Our Sunday morning service at Clevedon is at 10 am. Join us in person or watch the live stream on our YouTube channel.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxBzxjBb3xU8ra2NHwvD_9A(The service can also be viewed at any time afterwards.)

The Reading and Reflection can be found below:

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For our[a] 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. 13 Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

14 Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. 15 As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. 16 With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. 19 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,[c] 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

Paul begins this passage with these powerful words:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Ephesians 6:10-11)

We don’t often talk about the devil in our church. Perhaps that, in itself, is the work of the devil – we hesitate to name evil. Maybe we don’t want to think about the devil.

There are a lot of names for the devil. Like Mephistopheles, Satan, Beelzebub, or Abaddon.  Perhaps we think, he, she, they, or it might leave us alone - if we don't talk about evil in our midst.  (The devil’s pronouns are gender-neutral !)

But there are two challenges here.

First, when someone mentions the word "devil," I can’t help but think of B-grade horror movies: heads spinning, deep unsettling voices, red goat-like figures with horns.

Take the Netflix hit Sabrina the Teenage Witch as an example.

But here’s the thing—almost all these images come from pagan myths, fantasy, or poetry like Dante’s Inferno. They have nothing to do with scripture. 

What’s worse is that these images can distract us from the biblical testimony. The Bible doesn’t give us these bizarre depictions. In the Book of Job, for instance, Satan is the accuser, testing Job’s faith on God’s behalf. 

In the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus rebukes Peter, saying, “Get behind me, Satan!”, Jesus isn’t confronting some horned monster. He’s addressing the very human concern that distracts Peter from God’s will.

When Paul speaks of the devil, he’s not talking about something strange and otherworldly. He’s talking about something familiar, something overwhelming.

For the early Christians in Ephesus, it wasn’t some fantastical image they had to worry about. They faced real, tangible evil. They might have been dragged to the newly built temple of Domitian to test their allegiance. Tortured or executed if they did not worship Ceasar. 

Ephesus was a wealthy, commercial city and home to the magnificent Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Imagine it—this small group of Christians meeting in someone’s home, while just down the road is this glorious marble temple to a goddess.

What choice would you make? Worship the crucified Jesus in a humble house, or bow to Artemis in a grand, revered temple?

Those pressures. The powers and principalities at work and in their modern forms.

Paul’s call is for transformation. Christians must shed their former pagan lives and put on a new self—a life of righteousness. Not righteousness in a rigid sense, but a life in right relationship with God and each other.

It’s about love, forgiveness, and thankfulness. It’s about worshipping a risen Jesus whose Spirit isn’t confined to any building, no matter how grand.

"Put on the whole armour of God," Paul says, "so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

Every time we think of the cross, we are reminded of those forces that conspired to torture and execute the innocent Son of God. How could that happen? And why do innocent children continue to suffer today through the actions of others?

How do we manage the presence of evil, of overwhelming powers that go beyond simple greed or selfishness?

I was reading the abuse in care report from the New Zealand Royal Commission.  They report that of the estimated 655,000 children, young people andadults in care from 1950 to 2019, it is estimated that 200,000 were abusedand even more were neglected.  The true number will never be fully known.

The report reminded us that the moral authority and trustworthiness of clergy and religious leaders allowed abusers in faith-based institutions to perpetrate abuse and neglect with impunity. 

Religious beliefs were often used to justify the abuse and to silence survivors.   

Paul is speaking into a context where abuse and evil were so very apparent.

He is asking us about where do we stand amidst this?

Remember, Jesus was tempted by Satan, but nothing extraordinary or supernatural was happening. Instead, it was all too familiar—comfort, power, easy solutions that seem right to us. This is the confrontation with evil: the everyday temptations that we all face.

The Bible speaks of evil in many ways: sometimes as a tendency within ourselves, sometimes as a being outside us, and sometimes as a cosmic power or organised force. But the meaning is consistent: evil is anything that opposes love, health, wholeness, and peace. These forces aren’t strange—they’re familiar to all of us.

Paul says something crucial:

"For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this present darkness."

Paul is asking a lot from those early Christians—and from us. Think of the forces that undermine God’s creative intentions: the culture that leads to abuse of children, the environmental challenges, the corrupt leaders causing destruction.

On one level, it’s about individual choices, but on another, it’s about overwhelming forces that cause pain and division and oppose the solutions that will make a difference.

Paul tells us never to resign ourselves to these forces, never to think we’re helpless, and never to believe that one person alone is the source of evil. Even the worst tyrants didn’t act alone.

The Royal Commission’s report reminds us that it’s not just individuals, but a society, a culture, that allows such things to happen.

In all of this, Paul calls us to something profound. We must put into practice the new reality created through Christ.

God wins victory not through force, but through peace, even in the face of violence. Only God can and will ultimately defeat the forces of evil, but we, the people who make up the church, are already a sign of what God will do for the world through Christ.

Paul says we’ve been given everything we need to stand strong—the armour of God.

So, the fundamental message of this letter is encouragement. When we commit to following Christ, we place ourselves in opposition to the forces that crucified him.

Paul’s words—stand strong, persevere, be bold—are for all of us.

He says:

16 take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Think about the Roman shield. It was designed not just to protect the individual but to interlock with the person next to them. Two-thirds of the shield protected the soldier, and one-third protected their companion.

Paul is reminding us that we are never helpless. To never give up. Individually, together, we can stand strong— we can be these new people, a new humanity, diverse but united, victorious in love and in peace.

Amen.