Last week was the fifth anniversary of my dad's passing.

I had the honor to stand up and speak, once while he was struggling and once after his passing on September 15, 2015.

Here is the text of those 

ARE YOU A SUPERHERO?

This is a sermon that I preached on August 23, 2015 at St. John's Episcopal Church in Royal Oak, Michigan.

I had to recreate some of this from the hard copy I saved and stayed true to most of it, save to clarify the language. The only changes are references to The Message; I previously used the translation in the New Standard Revised Version. All other additions are highlighted in red italics.

A lot of things changed shortly after I preached this, but I tried stay true to the original.

Year B Proper 16 (21): Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

1 Kings 8:(1,6,10-11), 22-30, 41-43|Psalm 84|Ephesians 6:10-20|John 6:56-69

Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed. (Psalm 84:4,9 NRSV)

“Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.”

Amen.

Good morning.

Are you ready to do battle?

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in today’s Epistle, the battle described as a real battle.

Paul urges us to, “Put on the whole armor of God.” (Ephesians 6:11 NRSV) or So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. (Ephesians 6:11 The Message)

(I like both translations!)

But, he goes on to say, “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.” (Ephesians 6:12 NRSV) or This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. (Ephesians 6:12 The Message).

So….

Are we ready?

Like a superhero, ready to leap into the fray with a cape on your back as soon as you are summoned by a signal of danger?

A phone call, an email, a text message, a shout, or a strange noise in the night. Or even a dream?

And then suddenly, we are hyper-aware?

Ready to act?

Girding ourselves in the whole armor of God?

And able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way?

Maybe.

Kind of like a superhero.

And who doesn’t like a superhero?

When I was growing up, we would sit around the TV and watch reruns of The Adventures of Superman, and we couldn’t wait for the Wednesday and Thursday night episodes of Batman.

Batman was and is considered a superhero, yet he never had any superpowers. Unlike Superman, Batman wasn’t some strange visitor from another planet, he didn’t have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, he couldn’t change the course of mighty rivers, or bend steel in his bare hands, or have a dramatic reading of these abilities read dramatically by Detroit’s own Bill Kennedy at the start of every show, but he did have a secret identity, and he did fight a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way.

He donned a special armor, and helmet (or cowl as the comic books described it). He didn’t use lethal weapons, but instead trained hard to make the best of his physical abilities, researched methods of self-defense, technology, and developed himself, mentally and physically into a formidable force for justice, albeit one that had dark origins of revenge.

As a kid, you could never be Superman, but you could aspire to be the Batman-if you we committed to the cause.

And be really rich.

Just as true superheroes have to be highly committed, we have to commit. To say it out loud.

In today’s gospel, many of Jesus’ disciples complained, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" (John 6:60)

You can almost feel the whining when you read it.

It’s too hard!

Like a math problem or a tedious chore.

After being admonished for their whining most of the crowd left.

But when Jesus asked Peter, Peter had the right answer (which didn’t happen often); "Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6:68-69 NRSV)

Or when Solomon, in the midst of a cloud-filled house of the Lord, “When the priests left the Holy Place, a cloud filled The Temple of God. The priests couldn’t carry out their priestly duties because of the cloud—the glory of God filled The Temple of God! (1Kings 8:10 The Message)

We are probably not going to be called upon to make a life or death commitment, like Peter, or have the clouds rolling down the aisles of this church as Solomon did in our Hebrew lesson.

But we all have challenges that will test us (if we only knew five years ago...).

How we respond will define us.

Think about how we judge our leaders.

Look back on the local, national, and global crises of our lifetimes.

Think about the way they were handled.

Not just by the people in charge, but by the ordinary people like us that stepped up and made things right.

Or not.

I’m reminded of Mr. Rogers who said, ““When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

 

Very recently, I encountered a crisis when my dad fell ill during a visit from Florida.

He spent 14 days in Beaumont Hospital (Royal Oak), 12 of those in the ICU unit for several issues none of which have been completely resolved. The morning after the first night, when I spent the night with him, the nurse could not wake him up.

She pressed a button that quickly summoned a small army of doctors, nurses and techs who threw me out of the room. I saw the team revive him with a breathing tube shoved down his throat.

 I observed this from the hallway. As it was the ICU unit, everything was visible. My mind was racing with a bunch of calculations. Everything from how I communicate this turn of events with my three siblings to how do I prepare myself if this is the last time that I would see my superhero alive.

I’d like to think that I responded well, all indications point to that being the case, but who knows?

Dad’s out of the hospital in a rehabilitation facility, so we have a ways to go. Please don’t stop the prayers.

I was pretty excited about today’s reading, especially the reading from Ephesians. I thought about all of the things that I could talk about but drew a blank for the longest time. Not many people have attempted to tackle this reading, I found, except for those that took it literally as instructions to a real battle with Satan, complete with swords and shields!

But just as Paul (or more likely Tychicus, one of his associates), urges us to take up the battle, to put on the whole armor of God, the helmet, shield, loins, feet, sword, and breastplate.

Best of all, we don’t have to go out and buy all this stuff!

We use the shield of faith when tempted by doubt.

We don the helmet of salvation to surround us with the grace gained by Christ’s sacrifice.

We gird ourselves with the breastplate of righteousness-not to flaunt what we consider our special truth, but to demonstrate our commitment to justice and fairness. They will know we are Christians by our love, not our self-righteousness.

We wield the sword of the spirit-demonstrating what the word and the spirit mean to us-and by showing, through example, how the spirit moves around us.

We prepare our shoes with the gospel of peace so we can appreciate How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation. (Isaiah 52:7 NRSV)

And lastly:

We pray constantly, intensely, and unselfishly.

So that we may overcome the next crisis.

Like a superhero.

Like the superhero we can be.

And whenever we can:

Be Batman.