LIVING THE GOOD LIFE
Scripture: Colossians 2:6-19
FOCUS: By the death of Christ on the cross we are forgiven and cleansed, forgiven to be made new, cleansed to live cleanly.
We are inundated with messages which seek to teach us how to live the good life. At one extreme we find those who tell us that we deserve to pamper ourselves, to indulge in those things which bring us pleasure. Eat, drink and be merry we are told by those who seek to sell us fat laden foods, mind numbing beverages and lavishly materialistic lifestyles. We are led by such folk to believe that we deserve to be indulgent, to live, at least on occasion, lives of excess.
On the other hand we find those who are like the fellow whose story I read this week who decided that he wanted to live the good life so that he might live long and healthy. He read every book he could find that claimed to contain the secret to good, healthy living. He never smoked, drank, never overate. He diligently consumed at least six or seven servings of fresh fruits and vegetables daily and avoided with a passion anything with artificial preservatives. He exercised every day and was obsessed with getting at least eight hours of sleep. He lived simply out in the country and rarely went into the nearest city, preferring to stay away from its high crime, smog and worldly temptations. He visited his doctor twice yearly and followed all the good physician’s advice.
When the fellow died there were lots of experts in living the good, healthy life present, His personal trainer, the folks from his gym, the owner of a nearby organic grocery, even his doctor. They were all sad to see him gone, at age 53. The story did not say how he died, and it really doesn’t matter this morning. I tell the story as a rather dramatic illustration of the fact that our human notions concerning how to live well, how to experience the good life, are often misguided.
Now I am not saying that it is a bad idea to adopt a healthy life style. In many cases doing so does add years to ones time on this planet. I’m not saying that we should never enjoy a good meal, even one filled with calories and indulgent ingredients, every once in a while. Nor do I think it is inherently wrong to allow ourselves to be pampered occasionally. What I do believe with all my heart is that when we allow pleasure to become our primary source of meaning and worth, when we become so inwardly focused on our regimen of exercise and healthy living that they become our primary motivating force, we have lost our way, we have lost touch with that which is at the heart of real, Godly, good living.
Paul was writing to those who were active church folks, like us. It was a letter to the faithful in in Colossae, but this morning I want us to hear Paul as he speaks to us. Think of this letter, not as Colossians, rather as Dalevillians. In a very real way it does speak directly to us and challenges us to be what we were created to be, what we were redeemed to be. Be warned, the message is not one our culture hears eagerly. We will not be told that we deserve a break today, far from it. We will not be encouraged to grab for all the gusto. We will not be told that we ought to live healthy lives, though to care for our bodies is one facet of good stewardship.
So what does Paul have to say to us this morning? He begins, “Don’t be led astray by those who talk fast and sound good but who are feeding you a theological diet which has no real substance.” Talk about a message which is as contemporary as is it ancient! Paul was seeking to shore up those who were being bombarded with and confused by mixed spiritual messages. He writes to a church which seemed eager to latch onto whatever newfangled religious gimmick came along. They were not abandoning their Christian faith, but neither were they holding fast to its often difficult core principals. They wanted the good life, but wanted it to be not only good but also easy and comfortable. If that doesn’t sound familiar, you have not been paying attention to much of what infects and weakens the church today.
Paul was all about living the good life. But for him the good life was defined not by anything we can do or be on our own merit. Nor is it about anything we deserve. Thank goodness we do not get what we deserve or all of us would be in trouble to one degree or another. For Paul the good life is defined by the death of Christ on the cross, and by our response to that wonderful, mysterious and awful event.
Knowing that those to whom he wrote were at least nominally on board, Paul speaks to them and to us. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” The Christian faith is a journey. We are called to become more and more completely those whose lives reflect the life of Christ. None of us will fully attain that lofty goal in this life. And none of us will make even the slightest progress toward that perfection on our own. It is only by living lives that are inextricably linked with the life and death of Jesus Christ that we begin to move toward the goal which ought to be ours.
Paul was keenly aware that our relationship with Christ must be intensely personal if it is to be effective. As we have already seen, Paul challenges the Colossians to live their lives in Christ. But he also talks about the need for us to allow Christ to live in us. In chapter one of the letter to the Colossians Paul says, “God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our Message.” We are called to live life in Christ and to allow Christ to reside within us.
We celebrate this wonderful mystery of mutuality each time we gather at the Lord’s Table. As we drink the unfermented wine and eat the unleavened bread we hear the words of Christ at that first observance of Holy Communion, “This is my body, this is my blood.” We ingest the bread and the wine as we remember. Remember what Christ has done for us. Remember what we are called to do in response. We are challenged to do more than savor the body and the blood for our own benefit as we eat and drink, though there certainly is benefit for each of us as we do so. We are called to move beyond remembrance to response. In one of the liturgies for Holy Communion, as the bread and wine are consecrated we hear these words: “Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.”
