Phil Kniss: How not to get lost

August 29, 2010

Deuteronomy 6:4-15; Mark 12:28-34

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This past week, many of you here started school.
This coming week, more of you will start,
either as a student, or a teacher.
Most of you are at least entering a new, and unfamiliar, classroom.
Some of you are entering a completely new school.
It may look and feel strange.
It may take some time to find your way around the buildings,
without losing your sense of direction.

Well, this morning I have a sermon just for you:
“How not to get lost.”
Let no one say I don’t preach practical sermons.
Except . . . this one may not help you at all
in getting around your hallways or campus.
And it’s actually not just for students
or people in unfamiliar surroundings.
This is a message for all of us,
including those who’ve been in the same job for decades,
have never moved,
and know their neighborhood like the back of their hand.

I include myself when I say, we are all at risk, all the time,
of losing ourselves in our surroundings.
It has been that way from time immemorial.

In fact, not getting lost
was the #1 concern that Moses had for his people
as they were entering the promised land.
Amazing, considering the fact they had just spent 40 years,
wandering to and fro in a desolate wilderness.
You’d think that maybe that would have been the time
that Moses would worry about the people getting lost.
But no.
It’s right at the point they are about to arrive.
It’s when they are on the verge of finally settling down—
throwing away their tents and building houses.
Establishing property, planting crops, constructing barns,
staying put.
It’s at this point in their history,
that Moses is worried about them getting lost.
_____________________

Let’s take a look at Deuteronomy 6, if you have your Bibles with you.
This short passage we heard this morning is part of a longer speech.
Much longer.
Almost the whole book of Deuteronomy, as a matter of fact,
is presented as a speech, 30-plus chapters long,
that Moses gave to the people of Israel,
as his final instructions to them,
before they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land,
and shortly before he died,
never to see the Promised Land himself.

But let’s start with the second half of today’s reading,
beginning in v. 10 of Deut. 6.
Here is Moses’ concern, all spelled out:
For the last 40 years, since their deliverance from Egypt,
they roamed the wilderness.
They lived in tents and scavenged for food.
They depended utterly and completely on God for their survival.
Now, things were about to change, radically.

So Moses said, and I’ll paraphrase . . .
“Now look and listen, people.
Up till now you’ve depended on God for everything you needed,
quail, manna, water . . . one day at a time.
Pretty soon you’ll be swimming in milk and honey.
You’re going to live in cities you didn’t build,
houses full of stuff you didn’t buy.
You’ll get water from cisterns you didn’t dig,
wine from vineyards you didn’t prune,
olives from groves you didn’t plant.
You’re going to have it made... in the shade.”
Then Moses said,
“When your stomachs are full,
and you’re leaning back with your feet propped up,
don’t forget where you came from.
When you start thinking you can handle things by yourself,
when you get tempted by all the gods around you,
remember the God you belong to,
remember who owns you.
Remember the Lord,
who brought you out of slavery in Egypt,
and fed you in the desert.
There is only one God
who loves you, delivers you, and calls you ‘my people.’
There is only one.”
_____________________

And that brings us back to vv. 4-5 and following.
These verses are not only the heart of this passage.
They are the heart of the Old Testament.
And they are the heart of the Jewish faith . . . to this day.

“Shema, Israel... Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Keep these words.
Recite them to your children.
Talk about them when you are at home,
and when you are away.
When you go to bed at night.
And when you get up in the morning.
Tie them onto your hand, and onto your forehead,
write them on your doorposts and on your gates.”

That’s what it says!
And every Jewish man, woman, and child today,
if they practice any part of their faith at all,
knows Deuteronomy 6:4 by heart, in Hebrew.
The words printed on the bulletin cover today:
“Shema, Israel, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.”
“Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is One.”

Even non-practicing Jews,
who don’t know any other Hebrew phrase,
I suspect they know the “Shema.”
The same way every Christian man, woman, and child,
if they have any Bible knowledge at all,
at least knows the phrase,
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.”

Except, for our Jewish friends, the “Shema” is part of daily life.
Many of them repeat it, every day.
Some of the more devout, do so multiple times a day.
The Jewish people—as a community—
immerse themselves in these words,
to the point they are no longer merely words.
They are a spiritual home base.
They keep the Jewish people from getting lost,
just as Moses hoped.

At the time in their history when they had arrived,
when they could take their ease . . .
these were the words that kept them from getting lost.

