Where's Your Storage Unit?

One of the fascinating things about the New Testament epistles is how often we get exalted ideas followed by very practical ones. It’s not really surprising given that we are people who live in two worlds – the world of Spirit and the world of human clumsiness and the epistles were written to churches just like us – full of sinner-saints.

The reading from Colossians today is an example of this contrast between the metaphysical and practical.  “If you have been raised with Christ,” we heard, “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. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”

In our baptism both symbolically and sacramentally we are joined with Christ in his death and resurrection, so we are raised with Christ. Our baptism is what brings us into the Body of Christ, the Church, and that is why we have the font at the entrance to the church. It has water in it that has been blessed and I encourage you to experiment with reminding yourself of your baptism by blessing yourself with that water when you enter the church. Our baptism joins us with Christ and we renew that every time we make Eucharist together. Whenever we, as the Body of Christ come together and celebrate the memorial of Christ’s death and resurrection we make it ours once again as we receive the life of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine.

So we have been raised with Christ and the writer to the Colossians tells us that therefore, we should seek the things that are above, where Christ is. Because that is where out life is now. Hidden with Christ in God. When I hear that “Hidden” I think of how a chick might be hidden under its mothers wings, or a baby possum in its mother’s pouch. Our lives are hidden in Christ because we are beloved, but at some time when all things reach their intended conclusion, and Christ is fully revealed, we will step out from under his wings and enjoy participating in the full glory of God.

That is who we are, people of God, we are the ones who are enrolled in the reign of God, we are the ones who have been joined to Christ in his death and resurrection and will enjoy his glory with him.
And that has implications, like setting “our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

But, we think, that’s all very well but I still need to pay the bills, have the car serviced, get the groceries, cook dinner, and weed the yard. Yes we do. Because we are here in this dimension with all its limitations, challenges and joys.

And the writer to the Colossians is pragmatic. It is exactly because our lives are hidden with Christ that we get to pay special attention to how we live now. “Put to death, therefore” he says, “whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed ... These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things-- anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!”

We are clothing ourselves with the new Self – our old Self was left behind when we were washed in the waters of baptism but we still have some of those habits. We have been renewed in the image of the Creator who doesn’t even notice skin color, ethnic origins, sexual orientation or national boundaries and so we get to live like that. We get to live like the children of God that we are.
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And the children of God do not practice anger, wrath, malice, slander, lies, promiscuousness or greed. The children of God live the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, mercy, humility and patience.

Which is why the rich man in Jesus’ parable was foolish. He was living not in the New Self but in the old. When his land produced way more than he could use for himself and his family and more than he could store in his sheds, he went out and got a whole load of storage units. And he thought how lucky he was that now he could retire.

Had he been living in the new self as a child of God, he would have thanked God for the abundance and he would have shared it with his neighbors.  He would have known that true life does not come in an abundance of storage units but in the joy of a life lived humbly in community.

Right now, this seems to be something our country has forgotten. Our leaders have passed laws which will reduce taxes on the rich by reducing the food assistance and healthcare available to the poor. Greed is rewarded. The gap between the 1% at the top of the economic pole and the other 99% is getting wider and wider.

Which means that it is even more   ever  that we share our abundance in faith that our needs will be met.

the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall