There are many significant events in life that mark transitions. We know that everything has changed. Somehow we are different. Our lives will not be the same.
Marriage is one of those events. For the couple getting married there is the realization: now I have joined my life to the life of this other person. Now this other person has joined his or her life with mine. Everything is different. Everything also changes for the parents: A son is no longer just a son. Now he is a husband. A daughter is no longer a daughter. Now she is a wife. No longer children. Now adults. The work of parenting changes. Now it is time to let go. Everything is different.
On Saturday Chelsea Clinton got married. There was a lot of news coverage around the wedding. In an interview a reporter asked Bill Clinton what he thought it would feel like to give his daughter away at the wedding. He thought a moment and said he expects to feel proud, and honored. But he also expected, like any father, he would remember when she was born, her first day at school.
The memories would be powerful. Each one marking significant changes: the birth of a child. Remember holding that vulnerable, beautiful child. Then taking the child to the first day at school. Letting go of her hand. Watching her walk into a new world, apart from me! Everything has changed. There are many other moments we could talk about: graduations, starting college, the first real job.
There are other transitions we do not expect. We lose a loved one or a job. Some, either by choice or by circumstances, settle in a new country, and have to adapt to a new culture, to learn a new language. These are all significant experiences in which we know that we must change. Let go of old things. Take on new things.
We read in Colossians, that embracing faith in Jesus Christ is another one of those experiences that change us. Some feel that it is possible to say I believe, and come to church, but not change much. That is simply not true, if we understand what it is that we are doing. We may hold the same job, do pretty much the same kinds of activities, but in significant ways, everything changes.
Paul is writing to one of the first Christian churches is the city of Colossai, to people who were among the first Christians. They would have come from many different backgrounds and traditions. They lived their lives in certain ways. Now they had come to Christ by faith and baptism. They were members of a church. Paul is writing to help them understand what it means for them to have professed their faith in Jesus Christ, and to have become members of his body, the church.
This is not simply like joining a club, or some association: it is a profound life changing act. They are different now. Because of that they need to strip off old habits and behaviors, and live in new ways. They need to take off things no longer appropriate for them, like old clothing, and put on like new clothes, a new way of life that reflects and honors Jesus Christ.
Read with me Col. 3:1-4. I would like us to imagine that we are among the members of that church listening to this letter that Paul has written to them. Imagine that it is written to us. In truth, it is.
Paul writes to us: “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”
“You have been raised with Christ…you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” Deep words that need some unpacking. One of the things that have changed is that in some mysterious way, by faith and baptism, our lives are now linked to Christ. We understand what it means to be a friend or follower on Facebook, or by twitter. By faith our spirits are linked to Christ. But the link is deeper and more significant.
In the way that a wife and husband become one by the vows of marriage, even more we by faith and baptism, we become one with Christ. What is true is that now God is in our lives. Christ is part of who we are. We do not just belong to ourselves, we belong to God.
Once we did not have to take this into consideration, now things are different and cannot be the same. Once we could live as we wanted, pursuing whatever goals we chose to pursue, in whatever way we believed might help us get what we desires. But now by faith and baptism we are linked to Christ, Now God’s concerns become our concern. Now the things that God values begin to shape what we value.
I realized this many years ago, when I first came back to the church. I spent many years as a kind of radical secular humanist, committed to the end of hunger. Then for a number of reasons I slowly became aware of a deeper spiritual thirst. I started to go into churches, to just sit there, and pray a bit. Then I started to go to mass (I come from a Catholic background). It all felt so beautiful and powerful, even profound.
But I would not take communion. Something in me knew that if I were to accept the reality of God, that somehow that the fullness of God is present in Jesus Christ, that his death on the cross was for me, that coming to the communion rail placed me at his feet, that if I truly believed this, then everything in my life would change. It would have to.
How could it not? How could I believe, accept, profess, whatever word you want to use, that God is real and comes to us here, how could I be the same. I did not know what the difference would be. But I knew it to be true. How could I believe in God, and not have God be the center of my life and identity?
And I thank God that I did come to the communion rail. And everything has changed.
Many, if not most of us in church, may not have had that kind of experience. Many have grown up in church and do not know a time in which Christ was not real for them, and could not imagine not having faith in God. Others remember being in church, and church being something very routine, something done out of habit, and then suddenly one day realizing just how important it is to have Christ in their lives.