If they started feeling self-sufficient,
they had this daily reminder.
They were not their own people.
They had a God who called them, “my people.”
A God who loved them dearly.
A God who delivered from those who enslaved them.
One God . . . and only one.
Adonai Eloheinu. Adonai Echad.
The Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Whenever they were tempted to think otherwise,
they had constant reminders to bring them back to home base,
to keep them from losing themselves.

As instructed by Moses, the people did, in fact,
teach these words to their children at night and in the morning,
and bound them onto their own hands and foreheads,
and placed them on their doorposts and gates.
These words were deeply ritualized, and repeated often.

When you need something to eat and drink every day in a desert,
it’s easy to remember God
But when you’re at home and comfortable,
filled with wine and olives,
with more in the vineyards and groves out back,
you are likely to forget.

So the rituals were something to jog your memory every day,
a mnemonic device.
When other groups, worshiping other gods, live all around you,
and you do commerce with them,
and you observe their lives,
pursuing pleasure and power,
it’s easy to get sucked in.

Until . . . you come home at night and walk through your gate,
and there’s this little box attached to the gate post,
inside of which are your people’s scriptures,
and you pass the same kind of box by the front door,
and as you walk by you touch the box,
then kiss the fingers that touched it, as a gesture of affection.
And when you tuck your children into bed at night, you say,
“Shema, Israel. Adonai Eloheinu. Adonai Echad.”
and then recite a blessing
that came from the traditions of your community.
And when you get up to do your morning prayers,
you pick up two leather pouches with straps,
the pouches filled with scripture—
the words of the God of your people—
and you tie them carefully and deliberately
one onto your forehead,
and one onto your upper arm,
wrapping the strap around your lower arm seven times,
each time reciting a certain blessing,
and you know that at that same time
other members of your faith community are also
wearing the same pouches tied on the same way
and reciting the same prayers.

You then walk out your gate into the world,
and are not nearly as likely to lose yourself.
Because those physical rituals have bound you
to your God and to your people.
They have brought you home.
They have reminded you of
who you are . . . and whose you are.

What I just described
was the life of a member of the people of Israel in biblical times,
and it is the life of at least some of the more devout
and orthodox Jewish communities today.
Te-FILL-in and mezuzahs . . .
that’s what those scripture boxes are called,
and they are still used today.

What a profound and powerful concept.
Back in the wilderness, camped out with your own people,
where you need each other,
and need God’s intervention,
just to stay alive day after day,
these rituals make no sense at all.
But living in a settled land,
surrounded by powerful temptations to be self-sufficient,
temptations that would draw you out of your community life,
so that you lose yourself,
temptations that would lead you to forget your One God,
your Adonai Echad,
it seems to me these might be precious rituals indeed.
_____________________

I wonder . . .
if we aren’t in a social and religious context
that compares in some way
to the context of the Israelites in the promised land.
1 wonder . . .
if we aren’t also tempted to forget how dependent we are
on the God who claims us, owns us,
and begin to think we are self-made persons,
begin to be drawn in by other gods,
gods of excess wealth, of personal power, of pleasure-seeking.
I wonder . . .
if we wouldn’t benefit from some memory device,
some daily rituals,
to keep us from losing ourselves.

Maybe it’s not exactly the mezuzahs and te-FILL-in that we need.
But how are we, in our daily physical practices,
reminding ourselves of who we are
and who we belong to?
It’s not that a ritual has any power in itself to save or transform us.
That work can only be done by the Spirit of God—
as we submit to the Spirit’s work,
and to the community of the Spirit.
But let’s not take lightly the power of physical symbols
to shape our thinking and our identity, and our behavior.
For example, to be quite blunt, I think the Mennonite church was wrong,
a generation or two ago,
when, because it was concerned about flashy jewelry,
wedding rings were forbidden.
Now there are valid reasons someone might choose not to wear them,
But I’ll tell you, daily I’m bombarded by powerful cultural symbols
that oppose the symbolism of the wedding band,
that extol self-gratification and individual fulfillment at any cost.
It’s a gift, as a married person, to be able to wear, on my person,
a constant physical reminder of vows I made,
to give myself in love and fidelity to only one person for life.

Our culture is saturated with physical symbols of what it values.
We can’t open a newspaper,
turn on the computer or TV,
or drive down the highway,
without being confronted by our culture’s
te-FILL-in and mezuzahs, if you please.

