March 23, 2008
Colossians 3:1-4 (NRSV)
“Living the Right Way”
Did you hear about the lady whose house was infested with Easter eggs?
...She had to call an eggs-terminator!
Why do we paint Easter eggs?
...Because it's easier than trying to wallpaper them!
What's yellow, has long ears, and grows on trees?
...The Easter Bunana!
Listen once again to these words from Colossians 3: 1 and 2, “…seek the things that are above, where Christ is,… Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, The Popular Translation puts it this way, “…try to see the world the way Jesus sees it (that is, from heaven). Understand how Jesus sees things. Don't just look at everything the way people do.
Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians about some ‘real’ problems the community was experiencing. Perhaps foremost among these was how a person is to go about living ‘the right way.’ He urges them to live in a new way. Our reading today IS an introduction to Paul’s appeal for that kind of a lifestyle - living ‘the right way.’
Paul began with an interesting statement. It’s sort of like he’s assumed the Colossians had already died and had received resurrected life. It’s as if they have already gone through the ‘end times.’ Somehow they have already died with Christ and had been raised with him into his new life. It seems really strange.
Actually, though, they had done just that, but in a metaphorical sense. Because this is what was taught about baptism in the early church: death to self, life in Christ. So it would seem reasonable Paul was referring to this initiation rite into the Church when he said this. Likewise, in confirming our baptism today – we, too, talk about ‘death to self,’ and about ‘our life in Christ.’ This IS living the ‘right way” – IN Christ.
God comes to us to help us do just that. God comes to us in the Water of Baptism, through the Holy Spirit, and in the Word, made flesh in Jesus the Christ. From the Water and Word we receive God’s comfort and grace. In baptism, is our death to a life centered on things below and in baptism, is our resurrection to new life centered on things from above.
Refreshed and renewed. We have been raised with Christ in the waters of our baptism. Martin Luther said that “through our baptism we are snatched from death and sin to practice the work that makes us Christians” – in other words, to live a life from above.
In our baptism we receive Christ's risen life. That is something we ‘firm up’ at our confirmation, a belief that we should actually think differently (on upward or heavenly things). In other words, we should look at life through God's eyes. After all, you did receive the Holy Spirit. And you should act accordingly (see 3:12-24), Paul says.
"Put to death in you whatever is earthly," he cautions. In our society today, the things Paul is referring to are the very things that people ‘seem to think’ we should do. We want our lives to be full and so we ‘live’ to accumulate wealth and possessions, power and status. But these things are the very things that come between us and God. The very things we think are going to give our life meaning and identity, in fact, strip us from the meaning and identity that is given us in the person of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul, in his call to the Colossians to a life in newness, reminds them, "When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead." You, too, are called to a new life in Jesus Christ – a life of full measure that is to be lived from above. It is a life seen through the eyes of Jesus, so that Jesus might minister to this world through our hands and our hearts and our living. Paul says, “Don't just look at things the way people do.…try to see the world the way Jesus sees it.”
Our life and our call and our journey is one headed toward the promise of the resurrection, and the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead has promised in the fullness of time to raise us up as well.
The Good News for us today, for all of us – not just those being confirmed - is that, even if weighed down by sin--and that is what sin does, it weighs us down--Jesus Christ promised us freedom and a new life. Jesus promises to bring us to everlasting life, into a life in fullness here, now, and in fullness in the kingdom to come, when Christ returns in glory.
Take time today to reflect on your baptism – your death to this life - all of you. How is it you see this new life in Christ before you? Amen.
Colossians 3:1-4 (NRSV)
“Living the Right Way”
Did you hear about the lady whose house was infested with Easter eggs?
...She had to call an eggs-terminator!
Why do we paint Easter eggs?
...Because it's easier than trying to wallpaper them!
What's yellow, has long ears, and grows on trees?
...The Easter Bunana!
Listen once again to these words from Colossians 3: 1 and 2, “…seek the things that are above, where Christ is,… Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, The Popular Translation puts it this way, “…try to see the world the way Jesus sees it (that is, from heaven). Understand how Jesus sees things. Don't just look at everything the way people do.
Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians about some ‘real’ problems the community was experiencing. Perhaps foremost among these was how a person is to go about living ‘the right way.’ He urges them to live in a new way. Our reading today IS an introduction to Paul’s appeal for that kind of a lifestyle - living ‘the right way.’
Paul began with an interesting statement. It’s sort of like he’s assumed the Colossians had already died and had received resurrected life. It’s as if they have already gone through the ‘end times.’ Somehow they have already died with Christ and had been raised with him into his new life. It seems really strange.
Actually, though, they had done just that, but in a metaphorical sense. Because this is what was taught about baptism in the early church: death to self, life in Christ. So it would seem reasonable Paul was referring to this initiation rite into the Church when he said this. Likewise, in confirming our baptism today – we, too, talk about ‘death to self,’ and about ‘our life in Christ.’ This IS living the ‘right way” – IN Christ.
God comes to us to help us do just that. God comes to us in the Water of Baptism, through the Holy Spirit, and in the Word, made flesh in Jesus the Christ. From the Water and Word we receive God’s comfort and grace. In baptism, is our death to a life centered on things below and in baptism, is our resurrection to new life centered on things from above.
Refreshed and renewed. We have been raised with Christ in the waters of our baptism. Martin Luther said that “through our baptism we are snatched from death and sin to practice the work that makes us Christians” – in other words, to live a life from above.
In our baptism we receive Christ's risen life. That is something we ‘firm up’ at our confirmation, a belief that we should actually think differently (on upward or heavenly things). In other words, we should look at life through God's eyes. After all, you did receive the Holy Spirit. And you should act accordingly (see 3:12-24), Paul says.
"Put to death in you whatever is earthly," he cautions. In our society today, the things Paul is referring to are the very things that people ‘seem to think’ we should do. We want our lives to be full and so we ‘live’ to accumulate wealth and possessions, power and status. But these things are the very things that come between us and God. The very things we think are going to give our life meaning and identity, in fact, strip us from the meaning and identity that is given us in the person of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul, in his call to the Colossians to a life in newness, reminds them, "When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead." You, too, are called to a new life in Jesus Christ – a life of full measure that is to be lived from above. It is a life seen through the eyes of Jesus, so that Jesus might minister to this world through our hands and our hearts and our living. Paul says, “Don't just look at things the way people do.…try to see the world the way Jesus sees it.”
Our life and our call and our journey is one headed toward the promise of the resurrection, and the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead has promised in the fullness of time to raise us up as well.
The Good News for us today, for all of us – not just those being confirmed - is that, even if weighed down by sin--and that is what sin does, it weighs us down--Jesus Christ promised us freedom and a new life. Jesus promises to bring us to everlasting life, into a life in fullness here, now, and in fullness in the kingdom to come, when Christ returns in glory.
Take time today to reflect on your baptism – your death to this life - all of you. How is it you see this new life in Christ before you? Amen.
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