The last few
weeks the lectionary has taken readings from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. We’ve been focusing on what he has to say about the Body of Christ. The theme
the first week was “Christ in you (that is, the church), the hope of glory.”
Last week the theme was “you have been given fullness in Christ,” The church
has been given the fullness of who Christ is, and we saw that in the way fours
aspects of the church or four spiritual streams, reveal to us the fullness of Christ.
This final week, in chapter 3, Paul gets down to specifics of how we are to
live together as Christ’s body. Our theme today is “Christ is all, and is in
all.”
The passage begins, "Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set you minds on things above, not on earthly things." Paul is making the distinction between earthly things and things above.
Obviously he’s not speaking spatially but metaphorically—the things above are
the things of God, the things of Christ, rather than things that the world
likes to lure us into. “For you have
died with Christ, and you have been raised with Christ. Your life is now hidden
with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory.” Through our participation in Jesus’ death and
resurrection, our old life has died, and we now have a new life in Christ. Christ
is our life. What does Paul mean by saying
your life is now hidden with Christ? Usually we think of things hidden as
having been put in a safe place where they won’t fall into the wrong hands,
like a hidden treasure. Paul has the same idea here, that the treasure of our
lives is safely hidden with Christ in God for all eternity. Our souls, our true
selves, are perfectly safe in him, so that nothing can hurt us. That means that
we don’t need to live fearfully. We don’t need to live defensively. We can put
down our defensive attitudes and self-centered earthly behaviors. In fact, Paul
says in verse 5, we should put that behavior to death. He uses another metaphor
in verse 9. He says, “You have taken off your old self with its practices and
have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of
its Creator.” Like changing your clothes, you take off the old and put on the
new. Take off the old self and put on the new self.
The past couple
of years there has been a PBS TV series on Masterpiece Theater called Downton Abbey
which has been a runaway success. Maybe a lot of you have seen it. It’s about a
wealthy English family around the time of World War I. You could call the TV
series a costume drama as the costumes and sets are beautifully lavish. In
fact, in several episodes the plot turns on costume, on proper and improper
dress. In one episode Lord Grantham’s clothes have been meddled with and he has
to wear black tie to dinner instead of white tie. It’s a crisis. In another
episode the Irish chauffeur who becomes Lord Grantham’s son-in-law, wants to
wear his tweeds to dinner instead of white tie. Thankfully, peace is restored
when he is finally persuaded to wear white tie to dinner. Proper dress was not
an insignificant thing in Edwardian England. In our own casual age, we are less aware of or concerned about proper dress. But Paul wants us to think about
proper attire for Christian character. What are the right clothes to wear?
The clothes to
take off are the old self-centered behaviors that he lists in verses 5-9: sexual
immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, all forms of idolatry, anger,
rage, malice, slander, filthy language, lies and so on. It’s not a complete
list. We could add other things mentioned elsewhere in the gospels or Paul’s
letters such as gossip, judging or blaming others, a self-righteous attitude,
possessiveness of any kind. These things proceed from a self-centered defensive
heart that puts one’s own wants and desires ahead of the well-being of another
person or ahead of the well-being of the church as Christ’s body. These attitudes
of the heart arise when the self or the ego is running the show. These clothes
have got to go. Take them off. They’re
filthy rags anyway. They are inappropriate attire in the church because Paul
says, “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian,
Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” In the church there
is no place for self-centered distinctions, no place for I’m better than you,
or what I want is more important than what you want. “But Christ is all, and is
in all.”
When we
recognize this truth, we discover the mind of Christ. Instead of the mindset
that says it is my life and needs in competition with yours, suddenly we see
that “Christ is all and is in all.” He completes all that we are and need in
and through each other in his Body the church. We discover that through
Christ’s spirit of love we have wonderful fellowship with one another, even in
our differences. In fact, it’s the
differences that make us a complete body. Remember two weeks ago we talked
about having our spiritual glasses on and seeing Christ in one another. When
you put on your new clothes, be sure to put on your spiritual glasses too so
you can see that “Christ is all, and is in all.”
