December 27, 2009

New Clothes Worn and Applied

Today's sermon is from our second Lesson. The apostle Paul is so good at lessons of practical Christianity that maybe we should listen? In first Colossians 3 verses 5-11 we put off our "old clothes" …sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed and idolatry. We rid ourselves of … anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language.  And I think it's worth noting that this list is not a list of "things", tangible items, but, rather, a list of emotions whose intentions hurt others. These old ways have been put to death! I read a blogspot called mynameisbrandon where he talks about the struggle to shed these old clothes, but keeps wandering back to the closet to find them, " We are getting ready for a garage sale soon…and we went through a lot of old clothes to sell. And as we go through them, you look at them and think, "Why did I ever wear that?" Or I would say to my wife, "Why did you ever LET me wear that?" Those old clothes are ugly and look bad, and he goes on to say, why do we keep sneaking back to the garage sale pile and taking them out and wearing them? We make a decision every morning as to what we will "put on" …old clothes or something new? Something more fitting for a follower of Christ?

And we've put on the new. We have been baptized, baptized into Christ and now that we have these new threads and stand in the presence of God as His chosen people, holy and dearly loved, a gift, I might add, of free grace from God Himself, there are some traits we should strive to not only possess, but also apply, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.   Bearing with each other and forgiving each other, putting on LOVE and binding it ALL together, then applying it ALL in our relationships in the Christian fellowship. Putting it on and putting it into practice for the body of believers. He is talking about the church here, specifically about our relationships within the body. Paul encourages us to carry each other's load and forgive, in doing so we honor God and in honoring God we build the body of believers. We can believe in all the right stuff; but if we don't put it into practice, if we don't play it out in our lives, then plain and simple…it just doesn't work!  Put on your new clothes and apply.

Since God has already chosen us. He picked us for His team. We should respond with these virtues. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience; these behaviors in and of themselves cannot make us worthy of salvation, but they are part of a life worthy of the Lord. Paul uses the phrase "clothe yourselves" sometimes we need to clothe ourselves to cover our feelings by "putting on" the right behavior. We need to clothe ourselves with attitudes and behaviors worthy of God. If we are striving to love as Christ loves, we should treat each other the way He has treated us: bearing with each other. Do you know what bearing with each other really means? It means tolerating the shortcomings of others.  And in turn if all of us are striving to love as Christ loves than there is a bonus in this "bearing with each other thing"…others will tolerate OUR shortcomings. Thank the Lord! Max Lucado says this about relationships and coping with them " there are three ways to cope…flee, fight, or forgive."  Paul's advice to us today is that options 1 and 2 are not available to us if we are wearing the new clothes. New clothes worn and applied.

 Compassion is the act of being sympathetically conscious of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it. Henri Nouwen has this to say about compassion “Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it." We want a quick fix we don't always want to be an active participant in this act of being compassionate. We tend to think we need to make grand gestures that it has to be something big, when most often compassion is a simple act of recognizing another's distress and being there to hold each other up.  A quick visit to the hospital, a note in a card, a hug, not grand gestures by any means, unless you are the recipient, then they are grand gestures of compassion showered upon us through the grace of God from another. New clothes worn and applied.

Kindness, affectionate and loving the opposite of the "old" harsh and sever. Humility, not proud or haughty; "putting off" the ego and "putting on" the willingness to submit to the destruction of power, the destruction of independence. Our dependence should be on God, not ourselves. Gentleness, stern and violent in the "old clothes," free from harshness in our "new clothes." Patience is being steadfast despite opposition. When we are wearing our new clothes we have the ability to be all of the things, we have a willingness to "put on" these feelings even if we may not feel them, we can put them on and practice being holy. Never in the bible does it say that we will be judged by our feelings, it does however, say we will be judged according to our actions. We can't always control how we feel, but we can control how we act by putting on our new clothes as chosen people holy and dearly loved. Paul is calling us to be vulnerable to grace in order to achieve newfound intimacy where hostility once existed. This holiness, this social holiness is a measure of divine grace. And the holy response prompted by grace is to forgive. New clothes worn and applied.

Is it difficult for us to forgive someone who has wronged us a little when God has forgiven us so much? He went to the cross for us. He died for us. Can't we just put to death the old and put on the new? Forgive –to show favor toward another. Note how Paul links the forgiveness of God with our forgiving others. A commentary I read says (paraphrase) our forgiveness of others is prompted and empowered by Christ's forgiveness of us. We stand in God's presence forgiven and approved, and it is natural for us to respond in forgiveness, having been washed ourselves by God's mercy. If only a forgiving person can be forgiven by God, then we are in trouble. But we have a God who can save us from the consequences of our unforgiving heart. We become convinced that the gospel is true when we see the new clothes worn and applied in the lives of believers.

And over all these virtues put on love. Not our definition of love , but God's kind of love, that love that is bigger than all human understanding, the love that binds it all together in perfect unity. That perfect unity is a property of God's grace, which perfectly unites "with" Christ to "in" Christ. And if you let love guide you life and bind it all together, if you live in love… it leads to peace.  Peace is not without lack of conflict or hardship. Peace within one's self is corollary to peace within the community. If you have not experienced the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, then you cannot give it to someone else. You cannot give what you do not have. There is hope…the bible promises peace!  Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:22 that peace is the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Truth, and faith, and trust, and belief produce peace. We have put off the old and put on the new and every action in these new clothes should have a character of peace.  Paul says we were called to peace, and if we have peace we should always be thankful. This peace in Christ and thankfulness should take up residence in, be at home in, be welcome in, comfortable in, and dwell within us. To be thankful means we fully understand the mercy of God in our lives and that we put on that thankfulness and offer humble gratitude to God and in doing so it will have an effect on all of your relationships. New clothes worn and applied.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you, the "word' includes the traditions, the stories, the red letter words of Christ, the psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs…shared together in church, shared with the body of believers. We not only need the word we need a way to express the word. New clothes worn and applied.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through Him.  Whatever means everything you do, do as though you are God's representative. If we are wearing our new clothes, followers of, disciples of God we are responsible for His reputation. Martin Luther comments on this verse " …all works, weather eating or drinking, speaking or keeping silence, waking or sleeping, going or staying, being idle or otherwise. All acts are worthy when done in the name of the Lord Jesus."  His reputation is on the line, our every word and every deed. New clothes worn and applied.

So when you wake up every morning dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you. Put on your new clothes and apply it to your life.

Now the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep us from sneaking back to the garage sale pile of clothes, and help us dress in our new clothes in you Christ Jesus. Amen