Symbols that pay tribute to violence, sexual gratification,
and greed for material things.
We continually see and handle tangible, physical reminders
that we ought to be looking out for ourselves,
pursuing whatever gives us pleasure, wealth, or power.
How can Christians compete with that?

I think that Moses, speaking in the voice of God,
was on to something.
When you are settled in this land,
surrounded by other gods,
take these words and recite them to your children,
speak them when they go to bed and when they rise up,
bind them—physically—onto your body.

No, I’m not saying we need to
start tying scripture verses onto our head and arms.
Even many Jewish groups don’t take this as a literal command for today.
But the principle is still there.
Do we have any daily physical rituals
that keep us from losing ourselves
in a land full of gods that compete for our loyalty and worship?
That compete directly with the One, and only God,
Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.

Jesus himself reiterated this great commandment,
and pointed the second commandment,
equally important,
in our Gospel reading today.
When asked, he quoted Deut. 6,
saying the greatest commandment is to
“love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
And the second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

I wonder whether it would be wise,
for us as followers of Jesus,
to keep these two essential, core commandments
in front of us continually,
and incorporate them into some daily physical ritual.
These are, in fact,
words that we, as church office staff,
recite together every morning at 9:00 in our morning prayers.

In a moment,
we’re going to do one of this congregation’s annual rituals,
giving Bibles or Bible story books,
to our young children, older children, and youth.
This year, with Ross’ support,
I inserted this bookmark into every book we are giving.
The top of it is decorated with the Hebrew script,
which reads, “Shema, Israel, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.”
And below it are the words of Jesus,
in which he repeated those words,
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One . . .
and continued with the two great commandments I just read.

Children and youth, I encourage you
to keep this bookmark someplace where you see it every day.
I hope your Bible is something you open every day,
and maybe you could make a ritual out of using this bookmark,
and reading these words every time you read the Bible.
Or if you’re too young to read, have your parents read them.

And so that none of us miss out,
we’re going to make these bookmarks available to everyone,
young and old,
after we distribute the Bibles to the young people.

You can use them however you wish,
but I do encourage us to make some daily physical ritual out of it.
If you are a daily Bible reader, keep it in your Bible,
and read it before or after reading your passage of the day.
Or put it on your doorpost, or bathroom mirror,
or someplace you pass by daily,
and make a physical ritual out of it . . .
in whatever way that seems right for you.

Connecting with a ritual is not all we need, of course.
It’s our connection to God through Jesus Christ,
and our connection to the community of the Spirit
that makes rituals and symbols effective.
Without that faith connection, and the communal connection,
the symbols are empty.
They are only tools that remind us of a larger reality,
that by God’s grace we are part of.

—Phil Kniss, August 29, 2010

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Phil Kniss: Where (faithful) fools rush in

August 15, 2010

Hebrews 11:29–12:2

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Christian writers and scholars . . . spill a lot of ink,
and preachers use up a lot of air,
trying their very best to come up with the one
good, final, authoritative definition . . . of faith.
I’ve tried to do it myself, from this pulpit.
And the writer of Hebrews tried to do it,
at the beginning of chapter 11.
We heard that part of the chapter last Sunday:
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
the conviction of things not seen.”

Choosing the right words to define faith,
is well and good.
It helps us think more clearly about something,
when we wrestle with language to describe it.

But in the final analysis—
and the writer of Hebrews obviously knew this—
definitions can only take us so far.
We need stories.
We need real-life examples of faith.
Where we can see what faith looks like in the real world,
when it runs up against opposition,
when it’s put to the test,
when it’s . . . tried.

So the whole of chapter 11 in Hebrews,
is a catalogue of stories of the faithful.
Over and over the writer says,
“By faith . . . by faith, so-and-so did such-and-such.”
By faith, Abel gave an offering that pleased God . . .
by faith, Noah built an ark,
by faith, Abraham obeyed God
and set out for a place not knowing where he was going,
by faith, Abraham and Sarah gave birth in their old age,
by faith, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses,
the whole people of Israel,
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
David, and Samuel and the prophets . . .
all did things significant for God’s purposes.
Their stories are only briefly told,
sometimes only mentioned, with a one-line summary.
The original readers would have known the whole story,
and just by hearing the names
their stories would have come to mind,
and they would have gotten a clear picture,
of the nature and character of faith.

