Katie Derksen
Like most people in first year of college or university, I lived in residence, and I had a roommate. Like most roommates, Hannah and I had our differences, but we also had things that we just clicked on. One of those things that we both had a passion for was decorating – the walls of our rooms were plastered. There were lots of different things: we had posters, little things that had been cut out of magazines or wrapping paper, pictures of friends and family from back home, a map of the moon on the ceiling along with glow-in-the-dark stars… Really, the walls were plastered – you couldn't see much of the ugly, white, cindercrete blocks that the residence was made of.
Hannah also had some bulletin covers that she had kept from her church, and put up on our walls. Not many, but at least two. They were a neat addition. When it came time for us to dismantle our room, she offered them to me instead of tossing them out, and I took two of them. The one used to be up on my bulletin board in my old office, and the other one is right here.
The art's not the best and it's fairly simplistic, but I like it. It's got simple flowers on it – each with a round centre, and six triangles that are shaped kind of like guitar picks. Each flower is a fairly bright colour, with a different coloured centre, and outline around each petal. The text flowing through the middle of it states: "Put on love." Up until last night, it hung above the closet door in my apartment.
When I settle into a new place, one of the first things I'll do is decorate – until my stuff is on the walls, it's just not my place. When I came across the two bulletin covers I had inherited from Hannah, it seemed right that this one go above my closet – after all, it's where I put on my clothes, so it'd be fitting to go above the door. I guess I thought that I'd see it every day, and be reminded that the most important thing that I'd put on that day was love, not any particular item of clothing.
However, I find that I don't often look up when I'm going through the closet door – in fact, when I go through any door. Especially when it's morning, I've just stumbled out of the shower, and no coffee has yet to touch my lips. Suffice to say, I don't see this every day. When I do see it, though, it makes me smile. It's a great phrase, and the art on this is eye catching, even if it's not the type of art that would, or even should be sold, or appear in art galleries.
I don't think, though, that when Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians, he meant for this, or any of the passages, to "bring a smile" to peoples' faces. It should read more like a challenge, not like a warm fuzzy.
Swaddling Clothes
We just celebrated the birth of Christ, when God came down in the form of a helpless baby. It's the time of year that we have images of babies wrapped up in white cloth, lying peacefully in mangers in amazingly clean barns. It's probably not really what it looked like… There's the helpless baby Jesus, in a barn. It's most likely dirty, and smelly, and loud. And weird people keep coming through, like shepherds with probably a few sheep that they couldn't leave behind. Most likely some of the people who were staying near-by heard somewhat of a commotion and dropped in, too. And in a few days, we'll be celebrating the arrival of the wise men, who also came by for a visit. It's an odd scene.
But this is the stuff of Christmas. This messy, noisy, peculiar picture is how God chose to come into the world. And it's not like it was a sudden, unpredicted event – oh no. Prophets had been foretelling the birth of the Messiah for centuries beforehand. I just don't think that very many people expected it to be like this. But it happened. God came. Jesus came. Angels sang, shepherds watched, wise men travelled. Jesus came. Hallelujah!!!
And suddenly, we're projected years ahead, and Jesus is old enough to travel to Jerusalem for Passover, and to be in the Temple, sitting with the elders. And then, just as suddenly, we're hearing John the Baptist proclaim, and Jesus is being baptized, at the age of roughly 30 years old. That's a lot of growing up that was skipped!! Sometimes, the Bible can seem to be pretty sketchy on some details. But that's ok, because really, sometimes it's not those details that are important.
One of the things that the Bible isn't sketchy on is how the followers of Christ should act. We are called to be different from the world, to be other. This doesn't mean that we need to be continuously walking around with proclaiming our state of otherness – no, we are told and shown in many places in the Bible that what should be different is how we live.
How much of an impact does the fact that Jesus lived, died and rose have on your life? If you've been baptized, if you've made the commitment to follow Christ with your life and in the way you live, how much of an impact does that have on your life? We may not be called to walk around with signs on, but we are called to live with a difference.
Listen to our text from Colossians again:
Kingdom Clothes
What does it mean to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience but above all to clothe ourselves with love? I know that I certainly would love to live in a world where these things are constantly extended to me, and a world where that's what I can constantly extend to others. But that's a hard thing to do. We live in a world that has seen the birth of Christ, and therefore has experienced the Kingdom of God upon it. We live as followers of Christ, and therefore we are citizens of that Kingdom. What Paul outlines for us here are what we, as citizens of the Kingdom of God, should wear – Kingdom clothes, if you will.
