We live in highly anxious times. For those of us who read or watch or listen to the news, this week has been very difficult. Think about some of the anxious words we have read or heard recently. The planet is warming up, it is heating up, the ICP warns us again. Wildfires rage across the west. Oakridge prepares to evacuate; it is so close to us. Hospitals are buckling under Delta, ICUs are running out of beds. A man in Roseburg died this past week because there weren't enough beds in the ICU. Children's hospitals across the country are filling up. A devastating earthquake hit Haiti again. Afghanistan falls to the Taliban again, and refugees are desperately trying to flee the country. And all of these anxious words come after a year and a half of the pandemic which has worn us down and thinned our resilience. Resilience that might have already been frayed going into the pandemic in the first place.
In the midst of all these anxiety producing words, our readings today give us a word that we so desperately need to hear. Paul is writing in another time of great anxiety. While the challenges we face at this time may be uniquely challenging to us within our lifetime, they are nothing new. Pandemics and natural disasters and wars happen. Empires rise and fall. This is not meant to diminish the real difficulties we are facing, but to know this path has been traveled before and there is wisdom from those who have made the journey.
Paul reminds us to care not only for our physical selves in the midst of all the dangers, but to be mindful to care for our spiritual selves. Do you ever feel that your soul is tired or worn down or sick? All of this anxiety, all of these tragedies, all of these challenging difficulties can do that. Paul encourages us to put on the armor of God to protect our souls. This is not a literal outfit, of course, but rather a metaphorical one, or more precisely a spiritual one. The armor has a belt, but it is the belt of truth. Disinformation thrives in the environment like the one we live in. Paul tells us we must remain committed to truth. This armor has a breastplate of righteousness. Not self-righteousness, but righteousness. Righteousness is to have our values aligned with God, God's desire, God dream for us and this world. This includes embodying the values of kindness, love, and humility. Self-righteousness is a perversion of righteousness that in a sense becomes the opposite of righteousness. This armor has shoes of peace, reminding us that in all things our task is to bring peace. Not peace as in the absence of conflict, but peace in that fuller sense of wholeness, repair, and healing. To entertain lies, to puff up with self-righteousness, to sow discord and rupture this world, those are things that are dangerous physically, but are also dangerous spiritually. They can damage our souls.
Maybe this armor metaphor doesn't really resonate with you. Most of us haven't worn armor, after all. Perhaps it is better to talk about washing your hands in truth, putting on the mask of righteousness, and vaccinating with peace. Actual literal, physical handwashing and masking and vaccinating are really important things to keep yourself and others, especially those most vulnerable, physically safe. We need to something similar with our souls, to protect our solus from the corrosive affects of this time. We can wash our hands with soap and water to remove germs, and we can wash away the lies of this time with the truth. We can put on our N95s to stop the spread of Covid, and we can put on the mask of righteousness to stop the spread of the soul crushing toxicity of this moment. We can vaccinate against Covid with a multitude of vaccines scientists have created this year, thanks be to God for them and all they've done. We can also vaccinate this world from anxiety with peace.
Jesus, in our Gospel, gives us another related word that we need to hear when He offers us spiritual nourishment. Our souls need protecting, but our souls also need feeding. That doesn't mean that we don't need physical nourishment as well. Jesus does feed the five thousand with actual bread and actual fish, after all. And I'm sure he would appreciate a piece of your pandemic sour dough bread. But Jesus wants us to take it a step farther, saying that while it is good and necessary to nourish our bodies, we also need to nourish our souls. Jesus offers himself as that nourishment. "Eat my flesh and drink my blood," Jesus says in the Gospel today. This pandemic has made that so hard. We may feel like we have been on a spiritual diet for all of the last eighteen months without the weekly nourishment of Communion. Finding a way to get the Eucharist is critically important, but it is not the only way to nourish our souls on Jesus. We can find him by praying, by reading scripture, by reaching out to someone who might be in need and encountering the Christ in them. You are nourishing yourself on Him right now as we worship together. We may not have the physical bread of the Eucharist with us, but spiritually we can be just as united with Him.
In the Prayer Book, in the Prayers for Visiting the Sick, if a person cannot physical receive the Eucharist, the Prayer Book tells the priest to remind the person that even though the Sacrament may not be received by the mouth, all of the spiritual benefits are still available to them. They are available to you, simply in your desire to draw close to Jesus and nourish yourself on Him.
In the midst of the dangers of this time and the overall anxiety that it produces, protect and nourish your soul. Protection and nourishment are about life. Protecting and nourishing our souls are necessary so that we not only survive this time, but so that we can truly live and join this precious gift of life that God has given us.
So put on the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes of peace. Wash those hands with truth, put on your mask of righteousness, and vaccinate with peace. Well protected against the fiery arrows raining down, draw close to Jesus for life giving nourishment.
AMEN.
