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August 2, 2010

New in Christ

Preacher: Pastor Braun Campbell Series: Summer 2010 pt. 2 - In Christ Category: Biblical

The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
St. John's Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
Colossians 3:1-11

“In Christ: New in Christ”

Now that it’s summer, I’ve started to get into a little summer reading – you know, the fun stuff that you can take with you to the beach or on a road trip. There’s a lot out there to be read, too: fiction or nonfiction, epic romances and historical narratives and graphic novels abound, so you can probably find something that you’d enjoy. But today, you don’t just have the ability to choose what to read. Now, you can pick how you’d like to read it. E-books are becoming more and more popular. You don’t have to carry a pile of dead trees around with you when you want to sit down and read. Several different companies are marketing dedicated e-readers with paper-like electronic ink displays, and yet more are releasing software that allows you to buy and read books on your computer or smartphone. Just this past week, in fact, Amazon announced a new version of its wildly-popular Kindle e-reader after reporting that its customers are now buying more e-books than hardcover ones. I can’t say that I haven’t been tempted to get one, especially as the prices have dropped, but I like paper books, things that I can touch, feeling the texture and weight of the paper in my hand as I turn a page. What’s more, I probably won’t have to upgrade my paper book if I want to read it again in twenty years. But I’m still drawn in by the new.

Other factors being equal, I think I’d usually try the new – or newer – thing. The new can be really appealing, alluring. It seems like we human beings have an inherent inclination towards the new. The new has the potential to do or to be better than the old. But what does the new offer? Increased energy efficiency. A more flattering fit. A better experience. Peak performance. Greater convenience. The new is shiny. The new catches the eye and captivates the imagination, so we chase it.

This “chasing after the new” surfaces in all of today’s Scripture readings, even the psalm. It’s based in covetousness – selfishly wanting what we don’t have. Generally speaking, we want the new because there’s something that we’re not finding in the old. There’s something missing. Something we desire. Something we want to possess. Acceptance? Pleasure? Power? But there’s a reason that the writer of Ecclesiastes reports that chasing after these things in the new is like trying to catch the wind: the new isn’t really new at all. What we usually perceive as the new is, in essence, just the old wrapped up in a different package.

This week, as we come to the close of our study of Colossians, St. Paul calls us to turn away from the old and experience the truly new. Over the past several weeks, we have heard who the Christ is, how and why Jesus is the leader who guides us. We have heard the good news that we are alive in Christ: that it is through him that we have hope and strength for the life we live each day. But then, even having heard from God’s Word what He has done and continues to do for us, you and I have each gone out and chased after the wind in our own ways, trying to find something in the old – and the old-dressed-up-as-new.

You see, the Colossians were a lot like you and me. We know who Christ is. We know what God has done for us, that we are forgiven through Jesus’ work in his life, death, and resurrection. But we often don’t make the connection between what we believe and how we live. We don’t completely let go of the so-called life that we had before we’d been – as Paul puts it – raised with Christ. We still think that we can find something new in the old, which even includes those things that Paul calls out to the Colossians. Every day, our eyes and ears gather tinder to fire lust and misuse of God’s gift of sexuality. Our minds go back to dwell on impure thoughts and evil desires. Coveting in our hearts what we think we’re missing, you and I make idols of the new, anything that we put before God in life. We have allowed anger, wrath, ill will, slander, gossip, and obscene talk to be a part of our lives. And if we don’t think that any of this applies to us, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We’re chasing after the wind.

Paul points us to a new that is completely apart from the old. We are new in Christ. The life that we once had known is now past, drowned in the waters of baptism. You died. And yet, you breathe, you walk, you talk, you think. How is that possible? Who is this Christ? For you, as a Christian, he is now your life! Your life and my life are hidden with him in God. Because Christ has taken hold of you, you have a new life. The things in which you once walked, the old, guilt-filled past, no longer has a hold on you. The language that Paul uses here is pretty clear: “you have put off the old self with its sinful practices and you have put on the new self.” This is past-tense. Done. Like dirty, sweaty clothes that have been on for far too long out under the hot summer sun, that old life was stripped off in Baptism, when you were given a new identity in Christ, “which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” Through God’s forgiveness, you regain the His likeness that was lost with Adam and Eve. Your eyes, your ears, your mind, and your heart can now focus on “the things that are above,” the truly new.

God calls us to break from the old, to leave it behind completely. So how might we stop playing at our old identity? In this chapter of his epistle, Paul connects all the things that he’s written up to this point with some practical instruction for the Colossians as they live as people who are new in Christ. Listen to the rest of what Paul writes:

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 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.

Made new in Christ, God equips us with these abilities and tools for living without needing to run back to the old. Among these, forgiveness is incredibly important. It is fundamental to who we are as Christians and must never be neglected or undervalued: we need it of each day we walk on this earth. Similarly, God’s Word, the word of Christ, is powerful defense against the old and a guide in the new: do not limit your exposure to it to one hour on one day of the week, but let it reside in your mind and heart. For example: When you’re tempted to chase the wind, letting covetousness take hold of your thoughts and actions, you might remember Jesus’ parable from today’s Gospel text in Luke 12. And as you remember that your life is in Christ, speak with and listen to him in prayer, offering God thanks and bringing Him your cares. We Christians live in prayer, even as we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs today in worship. Through it, we can keep putting on the new self we have from God.

I like books – books you get to experience beyond just reading words on the page – and the Bible is certainly a book that you experience. But whether your Bible is printed on paper or displayed on an e-reader, it is indeed a good book. This summer and in every season ahead, may that good book remind you of you are: new in Christ.

Amen.

other sermons in this series