Clothed Anew (Colossians 1:11-20)

**** One of the things I am thankful for this year is the opportunity I had to travel to Slovenia. 

When I made the decision to go to Slovenia, I knew nothing about Slovenia. I wasn’t even sure it was a real place.

 It wasn’t a real place, when I was a kid in school, learning about the world, drawing and labelling maps for geography class. Slovenia didn’t become an independent nation until 1991. 

But once I decided that Slovenia would be my destination, I started learning what I could. I watched some YouTube videos about Slovenia: where to stay, what to see, what food to eat. One video taught me a few words and phrases in Slovenian… and another was all about the people and the culture.

That video let me know, for example, that people in Slovenia are generally friendly, but they tend not to waste words. Don’t take that personally, or as a sign of rudeness, the person in the video said. People in Slovenia just tend to say only what is necessary, and nothing more.

So I wasn’t surprised when I heard someone at an information center ask: “Is this where I can buy my ticket?” and the person behind the desk said: “No. This is an information center.”

And that was it. 

Now, being an information center, one would think that the person behind the desk would give this person the information they wanted, which, obviously, was: where and how to buy a ticket. 

But the person didn’t actually ask where or how to buy a ticket. They only asked if they could buy a ticket here.

And the person behind the desk, having answered that question, spoke no more.

There were several more encounters like that in Slovenia. I was thankful for the YouTube videos I had watched, which had prepared me to think like a Slovenian, at least a little bit, before I ever left home. 

Because I was watching those YouTube videos and learning about Slovenia, my mind was already set on Slovenia, before I ever left. I was mentally preparing myself for my trip. A part of me was already living in Slovenia.

In the same way, all of us are living here on earth, in this world, in this time. This is where we are. But ultimately, our home is in heaven.

And we are called to live out the values of the kingdom of heaven even while we live here on earth. We are called to speak the language of the kingdom of heaven. We are called to practice the ways of the kingdom of heaven. Now.

And when we read our Bibles; and when we go to worship, or Bible study; and when we pray, and listen for God’s voice… these things work the same way as the YouTube videos I watched before going to Slovenia. These things help us live in the kingdom of heaven now, before we ever get there.

And Christ the King Sunday reminds me of that.

**** As I said at the start of worship: Today is Christ the King Sunday. It is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Next Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, is the first Sunday of a new liturgical year.

Some churches, not wanting to sound too patriarchal, call it Reign of Christ Sunday, or the Festival of Christ the Cosmic Ruler. I am thankful for their “re-branding,” even though I tend to use the traditional language.

Whatever you call it, this last Sunday of the Christian year just prior to Advent celebrates the anticipation of Christ completing God’s work of reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth.

Or, to put it another way: it celebrates the day when all things will be made new in Christ.

Or, to put it another way: it celebrates life in the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom where Christ reigns.

If you have been baptized, you have made the decision to live in Christ’s kingdom now, even while you live on earth. 

**** In baptism, what is old is stripped away, and we are made into something new. For some Christians in the early church, the way they practiced baptism, this was done literally: the one being baptized would strip off all their clothes before entering the water, to symbolize the stripping away of all that is old: all the allegiances they had to this world of darkness.

And then, upon emerging from the waters of baptism, they were given new clothes to wear, clothes that were pure white.

All this symbolizes what it says in chapter 3 of Colossians: “You have stripped off your old self with its practices – its greed, its anger and malice – and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. So clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,… and above all, love.”

These are the ways one lives in the kingdom of heaven: with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love.

The purpose of the letter to the Colossians is to remind the letter’s recipients just how different life in Christ is from life in the world. They had been baptized! They had stripped away their old selves, and put on their new identity in Christ. 

But the Colossians – like us – needed to be reminded of the significance and the implications of such a radical lifestyle change.

Today, instead of a letter to the Colossians, perhaps we’d have a YouTube video to the Colossians (like the videos that helped me get ready for Slovenia), reminding them that they have been made new in Christ; reminding them of their future home in heaven; and helping them embrace the values of Christ’s kingdom now, even while they live on earth.

