NEW YEAR, OLD CHALLENGE
Mike Fargo
(Colossians 3:12-17, Valley Covenant)
December 30, 2018
Today is the Sunday before New Year’s Day, when preachers all over the world are supposed to encourage their congregants to consider where they might make improvements next year. We usually call them “New Year’s resolutions,” although my wife prefers to pronounce that word “resolutions,” since (if we are honest) most of our resolutions are merely recycled attempts to improve in areas we chronically struggle with. For example, do you struggle from a bad temper? Well, there’s certainly nothing wrong in making a resolution to try and control it in 2019, but I seriously doubt if will cease to be a problem when 2020 arrives.
But for today, I want to bring some focus to all of this by helping you discern what you might possibly focus on. I’m always a little surprised when I ask Christian friends what their New Year’s focus is going to be, and they tell me it’s to eat better or exercise more or get more sleep. Those are all good things, but I still find myself asking, “Really? Is that the best we can come up with? Is that really what God wants you to focus on in 2019?”
Well, whenever I’m invited to preach down here in Eugene, I usually select a text from the lectionary, and fortunately, the epistle reading for today gives us one of the best platforms I know for preparing ourselves for the challenges that will certainly exist in 2019. The text comes in the last half of Paul’s Colossian epistle. In the first half Paul has hammered on the fact that only through Christ and in Christ—only by becoming deeply connected to the truth and grace that is in Christ—can we even begin the journey toward becoming more and more like Christ.
And so, having assured us of God’s mercy and grace through Christ, Paul now spells out in very practical terms what our new life in Christ should look like. In the first eleven verses of chapter 3, Paul describes the bad behavior that we all manifest from time to time, and which we all need to “put to death,” to use Paul’s own words. But beginning with verse 12, he begins to describe the positive behavior that should replace it. In fact, verse 12 serves as a kind of umbrella for this whole section. Let me read it again:
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Now all of these words have very similar connotations, don’t they? In fact, in the underlying Greek a few of them are virtual synonyms. After all, what is the precise difference between compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience? Even the word translated here as “humility” is often translated as “gentleness” elsewhere in the New Testament. Taken together, these words describe someone whose every action is characterized by a tender sensitivity to others—someone who weeps when they see others weeping, someone who sees a need and instantly moves to help, who patiently endures the failings of other people in the hope of restoring them instead of retaliating or judging them. In short, they are people who have begun to live outside their own narrow, ego-centered world. I love how this is seen in the life of Christ from Matthew’s gospel, when he writes:
…the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. …This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out…
That describes the profound sensitivity and gentleness of Jesus, who could so move among people that even the most fragile reed would not be harmed. In one of his self-descriptions, he used these words:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
This is how Jesus navigated life, and so should we. Indeed, there is no other approach to life that pleases God more than the way of humility, compassion, and gentleness. But built into these words, of course, is something very difficult for all of us to embrace fully. I am referring to what Paul endorses next:
Bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgives you.
Now if you’ve been a follower of Christ for any length of time, you’ve likely heard this admonition a thousand times. You hear it everywhere in the gospels. In the Sermon on the Mount, when Christ gives us the Lord’s Prayer, we are told to pray, “…forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” And if that wasn’t clear enough, right after giving us this prayer, Jesus circles back and adds these sobering words:
“…if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
I realize that’s a very high standard, but let’s pause and think about forgiveness in general for a minute. Imagine that you lose your temper with someone at work. Later you go to that person and sincerely apologize, and your co-worker genuinely accepts your apology. All is good, right? The two of you have been reconciled. So, why does Jesus tell us in the Lord’s Prayer that we should confess that same sin to God and ask for his forgiveness? I didn’t express my anger toward God, and all is now good between me and my co-worker, so why does God even care?
The answer is simple. The person most injured in my anger toward my co-worker is God himself. This is God’s world that we live in. He created it, and he rules it. It’s a world infused with God’s own character—his moral truth as well as his justice. Every hurt, every dishonesty, every twisted desire of ours is a direct abuse of God. This explains one of the most amazing confessions of sin to be found anywhere in scripture, in Psalm 51, after David has committed adultery with Bathsheba, had her husband murdered to cover his sin up, and then lied to the whole nation about it. In his great confession to God he says this, “Against you, and you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” Yes, David grievously sinned against Bathsheba, her husband, and the whole nation, but ultimately his sin was primarily a complete rejection and abuse of God.
This is why we should confess all our sins to God, but do so in the knowledge that God is not only a righteous and holy God, but a merciful one. After his resurrection, when Jesus instructed his disciples as to their central message, he uses these words, “This is what is written: the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name.” This is our gospel, our core message. Christianity is nothing if it’s not a message of God’s gracious forgiveness, made possible by the atoning death and resurrection of Christ.
All of this is a long-winded way to lead us back to our passage in Colossians, where Paul tells us that we should be always forgive one another. In light of what I’ve just shared about forgiveness in general, what are we really saying when we claim that we simply cannot forgive a particular person when they’ve deeply injured us? First, we are actually saying that the injury we’ve sustained is greater than what God himself has sustained, and therefore we are not bound by God’s example. We are essentially saying, “Well, let God forgive this person if he wants to, but I simply can’t.”
