Sermon preached by the Rector on 31 December 2006Epistle: Colossians 3:12-17
Gospel: Luke 2:41-52
How have you been getting on in the post-Christmas sales? Perhaps you've been avoiding the high street like the plague. Or maybe you leapt in and managed to discover some really great bargains. Of course, what many people concentrate on at this time of year is discovering what there is to be had in the clothing departments. Changes to the wardrobe are the order of the day. Out with the old and in with the new is not just about the change from one year to the next...
What we wear on the outside is important. But what we wear on the *inside* is even more important. And it's what we choose from our inner wardrobe that interests Paul as he writes to his Christian friends in Colosse. At the start of every day, we make decisions about what to wear in order to clothe our physical bodies. So here's some advice from that well-known expert on inner fashion, the apostle Paul. These are his suggestions about what we are to resolve to wear on the inside.
Here's what he says in verses 12-14 of chapter 3: '...clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.'
We discover, first of all, that the inner wardrobe Paul is thinking about concerns our relationships with each other. Paul is urging us to pick the clothes that will really help us to blend in with one another. He's inviting us to choose designer labels that come from the Designer with a capital 'D'. Notice how he takes it for granted that we won't be able to avoid clashes altogether. I think I find that rather encouraging, don't you? There will always be differences between us - and don't we know it! What matters is not the fact that we've got them but how we deal with them. And the best way of dealing with them, the best way of relating to one another, is for each of us to take responsibility for what we wear on the inside and to choose carefully what decide to put on. Paul recommends these five particular colours for the basic elements of our inner wardrobe: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. These are what we need in order to get on with each other in the way that God intends us to.
And if we want to know what they look like, we have only to think about Jesus. This is what Paul comes to a little later on in verse 17: '...whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus'. In other words, as far as you can, relate to others as he would. Look to him as your model. 'What would Jesus do?'
Compassion is about allowing ourselves to be sensitive to the needs and sorrows of other people rather than looking the other way and refusing to get involved. Kindness was delightfully described by Lord Hailsham as 'the art of being a dear'. It's the attitude that Jesus showed to other people, even when it cost him something to do so. Humility is the attitude that Jesus showed to himself - refusing insist on his rights but willingly giving them up for the sake of others. Gentleness is about the way we approach other people - with gentleness rather than being rude or arrogant. Patience is about the way we react to other people - with patience rather than becoming resentful or getting angry with them.
It's about giving one another space rather than insisting that they meet our expectations. It's about going the extra mile rather than doggedly sticking within the letter of the law. It's about thinking the best of one another rather than assuming the worst. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Five colours worth going to town on...
Paul goes on to specify more of what he means in verse 13: 'Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.'
Bear with each other. Recognise - and even rejoice in - the fact that God collects fatheads and brings all of us together in the family of his church. As various people have been credited with saying, 'If you find the perfect church, whatever you do, don't join it - you'll only spoil it...!' Put up with one another. Make up your mind not to be irritated by odd or difficult people - which will, hopefully, give them less opportunity to be irritated by you. Let people be themselves. Beware of in any way rejecting those whom God accepts.
Bear with each other. And then - forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Again, Paul seems to take it for granted that there will be grievances. Whether deliberately or accidentally, most of us will, sooner or later, manage to upset someone else within the church family. Some of us seem to make it an art form! But Paul is very clear about what the offended party should do. Forgive. But it really hurt me. Forgive. But I'm sure I was right. Forgive. But they need to learn a lesson. Forgive. But... No buts. Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.
As Paul continues at the end of verse 13: 'Forgive as the Lord forgave you.' There are strong echoes here of the story Jesus told about a rather nasty piece of work in Matthew 18:23-35. Remember? A servant who has just been completely forgiven an enormous debt - millions of pounds - by his master goes out and meets a fellow servant who owes him just a fiver or so. It's a story which Jesus tells in really bold colours. Listen! '...He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. His fellow-servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow-servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.'
Something has gone really wrong if I who have been forgiven refuse to pass that forgiveness on to someone else. And, anyway, who am I to refuse forgiveness to someone whom Christ himself has chosen to forgive? So, no ifs or buts, 'Forgive as the Lord forgave you.'
It's all summed up in verse 14. In a word, love. '...over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity'.
Now this is all very well. But it does beg a couple of questions. Why? And how?
First, why? Why should I set out to organise my inner wardrobe in this way?
The answer comes at the beginning of verse 12, where Paul spells out exactly who it is that he is writing to. 'Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves...' in this way. The reason we should select this particular set of inner clothes is that they are what God himself has chosen for us. The God who intends us to share his very own nature, that is, to be 'holy'. The God who 'dearly loves us' and so wants only the very best for us - as we must surely know from all the mamazing gifts that he has given us, supremely, of course, the gift of his Son. What Paul goes on to describe is, as it were, the 'uniform' or the 'livery' that marks out those whom God has chosen as his very own. To wear anything else sells us short - and sells God short too.
Secondly, how? How can I set out to organise my inner wardrobe in this way?
There are several strands here.
First, the main thing that liberates us to embrace these virtues of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, topped off with forgiveness and summed up in love, is to recognise the extent to which we ourselves are on the receiving end of them. And isn't that the truth? For who demonstrates these qualities to us more fully than God himself? The more we catch hold of how 'dearly loved' we really are, the more we are able to pass that love on to others. Imagine being invited to put something in yet another charity collecting tin. And then think how much easier that would be if you'd just found a fifty pound note! As the apostle John puts it, 'We love because he first loved us' (1 John 4:19).
Secondly, glancing at what Paul writes a little earlier, we see that there are some things to take off as well as some things to put on. Verses 5-10 set out a catalogue of things for us to throw out, things which just don't go with the inner outfit that God intends us to wear: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, bad language and lying. The simple truth is that hanging on to the bad will inevitably get in the way of our efforts to put on the good.
Thirdly, notice how Paul writes about the 'peace of Christ' in verse 15 and the 'word of Christ' in verse 16 and the influence they are to have on our spiritual wardrobe. Rather like Trinny and Susannah or whichever other arbiters of taste and fashion we seek to follow! The purpose of the peace of Christ and the word of Christ here is to guide us in what to wear. What do my attitudes and actions do to the 'peace of Christ' in our community? Do I build it up or do I undermine it? And what impact does the 'word of Christ' have on my choices in life? In what ways might my attitudes and actions need to be reshaped by what I'm taught from God's word?
As we prepare to enter a new year, the sales are still on and there are still bargains to be had. But even more important than what we wear on the outside is what we choose to wear on the inside. In the light of what Paul says here, let's aim to choose well and wisely. For the sake of Jesus and his church. Amen.
© 2006 David Stone |
