Colossians 3:12-17
Intro
As a preacher I have found that as I move through the program year (which for us runs from September through the beginning of June) I go through waves in terms of what is offered from this pulpit. There are stretches of time when it feels that I am absolutely plugged into what God would be saying through me. In the same breath, there are also periods when I wonder if what I’m saying amounts to anything more than 14 minutes of incoherent rambling.
When the latter begins to show up I know that it’s time to step away for a Sunday or two and recharge the proverbial batteries. As strange as it may sound, I have found that the time that I have spent on the youth mission trips, now the last four summers, to be one of the best ways to reenergize and refocus on what God would have be said through me. The reason that I say that this is strange is because you wouldn’t think that sleeping on the floor of a church or school, leading a group of (very active) teenagers, and working rather hard during the week could ever be classified as energizing. And I admit that when I get home one of the things that I look forward to is falling asleep in my own bed, but in terms of my mental outlook, it is renovated. It is made new.
‘Renovate: Jesus Makes New’ was the theme for this year’s mission trip and the scripture passage that we focused on is what we are about to hear from Colossians. In these verses Paul has given a verbal illustration of what the new life in Jesus is to look like. Simply put, what that life looks like is drastically different from the life that our society calls us dwell in. That may be a little scary, but in Christ all things are possible.
With such a recognition in place we then begin the process of following God’s Spirit to take off the clothing of the world, and instead put on the clothing that is of God. However, the question ultimately becomes, and this is something that everyone on the mission trip was asked to deal with, how do we take those initial steps of transformation, of renovation, and make them who we are for all our days? How do we move from just a temporary recharge to a permanent source of energy? The scripture reads this way.
Colossians 3:12-17
12
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."Renovate: Jesus Makes New"
As I mentioned last Sunday morning, the crew that I was on for the Mission Trip worked in a nursing home. For the most part, we all worked within the confines of the facility. However, on Thursday morning I helped some of the employees take seven of the residents to the local mall so that they might be able to do some shopping. All but one of the seven were in wheelchairs and I was assigned to help out a gentleman named Chip. Chip was a big guy in his 50’s. He was bald and wore the sort of sunglasses that have mirror lenses so I could never see his eyes. For the first hour and a half we exchanged some small talk but little else. I helped him when I could and stayed out of his way when he needed me to.
However, when we sat down for lunch he began to ask me questions about who I was, and why I was there. As soon as he found out I was a pastor his eyebrows shot up and he said, "God can change your life. I died. Twice. And when I came back my life was completely changed. It wasn’t ‘perfect’, but it was definitely changed." He talked about how before he ended up coding in the hospital he was someone who stayed to himself, really not caring about anyone else other than himself. But once he opened his eyes after being resuscitated he felt like a weight had been lifted and that God wanted him to live in such a way that he was able to help others as much as possible.
Chip has been in the nursing home for 14 months and has begun to live out this renovation that had been put upon his heart. But more than that, he’s beginning to think about how he will serve others once he gets done with his rehab. He looked at me, through his mirror sunglasses and said, "I think I could help others like you’ve helped me." I doubt that I will ever see Chip again, but my guess is that the days that he has been blessed with will be ones where he tries to wear the new clothes that are mentioned in our passage this morning.
Again the clothes that Paul says that we should put on are compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience and forgiveness that are all bound together by love. For Paul, the Christian life is not just saying the right things, its about putting those verbalizations into action in such a way that they become who you are. Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience and forgiveness wrapped up in love are not suggestions (here pick one of these and that will be fine) but instead identifiers that allow that world to know that you are a child of the living God. These identifiers allow "the peace of Christ rule in our hearts" and allow us to "be thankful" for all that we have, for all that we are. We need to put on these new clothes and allow Christ to begin to get us going in the right direction, begin to renovate us from the inside out.
However, as I’ve said in many a previous sermon, just because you get going in the right direction doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to have set backs where this renovated life has a tough time shining through. We’re human which means that we are flawed, that we are sinful. But what we need to always remember is that in Christ these setbacks do not have to be permanent regression.
