I’m pretty sure that we can make a case for living until we die. It would not take a lot of effort to convince one another that we can approach life with gusto, squeezing every ounce of juice out. There’s a strong compulsion in us to extract all the value and the vitality we can get out from life, before it’s too late.
Think of the people we admire. We admire busy people, who get things done. Movers and shakers, folks who drive straight ahead with single-minded vision, accomplishing something. They are our models; they are the ones we admire.
We may criticize them, but we admire even the typical Washington workaholics, who arrive for work early and leave for home late, carrying a brief case of papers to pore over at a hurried dinner. We say, "This guy’s going some place. He’s got drive and energy." We say that he’s going to live until he dies, or at least he’s going to produce until he retires. We admire that.
We admire the folks who fill their calendars with things to do, people to see, and places to go. I asked one of you about accepting membership on a trustee board, and you said, "I can do it as long as it meets in the daytime, because all of my nights are filled with groups and activities." Wow! Retired and yet living vigorously, living until he dies. I admire that, don’t you? Of course you do. Makes you tired, but you admire it!
We admire people who keep on going, even when circumstances make it tough. We think highly of people who don’t let little things like mere health get in their way. If he is sneezing and wheezing, never mind, it’s just a case of the sniffles; give him some orange juice and let him go. He’s going to live until he dies. I f she can barely see to drive, that’s all right; just get out of her way, because nothing is going to stop her from living until she dies. We laugh at folks like that, but we also admire them. They are going to live until they die.
I met a man this week who told me about his daughter. She had broken her foot in a freak accident. It kept her confined to the house a long, long time. How long? Oh, two days, three days tops. Because by that time she’d gone stir crazy, bouncing off the walls with nothing to do. So she hobbled out of her bedroom, sneaked into her father’s car, and scooted off with the right foot propped up and the left foot operating both the accelerator and brakes. She was determined to go, go, go and live, live, live until she died. Which, given the circumstances, might be sooner than she had in mind. And don’t even think about reporting her; she’s a detective on the metropolitan police force!
We admire that kind of spirit and pluck. We think it’s great to live until you die. There’s a lot of support in American culture for that. Our songs belt out, "I’m gonna live ’til I die." Our poets write about "filling each moment with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run." "No couch potatoes here". "Better to wear out than to rust out". We like folks who live until they die, with no moss growing under their feet and no dust settling on their heads. Go for it people. Live until you die.
II
But have you ever thought about the opposite side of that coin? Have you ever thought about dying until you live? If it is important to live until you die, it is infinitely more important to die until you live.
The Bible tells us we can do that. Christians are folks who have died so that they can live. Believers are people who have discovered that beyond all of the go-go stuff, there is something else. There is a death that brings life. There is a dying that brings fulfillment and blessing. Live until you die is good; but die until you live is even better.
Let’s hear a little about this; I want to ask you to turn in your Bibles to the Letter of Paul to the Colossians. The portion I want to lift up for you is in Chapter 3. Colossians 3:1-4
III
You may have heard something very peculiar just then. It may sound strange. Paul says, "You have died". "You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
Christians are people who have died, but who have been raised to life with Christ. And that life is available now. When we come to Easter Sunday, it’s not unusual to talk about eternal life and life after death. And that’s fine. That’s right. But today, as important as it may be to think about life after death, it is more important to know about the life God wants us to have now. The life we can have if we are willing to die right now.
Die right now? What does that mean? What am I getting at, dying here and now in order to receive life? Well, there are some clues in this Scripture.
IV
First, it tells us that self-indulgence has to die. Concentrating on ourselves, focusing on what we want, attention to immediate pleasure ... that has to go. The Bible is very specific:
Look at Colossians 3:5-7. The phrase is, "Put to death" ... put to death a number of things, but the heart of them all is desire, greed. Wanting what we want when we want it. If we focus on what we want ... what will give us instant pleasure ... that is self-defeating. Self-indulgence has to die. We absolutely have to kill that basic instinct that faces every situation asking, "What’s in it for me?" Because "What’s in it for me?" is a killer question; we have to put it to death before it kills us.
There’s a television commercial you may have seen. I cringe every time it comes on. It shows a young woman in various chummy poses clutching in her embrace some product and chanting "me, me, glorious me, all for me." Well, if you look at her now, she looks lively and happy; but I just wish they would show her ten and twenty and fifty years later so that we can see if she’s still that bouncy, and if she feels fulfilled from all that me-ism.
