Colossians 3:12-17
"Becoming a Genuine Human Being"
It's a fact that hurt people hurt other people.
If a wounded soul lobs a criticism grenade in your direction, try and defuse it with understanding.
A pastor shares the following: "One time I was praying during worship, a few moments before preaching.
Eyes closed, focusing on God, I felt someone slip a note into my hand.
I never saw who it was, but the note was marked: 'Personal.'
I thought to myself, 'Somebody probably wrote a nice note to encourage me before I preach.'
A warm, loving feeling settled over me as I unfolded the paper.
A moment later, I lost that loving feeling.
Evidently, the note was from a woman who had tried to see me on Friday, my day off.
She took offense at my absence and blasted me with hateful accusations.
This happened literally seconds before I was to stand up to preach.
In that moment, I had a choice.
I could internalize the offense and become demoralized and discouraged.
Or I could ask myself, 'I wonder what she's experiencing that caused her to lash out?'
I chose compassion over depression.
My heart hurt for her.
I knew that such a disproportionate reaction must indicate deep pain, so I didn't take her note personally."
Have you ever seriously tried to forgive someone who's wronged you?
Have you ever seriously tried to be compassionate and patient?
Have you ever tried to let Christ's peace, Christ's Word, Christ's name be the reality around which you order your life?
It's not easy.
It takes serious prayer and real moral effort.
But it transforms us.
It makes us more human.
And what better goal could anyone of us have for 2013?
Colossians 3:12-17 is one of the classic New Testament passages where Paul talks about sanctification, that is of the new life that the Holy Spirit works in believers.
But this work of God also involves us.
We are called to make a conscious decision to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and when we do--miracles happen in our lives and we become more and more the human beings God created us to be.
As Christians, we are aware that God has chosen to die for us and love us.
God has called us out of the darkness of this life and into the light of life in God's Son.
And so, like persons who have been handed a pair of new clothes, we are called to shed the old clothes of our lives with its moral corruption, evil desire, greed, anger, rage, malice, slander...
...and put on God's new pair of clothing with its compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Colossians 3: 12-17 presents to us a vivid picture of what it looks like to live as those who are clothed entirely in Christ, and what it means to be part of a community where Jesus is "all in all."
Remember in the Garden of Eden, after the Fall?
Adam and Eve hid from God because they had sinned and recognized their nakedness.
Now, as those who have died and live with Christ, we are to wear Jesus Christ as our clothing.
God, in God's grace and love, has sent us--naked, sinful, lost, broken people--His Son to die for us and become our clothing, our righteousness, our light, our healing and salvation!!!
God has not left us alone in the wilderness to die.
God has come to rescue us.
And as Paul says, "Therefore, as God's choice, holy and loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Be tolerant with each other and, if someone has a complaint against anyone, forgive each other.
As the Lord forgave you, so also forgive each other."
Notice that Paul says we are to "put on compassion, put on patience..."
"...And over all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity."
Or as Paul instructs us in verses 9 and 10, we are to "Take off the old human nature with its practices and put on the new nature..."
And this "sanctification," this "taking off of the old and putting on of the new" is a process.
It's a process that we, as a community of faith, are to be involved in together.
Paul says, "The peace of Christ must control your hearts--a peace into which you were called in one body.
And be thankful people."
As the Church of Jesus Christ, we do not belong just to ourselves, we belong to one another.
We are not just individuals we are a corporate entity.
And we are to love one another.
And that's not always easy.
We are, most of us, at different places along the journey.
Some of us have maybe just been saved.
Others have only put on the first layer of clothing.
Some are extremely well-dressed, spiritually.
Others of us may have gotten a bit lax at taking off the old and putting on the new.
And therefore it's time to make a new commitment, a recommitment to becoming more and more like Christ.
We are all called to live together in Christ where, as Paul puts it in verse 11 of Chapter 3, "There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Sythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all things in all people."
This is the picture of the Church.
It's a picture of an incredibly diverse group of folks from many different backgrounds who have been brought together and have been made spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And "in Christ" we are all equal.
There is to be no prejudice, no one is to be treated better than any other.
"In Christ," God sees us all as "One."
But with so many different personalities, experiences and degrees of spiritual formation there are bound to be some disputes, some problems.
Christian life entails a disciplined pattern of redemptive life together.
But this is not for the "faint of heart."
Colossians 3:12-17 isn't just some conflict avoidance advice.
Paul isn't just saying, "Y 'all need to try and be nice to each other," though, of course we should.
He's not just telling us to put on a happy face and accentuate the positive.
This passage is about what to do when bare-knuckled brawls break out.
And this happens when people live and work together intimately.
None of us have "arrived."
We are striving to be like Christ, but in our striving we often fall terribly short.
And because of this, we must be "tolerant with each other and, if someone has a complaint against anyone, forgive each other."
At one point in his journey towards Christ, Richard Foster's son--Nathan shared with his father who had given his life to serve God and the church--his honest thoughts about God and his disillusionment with the church.
Nathan was surprised by his father's responses to his "well-rehearsed, cynical rant [s]."
His dad simply smiled and said, "Good questions...You've obviously put some thought into this."
This was a turning point in Nathan's spiritual life.
Nathan was willing to admit, "I decided that if I'm not willing to be an agent of change [in the church], my critique is a waste...Regardless of how it is defined, I was learning that the church was simply a collection of broken people recklessly loved by God...Jesus said He came for the sick, not the healthy, and certainly our churches reflect that."
The Christian life is a journey.
None of us have yet "made it."
Writer and NPR commentator Heather King, a recovering alcoholic who has come to faith in Christ, reflected on her initial experience with the church.
"My first impulse was to think, 'My God, I don't want to worship with these people!!!"
King continues, "Nothing shatters our egos like worshipping with people we did not hand-pick...[it's] the humiliation of discovering that we are thrown in with extremely unpromising people!--people who are broken, misguided, wishy-washy, out for themselves.
People who are...us."
Paul tells us in Colossians that we are to "be thankful people."
Author Brennan Manning once wrote:"I believe the real difference in the American Church is not between conservatives and liberals, fundamentalists and charismatics, nor between Republicans and Democrats.
The real difference is between the aware and the unaware.
When someone is aware of that love--the love that God has for us in Jesus--that person is spontaneously grateful.
Cries of thankfulness become the dominant characteristic of the interior life, and the byproduct of gratitude is joy.
We're not joyful and then become grateful--we're grateful, and that makes us joyful."
Are we a grateful people?
When faced with difficult situations and perhaps, controversy and friction are we compassionate or do we become turned in on self?
Are we being clothed with Christ, or are we trying to hide our nakedness with the things of this world?
Are we making the conscious decision to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit?
Paul instructs us in the beginning of Colossians Chapter 3: "You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God...
...so put to death the parts of your life that belong to the earth...
...Take off the old human nature with its practices and put on the new nature, which is renewed in knowledge by conforming to the image of the one who created it."
The key to new life in Christ to which we are so graciously called results in us becoming more and more like Jesus every day.
God created us in God's image.
The image of God in us has been wrecked by sin, but in Christ that image is being renewed.
In other words, "sanctification" or the Christian journey of "taking off the old nature" and "putting on the new" is, in practice, what it means to be becoming a genuine human being...
...or becoming the persons God created us to be in the first place!!!
God invites all of us to make a new commitment as we head into this new year, to grow closer to Christ and closer to one another.
Let's take a few minutes to make a new commitment to God for this new year.
What will you do differently to become more like Christ in this
New Year?
What will you do differently to become more involved and committed to Christ's Church in this coming New Year?
Let's pray silently together.
Amen.