So how are we to live if we are to truly become alive in Christ as Christ comes alive in us? How can we become truly one with Christ? How might we experience such a wonderful reality? How might we be equipped to live it out? What does it mean? First of all it means that we are to seek to so live that the presence of God in Jesus Christ is experienced, not just on occasion, but becomes our constant companion and the power which shapes the living of our daily lives in all its complexities. You need to hear that, and you need to put it into action, for it is a fundamental truth, an amazing promise, and the consummate challenge which lies before us if we are to be worthy of the name of Christ. Hear again the challenge. If we are to become alive in Christ, if Christ is to be allowed to come alive in us, if we are to become one with Christ, we must seek to so live that the presence of God in Jesus Christ is experienced, not just on occasion, but becomes our constant companion and the power which shapes the living of our daily lives in all its complexities.
Several years ago I spent several days in a Benedictine monastery in Kentucky. It was a gift from my family, one of the best gifts I have ever been given. The way I seek to live out my faith and the way the brothers in the Abbey seek to live out theirs are vastly different. But it was crystal clear to me that we shared faith in a common God and a common Lord. Those who experience the call to monastic life spend a significant amount of time in an exploratory relationship with the order. It is during those months that they experience firsthand what it means to live the cloistered life. During these days the candidates are free to leave should they come to find that such a life is not their true calling.
Those who validate their calling during those exploratory days are confirmed in a solemn and holy service as they take lifetime vows of poverty, chastity, silence and obedience. In that service of commitment, candidates prostrate themselves before the altar of the chapel in the very spot where one day their coffins will be placed for a funeral mass. Funeral palls are draped over them as the death bell, which tolls upon the earthly parting of a brother, is rung. There follows a period of complete silence, a reminder of the silence that comes with death. The silence is broken as the liturgist chants these words from Colossians 3. “For you have died and your life is hid with Christ in God.” After those powerful words there is more silence as the new brothers are urged to reflect upon their solemn vow. Again the silence is broken by poetic scripture, this time as the entire community chants words from Psalm 118, words which are always a part of the Easter liturgy in Benedictine communities. “I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”
After the gathered community shares in that triumphant resurrection proclamation, the liturgist shouts boldly words from Ephesians 5, “Awake you who sleep; arise from the death, and Christ will give you light.” Immediately the bells of the Abbey begin to ring loudly and joyfully as the new brothers rise, sheds the funeral palls and are offered by the abbot the kiss of peace as he places upon them for the first time the white robe of the order which will be the brothers outer garments until death, and declares that from that day forward the new brother will be known by a new name given him by the order.
What a powerful image! What a wonderful way to portray the depth of the commitment which should be each of ours as we take up the challenge of living as those who claim the name of Christ. In Galatians Paul writes “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” An extravagant, illogical, even outrageous claim. What a glorious possibility. Such is at the heart of Paul’s message in all his letters. In Christ, in union with Christ, Christ in you, are recurring words in Paul’s writing, occurring in one form or another 172 times in his letters.
The message is clear. To be a Christian is to change, to be made new, to be born again. It is not simply a matter of choosing a new lifestyle, though a new style will surely accompany the rebirth. It is about become a new person. It is about dying to old ways, to old selves, to old habits. It is about taking within the very spirit of Christ while at the same time allowing Christ to take us in. It is a mystery and it is wonderful, and it is liberating, and it is transformational.
“Oh but I have a past!” you say. Don’t we all? Paul certainly did, Moses did, all of the disciples did, your preacher does. The wonderful thing about becoming new creations is the amazing truth that our pasts can be wiped clean. That is the message of the cross. That is the message of God’s grace. In The Message verses 13 and 14 of the morning’s scripture read: “When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive - right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's Cross.” We are not expected to fix the past. Learn from it to be sure, refuse to make the same mistakes, you bet, repent of our past sins, of course, but when we come to Christ, when we commit to becoming those new creatures, we discover that our pasts, which we could never fix on our own, were fixed long ago, on a hill far away.
We begin our pursuit of the good life as we allow God to make us over. Then we are called to move forward as we affirm in our lives the truth that if we are to live in Christ and to have Christ live in us, what Christ has been and done for us we must be and do for others. That is what those words from the communion liturgy mean. The body of Christ was broken. The blood of Christ was poured out, for you and for me, not so that we might feel privileged, not so that we might be enriched, but that we might become the body of Christ for the world, redeemed, made new, by his blood. It is no easy calling but as that old hymn says, “There is power in the blood.” There is enough power to redeem the most recalcitrant of spirits. There is enough power to equip the most reluctant saint for the task of loving others as much as he loves himself. There is enough power to enable us to live in Christ and to open our hearts so that Christ may live in us.
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide;
There’s wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Sin stains are lost in its life giving flow.
There’s wonderful power in the blood.
Would you do service for Jesus your King?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you live daily His praises to sing?
There’s wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
The power is there. It is available, it is free. Will you accept it? Will you allow it to remake you? Will you allow it to fill your spirit that you might truly become one with Christ, one with each other and one in ministry to all the world? For your sake and of the sake of God’s kingdom let it be so. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.
