The Advent of Peace: A Whole Church

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December 6, 2015 - Second Sunday in Advent

Colossians 3:12-17

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.

Sermon:  The Advent of Peace: A Whole Church

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  Hmm, no.

Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other….  Nope, no way.

Above all, clothe yourselves with love…mmm, not realistic.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.  Nope, that doesn’t work, either.

Y’all, as beautiful as Colossians 3 is, it just doesn’t fit how we live.  It’s far too idyllic, too demanding.  We in the Church throughout the world never seem to live up to this.

So, I’ve decided to make some improvements (I hope you don’t mind).

I’m going to call this the NRSV (New Right Self Version).  I think it will make us all much more comfortable.  You ready?  Here goes…

Colossians 3:12-17 (New Right Self Version)

As God’s perfect select few, dress yourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience (unless someone makes a political or theological argument you disagree with, then put on your best defensive gear). Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, post it publicly on Facebook, being just vague enough to offend as many people as possible. Forgiveness is God’s job, not yours. Above all, clothe yourselves with a watered-down, Hollywood version of love, which means everyone exists to make you happy, and you owe no one anything. And let the false peace of emotional detachment and inaction rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one homogenous body (of people who worship and vote and look and think just like you). And be thankful you’re better than everyone else. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, but only those parts that justify your particular beliefs and can be used as a weapon against others, ignore the rest; teach and admonish one another in all superiority; and with pride in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to yourself for being so very right. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of self-worship, giving thanks to God that you are better than so many poor, misguided souls.

This is not the Word of the Lord…(thanks be to God!).

My version sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it?  Surely we don’t live like that?  Surely the Church – the body of Christ – has higher standards than the rest of society?  I wish that was true.

The truth is, Colossians 3, as it comes to us in scripture, turns everything upside down about how we operate in the Church universal and even in our own congregation. Let’s see what it’s really saying…

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves…

The word “clothe” in the Greek is literally, “sink into” – so this isn’t piling extra clothing on in this busy Advent season, this is sinking into the good things of God; this is letting go.

…sink into compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

Again, we learn much more from the original text.  Our English version leaves out an essential word:  the original text says, “sink into an inward part or heart of compassion, kindness, humility etc.”  That is what we worked on all this past week, asking God what within us was not at peace.  Our compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience only comes from an inward heart at peace. 

Next in our passage comes, “Bear with one another…”  To us, this sounds an awful lot like “tolerate” or “put up with” one another.  But the original text instead says, “Hold one another up.”  The opposite of this is, of course, tearing one another down.  We Christians have never done that, have we?

Our text continues, “if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”  This word forgive is, in the original text, a word we Presbyterians hold tightly to: it is grace.  This literally says, not “forgive one another,” but “grace” one another.  Is this ignoring past damage, allowing victimization to continue?  Of course not.  But even in the worst of hurt we cause to one another, there is always room for grace somewhere.  Grace is never only God’s work – it’s ours, too.

Then, we’re told to clothe ourselves in love, which binds us together in perfect harmony, and to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, to which indeed we were called to one body.  Again, the original language is much more fun.  Anyone watching basketball lately?  Who makes sure the game is played fairly and the rules are followed?  (Or at least is supposed to do that.)  The ref! 

This text says in the Greek, “let the peace of Christ referee, umpire, in your hearts…”  It has a meaning much like a ref in our time, and is the used only once in all of scripture: here, in Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

Let Christ’s peace decide whether our hearts are matching our actions as the body of Christ.  This means that we practice listening to what Christ’s peace demands of us, perhaps even benching ourselves when we need to refocus. 

We let so many other things referee our interaction with one another in the Church: political pressure, doctrinal differences, theological arguments, money, power, generational and racial divides and influence, never mind just simple stress and exhaustion.  These lesser referees do not serve the body of Christ, at least not the whole body.  When we allow these lesser refs to call the shots, we will never find wholeness in the Church universal or our church.  We will find ourselves pulled apart because of the lie that we have to agree to follow Christ together, and the world will find a fractured, bitter church they have no desire to be a part of. 

But if we let the peace of Christ be our referee, if we grace one another when we mess up, if our hearts are full of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, if we hold each other up instead of tearing each other down, if we sink into God’s goodness instead of fighting against the ways of peace, the Church will know no bounds, and will be a beacon of hope and light in a world grown shadowed with fear and violence. 

Last week, my challenge for us was to pray each morning, asking ourselves, “What within me is not at peace?”  I hope you connected more deeply with your own places of division, and welcomed God’s peace into your heart. 

This week, our Advent challenge to practice peace is this: in every interaction you have with other Christians, especially those of a different denomination or practice than you, whether that interaction be in a meeting, rehearsal, meal, random conversation or online, ask yourself this: “Am I holding them up, or tearing them down?” 

It is nearly always one way or the other: we’re either working to build one another up, or we’re tearing others down, even with the smallest of words.  If we are tearing each other down, we can be sure we are allowing lesser things to referee the Church.  But if we are holding one another up, we can confidently show the world that the peace of Christ is our referee.

Are we holding fellow Christians up, or tearing them down?  If we’re ever going to be the body of Christ we’re called to be, it all comes down to that simple question. 

Living up to the actual words of Colossians 3 demands more of us than we have to give, but that’s why we need God’s help.  And that’s why God has placed us on this path to wholeness together. 

Thanks be to the God who created us for community, to the Son who gathered around him different and diverse people and called them disciples, and to the Spirit who binds us together as the Church, for all time, amen.