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A message by
Rev. F. David Throop, Pastor
June 8, 2008 Scripture: Colossians 2:6-23 Please pray with me:Loving and gracious God, as we have received Christ Jesus as Lord, help us to do as scripture reminds us — help us to live in him. Free us from the ways of the world so that our lives will truly grow in Jesus Christ, in whose strong name we pray. Amen.
When our family moved here a number of years ago, I was introduced to a term which has been helpful to remember, at least periodically. While I wish I had learned the term in seminary, it was about seven years following my graduation that someone told me about the “K.I.S.S.” method or system of doing things. K.I.S.S. is an acronym, and as some or many of you know, it stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” The scripture in front of us is fairly lengthy, far too lengthy to detail in the very limited time in front of us. And so, as I have shared on recent Sundays, recognizing that most of these words will have been long forgotten by the time you return home this noon, or maybe even get to your cars (!), I will employ the K.I.S.S. method. I am going to “keep it simple,” not because any of us are stupid, but because sometimes, simpler is better, and always because our lives matter deeply.
Paul writes in very plain and simple language: “As you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him. Keep your life rooted in him. Keep your life built up in him. Keep your faith strengthened in him as you have been taught. And in all of this, continue to overflow with thankfulness.”Even though we have thirteen letters which Paul wrote, I think we could rightly say that the message in each of his thirteen letters is what we have just shared from his letter here to the Colossians: “As you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him. Keep your life rooted in him. Keep your life built up in him. Keep your faith strengthened in him as you have been taught. And in all of this, may your life overflow with thankfulness.” The question for us is this: Are we? Are we continuing to live in him? Are we keeping our lives rooted in him? Are we keeping our lives built up in him? Are we keeping our faith strengthened in him? And are we simply spilling over with thanksgiving? If all of these things are happening, then growth is happening as well. Growth. Several years ago, during the fall of 2002, I finally had the concurrence of the three sets of neighbors whose properties adjoin ours, to go halvsies on putting in a new block wall. What we needed to replace was a very long stretch of thirty-five year old wooden grape stake fencing which was really nothing less than termites holding hands, if you know what I mean. Once we did this, once the new wall was in place, I was finally able to do some basic landscaping in our backyard. For up to this point in history, there was only a very small grapefruit tree in that part of the yard and nothing else — no grass, no bushes, not much of anything.And so, once the new wall was in, I was inspired to do a major overhaul of the entire backyard. Every Monday for many weeks I was out in the yard redoing just about everything. And even if I do say so myself, we finally have a beautiful yard, and one which is especially great for the grandkids.We had no trees at the time, other than the one small grapefruit tree. And so one of the trees I bought and planted was a Liquid Amber. The tree was very small at the time. It was in a small wooden crate of sorts, and even had a wooden pole fastened to it to keep it propped up. I dug a hole, put in the proper soil amendment and so forth, did everything the tree people told me to do, and then I planted the tree, wooden stake and all. Around these parts when you plant a tree in the fall, the last thing you want, as you all know, is a strong Santa Ana wind taking your newly planted tree into your neighbor’s yard!Thankfully, we had no strong Santa Ana winds that fall, and my careful work of preparing the ground and nurturing this new little tree was beginning to pay off. I wish you could see this tree today. It is absolutely gorgeous. Three to four times its size when I bought it. Strong root system. Strong branches with beautiful leaves. And while not impossible, I think it would take a really strong wind to topple it over now. In part, I think this is the picture Paul draws for us — Christians who were taught and prepared early on, but who are now growing in Christ every day, living in Christ every day, keeping lives rooted in Christ every day, keeping lives built up in Christ every day, and keeping faith strengthened in Christ every day just as we have been taught. What a great picture of the way the church and the larger Christian community ought to be! And then, in much of the rest of what we shared a moment ago, Paul goes on to describe what we might put under the labels of liberation and limitation. That is, in our Christian walk, Paul describes the need to be liberated from our former ways of living, our former systems of obedience, and our former ways of doing things, and now into the ways of Christ. You see, part of the problem in this ancient city of Colossae was that it had a rather sizeable population of those who still insisted on the outward obedience to all of their now religiously antiquated laws. And to complicate matters a bit further, the city of Colossae was becoming swept up in what we, today, would call lots of “new age” stuff. People were now challenging the roots of creationism, challenging the humanity of Christ, and getting heavily involved in such things as astrology and related kinds of issues. In other words, as the Colossians