Sermon 17th September 2017

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adrian Parkhouse, preaches. The reading is from Colossians 3:1-17

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” 3:15

1.              “Thank you for coming along to see me this morning.  Some preliminaries:  we have about 20 minutes in our time together.  And are you quite comfortable? … Good.  Now then let’s make a start.  Perhaps you could explain to me why you are here? … So you are feeling a bit confused because you are not entirely sure why you have come? ….”

                  To some of us an opening exchange along those lines will be very familiar because either our jobs involve that sort of start to a relationship – setting boundaries, ensuring comfort and encouraging self-enquiry;  or familiar because, like me, we have been the one in the opposite chair, the client of the counsellor, perhaps uncomfortable notwithstanding the comfortable seating, wary about  starting a process the end of which is unclear and the means to get there troubling in itself.  Nor am I sure why I am there.  Perhaps it seemed a good idea at the time;  perhaps I am there unwillingly – because “they” said I should go.  “After all, it is not me, it is they, who needs to change”, we may be thinking.

2.              I have been so glad to have the chance to read again Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae.  It is a truly lovely read – a letter written from the heart from the imprisoned Paul to a community he has heard about but not met. As Gill explained in the first sermon in the series, it gave an opportunity to rejoice in the way that their new faith in Jesus was so evident in the way they were living their lives.  JB Phillips captures the tenor in his translation of 2:4:  … though a long way off in body, in spirit I am by your side, watching like a proud father the solid steadfastness of your faith in Christ.”  It is an affirming letter.  Even its theology is simple to grasp:  Trevor summed it up last week:  if you have Jesus, you have all you need.

                  And of course there are some classic and memorable Pauline phrases to be found:  for example, today, “set your hearts on the things above”;  and from the first chapter,  ^“For in [Christ] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him”.  I found this echoed one of those many pearls of wisdom that Ben casts around when he preaches – do you remember “creation being written through the whole Bible like Brighton in a stick of rock”?

                  So if you haven’t yet had the chance to sit and read the letter from end to end then try to make the time to do so.

                  But be warned:  it is a letter about change.  It is about the change that follows from “having Jesus”.  The change from the old to the new life.

3.              Our passage today begins with a reference back to the theology that Trevor explored last week, to the concept that our baptism into faith represents our sharing in first the death and then the resurrection of Jesus:  v.3 “ For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ …”.  In his commentary, Barclay explains that the Greeks would often speak about burial as being “hidden” in the earth:  Paul borrows the idea to contrast it with our being similarly subsumed and enveloped in Jesus.  And he goes on “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory”.  Christ, who is our life.  For Paul remember “to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21).

                  Thus Paul sets up his guidance on living the new life in the context of realising what being “buried” in Jesus can mean;  and that that meaning is capable of influencing – at the least influencing - the way we live.

4.              And then in what follows Paul builds on the theological image of our baptism and asks us to imagine what we would need to do if we were being baptised:  we would take off (“put off”, rid ourselves”) our old clothes; and we would emerge to “put on” the new clothes, the “renewed” clothes – in some traditions the symbolic simple white clothes:  “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge” (10).

                  We will look in a moment at the style and cut of our new clothes, but first I want draw attention on how important our ability to “cut a dash” is to Paul.  If your mental picture of his teaching is of a man obsessed with the intellectual details of faith then think again.  In his opening words of the letter he talks of the gospel bearing fruit wherever it goes;  and of how the Colossians’ outward lives can bring credit to the Master’s name.  And we shall see next week the importance of our behaviour to non-believers.  How we live, how we sport our new clothes, is a part of our role in witnessing to the love which provides our opportunity to wear them.

5.              Of what then do our new clothes consist?  Verses 5-9 tell us what is not included – including immorality, greed, anger, bad language and lying.   These are left on the river bank.

                  Can I say:  do not be surprised when you have dressed in your new clothes and you look at yourself in the mirror, you will find that your new life is less concerned about you and more about your relations with other people?  I saw some very weird clothes outside one of the London Fashion Week venues on Friday, but what our new suiting would look like I can only imagine.  Except of course it looks like you and you and you … .

The first piece of clothing is non-discrimination:  11.  No distinctions – neither of creed (Gentile/ Jew), nor tradition (circumcised/uncircumcised), nor culture (barbarian/Scythian) nor wealth or social standing (free/slave).  For some, left to ourselves, this would be difficult to get into.  But buried in Christ whose life is ours?

And then clothes we might expect – but remember clothes speak to us more about our relationships, than about ourselves:  compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love.  We might do well to explore each piece of clothing for ourselves – to see how it fits us, how its suits us – where in our relations we may want to wear it more prominently?

And the  towards the end of our passage, Paul moves away from his analogy and provides three checks and balances for our living the new life:  peace, which is to be the ruler, the judge, the umpire;  thankful and honest fellowshipping together; and doing what we do in Jesus’ name.  It is as if we might ask ourselves:  if I (or if we) do this, will it promote peace, can we continue our common life and can we say confidently we have done in Jesus’ name?

6.              A letter about change.  Did you note my subtle “I (or we)”?  Throughout this letter Paul’s words seem sometimes aimed at us as individuals and sometimes at the church as a whole.  I think today’s words have resonance for both.

                  For neither is change necessarily easy.  I began today with a reference to the counselling relationship because that is one space where today many folk explore their ability to change.  In some respects Paul’s picture of the baptismal candidate emerging in fine raiment may imply instant change; and in some respects it does but that he needs to teach again and again about the significance of our living live consistent with buried and resurrected life, shows that there is a process for each of us.

                  And for the church?   As Gill explained in , we are readying ourselves not only for the change of this interregnum for also for what may follow with our new vicar.  At Thursday’s PCC, the Archdeacon used the word “transition” (echoing both previous sermons in this series).  Why?  Because there is a view that the parish may have outgrown some of the ways we have worked;  in a different sense than Paul, we may need some new clothes and different ways of doing things. 

Who knows what God has ahead for us?  What we do know is that Paul could have written for us today.  As individuals and churches let’s dress in our clothes of our new life and so be ready for whatever lies ahead.

That is our 20 minutes up.  See you next week?