I ended up doing a lot of work from home during the COVID pandemic. A lot of people still do a lot of work from home…
And there were days where I didn’t interact with anyone: not in person, and not over zoom. It was just me, working at my computer, maybe making phone calls and sending emails… but never actually seeing anyone.
So, often, I’d get up, put on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt (maybe the same t-shirt that I slept in), and go to work.
But it wasn’t long before I realized that I needed to get dressed for work, at least some of the time, even though the only person I was getting dressed for was me. Even if all it was was a pair of jeans and a polo shirt, getting dressed for work helped my mental attitude… and changing out of those work clothes at the end of the day helped me relax.
The clothes I wore made a difference in how I felt.
Have you ever dressed up just because? Worn a fancy dress or suit around the house, just because you felt like it? Just for you?
Or, have you ever decided to dress up to go out somewhere, even though you didn’t have to, but because you wanted to?… If so, then you know that the clothes you wear can have an effect on how you feel. Your clothes affect your attitude…
When I was a kid, I remember dressing up for church. Everybody dressed up for church back then. This wasn’t too strictly applied to children, but even when I was small, my mom had a rule; she wouldn’t let me wear shorts to church.
When I was in high school, I got my first suit… because I was invited to be a deacon in church, and to be a deacon, you had to have a suit. I think it even came with a vest! That’s just how church was back then.
But then I went to college. And I started dressing a little more casually for church. Sometimes, I even wore jeans.
But not shorts.
Years later, I had a day off from preaching, so I went to visit my mom and her wife, and I went to church with them.
And I was shocked—shocked, I tell you!—to see my mom wearing shorts to church!
And I said, “Mom!”
And she just shrugged her shoulders, as my mom often did, and said, “Well… you know…”
I had another shock last week when my son Tristan, who was here visiting us, told me that, sometimes, his pastor wears shorts to church. Preaching! In shorts!
It’s interesting, though: the people who insist on dressing up for church do so because they believe in honoring God by wearing their Sunday best. But the people who dress casually for church: a lot of them believe that what they wear also honors God. To them, dressing up feels like pretending to be someone you aren’t, and God isn’t honored when we pretend to be someone we aren’t; God is honored when we present our true selves before him in worship.
In other words, the people who dress up, and those who insist on coming-as-they-are, all feel that what they are doing is honoring God.
Maybe, in our disagreements, we aren’t as different as we think we are…
Because both sides believed that what one wore made a difference.
Which brings us to the Colossians. They were divided. Exactly what was dividing them isn’t clear (it probably wasn’t how one dressed for worship), but someone had come in among them and was saying things and teaching things that were threatening to turn them against each other, to divide them from one another, or against Christians in other communities.
And in this letter to the Colossians, written to counter those divisive influences, it does talk about clothing, in a way: it says that the clothing that should be worn is: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and above all, love.
I like that clothing analogy. Because as I said, the clothes we wear really can affect how we feel about ourselves, and how we treat others…
Now, when we talk about this at camp, I envision some dress-up opportunities, maybe some costume wearing, as a way to have some fun. Maybe we’ll have our own little ComicCon, who knows!
And some will get into it, and some will be reluctant, but everyone, once they dress up, they’ll feel a little different.
Dressing up can make us feel like someone else, like we’ve taken on a whole new personality… or, for some, it may make them feel like themselves… Some people feel like they have to pretend to be someone they’re not all their lives, but experimenting with how they dress allows them to finally discover and be who they truly are…
We won’t have much time for this, since this scripture is the one we have for the first day, the day the campers arrive, so I’m not sure how much we’ll get into this… but whatever we do, I envision it as leading into a discussion of how we can clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and love… and what a difference that can make, for us, and for those around us.
First of all, doesn’t that sound good, to clothe yourself in compassion, kindness, and love?