But we, I suppose, need more prompting.
I need more prompting.
I needed to study a bit to discover
what we really had to learn about faith,
from the experience of Barak, Jephthah, Gideon, and the rest.
You can do your own reflection on these stories,
and learn what you need to learn.
But let me tell you what I think I learned from these stories.

And let me just say,
I think reflecting on stories is a trustworthy way
to discover biblical truth.
Truth doesn’t only come in declarative, definitive statements.
It is uncovered in story.
The biblical writer tells us that all these persons
did all these things mentioned . . . by faith.
So . . . if we can find any common threads in these stories,
those threads probably tell us something trustworthy
about what faith looks like, and what faith does.

So I’m going to go back to the beginning of this chapter 11 in Hebrews,
even though we looked at some of it last Sunday.
And you might find it helpful to follow along.

From the first several verses of the chapter
we get the idea that faith is what enables God’s people
to act in ways that meet with God’s . . . approval.
The result of our faith-acts
is that God says, “Yes!”
Perhaps that is the most important result of our faith.
God says, “Yes! Yes, my child.
You are living the way I intend you to live.
You are living right.”
That’s what is meant when it says in v. 2,
“by faith our ancestors received approval.”
The writer says in v. 4 that Abel, son of Adam and Eve,
offered to God a good sacrifice,
and thus, “he received approval as righteous.”

Abel, in the biblical story,
comes long before God revealed himself as Yahweh,
long before any religious system of sacrifice was established.
But as the story is told,
Abel—in this primitive survival economy,
where if you weren’t successful in the hunt,
or successful raising your meat or grain,
you would go hungry—
Abel chooses to relinquish, that is, sacrifice,
some of the best and fattest of his flock
as an act of worship,
to a God he really didn’t know.
And God said, “Yes!”

And in v. 5,
“By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death.”
We really don’t know any more details about Enoch than this.
Genesis 5 says, “Enoch walked with God, and then was no more.”
The implication here was that Enoch, by the way he lived,
pleased God so much,
that God said, “Yes!” And spared him the pain of death.

And in v. 7,
“By faith, Noah respected God’s warning and built an ark.”
Despite the ridiculousness of his project,
and the scorn he suffered from others,
Noah obeyed.
And God said, “Yes!”
I approve! You are an heir to righteousness.

And in v. 8, the writer takes 12 whole verses
to summarize the story of Abraham.
He was called to a place, but didn’t know where he was going.
He lived in tents for decades, waiting for God’s next move (v. 9).
He and Sarah accepted the promise of a son in their old age (v. 11).
By faith, he later was willing to sacrifice this only son,
because God directed him (v. 17).
He died before the fruit of all God’s promises were seen.
But throughout his life,
he obeyed God’s call, he took God’s direction,
he accepted God’s demands,
even at great personal sacrifice,
even when the end was not in view.
And God said, “Yes . . . yes . . . and yes!”
I approve. You are living right.

In v. 20, even though Isaac was old and his eyesight had failed,
still saw clearly with the eyes of faith to perceive God’s vision,
and “By faith, Isaac invoked blessings for the future
on Jacob and Esau.”
and God said, “Yes.”

Similarly, in v. 21, Jacob, even though he was dying,
“By faith . . . blessed each of the sons of Joseph.”
And God said, “Yes.”

V. 22, By faith, Joseph was forward-looking enough,
before he died, saw the horizons of God’s future in the Exodus,
and asked that his bones be carried into the land of promise.
And God said, “Yes.”

V. 23ff, By faith, Moses’ parents, and later Moses himself,
believed God had something better in store for their people,
than continued child-killing and slavery,
and refused to become Egyptian-ized.
And God said, “Yes.”

V. 29, By faith, the whole people of Israel,
although they had only recently
become acquainted with this God Yahweh, through Moses,
were willing to walk through the Red Sea at God’s command.
And God said, “Yes,” parting the sea and getting them safely across.

V. 30, By faith, the people marched around a large fortified city, Jericho,
seven times, blowing trumpets and looking silly.
And God said, “Yes,” causing the walls to fall
and the city to be defeated.

V. 31, By faith, Rahab the prostitute
received the Hebrew spies in peace, and helped them escape,
at great risk to her own life,
and to Rahab the prostitute,
God said, “Yes!” and spared her life.

