April 27, 2008

"Celebrating Jesus' Ascension and Ours"

Colossians 3: 1- 4

When I was in 5^th and 6^th grade, like many boys my age, I wanted to excel in some sport.  I was raised to believe that I could do anything I put my mind to.  My experience proved otherwise.  As far as most sports were concerned I found that I needed to put more effort than I was willing to just be average-or slightly below average. I remember overhearing my dad ask my uncle who was a medical doctor about why I was so clumsy when it came to sports.  My uncle said, "There's no reason Dave can't do it; he just needs to try harder.  So dad would spend hours throwing baseballs to me and running after my attempts to throw them back.  My efforts in other sports were similarly rewarded.  No matter how many hours I worked at it, progress was slow or non-existent.   In the end I grew up hating my physical education classes with a passion; I did as little sports as I could get away with; and I decided to focus on other pursuits.  Yet, my failure in this area really did hurt, especially when I thought of my uncle's comments, "There's no reason Dave can't do it."

Undoubtedly, all of us have struggled with how to deal with failure.  And probably failure is most painful when we know that we should be doing better.   That's certainly is true when it comes to living the Christian life.  We know we should be living a better life, but we don't.  We know that God gives us strength to resist Satan, but often we don't resist him.  We know that Jesus saved us to be light in a dark world, but more times than we would care to admit we are as dark as the world around us.  Such thoughts came to my mind when I read the first few verses of our scripture lesson for this morning.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Now maybe on first reading, you didn't see the conflict I did between what we were saved to be and what we are.  But, let's dig into these verses a bit.  Look again at the first words of the first verse: Since you have been raised with Christ.   These words directly refer to the point was made in chapter 2, verses 11- 12,

In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead

Circumcision had to do with something being cut off.  What does verse 11 say was cut off.  Did you see it?   Then answer is "our sinful nature."  The very sinful nature we inherited from our first parents Adam and Eve.  When they rebelled against God their sin and guilt was passed on to their children and to every generation.  Paul puts it this way,

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-

Because Adam sinned his children were sinners and their children were sinners and so and so on.  Because of that fact our parents were sinners and so are we.  And because we were born sinners-in other words, because it is our nature to sin, we go out and commit sin.  We do the awful things that hurt others and make us ashamed.

But, Colossians says that our sinful nature has been cut off from us, if we belong to Jesus by faith and are baptized.  And, why is that?  It is because that old sinful nature that makes us sin was crucified with Jesus and was buried with him in tomb.  And a new self-- a new me-- was raise with Christ by the power of God.  And this new self desires to love God and to love others.  When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus, he called this being born again. (See John 3: 3.). As a Christian who believes in Jesus, the Bible says that my old self has died and I am born again.  I remember when I was a teenager, I had a friend who referred to the day he came to faith in Jesus as his spiritual birthday.  We even got him a cake to celebrate that day.  For, it was the day he was born again.

Now, whether we can name a day and hour when this occurred or whether we were born in a Christian home and learned trust him gradually, if we believe in Jesus we have been born again.  Our old self is gone and our new self has come.

In verse 1, Paul says that because this is the case. we should be setting our hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right of God.  What does that mean?  Set your hearts on things above.  Do you remember the line Jesus taught us in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  When God through Paul is calling us set our minds on things above, he is telling us to be as committed to God's will as the angels in heaven are.  Even more than that: he wants us to be committed as our Lord who sits at God's right hand is.

And what is God's will that we should be so committed to?  That is described in verse 8- 10 of our scripture,

But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Because we are new creatures we shouldn't be at all like the sinful world around us and do all of those evil things.  We should be like Christ and like our Father and Creator.

But is that true for you?  Can you say truly say that as a new creature in Christ, you have won the victory over sin?  I can't.  So, what's wrong? Why can't we say that?  That question has always bothered honest Christians.  We know we are a new creation in Christ Jesus.  But the truth is that we still act so much like old creation.  The sins that should be dead and buried with Christ is often times very alive and well in our lives.

So, what do we do in the face of those persistent sins that we cannot seem to overcome?

Look again at verse one.

Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things that are above.

