First Sunday After Christmas ©
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 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. -- NRSVA
Anne is an email buddy of mine; she is my Sister-in-law’s Sister-in-law. (Don’t try to figure it out; it hurts too much!) She sent me a two page account of their Christmas day. I thought one part just about nailed what Christmas does for us and to us:
We enjoyed our wild few days – what I call the extreme sport of Christmas. We are all winners since the Christ child came to live among us.
We had a nice chat with Aunt Kay and Howard. John [Anne’s husband, my brother’s brother-in-law] talked a little about Christmas, telling them we used paper plates and plastic knives and forks to make it easier on ourselves.
Howard said, That’s great. You didn’t have to count the silverware when everyone left. I said, You’re right, but I did count the children to make sure they were all taken away. [1]
Christmas Day changed a lot of people. Paul addressed some in the great city of Colossae – Christians who had a reputation of being strong believers, but had a little problem understanding why they were to act differently than the world. Don’t we all have that little problem?
Paul called them “chosen ones”. In short that means two things:
They were changed. The early Christians were baptized as a sign of their willingness to change, be different. Men and women were baptized in different rooms, because the ceremony included stripping-off all clothing, and entering the pool naked. It was a signal that the old life had been stripped-away like a ragged garment. They were changed.
A story is told of a denomination that believed in baptismal sanctification (the moment you are baptized, you are sanctified, and therefore perfect -- you won’t ever sin again). One winter an older man got convicted, and decided to join the group. It was winter time and he wanted to be baptized right away; but the creek was frozen over. However, he had a great desire to be pure, so he convinced the deacons to baptize him. They cut a hole in the ice, took the old fellow out and dunked him in the hole, all the way, twice for good measure. As he came out the old man exclaimed, "Oh, it’s so wonderful. I’m sanctified. It’s so wonderful; I don’t even feel the cold." The head deacon said, "Let’s dunk him again,boys; he’s still lyin’!"
The new believers were really changed, and…
They were clothed. Once baptized the new convert was given a new robe to put on; it was a white robe, symbolizing the new relationship of purity in Christ, and it was a new robe, which made a stark comparison with the old which had been discarded.
Paul uses this dressing analogy well. There is a connection here that is hard to miss unless you’re on another planet. Every day each and every one of us puts on our clothing. And we all have something in common about the way we do it. Without fail we put on our undergarments first, then our outer clothing (except Madonna, of course, who is goofy enough to wear her “unmentionables” where they get mentioned). They call ‘em “foundational” garments, because they are the first things to go on the bare ground.
Paul used the “putting-on-your-clothes” object lesson to teach some very important principles about living the Christian life. Let’s take a look at the careful wardrobe choices Paul asks us to make. In so doing we must remember that important principles never come cheaply…but some people don’t think that way
[At this point in the message there is a one minute video – a “commercial” for Christianity Lite which made the case against taking too light a view of the importance of careful attention to the choices you make about how you live your life as a Christian. 2]
Christianity Lite? If that means “Salvation Lite” then, no thank you! The choices we are going to look at are the choices that form your character. My brother, Thom, is a teacher. He has the responsibility for shaping young minds. (He’s older than me, and therefore had something to do with helping to shape my mind and thinking….but don’t hold that against him!). Thom has a motto under his email signature: Character Before Career. He takes seriously that Christianity Lite doesn’t take the cross of Calvary very seriously.
So…let’s get dressed here…First:
The Inner (Foundational) Garments
LOVE
Paul gave us a whole list of great qualities, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience. Then he told us that these are the symptoms of one who possesses love. It isn’t the kind of romantic mush or lust you see on Desperate Housewives; it’s agape’ love, unselfish doing of whatever is best for others.
This kind of love is only available in Christ. Only God changing you on the inside can give you this. All the other qualities (humility, compassion, etc) can be faked, or even genuinely used sometimes…but the real thing is motivated by love. Paul said it was like the garment they called a girdle, a binding that held everything together. When you have love, genuine love, it holds all sorts of blessings in their places.
I am a “fashion-challenged person”. I used to put together some pretty interesting outfits. My ties never matched my shirts or socks. Friends and family used to ask if I bought stuff at the Ugly Store. Sometimes I got dressed in the dark and I’d wear a brown sock with a black one. Then love changed everything. Elizabeth picks out my clothes. I look better. I offend less. Love will make you do strange and wonderful things!
PEACE
Paul said to let peace rule our hearts. If there is a missing element in our culture, peace is my first nominee. We live in a “noisy-in-your-face-grab-mine-while-I-can-steal-yours-if-I-can” kind of world.
There is a haunting song on the Southern-Gospel charts these days called “Peace”. It tells the story of folks who are doing what we all do, trying to get through the day – and they’ve about given up. The repeated lyric is:
Don’t need your love, or your sympathy,
But I cannot go on living without peace…
Our existence is filled with what the great old hymn states as fightings and fears within, [and] without[3]. There is precious little peace to be offered by the circumstances of life.
But Paul never said “let the circumstances of life rule in your hearts”; he said to let peace rule there. I took a picture a few weeks ago at the scene of Elizabeth’s accident. The reason I took it was how very odd it looks to see people loose and laughing when your automobile has just been folded-up like a wad of loose-leaf paper after a head-on collision with a drunk driver. Only God’s peace can sort out the priority of people over things. That’s peace ruling in a heart! Love, peace, and…
GRATITUDE
Paul said, be thankful. We were most thankful a few weeks ago when Elizabeth’s car had to be towed – we were thankful she wasn’t towed!
Thankfulness or gratitude is the natural bubbling-up of praise when things are in proper perspective. We managed to buy a used pickup truck for our son about 15 years ago. It wasn’t a big prize, but it was the first one he would own that didn’t need an act of Congress to start. To say he was grateful is an understatement. I can still see the tears, and feel the hug. It just comes out of you when you have been blessed!
When you look at all the circumstances of life, and realize that Jesus has gone through the worst of it, and has made the offer to go with you through any stuff you’ve got on your plate…well, there are just some times you need to lift up a grateful voice and sing!
Love, Peace, Gratitude and…
WISDOM
Connect the dots…Paul said we should let the Word of Christ dwell (take up residence) in us richly. That means we should allow the Word of God free reign in addressing every aspect of the way we live our lives. Bible study is so important – the Bible is the Owner’s Manual of human existence. Having that Word “dwell richly” is to take it in, study, meditate on it and then put it into practice in our lives. The Psalmist put it this way
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11 (KJV)
Now, those are the foundational garments, love, peace, gratitude and wisdom. Those are the transformational characteristics of the Christian life. When you have those they will create the…
The Outer Garments
The outer garments of life are what others see and experience. When the inner garments are love, peace, gratitude and wisdom they will make the outer garments particularly attractive. What are they?
There is EMPATHY – so you can feel what your brother feels.
There is HARMONY – so you can strengthen your brother or sister, while she strengthens you.
There is MINISTRY so you can glorify God with all of your life.
This is the Christian version of “Dress for Success”. Success in the world is measured by how you look; it is “the look” or style that people see that really counts – look good at any cost!
The Lord measures success by what He sees on the inside…the inner garments of character
the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart
1 Samuel 16:7b
What does the Lord see when he looks at YOUR heart? Does he see compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, mercy? Does he see all these foundational garments held together neatly by the character girdle of love? If so, you’ve chosen to lay aside the world’s rags and you’re ready for a robe!
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ENDNOTES
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1] Anne Mehrling, an email letter 12/26/06
2] © SermonSpice.com
3] Just as I Am, Without One Plea, Elliott, Bradbury, The United Methodist Hymnal, p.357