In our rush to accumulate things and be successful and be powerful and have influence and have status and have and have and have, we’d better wake up to reality. The reality is that acquisitiveness goes nowhere. Indulging ourselves is a kiss of death. If we’re worried about carjacking and gold jewelry snatching and kids wanting to make thousands of dollars on the street, we’d better worry about whose values they are imitating. Self-indulgence, desire and greed, the Bible says, put it to death, throw it out.
In other words, die until you live.
V
But the issue goes deeper. Right after Paul tells us that we are must put to death the sins of self-indulgence, he moves to another, deeper level. He tells us we must to die to abusive feelings. We must put to death some attitudes. Deeper than our actions, our attitudes. Again the Bible is painfully specific:
Colossians 3:8-9a
Now you and I know about these attitudes. Every one of us falls prey to them at one time or another. It’s not hard to understand why. If I’m right that in our culture there is this go-go selfishness; if Paul is right that that greed need is destructive; then you can see that if somebody gets in our way when we are pursuing that stuff, he or she is in for trouble. Let someone compete with us, get more than we do, get in our way, and our tempers go up. Our feelings erupt. Let’s see, how does the catalog read? Anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive language … I think that’s about got it. When you put yourself under a sentence of death by wanting and wanting, wanting and wanting ... then it is only a short step to putting others under a sentence of death when they get in your way.
We don’t know yet for sure what happened at the O Street market the other night. Maybe it was a crazy, meaningless fluke, for which eight or nine innocent people are paying a price. But then again maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was retribution. Maybe it was frustrated greed acting in anger, wrath, malice, and abuse. Again, if we are concerned about where young people get these values, well, just look around. Look at the businessman who in his desire to snag a sale lies about his product and slanders his competitor. Only a short walk to the O Street market from there. Look at the mother who tries to bribe or bully the teacher into giving her little angel a charity grade, so that that tender young ego won’t be hurt. Read that, so that Mom’s ego won’t be bruised.
Men and women, I’m saying that our society has to look no farther than its own roots to discover the causes of its disease. Our children have learned from us how to use anger and wrath, malice and slander. The violence within us has to be put to death. In order for us to live, in order for our society to live, abusive attitudes have to be destroyed. Die until you live.
VI
But look. It can happen. Colossians 3:10-11. “You have stripped off the old self .. and have clothed yourselves with the new self, renewed according to the image of the creator. And Christ is all and in all.
Back to verse 1, “I f you have been raised with Christ ... you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your very life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”
The good news is that new life is possible. Authentic life is possible; it is within reach. New life is possible when we die to the old self and put on the new self. New life is within reach when we give our lives to the living Christ and let Him hide us in Himself. This is the immediate possibility of Easter.
The story of Easter morning is a story of a good man who did not deserve to die getting the life He did deserve. Yes, but it is much more than that.
The story of Easter morning is the story of a mighty God guaranteeing hope and eternal life. And that’s wonderful and true. But it is even more than that.
The glory and the good news of Easter is that you can have new life, right here, right now, in this moment. I know that’s true. I know some Easter people. I know some men and women who have decided to die to get that new life.
I know a young man who did the whole self-indulgence game. In order to feed his habits, he just consumed and took everything within reach. He cheated, he stole, he lied, he did everything short of homicide. But he woke up dead! That’s right, you heard me. A couple of years ago, he woke up dead. He let Christ take over his life. Now he’s well on the way to becoming a new person. He decided to die until he can live.
I know a young woman who’s been in death throes for some while now. It’s not a pretty sight. She has a baby to take care of. She has no husband, no job, no public assistance, no child support. It’s been agonizing for those of us who’ve tried to help her. Sometimes we think we’ve lost her. Sometimes she gets angry at a whole bunch of folks: her boy friend, her parents, the courts, her employers, her doctor, her social worker, everybody. But that’s all right, because I can see it, I can feel it: slowly but surely the heart and mind of Christ are being shaped in her, and she’s changing. How? I told you. She’s about to die! But she’s going to be alive. Her life will be hidden with Christ and Christ will be all in all. She’s going to die until she lives!
You too can die to the old ways and receive new ways. You too can strip off the old self and can clothe yourself in something new. But you start by putting the old to death. Dying until you live.
Looking around, I expect that some of you went out and bought new clothes for Easter. You wanted to look fresh and clean. Frankly, I don’t get to the clothing store very often. I just don’t do it. I tell my wife I’ll buy new clothes when all of our debts are paid; which, at the rate we’re going, means I’ll have a new suit to be buried in! But part of the problem is that my closet and my chest of drawers are full already, so that when I do get something new, I have to get rid of something old. There just isn’t room for both.
Jesus Christ the risen Lord wants to clothe you in a new self. In order to get the new self, however, you have to get rid of the old one. No room for both. Living until you die is wonderful; dying until you live is glorious.
