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A message by
Rev. F. David Throop, Pastor
July 13, 2008 Scripture: Colossians 3:12-17
Please pray with me:
Loving and gracious God, help us always to understand that being a follower of Christ should make a difference not only in us but also for those around us. As we have been raised with Christ, help each one of us to live lives which truly reflect Christ, in whose strong name we pray. Amen.
Last week during these moments, we talked about the “Garbage Barge of the East,” if you will recall. It was a barge laden with some 3,186 tons of raw garbage from Queens, New York, and it’s intended drop off point was the garbage dump landfill at Islip on Long Island. However, due to the fact that the garbage dump was now full, the garbage barge was turned away, thus beginning what turned out to be a five-month, 6,000 mile journey covering most of our country’s eastern and then gulf coastal states, including as well the countries of Mexico and Honduras and the Bahamas as it attempted to find a place, any place, to dump its load of garbage. Due to improper permits, along with the simple refusal for these seven states and three countries to refuse this boat load of garbage, the “Garbage Barge of the East” as it became known, eventually returned to Long Island, still laden with its load of 3,186 tons of garbage, garbage which was eventually incinerated and then deposited at its original point of destination — the Islip, Long Island dump. We noted that what had been generated in the Big Apple finally returned home.
Using this as an analogy for the walk of a follower of Christ, it’s not supposed to be like this, as we shared last week. Garbage is not supposed to return home to its place of origin. That which we have discarded is supposed to remain that way — discarded and never to be seen or dealt with again. Scripture puts it like this: If anyone is in Christ Jesus, that person becomes a new creation; the past is finished and gone, and everything has become fresh and new.
To be a follower of Christ is to become a new creation. To be a follower of Christ is to take on not only a new name but a new nature. To be a follower of Christ is to begin living a life which is newly centered in the ways of Christ, and not the ways of the world. In other words, becoming a Christian should result in an enormous difference from who we once were. For as I have said untold numbers of times throughout my ministry, a Christianity in which we remain pretty much the same as who we were before is a most imperfect Christianity. In Jesus Christ, we are to become new creations.
And so, as we continue in this passage from last week, Paul now reminds us that since we have been raised with Christ, we are to put to death whatever belongs to our more earthly nature, and having put to death our earthly nature, we are to begin clothing ourselves in a more Christ-like nature. Well now, is this the difference people around us are noticing? Can people look at you and me and also see something of our Lord? Does your character and mine truly reflect Jesus Christ?
Not very long ago, Mary and I were driving one of our freeways and as we were driving along, I started to go around a large and long semi-trailer truck. In doing so, I noticed a carefully prepared message on the rear door of the trailer. The message read: "I am a professional driver. My conduct and driving skill are on display. If you have comments, call PST Vans Safety Department, Salt Lake City, Utah." Interesting, I thought.
And then, just a few moments later, I passed another semi, and the message on its rear door read: "Our drivers make the difference." — Highway Carrier Corporation.
And then, I started to read signs on a great many more semi's. Another had this message: "Safety is my goal. How am I doing?" — Baldwin Carriers. Finally, I read this message on a fourth semi: "We hire only safe and courteous drivers."
Having read this passage from Colossians about clothing ourselves with Christ, let me ask, what kind of message would you and I be willing to wear that speaks of our relationship with Christ and how we conduct our lives? What would your thoughts be if, following this time of worship, we invited you to take a bumper sticker which we had prepared prior to worship, a bumper sticker which you could place on the rear bumper of your car or pickup, and which reads, "I am a Christian. My conduct, my driving, and my character are on display. If you have any comments, please call the Placentia Presbyterian Church, Placentia, CA." Would you be willing to do this, to place this message on the back of your car? Or, would you prefer to take this sticker: "Our members make the difference" — Placentia Presbyterian Church, Placentia, CA.” Or, would you choose this one: "Serving Christ is my goal. How am I doing?"
Friends, the reality is, that whether we choose so or not, we do wear such messages. Within our homes and schools and in our places of work, and yes, everywhere we drive, we are called to wear the message and character of Christ. We are called to wear it because in our baptism and in our membership within the church, the living body of Christ, we have made a decision to discard the ways of the world and reflect the character of Jesus Christ. In other words, the stuff of last week — “sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language, and lying” are no longer to have any place in our lives. These things, scripture reminds us, are to be put to death, dropped off at the local garbage dump, and never to return.
And in their place, as we read a few moments ago, we are to clothe ourselves with something entirely different. We are to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness. We are to put on the love of Christ as well as the peace of Christ. And in all of this, we are finally to do all things in the name of Christ giving thanks to God the Father through him.
In other words, we are being asked to change or to rework our clothing, to discard our former clothing, clothing of the world, and to put on the clothing of Christ. So, as followers of Christ, just how much attention do you and I pay to the spiritual clothing we wear?
Years ago, long before I met Mary, I used to pay very little attention to particular colors when I would by clothing for myself. If it fit, if it felt comfortable, if the price was right, and if the general color seemed okay, I bought it. And so, without really thinking, I wore the colors of yellow and orange and even brown. A color is a color is a color, I reasoned. In fact, when Mary and I began dating, I had this really neat sort of brownish yellowish plaid suit which I liked very much! I was one sharp dresser! Got the picture? Oh my!
And then one day early on in our marriage, Mary introduced me to a whole new way of looking at colors, at least in terms of clothing. She had attended one of those color seminars, based on the book, Color Me Beautiful, by Carol Jackson. And the premise of the book and seminar is that everyone's coloring can be identified with a season of the year — spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The author maintained that if you dress according to your "season," you will not only look younger, but you will feel better about yourself, because you are wearing something which compliments and matches your "season."
What I learned was I am a "winter," and the most inappropriate colors for a "winter" person were exactly the colors I had been wearing — yellows, oranges, browns, and avocado greens. These colors are for "spring” or “autumn." I had no idea that during all those years, prior to meeting Mary, the colors I had been wearing were "working against me."
Using this analogy only to a partial extent, Paul tells us that the "colors" for a Christian are "compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, love, peace, and gratitude." And, to clothe ourselves with "sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips, lying to each other" is not only to dress inappropriately, but it is especially to dress destructively. “If you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts, your very lives, on those things which are of Christ. For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."
And so, dear Christian friends, as those who have been called to be followers of Jesus Christ, who does our character reflect? Do our lives reflect the ways of the world, or do our lives truly reflect the way of Christ?
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. |