Look especially at those four words "set your hearts on."  You might remember Paul originally wrote his letters in the Greek language.   If we read what he wrote in Greek we find that instead of four words there is only one, zhteite (zeiteite).  And this word literally does not means "set you mind on;" It literally means "seek."  In fact many other translations simply translate it that way, 

Since then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. (Colossians 3: 1a NRSV)

A true Christian is one who seeks to follow God's will.  He is one who seeks to serve the Jesus who sits a God's right hand.  She's one who seeks to be the new person Jesus saved her to be.  Seeking does not mean finding, at least not right away.  And once you found what you were seeking, you don't need to seek it anymore.  So we must remember being raised with Christ does not mean that we automatically live like Jesus; it means that we seek to live like Jesus.

 It's interesting to note that the tense of this Greek word indicates that our seeking must on-going.  Probably an even better translation is

"Since, then you have been raised with Christ, keep on seeking the things that are above." 

The next verse also is a command to keep on doing something. 

"Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things."

Once again the English has four words, the Greek only one, fronei\te  (phroneite), which used in this context means to focus on, to be intent on

"Keep focusing on the things that are above."

I am reminded of the coach who tells his players to keep their mind in the game.

As Christians, we must keep our mind in the game.  How do we do that?  One way is to stay focused on God's Word.  I am reading a book by Christian psychologist Gary Smalley, Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life.  In that book Smalley challenges his readers to begin to focus on the lifestyle that God is calling us to live.  It's his idea that the more we focus on what God's Word teaches the more those teachings will become engrained in us.  And as part of this focusing on God's Word, Smalley recommends that we memorize Bible passages.  In fact throughout the book and in the appendix her lists verses for his readers to memorize that will help them to focus on living a Christian life.

 I don't know about you, but I have to admit that is a part of my life could use some work.  You might note that some of the verses that I recite from memory are from an older version of the Bible. These are verses I memorized as child.  I recite them from the older translation, because I have not memorized them in the more modern version we now use.  Now, there are other verses I had to memorize for seminary.  But, since then, I really can't say I have spent much time actively trying to memorize scripture.  So, maybe that's something we all ought to focus on.

Now, why would Paul give those commands: to keep seeking, to keep focusing?  He did so, because he knew that living the Christian life is a struggle-a hard struggle. There were some in the Colossian church who were spreading false ideas. They taught that pleasing God simply consisted of being circumcised, restricting your diet to certain foods, not handling certain polluted objects, and observing certain religious festivals.  They also claimed to have special knowledge from God, secrets that would help people know him better.   But Paul attacks such ideas as hollow deceptive philosophy human tradition and the principles of this world and he says

"Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival,  a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.  Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize.   Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions."

And why were some of the Colossians attracted to these false ideas.  The reason is clear.  They were an easier road to pleasing God and living the Christian life. 

Today, some of us go from one Christian self-help book to another to find some teaching or some easier way that will help us find more progress in our Christian walk.  And we try something for a while, but it really doesn't work.  Brother and sister in the Lord, the Word of God says there is no easy road.  We must keep seeking and keep focusing and keep struggling.

But, we do not struggle as those who have no hope of victory.  Look at verse 3- 4,

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your  life,  appears  then you also will appear with him in glory.

Before he left his disciples to die and arise and ascend to heaven, Jesus said,

Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God, trust also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told, I am going to prepare a place for you.

Our place in heaven is guaranteed by the Jesus who now sits God's right hand.  This week Thursday is Ascension Day, the day on which we remember Jesus' ascending into heaven and sitting to rule at the right hand of God, the Father.  This used to be a major holy day in our church.  We had special church services on Ascension Day evening that were well attended.  Even though that is not our practice today, Ascension Day still  is important holy day and it is real day for celebration.  Why? Because every time we think about our Lord ascending to heaven, we know that the victory over the evil we struggle against has already been won.

Theologian Norman Wright put it this way,

To embrace the Ascension is to heave a sigh of relief, to give up the struggle to be God (and with it the inevitable despair at our constant failure), and to enjoy our status as creatures: image-bearing creatures, but creatures nonetheless

Yes, as new creatures we continue our struggle, but we do always knowing that the battle is already won and that someday, when Jesus comes again, this fact will be clear for the entire world to see.

I began by telling you a rather painful story of how I struggled with playing sports.  I am stubborn guy, but in that instance I did give up.  I still wonder what would have happened if I didn't.  Today, as those who have risen with Christ, our Lord calls to keep seeking to live the life he saved us to live and keep on focusing on what his Word teaches.  But, we don't need to wonder what the outcome will be.  Our life is hidden with Christ.  Someday our struggle will be over and Jesus will come back.  And on that day,

When Christ, who is our life, appears,   then we also will appear with him in glory. And then we will know that we have been victorious. Amen.