Since we belong not to this world but to the kingdom of heaven, we start learning the language of the kingdom. Now. We start living the values of the kingdom. We start practicing the ways of the kingdom. Now.

Because the time to start practicing those kingdom values is right now. God has already transferred us there. As we heard in our scripture reading for today: “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son.”

The relocation papers have already been completed, filed, stamped, and whatever else is done to make relocation papers official. In a way that’s even more real than my experience of being in Slovenia before I actually arrived in Slovenia, we are living in the kingdom of God right now, in the present.

And because of that, our lives are changed.

Day by day, we learn to set aside the language and the customs and the traditions of the world of darkness.

In the world of darkness, we look for power in things that can be handled, tasted, or touched. We look for power in wealth. We look for power in fame.

But in the kingdom of Christ to which we have been transferred, power is practiced very differently.

The new clothing that we have put on after our baptism shows the source of our power. That power is found in compassion, kindness, humility. We see that power practiced through bearing with one another, forgiving one another, rather than judging and ridiculing and belittling others.

We see that power is most of all expressed through love. Love has the power to bind all things together in perfect harmony.

It is Christ’s kingdom. And Christ rules with love. Look at everything he did. Look at how he treated people, including his enemies. Especially his enemies. And look at how he had compassion on those who suffered from the prejudice and hatred and fear of society…

Love guided everything he did. You never had to question his motives. What was his motive?

Love.

**** So the question that the letter to the Colossians asks is this: If you have a present and future home in the kingdom of heaven, why do you live as if you still belonged to this world? If you have been baptized in Christ, why have you gone back and put on those old clothes that you once wore? If you are living in the kingdom, and Christ the king rules over the kingdom with love … where is your love?

Dick Hamm, former General Minister and President of our denomination, once wrote that too many church people could work in an office, sit right next to the same co-worker for 25 years, with that co-worker not even knowing that there was anything different about them.

Not a thing!

But don’t you think there should be something noticeably different about a person who so fully lives in the kingdom, and so fully practices the kingdom value of love? Don’t you think that a person who has stripped off the old and put on the new would look at least a little different? Something that might even look a little strange to other people?

Dick Hamm also told the story of a church elder “who was sitting in a board meeting one night while a discussion was going on about some matter of importance in that congregation. Someone said something that sparked his anger. As the conversation proceeded, he could feel his anger rising until he could stand it no more. He jumped to his feet, ready to tell them all what he thought about their ‘stupid idea.’ … But just as he was about to open his mouth, he remembered something. He slowly sat down and mumbled, ‘I’m sorry, I almost forgot. Dead men don’t speak.’”

In that moment, he remembered that he had been buried with Christ, and raised to new life. He remembered that, in Christ, he was a new person, clothed in compassion, kindness, humility, patience, and love. The old person that he once was, who was quick to tell others how stupid they were, had died. And now he had to let it be dead.

There are a lot of Christians today clinging to the ways of earthly kingdoms. There are a lot of Christians today who have forgotten that they have been buried with Christ, and raised to new life. There are a lot of Christians today who have forgotten that they, too, have been made into something new, and clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, patience and love.

And they are quick to let loose their anger, and to insult anyone who disagrees with them. Instead of lifting others up, they seek to throw down all those with a different opinion.

And this includes those who subscribe to Christian nationalism. 

Christian nationalism is a form of Christianity in which people claim to follow Christ, yet they have failed to strip away their old selves and embrace the new being that they are in Christ. They’re too attached to power in this world, too blinded by this world’s power, that they think Christ’s power is the same as power in this world; when in reality, Christ’s power is a completely different thing. The power of Christ is power in weakness. It is power is love. It is power in forgiveness and sacrifice.

This kind of power is, as Paul says, a stumbling block to so many. They don’t get it. They only know of the type of power that exists in this world. Power of coercion. Power of force. Power of domination.

That’s the power that Christian nationalists cling to.

But God has stripped all that away from those who have been made new in Christ. We have died to the old ways, and we live as if we are already in the kingdom of heaven, clothed in compassion, kindness, humility, patience and love, following the way of Christ our king.