Please know that whatever our experience of faith might be, however we have come to faith in Christ, faith still makes that kind of profound difference. It is not just something we do: It defines who we are.
We are different because of our faith. Our lives are different because God is in our lives. We see the world differently, because we see it through the eyes of faith. It is God’s world. That makes all the difference. God is in my life. That makes all the difference.
A woman of faith who had gone through many hardships was asked what difference God made in her life, since it was clear God did not save her from hardships. She said she leaned that life is in some ways like a move. It moves forward and you cannot go back to redo the past. But she also learned that God was in every frame, and that has made all the difference.
She was never alone. Never abandoned. And God had seen her through.
And, whether we were born into the church, or came to faith later in life, each day we need to choose faithfulness. Paul writes: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth”
This does not mean that this life is not important, and therefore what we are to be concerned about is getting into heaven. You’ve hear the phrase “He’s so heavenly minded he is no earthly good.” That is a misunderstanding of the passage. What it does mean is that we are to live this life awake to the reality and importance of God. It means that we are to live this life intensely, and in a way that honors and is pleasing to God.
It means that in the way I work, and conduct my business, I am to do it in a way that honors God, with integrity, honesty, compassion. It means I cannot make a living by doing things which harms or deceives others. It means that my faith in God changes how I treat my wife, my children, my friends; they are sacred persons loved by God and I am to love them the way that Christ loves each of us.
It means I cannot live just for my own affluence and comfort. I know God cares more that hungry children are fed than that I get a bigger house, and so should I. It means that my faith in God slowly colors every aspect of my life; I am to live my life in a way that reflects my faith in Christ.
Paul writes that there are things, behaviors, habits, that are no longer appropriate for those who have came to Christ. The believer is to take them off like old clothing, like the polyester leisure suits from the 70’s. Get rid of them. They do not honor God. They do not reflect the way of Christ.
To take our faith seriously does require a change in the way that we live. We deceive ourselves if we pretend otherwise. Some get this and some don’t. It is not a pretense.
I heard the story of a man who fanaticized about having an affair with an airline stewardess. Then on a business trip a stewardess actually propositioned him, asking if he wanted to spend the weekend with her when they landed. He found the words “No, I don’t think so” coming out of his mouth even before he thought about it. He realized he could not. He could not violate his relationship with his wife. He could not live with that kind of lie in his life, he could not dishonor Christ by doing that which he knew displeased God. Those kind of things were no longer appropriate for him; he belonged to God.
I once met someone who didn’t understand this. I visited an old man who was a shut in. We were talking and he accidently said a slightly off color word. He began to profusely apologize for saying this in front of me (I guess he would have no problem saying it if I wasn’t there). Then, with no awareness at all, he let go of a number of racial slurs as he began to talk about people moving into his neighborhood. Blind to the inappropriateness of it.
Putting on Christ is not about appearing to be nice. It is about a deep change of heart and spirit that knows what it means to love all people. It means to put aside the anger and hate, and to love our neighbors. To live in a way that builds up all people; committed to faithfulness in all of our relationships, committed to reflecting Christ by our way of life.
Paul names the things that needed to change in that early church: “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)…now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another.”
Paul does not place before us a rigid legalism. It is just a basic truth: If God is in our lives, we will not be happy or true to ourselves if we continue to live in ways that dishonor our God.
Paul writes that something beautiful is happening in the lives and spirit of those who believe: “you are being renewed in the image and likeness of your creator.”
We are created to be able to love each other with the same power and intensity that Christ has loved us. We are created to reflect God’s love in the world. That ability, that likeness, that image is being renewed in us by the very Holy Spirit. God is at work in our lives, replacing our hearts of stone with human hearts, helping us grow in generosity and compassion, to learn how to love and forgive.
We can choose to live into that or to resist it. To grow in faith and love, or cling to old habits.
I gave this sermon the title “Let’s get real.” By that I mean let’s get real about our faith.
To be Christian is not simply about words and feelings, it is about opening to a way of life with God at the center, committed to the way of Jesus Christ.
When we get real about our faith it makes a profound difference in who we are, how we live, and what we live for.
We come to the communion rail this morning, let’s get real. If we believe the things we profess, if we accept the profound reality of what we are celebrating at the communion rail, then everything changes. How could it be otherwise?