Kingdom clothes are not clothes such as a shirt, a pair of pants, or socks. No, Kingdom clothes are harder to see. They're manifestations of what's going on inside, in what we have our hope in, in where we hold our citizenry. Kingdom clothes are seen in how we interact with others, in how we live our lives. And that's a lot harder than showing our faith with placards, or jewellery, or t-shirts, or some other physical sign or symbol.
Kingdom clothes can be hard to put on. Unlike regular clothes, which tend to stay put with little effort on our part, Kingdom clothes can slip off in a split second, with less effort than it takes to remove, say, a pair or tear away gym pants. Kingdom clothes take effort to put on, and an even greater effort to keep on.
We put on Kingdom clothes when we come to worship and learn together – I'm not talking about putting on your "Sunday best" or even just "church appropriate" clothes, but about what happens in our heads and in our hearts when we learn, when we worship, when we gather. That's one way of putting Kingdom clothes on. As is Bible study during the week, or prayer, or getting together with a friend with whom you can talk about where you've seen God at work in the last little while, or where you need prayer. Or to gather with a friend who is struggling with the same issues, to hash out theology, or discuss, or debate. Anything we do that reminds us of God, and that reminds us to follow God, helps us to put on our Kingdom clothes.
Paul tells the people of Colossae to put on meekness, kindness, humility, compassion, patience and love. Those are hard things to put on. Isn't there some joke about how, once you realize that you're being humble, you've gone and blown it? The same could probably be said of meekness. Kindness, compassion, patience – what alien concepts in the world we read of in the newspapers. And yet, we're encouraged to wear them – and I'm sure that Paul wasn't just thinking of slipping them on on occasion, but of wearing them all the time.
Kingdom clothes are hard to put on, hard to keep on, and they can certainly be hard to wear. But that's where we come in, the citizens of the Kingdom of God, the followers of Christ. Sure, we're all going to slip up some times, if not most of the time, but that's ok, as long as we remember to keep on trying, to keep on putting on the clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. And love. Who can forget love? As followers of Christ, we know that we're supposed to be wearing these things, not the right styles, or the right jewellery, or the right… whatever. And we're called to encourage each other along the way, to hold each other to it.
A New Resolution?
As much as I have a tendency to dislike New Years' resolutions - after all, why promise to do something just because it's December 31st, or January 1st? We should be continuously striving to become better people, better followers of Christ… As much as I can dislike them, perhaps, instead of merely living with this text for a week, as was my initial thought, we should commit ourselves to living this passage out in our everyday lives, beyond the year 2004. And we shouldn't just stop there. Oh no. We should be challenging all those around us to live it, too. We need to hold each other to it. Church isn't merely Sunday morning, or this building – this is merely where we gather. The gathering is important for learning, for growth, for support, but, as the phrase goes, we live as a people scattered. And then we gather. It's the life that we live when we're scattered that's important, though. That's when we show the world that we're different, that we live for another purpose, that we're citizens of another kingdom.
No, this service, this building isn't the church. We are the church, each of us, wherever we are, and we need to remember that. We need to hold each other to it, and to remind each other to put on our Kingdom clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. But, above all, we need to remember to put on love. To wear it so that everyone who meets us sees it.
So perhaps this year, instead of resolving to do something for just a little while, resolve this – to wear your Kingdom clothes as often as you can remember to. And find ways to remember to do it. Set your watch to go off every hour and use it as signal to put those Kingdom clothes back on. Make a deal with the person sitting next to you today that you'll check up with each other next week, and the week after that, and the week after that. Write it into your daily schedule. Doodle the words "compassion," "meekness," "kindness," "patience," "humility," and "love" on your notebooks, your hand, your mirror. Put up a sign where you'll see it – in fact, I think I'll find a new place for this sign when I get home.
As you leave today, put on these things. Put on kindness, patience, humility, meekness, compassion, and love – don't forget the love. Wear them, even when it gets hard to do it.
May God help us to do so.
Amen.
As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with 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 the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing pslams, hymns, and spiritual songs 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. -- Colossians 3:12-17
I love this text. It's like a giant warm fuzzy. Those words, those phrases, are so, so comforting. Or, perhaps, they're comfortable.
All quotations of Scripture, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version.