Pentecost 14, Proper 17, Year C
Aug. 29, 2010, Colossians series #7
Here we go on week 7 of our
Colossians series.
And about our freedom, our
true freedom, that grows as we begin to focus on and choose more often the
Growing more distant from a
focus on comfort and pleasure, success and wealth.
And more distant from lives
that are self-centered and self-serving.
Now I know many of you will
feel a little prickly about the idea that I’m suggesting your lives are
self-centered or self-serving.
Any employee or student or
parent of kids who live at home will rightly feel like their days are dictated
by other people’s demands, not their own.
And in a sense that is true.
But that is part of the
centuries old trap that draws Christians away from finding true freedom in Jesus.
The lure is that we begin to
think that freedom is somehow being our own boss in life….I’ll do what I want.
But God has a very different promise of
freedom..
The verses we’re looking at
today get at that very idea.
Take out your Bible or
pamphlet and look at Chapter 3 verses 5 through 17.
Paul begins by referring back
to the image of baptism in which our old life is buried with Christ.
And we rise up in baptism to
a new life in Christ.
What is it that we are being
instructed to put to death in ourselves?
Paul gives us two lists of
five things that are “earthly”.
Things that are not of the
They’re also known as vices.
And Paul is going to give us
two lists of vices and one list of virtues.
The first vice list has to do
with sexual behavior.
Fornication, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and greed.
And greed is described as
idolatry.
How is greed a sexual behavior?
Well, in this context Paul is
including it to capture the sense in which sexual misbehavior has to do with emotional and physical greed.
And that is idolatry because
the person is centering their energies on something that is apart from God and
the
Sexual vices always involve
using other people for our own benefit in ways that God did not intend.
And in ways that do not
benefit others.
People sometimes try to
excuse sexual vices by saying that it hurts no one but themselves.
In the second list, Paul includes vices of
speech.
Anger, wrath, malice,
slander, and abusive language.
And again, people often
insist that these vices hurt no one but themselves.
That is an idea that just
doesn’t get support from scripture.
All of these vices represent
choices that we make with our bodies and our mouths.
Choices.
Things we do and say that we
are not being forced to do no matter how much effort we put into rationalizing.
To be a mature person, to be
a mature Christian…
…is to acknowledge and live
in the reality that we are making choices about what we do and say every minute
of every day.
These lists of vices here in
Colossians represent some of the ways in which we take things that are not
inherently bad and we twist them.
Sex and talking are not
inherently bad.
It is when we choose sexual
behaviors and choose to say things that do not benefit others and are harmful
to others that we stray over into vices.
And in that we end up hurting
ourselves, hurting others, hurting the larger community.
Pornography, for instance.
It is pure rationalization to
say we are harming no one but ourselves.
Of course harming ourselves
isn’t a good thing either.
When people view, buy, read
pornography they do several things that are harmful.
They skew their hopes and
expectations for their own sex lives in ways that are truly damaging to their
wives, husbands, boyfriends, or girlfriends.
And they fuel an industry
that thrives on exploiting and demeaning the men and women who are filmed or
streamed on the internet.
Drug and alcohol abuse and
physical abuse are everyday parts of the pornography industry.
It just can’t be said that no
one is getting harmed.
Sexual and emotional affairs
destroy marriages and families and sometimes even church communities.
Using people sexually with
little or no regard for the other’s emotions and spirit destroys people and
relationships.
Gossip and unending criticism
and raging at people…those are ways of speaking that destroy people and
relationships.
No matter what our age is or
our marriage status, we all have a responsibility for the health of our
community here.
The things that we do and say
can either build up the community or can break it down.
What we choose to do and say
does not simply affect us.
And true freedom is not found
in choosing without regard for others.
In Christian communities we
are called to a clear recognition that we are part of something larger than
ourselves.
We are part of the Body of
Christ.
And we each have
responsibility for the health and strength of the Body of Christ.
The problem for us is much
more serious than if we’re going to get caught and get in trouble for what we
say or do.
So what can we do?
Look at verse 10.
Being clothed in the new self
we are being renewed in the knowledge and image of God.
It is a process.
We are being renewed and we
are putting on this new self.
And we are expected to be becoming
more and more responsible in our choices.
Learning to make responsible
choices is a life long process for us at all ages…4, 14 40, 80.
Paul is telling us that this renewal is
available to all people.
Not to a self-selected group.
But to Greeks and Jews,
slaves, and free, and even to enemies like the Scythians and the barbarians.
And Paul tells us that there
is only one reason that it can possibly be true.
Christ is all and is in all.
We can strip off and put to
death the choices that destroy and hurt us and other people and our whole
community.
Why?
Because of Jesus.
Not because of rules or rituals or even self-control.
When we draw on the power of
Christ to live instead of on ourselves what can it begin to look like?
That answer we see in verses
12 through 17.
As God’s chosen ones…or as
those who belong to God’s love.
Which as we just read includes
everyone…even our enemies.
We can begin putting on that
new self.
Compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness, patience.
Bearing with each other.
Forgiving each other.
With love.
With the peace of Christ in
our hearts.
With thankfulness to God.
And as a community, by
teaching and admonishing and singing together.
All in the name of Jesus with
thanks to God.
But all that compassion and
kindness and humility and meekness and patience.
That won’t work in the real
world, right?
Instead we try to convince ourselves that we just have to
be “nice” and “good” and “do our best”.
Really?
That is so all about setting
our own standards and relying on self-control.
Confused yet?
Didn’t I say that mature
Christians acknowledge and live in the reality that we are making choices about
what we say and do all the time?
Isn’t that exerting
self-control?
Isn’t that being nice or good?
Here is the key element that
makes it not about those things.
We must first experience and
acknowledge that Christt is all and is in all.
And then we begin to learn
what it means to be thankful and grateful for grace and mercy and unending
love.
And as we grow in our
thankfulness then we find ourselves growing in the ability to choose the ways
of being and doing that build up the
We take off and put to death
the old self.
We take on and build up the
new self.
Not by exercising self
control and not by being namby-pamby.
By turning towards Jesus and
by letting go of self-reliance.
By letting in the Holy Spirit
and letting go of endless rationalizing of our choices.
By adding more thankful and
grateful moments to each day and by turning away from angry and critical
moments each day.
It isn’t easy to do.
You can’t be a wimp and
follow Jesus.
Its hard work to let go of self
and to let the Spirit lead you.
And people may not think
you’re nice or good.
But in all of that is where
true freedom lies.
True freedom is found in
Christ and is there for any of us.
If you feel trapped by your
life, like I talked about at the beginning…
Then it is worth your time to
stop and think about what is driving your daily life.
Does it feel like you have no
choice but to live the harried, crazy life you are living?
Pretend that Jesus is right
next to you…and Jesus is.
Ask Jesus to help you find
freedom.
And then listen and watch for
the little moments when you may hear Jesus nudging you to choose a little
differently.
To act differently.
To speak differently.
To use your time and your
energies differently.
More kindness, compassion,
understanding.
To feel more grateful, more
thankful to God.
No matter how crazy your
circumstances are…
…all of that grace and
forgiveness and mercy is still a free gift coming your way.
The spirit will lead you to
new choices when you ask and listen.
And then the moments will
begin to string together.
And you’ll feel that renewing
bit by bit.
And the peace of Christ will
rule in your hearts a minute or two longer.
And you will find true
freedom in more and more moments.
Over the next week think
about this last verse.
Think about the reality that
this is what we are called to.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in
the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Do everything in the name of
Jesus giving thanks to God.
Make your choices about what
you do and say in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God.
That is our calling.
That is the path to true
freedom.
And that is not for wimps.