began their day, for many of them it was far more important to know the dictates of their astrological sign for that day than to know that God had created their lives and had given them still another day in which to enjoy God’s goodness. It would be a bit interesting to learn what percentage of our own population goes to their daily horoscope first as compared to how many go to the word of God first. Many of the Colossians not only began their day with reading their horoscope but continued their day living in what has been described as a demon-haunted universe, having been taught that Jesus Christ, whoever he was, was far from adequate to combat and thus defeat the demonic powers surrounding them. We are told that many of the Colossian residents got so caught up in this new age stuff that they changed many of the priorities of their lives. And so, they began to develop special festivals along with all the special meals and exotic foods that went along with their festivals. Some of these festivals, as we just read, were centered around worshipping the moon and worshipping even angels. And this, in large part, is what Paul is writing about here — the need to cut oneself free from former beliefs, former ways of doing things, former allegiances tied in so strongly to the strange ways the rest of the world was doing things, and to bind oneself more closely toward living in Christ. Liberation and limitation: liberation in Christ which frees us from the limiting ways of the world. In the world, there are so many things wanting to embrace us, things from which we need liberation. And these days, is not greed almost at the top of the list? Let’s talk about greed for just a brief moment. Greed has been quite a topic of discussion these days in many circles as our entire world, for example, has been dealing with massive, unheard of rises in oil prices, with such increases impacting and in many cases absolutely devastating almost everyone in sight, except, that is, for the oil companies themselves. Not to sound simplistic, but the cost of just about everything has gotten much more expensive due in large part to the rise in oil prices. The cost of transporting goods has risen dramatically because of this. The cost of groceries are much more expensive than just two or three months ago. The cost of most consumer goods has increased, in large part because of accelerated fuel costs, most of which, we all know, is somehow related to human greed. And the cost of travel has become almost nightmarish. Due to the now out of control rise in oil, one airline company, American Airlines, has increased its airfares twenty times in the past month and a half! I am thankful that I purchased our summer plane tickets, as well as our November plane tickets back in January. All along the line, good old fashioned greed has continued to rear its ugly head, and the same panic buying and selling which decimated the housing market not long ago now has a stranglehold on the energy market.I remember part way into the housing market mess there was a home for sale in our neighborhood. It was an older, very average, “run of the mill” kind of home, nothing fancy, nothing which would cause anyone to do a double take look if you were driving by. The house went on the market, and someone came along and bought it. No big deal. But, what became a big deal, as was shared with me, was that the same person who bought that house turned right around, put that same house back on the market, and sold it for a $100,000 net profit within the same week! Now, multiply that kind of behavior and you’ve got a housing market completely out of control, a market fueled not by necessity of needing a place to live, but fueled mostly by panic and a heck of a lot of greed. And greed spills over into the church in so many different ways. I remember something that happened in the church I pastored back in Iowa many years ago. One of the annual fund raisers for the women’s organization in that church was a rummage sale, and all proceeds, as I recall, went to help out a variety of their mission projects. And you certainly know how a rummage sale works. We’re not talking top-of-the-line stuff. We’re talkin’ bottom-of-the-line basement and garage stuff that was on the way to the back alley or maybe the town dump, but then the thought arose, “Wait, maybe someone would like to buy this stuff. I’ll take it to the church rummage sale. After all, ‘one person’s junk is another person’s treasure.’” And I guess there’s nothing wrong with that.Well, that particular year, one of the church members dropped her rummage stuff off at the church on the morning the women’s association was pricing things and getting everything ready for the next day when the rummage sale would take place. And having dropped off her stuff, as she was leaving, she said to one of the women who was pricing things, “By the way, after you’ve priced what I have brought here, would you please add it up, and then would you have the church subtract that amount from my church pledge.” The person who was given this request right away came to me — as the pastor — and asked what they should do. I told her to do absolutely nothing. The junk someone drops off to be sold at a rummage sale has absolutely no relationship to a church pledge. You see, greed operates not only outside the church, but well within the church. And I, along with every pastor I know of, could write volumes and volumes and volumes of incidences of greed within the church. And I do mean, volumes. And those volumes would pertain not only to a church back in Iowa!A nd the ways of the world don’t stop here. What about the score cards we keep? I’m not speaking of golf score cards