And then there’s the six names in v. 32.
Names only, no mention of what they did.
But from other scriptures, we learn that,
by faith, Gideon gained victory over Midian
with an utterly small army,
equipped with trumpets and torches . . .
by faith, Barak also gained an unlikely victory,
with the counsel of the prophetess, Deborah . . .
by faith, Samson, even at his most vulnerable hour,
was given superhuman strength to defeat the enemies
of God’s people . . .
by faith, Jephthah, the son of a prostitute,
kicked out of his house by his half-brothers,
fled and lived as an outlaw,
then was invited back by the elders
to lead a rout of the army attacking Israel,
and he had sufficient faith to listen to God’s call . . .
and by faith King David . . . where can we even start?
so many stories of David acting by faith,
beginning with his faithful work as a shepherd boy,
and on to confronting the giant Goliath with a slingshot,
to leading the nation as a king . . .
and by faith Samuel the prophet,
listened to God’s call in the night,
in the home of his caretaker Eli,
and worked for justice for his people in the face of great odds,
and by faith the other un-named prophets
did all sorts of unlikely and seemingly foolish things
because God directed them to,
and to each of these, God said, “Yes!”
“I approve of your act of faith.”
_____________________

Now, that’s quite a list I just went over.
It doesn’t take a lot of digging to realize
that this is a hall of fame for people who acted in faith.
It is not a hall of fame for holy people.
In this list is a prostitute,
an outlaw son of a prostitute,
who also ended up killing his own daughter
because of a foolish vow he made,
a king who murdered the husband of a beautiful woman,
because he lusted after her,
a strong man who forsook his vows to please his lover.
And this isn’t even getting into the issue
that the outcome of their acts of faith often resulted
in whole armies and towns being wiped off the map.
Holy? Unblemished? Worthy examples of Christian ethics?
No.

It would take a whole sermon—maybe a sermon series—
to unpack all the issues raised by these unholy lives.
This is not God’s endorsement of modern warfare,
any more than it’s God’s endorsement of prostitution
and murder and family homicide.

So what is the common thread
that ties these people together as persons who exhibited faith,
and to whom God gave a resounding “Yes.”
They were all, by faith,
fools who rushed in where angels feared to tread.

All of them were being called,
either directly, by the voice of God,
or through a prophet or prophetess of God,
to undertake some particular act that advanced the purposes of God,
and to do so even though it appeared at best, foolish,
at worst, suicidal.
But certainly dangerous, and highly unlikely to succeed.
And they were all acts that did nothing
to advance their own individual interests or agenda.
In most cases, in fact, they were setting aside their plans and agenda,
to undertake this dangerous work for the purposes of God,
and to act in the interest of God’s people.

What fool would relinquish the fattest of his flock
to make an offering to an unknown God?
Only a faithful fool.
What fool would build a huge boat on dry land
without a body of water in sight,
just on the basis of a divine weather forecast?
What fool would pull up his tent stakes
and leave his whole family and clan and head off into the desert
without even a map?
What fool would give up a life of ease and riches in a Pharaoh’s palace,
and voluntarily join forces with a people in slavery?
What fools would march around a fortified city seven times
blowing trumpets, and . . . well, making fools of themselves?
What fool would take on a vast army with 300 unarmed men?
What fool would risk her life and livelihood,
to give safe shelter to foreigners she never met before?
. . .
What fools would leave secure jobs and careers and families
in the wealthiest country on the earth,
and head off to Afghanistan for weeks, or years . . .
and give medical aid to those with eye problems,
and live in the harshest conditions,
risking kidnapping and murder?
Only faithful fools.
The fools who rush in where angels fear to tread.

What fools would stand up to both religious and civil authorities,
and be the kind of church they believed God wanted them to be,
even if it meant being burned at the stake, drowned, or beheaded?
What fool would shed themselves of all their earthly possessions
and go live in Christian community among the poor,
such as with lepers in Calcutta?
What fool would voluntarily choose not to live in a safe neighborhood,
but choose to live in a blighted neighborhood
in inner-city Baltimore?
What fool would quit a high-paying job
because they can no longer look the other way
when their company is conducting business
that enables people to kill and maim others in warfare?
or treats people unjustly?
or makes worse the plight of the poor?
What fool would give up even a simple pleasure,
or convenience,
or a few dollars,
because doing so, is an act of creation care?
What fool, in today’s world,
makes any personal sacrifice for the sake of God’s purposes?
What fool puts the cause of God’s kingdom above self-interest?
Only a faithful fool.
A fool who rushes in . . . just because God calls.