Worth the Effort (Luke 21:5-19)

 Walter Brueggemann said that passages like this one are “intellectually difficult and pastorally problematic.” 

Brueggemann, who died earlier this year, was one of the most influential Bible interpreters of our time. 

If someone like him finds this scripture to be difficult and problematic, what hope is there for someone like me?

(And why didn’t I find something easier to preach on?)

Well, let’s see if God does have a word for us today in this difficult and problematic scripture…

▶️ The scripture passage starts with Jesus saying to those who were with him that the magnificent temple in Jerusalem will, one day soon, be destroyed. Not one stone will be left upon another.

If Jesus did say such a thing in his lifetime, those who heard him would certainly have been shocked. This temple was, at the time, the largest man-made structure on earth. In scale and grandeur, it rivaled the pyramids in Egypt and the Colosseum in Rome.

The walls of the temple were 50 feet high, and were made of gleaming white and green marble. A traveler arriving in Jerusalem would see it from miles away.

The temple symbolized permanence. Stability. It was the center of Jewish life.

For Jesus to speak of the destruction of the temple would be to speak of the destruction of society itself. And indeed, Jesus went on to mention things like wars and insurrections; nation rising against nation, kingdom rising against kingdom; earthquakes, famines, and plagues.

But then, he adds: "Don't worry about it. Don’t be afraid.”

A question I often ask when trying to understand scripture is: “Why did the author feel it important to include this?” In this case, “Why did Luke think this was an important thing to include in his account of the gospel?”

And, in this case, the answer to that is quite obvious. 

Luke wrote his gospel around the year 80, give or take.

And the temple that Jesus predicted would be destroyed, actually was destroyed, by the Roman army, in the year 70.

So, Luke was writing this not long after the temple had been destroyed.  

Which means the people Luke was writing to had already experienced all these things that Jesus appears to have predicted. They had experienced—and were still experiencing—what, in many ways, felt to them like the end of the world.

And Luke included this in his gospel as a way of letting people know that it was all part of the plan. 

Or, if not “part of the plan,” Luke at least wanted them to know that there still was a plan, that God still had a plan, that there is a future even beyond the end, and that these difficult, cataclysmic, apocalyptic times they were living through, though difficult, were actually giving them an opportunity to grow in faith and witness to the gospel.

Now, the difficult and problematic part of all this is that it does sound very apocalyptic. It’s very eschatological.  

And we know that other Christian writers, like the apostle Paul, really did expect the end times, the second coming of Christ, and a literal new creation to begin in their lifetimes.

Something that, obviously, did not happen.

And now, it’s 2,000 years later. And it still hasn’t happened. Not in the great, cosmological sort of way that scripture seems to imply.

Which is why this scripture is “intellectually difficult and pastorally problematic,” as Brueggemann said.

What do we do with this?

Throughout Christian history, there have been leaders who said they have studied the scriptures, they have read the signs, and that they know exactly when the end of the world is going to happen, or when the second coming will take place.

One such prediction made just a few months ago even got quite a bit of attention, at least online.

But the date came and went, as it always does…

It’s all quite embarrassing, really. 

But one thing I do know is that, in many ways, people today are living with that same dread, that same feeling, that the world is ending, that the Jews and early Christians felt in the first century. Everything seems to be coming to an end.

▶️ The climate is changing. The earth is already experiencing stronger hurricanes, longer droughts, and warmer temperatures. Some animal species are adapting by migrating, but many other species are finding it hard to adapt, and extinction rates have skyrocketed. 

The good news is that we have the technology and the ability to stop climate change. The bad news is that we lack the leadership to make it happen.

Too many of our leaders are more interested in what’s good for their party, or what’s good for business, and less concerned about what’s good for people, or for the earth. True dialogue has been replaced by inflammatory accusations, name-calling, and lies. 

The rights of so many are being threatened or have already been taken away. This is especially true for those who are most vulnerable: the poor, those earning minimum wage, immigrants, minorities, and the LGBTQ community.