or baseball score cards. I’m speaking of human behavior score cards. We are all quite adept in keeping score cards, and some are very adept in keeping these score cards up to date. “I will never in a million years forgive that person for what they said to me back on February 22, 1989!” “I’ll never forget the way I was snubbed at that dinner party at the home of so-and-so during the middle of August of 1971!” “I will never forget the way I was treated by those no good so-and-so neighbors who used to live next door to us from December of 1981 to April of 1986!” Got the picture? It’s called “score keeping.” And lots and lots of people are pretty good at it. Paul writes, “As you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him — not in the ways of the world. Keep your life rooted in him — not in the ways of the world. Keep your life built up in him — not in the ways of the world. Keep your faith strengthened in him as you have been taught — and not in the ways of the world. And in all of this, continue to overflow with thankfulness” — something the world knows very little about.Liberation and limitation: liberation in Christ freeing us from the limitations of the world. A number of years ago, someone told me of an experiment of sorts carried out involving small children on an open playground. The experiment was quite simple. Those who were conducting this experiment wanted to find out the difference a fence would make in how small children behaved and played. And so, those in charge, and without any risk to the children involved, placed a gathering of small children in a large, open, but relatively empty play area. There was no fencing anywhere near this play area. They did the same thing with a different group of children, except with these children, the difference was a fence along the outside perimeters of the open play area. And this is what was observed: the children who were placed in the area with no fencing stayed very close together, huddled together more or less smack dab in the middle of the play area. They had this large open area in which to play, but without fencing, they simply did not want much physical distance to separate them from each other.As for the children who were placed in a play area whose outer perimeter was a fence, well, immediately the children scattered. They ran about and played much more openly, knowing that there was a fence which would somehow provide them with some sense of security and protection. Bottom line? Without borders, the world can be a frightening place, at least for small children. Without a perimeter, their sense of security is threatened. As for the children in a wide open play area, fences are actually very liberating. Fences do not restrict behavior, but if anything, they will provide an arena which will encourage even greater freedoms. Living in Jesus Christ does not place limitations around us as much as it provides us certain freedoms to enjoy life in a way the world has yet to discover. When Paul writes about our new freedoms in Christ, he reminds us that with a life surrounded by Christ, we can be liberated from the ways of the world. As we close, did any of you see the horrifying piece of news on Friday of this past week showing an elderly man being struck down by a hit and run driver in Hartford, Connecticut? Most of the news stations and online internet services showed the entire world what a security camera recorded as 78 year old Angel Torres, a resident of Hartford, was crossing the street in his working class neighborhood late in the afternoon, June 5th, just three days ago. As Mr. Torres was only part way across the street, two cars suddenly came along, out of their lane and on the wrong side of the street, one car apparently chasing the other. And as both cars veered over the center line, the second car struck Mr. Torres, flipping him almost like a rag doll through the air. His body hit the street hard, and he lay there motionless.And what the camera recorded has now appalled an entire world: no one standing close by, walking or even driving by, did much of anything. The camera showed that as 78 year old Angel Torres lay unconscious in the middle of the street, the people simply continued doing whatever they were already doing. Yes, someone called 9-1-1, but from what the security camera recorded, no one entered the street to stop traffic, and no one immediately came to the side of Mr. Torres to see if there was any help they could render until paramedics arrived. Everyone simply kept doing whatever else it was they were doing. Even a sudden human emergency seemed to make no difference. You have heard me say it a hundred times or more — a Christianity in which we remain pretty much the same as we were before we became a Christian is a most imperfect Christianity. Using this event as a teachable moment for us, our union in Christ should make every bit of difference in our lives both in terms of who we are and how we should behave from here on out. That is, if greed ruled our lives before, now, in Christ, greed has absolutely no place. If callousness to human need ruled our lives before, as those who now live in Jesus Christ, we should be so very quick to respond to such conditions human need.“For as you have now received Christ Jesus as Lord, live in him. Keep your life rooted in him. Keep your life built up in him, and keep your faith strengthened in him as you have been taught. And in all things, continue to overflow with thankfulness.” Copyright © 2008 by Rev. F. David Throop. All rights reserved. No part of this sermon may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except in the case of a very brief quotation, which will acknowledge the source. |
