Please Click Here For Sermon Video
Many years ago when I was in West Virginia, I helped a friend of mine baptize some folks in one of the swimming holes on Knapp’s Creek. That was a new experience for me. Baptism by full immersion, that’s something we Presbyterians don’t get to do or see very often if at all. Baptisms are rare events anymore and are mostly of infants. Adult baptisms in a river, that was new to me and probably once in a lifetime. I have to tell you, not only was the experience new to me, it was…well, I can’t think of the word. I’ll just say getting somebody, a body, the human body to lie back in the water to be submerged isn’t something that comes natural nor is it easy to do. The human body and survival instinct resist being submerged like that. It literally felt like we were trying to drown those people. It took some muscle to push them under and bring them back up. There was one guy in particular, his body just did not want to go under and we really had to get on top of him and work him under and I felt like we were trying to drown him.
After that experience, I understood how the early church understood baptism as dying and rising with Christ. Full immersion was the way they primarily did baptism. The point to be made to the one being baptized was you have died and you now live anew in Christ. Paul sums it up very well in the Letter to the Galatians 2:19b-20: I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the fidelity of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” It is a powerful thing to say. “My life is not my own. I have died. It is now Christ who lives in, with, and through me. The life I now live is his and for him.”
It is so counter-everything about our culture to say that. In our world, life is all about me and what I want to be and do, self-discovery, making myself happy, being fulfilled. Even when we include God in the topic, the talk is usually of me and how good God makes me feel. Some folks will go as far as saying what I am becoming is the expression of my own divinity. Wrap your head around that. I’ve met a few people like that. They do a lot of damage. There is a lot to be said about knowing yourself, your strengths and faults and the way you affect other people and working on what needs to be worked on so that we don’t suffer needlessly or hurt others. That’s called self-awareness and self-acceptance. Self-fulfillment is another matter. Fulfillment is a gift from God. A path to fulfillment that does not involve the way of the cross is seeking one’s own pleasure almost always at the expense of others. Enough on that rant.
Most of us here are baptized and we were likely baptized as infants and certainly not by full immersion. The effect of this is that we are missing that core theological and emotional experience of dying and rising with Christ in our paradigm of what it is to be a Christian. Not to mention the inordinate emphasis on the washing away of sin that we have given to baptism because Christianity has been the moral police of Western culture. We just don’t seem to get it that we died with Christ Jesus and are raised with him. Our lives are not our own to do with them what we want. We belong to him. We are his and, in a way, we are him in that together we are his body. Therefore, we must turn from seeking “my” own fulfillment and seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Now what’s that mean?
I once had a female friend ask me, “Randy, do you ever imagine what it will be like in heaven?” I answered her honestly and said, “No.” And then let her go on about how we need to do that and how good it made her feel. I wished I had gone on to say I was too busy with trying to be a follower of Jesus down here to get too caught up in trying to imagine pearly gates up there but no one ever says what they want when the possibility of dating is on the line. There is a huge strand of Christianity which I will call escapist as well as manipulative because they think seeking the things above is focusing on all these medieval imaginations of pearly gates, and streets of gold, and angels, and singing in heavenly choirs. They then go on to say, if you want all that, then you have to be a good, church supporting person because you certainly don’t want what’s down below, all them flames and worms and screaming tortured people.
That’s not what “above” means. Above is where the presence of God is. Therefore, above is with us. Above is where worship happens. Above is where the steadfast love and faithfulness of God happens. Above is where God’s will is happening. Above is “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Above can be both in heaven and happening on earth. It is where what God wants done is happening…and that happens here on earth as we seek to follow Jesus enlivened, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Above happens in prayer as we talk with God and God with us. Above happens as we lay ourselves bare before the Scriptures and listen for the voice of Jesus in them. Above happens in Christian fellowship. Above happens when we love our neighbours as we love ourselves.
Above also has its effect on us. In the wake of having been above is a profound assurance of “I am beloved by God, a beloved member of the family of God” and that has the profound effect of castrating the sense of shame we all live with. In the wake of having been above, we can have a profound sense of contentment, joy, and gratitude. We can also feel the need to go seek forgiveness and make amends with those we’ve hurt and find the strength to do that humbling work. Above leaves us with hope, the sure knowing that God is acting for us particularly in the most painful situations of life. Above leaves us with a profound sense of loyalty to Jesus. That is what faith is. Carrying through on that loyalty no matter the cost is what love for him is.
So, Paul says “Set your minds on things that are above.” But, he did not mean mesmerize yourself with pearly gates and such. Here in Colossians he actually gives us a list of things to set our minds on: compassion, kindness, meekness, humility, patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving. Being grateful and singing the praise of God to ourselves. Getting into conversations with one another about Scriptures that have spoken to us. Holding each other accountable. Letting peace dictate our relationships with others. Doing everything in the name of Jesus who is our Lord. Rule of thumb: if we think Jesus wouldn’t do it or say it, neither should we. Sometimes it’s hard to make that call, so we need to shut up and listen to that person in front of us and listen for the Word from above.
Winding down, people will say there is no evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Well, to be technical about that there is more evidence in “the historical record” for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus than there is for other such great historical figures from that time like Socrates and Julius Caesar. But, let’s not play that game. There is evidence right now. It is the noticeable changes that happen in those who seek the things that are above, where he is. It is in the healings and other miracles that happen in his name when we pray. Frankly, we each are the evidence that he lives and will come again. Seek the things above and live this new life he’s given you. Amen.
