We think that if we just manage things, all will be well. We think that if we just make sure everyone’s happy, everything will be O.K. Yet, nothing can be further from the truth. The church in this new millennium faces a similar situation as when it was new. We live in a world where a few express open hostility to Christianity; some support us, but don’t commit; and many simply ignore the church. Day after day, we face choices about how we will live our lives. We don’t realize that these choices are like the one we heard from Joshua today, a choice between following God and following “the cosmic powers of this present darkness.” We forget the words of a country and western song from a few years ago, “You got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.” Yes, we need to “stand up, stand up for Jesus,” taking our faith with us to where we work, making our hope real in how we approach the world, and showing our love in our homes, in our neighborhoods and around the world, and to one another, so that everyone might see the one in whom we live and move and have our being.
Third, we need to “put on the gospel armor.” Presbyterians don’t talk much about spiritual warfare, but we once did, and, maybe, we should again. We tend to think we can think our way out of anything, but if you read the Harry Potter books, you find out you need something more than book smarts to survive. We need to prepare ourselves for battle through practice. We need to take the gifts God offers us. God gives us the gospel armor described in Ephesians 6: 14-17, “so that [we] may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”
We need to secure ourselves with the belt of truth, which is the integrity of being God alone give us through God’s word. We live in a world where truth is a scarce commodity, but God gives it to us in abundance, if we ask. We need to guard our hearts with the breastplate of righteousness, not a smug sense of being “holier than thou,” but a heartfelt humility that God alone justifies us, through faith in Jesus Christ.
If we want to stand firm in this fight, we need to make sure we have a good pair of shoes, so we need to “put on whatever will make us ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.” If we want to protect ourselves against “all the flaming arrows of the evil one,” we need the shield of faith, which like the Patronus, comes from our Father in Heaven, to cover not only us, but others as well. For our head, we will need to “take the helmet of salvation,” which reminds us, like Harry Potter’s scar, no matter how painful the attack, there is one who loves us so much, he gave his life that we might live.
Finally, we need to take up “the sword of the Spirit,” which is God’s word. Yet, we need to understand how to use the Bible properly. Like all the other weapons of the Spirit, it’s not meant to be offensive, as some people think who blast others with it. Like the light saber in Star Wars, to switch metaphors for a moment, it’s meant to be a more “elegant weapon, from a more civilized age.” Like the wands from Harry Potter, we need to learn how to use it, as Paul says to Timothy, “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.”
Listen: I doubt I could change the mind of the woman who cried out, “How can you do it? God and Harry Potter don’t mix.” Yet, I hope I’ve helped you to see there are more to these stories than what meets the eye. I’ve enjoyed being with your children this week as they learned invaluable spiritual lessons from Harry Potter, whom one author called “the world’s most famous seeker.” I pray that you may let these stories guide you to discover the deep magic of God’s grace in Christ. Amen.
©2009 Howard W. Boswell, Jr.
Recent Comments