But in doing so, we are also saying something much more dangerous. We are also saying that when the chips are down, the kind of universe we actually prefer is one where people get what they deserve right now, where the people who injure me get punished. And if that is the universe that we actually prefer, then that is the kind of world we will receive from God. We will be cut off from his forgiveness. Not a happy thought. So we all need to be vigilant in our inner attitudes toward others. If we nurse an injury, or cultivate a negative attitude toward someone for any reason, we need to do some serious soul-searching, for that grudge or grievance or bitterness can destroy our souls.
But in order to do away with an unforgiving attitude it must be replaced by something better, and for Christians that “something better” is love, as we read next in verse 14 of Colossians 3:
And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Christian love is neither sentimental, romantic, or subject to the whims of desire. Jesus defined the love he desired as follows: “This is love, that you lay down your life for one another.” In other words, Christian love is a choice and not an emotion. Indeed, Christ teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to love even our enemies, to do good to those that injure and revile us. Yes, that’s often a difficult challenge, I admit, but Christ also goes on in that sermon to give us the supreme example of such love, which is God himself.
People spit in God’s face every day and yet he doesn’t strike them dead but still provides for them. Yes, there is a day of reckoning for all of us, but that is the privilege God alone has the right and capacity to exercise justly. Here, in this world, we are to treat people as God does. And Jesus himself supremely modeled this by dying for the sins of the entire world, even for those who were still hostile to him.
But even beyond our individual behavior, Paul in Colossians wants to help us as a community to learn how to live together, and so he continues in verse 15:
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
This verse is referring to more than our individual inner peace. Christ certainly brings that. But when he tells us to let this peace “rule” our hearts, he uses a word that in the Greek world referred to someone who adjudicated athletic events, much like an umpire at a baseball game. Thus he is referring to peace within the community, which is why Paul immediately goes on to remind us that we are members of one body. It is our corporate peace between each other he is concerned about.
In other words, peace within the community of Christ can only happen when we allow Christ himself to rule us, guide us, and transform us, instead of allowing our own egos and agendas to seek control over others. Christian communities are too often controlled by the most outspoken, aggressive, or dominant personalities. But seldom do such communities experience the true peace of Christ. Remember the famous beatitude that Jesus gives in his Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of God.” Such people don’t seek to control but to create peace wherever they go, which leads Paul into verse 16:
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
If Christ himself is to rule and guide us, then it’s the message about Christ that must be our central focus. Christianity is primarily a message about a specific person—Christ. It’s a message that includes all that he did and taught, and how that draws us into a living relationship with God. It’s a message we need to cultivate among ourselves through our teaching, behavior, worship, and prayers. I love the rich variety of means Paul lists here—teach, admonish, with wisdom, through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. What a lovely picture of a community that is joined together at all levels around Christ. And to emphasize this even more, Paul concludes in verse 17:
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Taken together, verses 15, 16, and now 17 remind us that Christ must be at the center of everything we do. In 15 is was the peace of Christ that must rule or arbitrate between us. In 16 it was the message of Christ that must shape how we build one another up. And now in 17 it’s the name of Christ that must govern all that we do—both word and deed. And by “name” Paul is using a common semitic idiom. A person’s name represented the whole person, and so to do something in someone’s name meant that you were acting and speaking exactly as that person would. It also means experiencing the deep gratitude toward God for all he has given us in Christ.
But let me ask you, looking at our text today as a whole, is Paul telling us that living life like this will result in 2019 becoming a smooth, peaceful, idyllic year free from conflict and suffering? No, it does not. Paul is telling us how to find peace in the midst of all the normal trials and temptations that will certainly come our way next year. Paul isn’t telling us how to avoid hard times but how to live in spite of difficult situations.
But notice that very last phrase of Paul’s: …giving thanks to God the Father through him. In verse 16 Paul says that the peace of Christ creates “gratitude in our hearts” toward God. And now in 17 we are told that “in everything we do” we should give thanks to God. Gratitude is one of the clearest signs of a mature faith. Such people can give thanks in everything— good times and bad times—for they know that even the painful events in life do not happen without God’s knowledge. In his mysterious sovereignty, even the hard times that will visit all of us next year can be used by God to accomplish things we can’t even imagine.
And so there you have it—our whole text today is our essential challenge for the new year. We are called to be a people of compassion and gentleness, whose lives are marked by forgiveness and active love, who are led by Christ’s peace and who cultivate that same peace in others through a whole variety of spiritual encouragements. And all of this is motivated by our deep gratitude and love for all that God has given us in Christ.
This is a tall order, I realize. But if this is your genuine desire, then God is already at work in you, transforming you by his gracious, holy Spirit. And besides, what’s our alternative? Living like the world does, in its self-centered, competitive, unforgiving, and combative way? No, we choose the way of Christ, the way that is a taste of heaven now, and of true life in the world to come.
Amen.