Jesus taught us to love our neighbor, and when someone asked him “who is our neighbor?” Jesus responded by telling a parable that worked to expand infinitely the definition of who is our neighbor. And yet so many of our leaders today are doing just the opposite, working to restrict and narrow the definition of who a neighbor is, drawing the circle ever smaller.

And in the midst of it all, the teachings of Jesus seem to be less and less influential. His way of love is not being followed, not even by many who claim to be his followers. And the hypocrisy is driving many others away, preventing them from ever hearing or knowing the true, life-giving, life-affirming message he proclaimed.

In many ways, it feels like the church today is crumbling, just like the temple did in the year 70.

Maybe one way we could read this passage is to not focus on a specific moment in history when the world is coming or will be coming to an end, but to recognize that the world is always coming to an end, at least for someone. Someone is always facing the end of life as we know it, and that is something that many people are feeling today: this great existential dread.

And yet, Luke tells us to not be afraid.

▶️ And Luke tells us that we still have an opportunity, that perhaps because of these difficult times, we have an opportunity like never before, to bear witness to the gospel, to live out our faith, and to show the world what it really means to follow Jesus; what it really means to trust in him; what it really means to love God and love our neighbor, and to work for wholeness in the midst of this fragmented world.

That doesn’t mean it is easy. I wish it were easy! Why do we have to work so hard just to create or maintain a decent, liveable world? Why is it always such a struggle? Why do so many fail to see what it is that makes for peace in our world? Why can’t a world of justice and peace, and harmony and love just come naturally? Easily? Why must we work so hard at it? 

I’m tired of working hard. I’m tired of the struggle.

And I have it easy. I have privileges that many do not. So many have struggled a lot harder than I have or ever will.

Does it even make sense, that we have to work so hard just to prevent a human-caused end of the world? Wouldn’t you think that everyone would work together on at least this one thing? Wouldn’t you think that this would be one thing we could all agree on, that a more peaceful, more loving, more sustainable world is worth striving for? And sacrificing for?

How much easier would the struggle be, if we all had this one goal in common?

Yet there are people—people with power—whose decisions and actions work contrary to a more peaceful, loving, sustainable world; people who are working to break the world rather than put the world back together.

Which makes our task, of bringing wholeness to this fragmented world, all that much harder.

Luke says that the difficulties and the struggle give us an opportunity. 

I don’t know if I want that opportunity. It sounds like an opportunity to do something hard, something difficult, something challenging.

But maybe, when we take advantage of the opportunities that arise in difficult times, we find more fulfillment. Doing something hard, and succeeding—doesn’t that bring a greater satisfaction than just doing something easy.

Haven’t there been times when you’ve struggled for something, and in the end you felt really good about yourself, because you worked so hard for something you believed in?

And I think about the youth camps I’ve worked at; we often give our campers the opportunity to do something hard. Go on a hike. Pass a swim test. Or, the hardest of all: speak in front of your fellow campers during worship.

Campers often push themselves to do these things… and the struggle, the effort, pays off. The struggle is always worth it in the end.

Maybe that’s why things are hard. Maybe that’s why we struggle. 

Maybe not every struggle fits this explanation. I mean, I can think of some exceptions. But many of the struggles we face, when we face them, we do become stronger, and we do find greater fulfillment and satisfaction.

Heck, even the struggle to preach on a scripture that is “difficult and problematic” can be more fulfilling and more rewarding than preaching on a scripture that requires, well, very little effort…

And when we accomplish something that we didn’t think was possible, we can look back, and realize that God was there with us, helping us, giving us the strength we need, making it possible.

If everything was so easy, we could do it, and say “look what we did.” It was so easy, we didn’t need God.

But when we struggle, and when we do something hard—something we didn’t think possible—it makes us realize that we really do depend on God. It makes us realize that God hasn’t let up. God is still giving us the strength we need. 

It bears witness to God’s strength and God’s love and God’s faithfulness.

And we are left with the realization that, no matter what we’re going through, we don’t need to be afraid, because God is with us.

So yes, there is a lot going on in the world. And yes, the struggles we face are difficult. And yes, it does often feel that the world is ending.

But God is present, with you through it all. And God will give you the strength you need. And God will bring you into that future that God has waiting for you.