God's PPE?

Most Wednesdays I meet with three other ministers in the town for prayer. It’s something we’ve been doing for 5 years now. We meet, chat about what is going on in our community, our churches and our own lives and then pray. It’s a good thing to do. I’m not very disciplined at praying on my own but praying with my three friends spurs me on.

In the last few weeks, we’ve been meeting together using Zoom. Not quite the same as being together in person but it works well enough.

Inevitably our conversations have started off with talking about Covid19 and most recently we were talking and praying for Personal Protective Equipment to be supplied to health workers and carers.

As the prayers progressed, I was prompted to read out a Bible passage to my friends Ephesians 6: 10 – 17 in which the writer of the letter uses the analogy of putting on spiritual armour as a way of encouraging Christians to stand firm against the challenges of the world. “Against the devil’s schemes …. Against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world”.

It’s powerful imagery: put on the full armour of God, …. with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, …. with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace…. take up the shield of faith …. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God - selected verses NIV

The Message paraphrase version of the Bible puts the whole passage like this:

13-18 Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

I think it is an encouragement to Christians even if it smacks of the “muscular Christianity” that seemed so popular with certain 18th and 19th century hymn writers. Think of “Onward Christian soldiers”. Or Charles Wesley’s “Soldiers of Christ arise”

Soldiers of Christ, arise,
And put your armour on,
Strong in the strength which God supplies
Through His eternal Son.
Strong in the Lord of hosts,
And in His mighty power,
Who in the strength of Jesus trusts
Is more than conqueror.

The writer to the Ephesians was trying to encourage an early group of Christians not to waver on their faith. (We think the letter might have been written around 85 – 90 CE when Christians were being persecuted widely across the Roman empire.) The writer is using picture language in encouraging these early Christians to cope with, to face up to, the trials they are facing.

Coming back to my prayer session, one of my friends mentioned that he’d preached on this passage the previous Sunday and had used a modern-day analogy of “putting on God’s PPE” (Personal Protective Equipment.)

Later that day, I saw some images on the TV news from the USA of people protesting against the Covid19 lockdown and saying they wanted it lifted. And amongst those commenting was a woman who said that she didn’t need the lockdown as God would protect her.

To that lady, and any other Christians who feel that their faith, their armour of God, makes them invincible, read this post from a “Tennessee Pastor” I saw on Facebook about a month ago. (I’ve no idea who the pastor is. For all I know he might not exist, but I certainly subscribe to his views)

Having faith, having the armour of God doesn’t isolate believers from the world. It doesn’t, as I’ve said, make us invincible. It doesn’t prevent us from becoming ill. (I know, as I’ve been there, and I’ve written about that before.)

I passionately believe that God has given us intellect. Unfortunately, that intellect is sometimes misused. But most often intellect is used for good – in terms of developments of medicine, the arts, technology. (How would we be managing without Zoom, Skype etc at present for example?) That intellect is being used as we speak to help develop a vaccine against Covid19. Just as in the past people used their intellect to develop vaccines against diseases such as smallpox and the measles.

And God has given us wisdom to make the right decisions. Though again some people seem similarly lacking in that department!

What I’m saying folks is, please put on the armour of God to cope with the trials and tribulations of this world. Please use it to help you cope with Covid19. Please pray. But God’s PPE is no substitute for man made PPE, and sensible wisdom such as social distancing / shielding, in preventing us catching or sharing the disease.