Colossians 3:1-11(12-14)
In my first call, my senior pastor was a big fan of Lloyd Oglivie, then Senate Chaplain who was also a Presbyterian minister. As a pastor he met regularly with other clergy to pray and study the scriptures they would be preaching the next week.
One Sunday after church he was confronted by a woman who said she was sick and tired of hearing him preach about Jesus Christ – always Christ, every week it seemed – so she was going elsewhere. Six months later, Oglivie was again confronted by the woman. She poked a finger into his chest and said: I’ve been to every church in town, and they’re all saying the same thing!
Why would a church-goer would say such a thing? Research has found that for many American Christians, views of God and church say more about their social, political or moral views than what the Bible teaches about Christ, much like the quip: I don’t care what the Bible says, I know what I believe.
Yet here we are today confronted with the scriptures like Colossians 3 saying something about the importance of how we live – the focus of one’s heart is not to be on the latest political correctness or social activist cause, but on Christ. The Scots Confession warns that living according to equity and justice – it actually uses these words, though written 465 years ago – as if these are a religion that can save, misses the truth: Only Christ saves and is your life.
Perhaps that woman’s frustration came from being caught between what Paul called the old self and the new, between earthly concerns and a new reality. Maybe she wanted to hear about social issues and moral debates – the kinds of things that have created more energy around kitchen tables lately than anything the average pastor might say about Christ.
Admit it: some people get more passionate about the impact of Covid than the impact of Christ. Generally speaking, I don’t see people seeking things hidden in Christ with the same energy and enthusiasm as watching TV shows looking for hidden treasures or hidden scandals. Some get more excited about what music they sing than about the unvarnished, plain and persistent truth: Christ is our life and wants us to live like it!
This has always been and continues to be the church’s truth and message in the face of anger, rage, malice, slander and bad language. Christ is our life is our uniting proclamation against any and all that would try to divide God’s people. And why would any want to do these things? Could it be that some popular, even faddish, views of God and church say more about social, political and moral views than what the Bible says about Christ? If we are to forgive as the Lord has forgiven us, then we put off such things.
In the Greek text you can hear the urgency of Paul’s plea: put to death; you must rid yourself, do not…. Our behavior must match our new self. If we are who we say we are, people in whom Christ lives, then we need to walk like it, talk like it, and live like it. How else would anyone know our lives have changed as we are being renewed in Christ?
Here, in this church we know and love as First Presbyterian Church in Salem, this place of worship and life, there is no room for anything that is not life in Christ. Here there are to be no barriers that separate us. Where Christ lives, differences have no standing, because here your standing is determined by Christ and nothing else.
Here is Paul’s principle: there is no special status or preferential treatment, no slave or free, no victim or victimizer, no oppressor and oppressed, for Christ transcends all barriers and unifies all cultures, races, nations. Christ is all, and is in all. This is the church’s message to the world. This is the new reality for God’s people. It is not to cancel or conform, but to clothe ourselves in compassion, kindness, humility and all Christian virtues wrapped in the love of Christ.
Charles Wesley believed this. Because Christ was his life, he wrote for Christ and about His love and glory – his conversion had unlocked his gift and set it free. He kept a card in his pocket to write on. Riding his horse, he would jot down thoughts. He would enter a friend’s house shouting “Pen and ink! Pen and ink!” Experts say he wrote up to 6,000 hymns, but among all of them, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” has been a favorite. Think about it: can you imagine Wesley writing anything that did not clearly rest on Christ, did not set our hearts on things above and testify to new life in Him with all gratitude in his heart to God? Friends, hear the Good News: Christ is our life, unlocking gifts and setting us free to be our best selves, giving thanks to God through Him.
If people like the woman poking a finger at Ogilvie are tired of hearing about Him, well, what can we say? Christ is all we’ve got! And He is enough, because He is everything!