A story about one of the Red Shirts (or camp staff) at this year’s Mission Trip. We gathered on Sunday night for our first program and one of the things that takes place in that the MC takes a few moments to introduce all of the support staff who help the camp to run. This year there were 4 such individuals. The MC stated right up front that these were the people you should go to with all of your questions, concerns and even complaints. To that last statement I heard over my right shoulder a mumbled, "well they better not come to me." I turned and looked and it was one of the Red Shirts. A few moments later she was introduced to the group as the local coordinator who help to set up all the sights, as well as secure our lodging at the church in which we were staying. Her name is Lorna Yohe.
The MC decided to have some fun with her last name and said, "Let’s welcome Lorna up her! Come on everybody! Yohe!" At which point a hundred or so individuals all joined in and screamed, "Yohe!" Over my shoulder I again her the mumbling voice, "I’m going to kill him" and the look that she gave the MC went she went up front was tough. The line, ‘if looks could kill’ comes to mind. Lorna then proceeded to ‘welcome’ us. The problem was it didn’t feel like a welcome. It felt like we were a bother to her. As I saw her throughout the next couple of days, she continued to give off that same sort of vibe.
On Wednesday she came by the nursing home that my crew was working at, and for some reason she was in a talkative mood, so I engaged her. I wanted to try and figure out why this person was working in an environment that she didn’t seem to be all that happy in. Her are some of the things that I learned.
She’s been in youth ministry for 15+ years
She had taken on the task of finding worksites and lodging for the 7 weeks that Week of Hope runs by herself. I thought that she was working for the York Council of Churches, or a particular church. She wasn’t. She had done it by herself for summers 2006, 2007, and 2008. By herself! I can’t imagine how many hours went into all of that planning.
(this is the big one that gets to her mood) the previous week had seen a church group come in that yipped and complained about everything. From the lodging, to the showers, to the work that was being done, to the food that was being served, if you could complain about it, they complained about.
As Lorna talked about the tough week that she had gone through she said, "when you run into people like that, it makes you want to quit. But when you have a group like we have this week where everyone is working so hard and so well with one another, it makes it all worth while". I swear if she wasn’t of Pennsylvania German descent, I think she would have shed a tear because of how blessed she felt. But she is, and she didn’t and she gathered herself together and asked if our crew would like to take a few pictures.
In that conversation, I was reminded that even the greatest of God’s saints had moments when they were anything but saintly. At the same time, they allowed their life that had been renovated through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to ultimately shine through and share the love of the Almighty. They refused to allow the world to swamp them and instead rose above it so that the world might know that there is a better way to live.
The same can be true in regards to each of us here today. God is calling us to be made new, to put on the new clothes of God. The challenge is not so much taking the first few steps toward living such a life, but instead continuing to take such steps when the path becomes difficult. That was the message that was really pushed with the kids. What we were saying to them is that renovating your life as God would have you do doesn’t mean squat if you only do it for the days of the mission trip. If you go back into your world and put on all of the old clothes, resume all of the activities and habits that you know are contrary to the way God would have you live, then it was just an empty gesture made to placate a particular environment.
A similar charge can be made to all of us who attend church. If the only place that you put on the clothes of God is when you are sitting within these walls, then what you are living is a not much more than a sham. We need to struggle, with the support of the Holy Spirit, to allow the renovation that is ongoing within us to shine through. We need to be the light of God in the midst of world that so desperately needs such a light.
Lorna Yohe put it this way when she said in her letter to the Mission Trippers, "as you return to your homes and communities, remember there are the same people in your communities who need the same attention you gave to those [here]." Our challenge is to live that out in our own community of faith. Don’t allow the good deeds of Christ to be limited to those within the doors of the church. Instead, wear the new clothing that you have been given and wear it out in the world of which you are a part.
In everything we do, in everything we are, let us live out how we have been made new in Jesus; let us live out how all can be renovated in the mercy and love of God Almighty.
After Sermon Prayer
Holy God, in the sacrificial love of Christ, we have been made new. We pray that we might be able to take these new clothes that You have given us and strengthen us in such a way that we are able to wear them each and every day so that Your love might be felt by all those who need to experience it in the world. Lord, hear our prayer. Amen.