As I was driving to class last Sunday, I had an epiphany. Ok. Maybe calling it an "epiphany" is a bit of a stretch. But as I was traveling to class I realized a very valuable lesson. That is this: there is a difference between being a wise steward, being frugal and good with money, there is a difference between this and being cheap. Being frugal is doing what my wife Mindy does. She wants to buy something and she researches it, she looks around in order to make sure that she is getting the best quality and deal for her money. This is a skill that I am constantly in awe of. I on the other hand am cheap. I don't worry about quality, I want to get away with paying the least amount of money for something. This occurred to me as I was stuck in traffic just north of Chicago.
I had survived the drive through downtown, though I nearly died about twelve times. I got a lovely tour of the northern suburbs. They are very lovely this time of year. Got a good view of it too, because every mile there was a traffic light. And I hit every single one of those red lights. It was a special day too because there was a parade that I got caught behind and had to wait for. Thus it took me two hours to go twelve miles.
What happened was that I selected the "avoid toll roads" option on my GPS. All in all I saved about six dollars. Or course it took me an extra two hours. But I saved six dollars in tolls. Yes, there is a difference between being frugal and being cheap.
Ultimately the frugal cheap conversation is not really a conversation about money as much as it is about value. What do you value and how does that play out in the way that we live our lives? What do you value in your life? What is it that grabs your attention, your focus? What is it that you spend your time working on, thinking about, dreaming about? What is it that you value?
Or, to ask the question in a different way; What is it that you value in your faith? This is the issue that the Christians in the city of Colossae were wrestling with. What is it that we value? What do we spend the most of our time focusing on? What do we spend the most of our time doing? I once thought it would be fun to write a sermon that was nothing but questions. It looks like I may be well on my way.
Our text from the third chapter of Colossians talks about this exact question. Paul writes," If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. OK. That's kind of interesting, but just what exactly does this mean? What are we getting at here? Well, a little background always goes a long way when we are trying to understand God's word and what it means.
The city of Colosse had at one time been a hopping kind of a place. Located in the modern day country of Turkey, it was on a major east-west trade route. By the time we get to the time of our text, the glory days are long gone. The neighboring towns of Laodicea and Hierapolis have now taken all the glory and splendor. Yet God's ability to work is not bound by the splendor of one's city and the church grew in Colosse.
But all is not perfect, because within in this growing church there were struggles. False teachers had come up and started teaching that there were things for us to do in order to secure our salvation. There are ceremonies to keep and days to observe. We have refrain from certain things, and subject ourselves to others.
Now there are practices in the Christian life that we can and do observe that are good, but they do not contribute anything to salvation. Living a God pleasing Christian life is important. How we live our lives and the decisions that we make matter. The way we live is important because of how it impacts our witness. We can't just go around doing whatever we want to do, but if you are not careful in doing so, you can become entrapped, and suddenly life is about rules and regulations.
So what do you do in this kind of situation? What do you do when there are all kinds of things competing for your attention, how do you know what to focus on? What do you do when you are trying to figure out how to live life in a God pleasing way? Paul's answer is simple. Seek the things that are above, set your mind on the things that are above. In other words, what is it that really matters, what is most important to Jesus, that is what you are to focus on. That is what you are to seek.
In our lives in general, and in our lives together as a congregation it is really easy for us to get caught up in earthly things. It is really easy for us to get caught up in the same kinds of things that the Christians in Colosse got caught up in, rituals and ceremony and knowledge and human wisdom and tradition, and while those things have a place, they are not supreme they are not most important.
What is most important is Jesus and the things that he is concerned about. As his people we should value the same kinds of things that he values.
Our lord is about the work of reconciling the creation back to himself. He came to seek and to save the lost. He came that we might have life and have it in abundance. So as we are thinking about, talking about and working through together what is most important, what deservers our attention, what are the things that we are to value and to seek, the answer is those things that are above, in other words the things that matter to Jesus and the things that should matter most to us.
Here is the thing, we are to focus on the heavenly things. We hear that and it is easy to get caught in a mindset that says we want nothing to do with anything that is remotely "earthly." So we create this distinction between things that are secular and things that are sacred. And so we find ourselves turning up our noses on the things that are secular so that we can better focus on the things that are sacred. And yet if that is what we do, if that is what we take from these verses we are missing the point.
We are to focus on the things above, not because the things on earth are bad, and therefore we should have nothing to do with them. But we are to focus on the things above in order to better be able to care for the things below, the things on earth. Remember, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. God is about reconciling the creation back to himself. So we focus on the things above, not to ignore or escape from the things below, but so that we can appropriately be below and not lose sight of our role or place as God's people in this world.
Clive Staples Lewis, better known as C.S. Lewis once wrote that if you focus on heaven you get the earth thrown in. If you focus on the earth you get nothing. As sinful human beings it is so easy for us to get caught up in things that are really not that important. That really do not matter all that much. And especially in the matters of religion.
But because in Jesus the price for our sins has been paid in full. He is victorious. There is nothing that we can do to add to our salvation. We have it in full for the sake of Jesus. There is nothing that we can do to make God love us more or to give us special status with him. We have a relationship with our God, not because of who we are or the things that we do, but because of who are God is, and how loving and gracious and merciful and forgiving he is.
This is what Paul is getting at here. As far as life goes for us, we have died. Do you know when that was? At baptism. In our baptism we are connected to the death of Jesus. We died with him. This also means that in baptism we are connected to the resurrection of Jesus and so there is life for us in him, both now and even after we die. Though now our lives are hidden in Jesus. But in him we experience life, real true life. Life that is not based on how good we are, or how well we perform. Life that is not based on our abilities to be better than other people. Life that is not based on how much we contribute or the quality of the things that we do. But we have life because our God loves us so very much, and in this life then there is freedom.
That is why Paul says to put to death those earthly kinds of things like sexual immorality, and impurity evil desire and idolatry. Those things don't give us life, they entrap us and bring about death. There is no place for them in the life of the people of God. And the good news is that even though we may struggle with them, we can be victorious in Jesus. We can put off these, and the old ways of our sinful human nature and instead put on the new self renewed in the knowledge and image of the creator.
Luther describes it as daily remembering our baptism. We do this by daily confession and repentance so that our old sinful nature not only will not win out the day, but will actually be drowned. And then a new person can rise up to live before God in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. So when you get up in the morning, you make the sign of the cross and say, "I am a baptized child of God." You ask God for forgiveness for your sins, and you go on your way living in the knowledge that you are forgiven restored and renewed. You go out to with your mind set on the things above where Christ is seated.
This is to be a daily practice. Why? Not because it will earn us anything from God. Not because it will make him mad with us if we don't. Not because we have to. We do it because that old sinful nature that we are to drown in our daily remembrance of our baptism, Luther called it the old Adam. That old Adam, well he is a really good swimmer.
As we move forward in our lives together, as we seek what God has in mind for us as his people in this place at this time. There will be all kinds of things that will be clamoring for our attention. There will be all kinds of things that will threaten to distract us and throw us off track. But as we live our lives together let us seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, and let us set our minds on the things that are above and not on the things that are below, because in living this way we experience life and what a great blessing it is.
And may that blessing be yours now and always. Amen.
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