So now, if we
take off the old clothes of defensiveness and discontent, what are the new
clothes, the proper attire for God’s holy and dearly loved people? In verse 12 it says, “Clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each
other, forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as
the Lord forgave you, [which is freely and without restraint]. And over all
these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
This is what the new outfit looks like. This is proper dinner dress in the
kingdom of God. Don’t be boorish and come to dinner in a tank top, shorts and
flip-flops. You’ll be asked to leave. Remember the parable Jesus told in
Matthew 22? There was a wedding guest who was invited to the banquet for the
king’s son but showed up in his street clothes rather than his finest clothes.
He didn’t prepare properly for the feast in the kingdom, so he was thrown out
of the party. We are saved by the grace of God, but we are also expected to respond
to that grace in a way that shows we’re taking the gift seriously. We are
called to grow up and become mature in Christ. We are called to make the effort
to take off the old grungy clothes and put on the proper attire.
I say make the
effort, because the deepest transformation of heart depends on God’s work in
us. The changes we make by our own efforts are going to be superficial, simply
because our own sin blocks our view from being able to see to where the deeper
changes need to happen. Usually other people can see them, but we can’t see
them until we let God show them to us. When he does, then we’d better address
what he shows to us and not ignore it.
As you know,
John and I were away from our home in Newburyport for 8 weeks earlier this
summer. As you can imagine, when we came back our little back yard, which is
very small, looked like a jungle. The weeds were really tall and blocking the
sun from some of the smaller plants, other plants were way overgrown, little
weedy vines were wrapping their tendrils around everything. The wisteria had
taken over the patio. In the summer time we love to sit on our patio surrounded
by our little garden and have dinner outside, but we couldn’t even do that
until we got the garden under control. At first I went out and made some
headway pulling up the major weeds to get them cleared out. Then last weekend
John got on a roll and really trimmed back things, pulled up more weeds and cut
back the wisteria, so we’ve been able to really enjoy having our dinners on the
patio this week.
Our souls are
like gardens that have to be regularly tended to with prayer and scripture, fellowship
and sacraments with the Body of Christ. If we neglect these things, our souls
become weedy and unpleasant. But when we tend them, they become beautiful and
pleasant places for loving fellowship with God, others and also ourselves. One
way of thinking about this is that God gives us the garden of our souls, he
plants lovely things there, but we have to tend them in order for them to grow
properly, and we also have to guard against weed infestations.
What are the
beautiful plants in your soul’s garden? Paul mentions several: compassion,
kindness and humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another, and forgiveness.
When you notice those things in yourself, water those plants, feed them. Give
them attention to help them grow. Encourage compassionate thoughts and actions
in yourself, practice gentleness and patience and forgiveness. Work at these
things to encourage them to grow. But when you see weeds, don’t water them,
don’t feed them. If someone says something that hurts your feelings, don’t
angrily obsess over how you have been hurt, how right you are and how wrong
they are, enlarging it in your mind. If you do that, you are watering the weeds.
You’re watering anger and defensiveness. So what should you do? Step back and notice
your feelings of hurt and anger. Notice your defensiveness. And notice how your
feelings come and how they go. Your feelings are not you. Your soul is deeper
than your fleeting feelings. So don’t water and feed your hurt and negative
feelings. Release them to God. Listen to what God has to say to you. He is in
control. Remember that your life, your true life, is hidden with Christ in God.
Your soul is perfectly safe in God.
The church is a
somewhat weedy place. It is weedy because people are weedy and people are the
church. The church is not the church because it is perfect or because it
doesn’t make mistakes. It is the church because it chooses to love one another
as Christ loved us. It is the church because it chooses to forgive as we have
been forgiven.
Our passage
ends with these final words, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.” We are
called to live in peace with one another. To let Christ’s peace dwell in us, so
that we can truly offer that peace to one another. Does Christ’s peace rule in
your heart? At the peace today, as much as we enjoy simply saying hello to one
another, let us truly offer Christ’s peace to one another, so that peace can
rule in our hearts. As we look in the eyes of one another, let us be thankful
for each other. And let us remember that “Christ is all, and is in all.” Amen.