Just imagine, wrapping yourself up in some compassion… donning some kindness… wrapping yourself up in humility…
Wait–would it feel good to wrap yourself up in humility? Well, the opposite of humility is arrogance, and people who wear arrogance usually do so because, deep down, they feel anxious and insecure. But humility, when it is self-imposed, is a sign of confidence and assuredness…
Same with meekness and patience, and love.
We know that, in our own time, there are many who seek to divide us against one another, many who inflict anger on us.
We react, defensively, by clothing ourselves with some things that are mentioned a few verses earlier in Colossians: we put on anger, rage, malice, slander, and abusive language.
We see people clothed in these garments all the time, don’t we? And don’t you find that often, without even realizing it, you’ve clothed yourself with this clothing?
Someone cuts you off in traffic, or insults you, or makes you mad in some way… and before you know it, you are wearing that apparel of anger, that robe of rage, those mittens of malice, that sweater of slander…
And it doesn’t feel good. It’s like itchy wool against your skin, with tags irritating your skin, and socks bunched up in your shoes or your long sleeves bunched up inside your jacket…
(I hate it when my long sleeves get all bunched up inside my jacket!)
This letter to the Colossians says we should get rid of such things. Cast them off! Why keep yourself clothed with all that anger, rage, malice, and slander?
Yet many of us do. We wear these negative emotions, and like some cheaply made clothing in which the ink hasn’t set, those words rub off, and onto our skin, and they sink even deeper into us…
We need to cast off that clothing!
And put on the clothing of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and love.
I mentioned how the people of Colossae were being influenced by someone who was dividing them, turning them against each other, or against Christians in other cities. Today, we have people trying to turn us against each other: politicians and media figures, especially.
Everything is always framed as us vs. them. Politically, this is described as right vs. left, or conservative vs. liberal.
And everyone who jumps into that (or gets pulled into that) clothes themselves with anger, rage, malice, and slander. It’s like we’re going out into a fierce blizzard, and we think these are the clothes that will protect us.
And I’m thinking about this, because some of us will be having our own conversation later about Christian nationalism…a topic that, when we discuss it, we need to be very careful about what attitudes we clothe ourselves with.
Last summer, our denomination—the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) —passed a resolution at the General Assembly denouncing Christian nationalism as violent and authoritarian, divisive and exclusionist, and a misrepresentation of our Christian faith.
And congregations were encouraged to learn more about Christian Nationalism and to boldly speak out against it… and that’s why we’re having this workshop today.
And I am optimistic that it will be a good conversation. Because in the five months I’ve been here, I’ve gotten to know you well enough to know that you are good at casting off the clothing of anger, rage, malice, and slander, and I’ve seen you clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and love.
Last year, I was spending a few days in training at the camp on Catalina Island where I would be working as a science instructor. There were just a few of us there for the training, but a much larger group was also in camp that week; they were part of a campus ministry called InterVarsity.
And one evening when we were relaxing after our training, a group of InterVarsity folks invited us to join them for worship.
And I thought: no. I don’t want to go. Because I knew that our theology was different and that there were many issues that we disagree on and I would just find fault with them.
But then they started: someone had a guitar, and led some singing, and I could hear them from the other room where I was. And something about the sound of that singing led me to cast off my judgment, my malice, my slander, and to go down and join them.
And I joined in singing with them, and as I did, I could feel the clothing that I had cast off be replaced by kindness, humility, meekness, love…
And while we were worshiping, our unity in Christ became more important to me than our differences.
It didn’t mean that our differences didn’t matter. It didn’t mean that I would stop speaking out about the things that were important to me.
But it did mean that I could do so while clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and love.
And, in fact, any conversation we might have—and I’m speaking now about any of us, about any issue we may disagree over—any conversation will be improved if we clothe ourselves with these types of clothing. Any debate, any attempt to sway others to the truth we believe in, will be more productive, and more representative of the way of Jesus, if we clothe ourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and love.
After all, we are one in the Spirit… and they’ll know we are Christians not by how strongly we defend our opinions, and not by how many people we sway to our point of view… they’ll know we are Christians… by our love.
No comments:
Post a Comment