That’s faith.
That’s what faith does.

Faith is far more than being able to recite the proper creed,
although words are certainly important.
Faith is far more than having a perfect ethical track record,
although living lives that are holy
is an important part of God’s call.
Faith is more.

Faith is saying “yes” to God,
when doing so makes little sense in the immediate,
when it entails some personal risk or sacrifice,
when it invites ridicule,
when there is no guaranteed outcome,
and yet, it is clearly an act that contributes
to the purposes of God in this broken world.

Whether we are hearing God correctly, of course,
is a matter to be discerned within our faith community,
guided by the Spirit and the Scriptures.
But when that call is adequately discerned,
Faith is responding, by our actions, in trust to God’s call.

And when we do,
we will hear a voice coming from heaven,
and echoing around the earth.
And that voice will be saying,
“Yes!”
“That’s my child. I approve.”

It doesn’t mean we will be hailed as heros in this life.
It doesn’t even mean we will live to see the outcome.
Just read again vv. 35-38 of Hebrews 11.
Some of these heros, it says,
were tortured, mocked, flogged, and imprisoned,
stoned, sawn in two, killed by the sword . . .
they went about in skins of sheep and goats,
destitute, persecuted, tormented . . .
they wandered in deserts and mountains,
and in caves and holes in the ground.
But . . . it tells the readers . . . of them the world was not worthy.

That’s how I like to think of those Christian aid workers
in Afghanistan,
who, by faith, were serving God’s purposes,
at their personal and individual peril.
They were deemed, by their attackers,
not to be worthy to live in this world.
But Hebrews says, in fact,
the world was not worthy of them.
May God give peace to their families.
And may God give us the courage to live our lives
by such faith.
And God will certainly say, “Yes!”

—Phil Kniss, August 15, 2010

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Alicia Horst: Strangers and Foreigners

August 8, 2010

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Alicia Horst is the Executive Director of New Bridges Immigrant Resource Center. Every day she works with people who are foreigners and strangers. Abraham and Sarah were also strangers and foreigners as they followed God’s call. The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16, outlines how the people of God, living by faith, are constantly called into situations where they are not “at home”. This has not stopped with the writing of Hebrews.

Anabaptist Mennonites continue to explore what our identity is in a changing world. In some sense, we are strangers here, and we are called to look out for, and offer hospitality to, other strangers and foreigners. Alicia Horst says that as we do this, we can learn so much about faith and hope from those we host. Interacting with immigrants and this country’s immigration laws is complex and at times confusing. However, God does call us to show hospitality to strangers. In Hebrews 13, the writer says that some have hosted angels unknowingly.

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Phil Kniss: Being Christian among American Idols

August 1, 2010

Colossians 3:1-11

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Once again, we’ve heard just part of a letter.
This time, by Paul, to the community at Colossae.
You need to know some things about Colossae.
The church there was mostly Gentile.
Colossae was part of an urban triangle,
a Tri-City area with Laodicea and Hieropolis,
situated in the beautiful Lycus Valley.
This region was wealthy.
It had lots of agricultural resources.
It sat on a major highway, an east-west trade route.
It was an intellectual center.
It was a happening place.
Compared to some more remote areas of Asia,
these were affluent, urbane, sophisticated people,
who had all the pleasures—and temptations—
of “the good life”
readily available to them.

Not unlike a certain ‘Burg we’re quite familiar with—
two hours from our nation’s capital,
on a major trade route, 81,
economically robust,
plenty of natural resources,
and home to four colleges and universities.

I can imagine the church at Colossae,
and our church at Park View in Harrisonburg,
have a lot in common.
In both places,
we who call ourselves Christian—followers of Jesus Christ—
are trying to figure out the same thing.
How to “be Christian” in a world that, well . . . isn’t.
Both we Mennonite Christians in the Shenandoah Valley,
and Colossian Christians in the Lycus Valley,
are trying to figure out how to go about “being Christian”
while being resident in, invested in, committed to,
and steeped in the values of,
a wealthy and worldly culture.
And I’m using “worldly” in a non-judgmental sense.
I just mean, “of the world.”
_____________________

So Paul writes a letter to the church at Colossae
to try to help them figure it out.
And this is his advice:
“Set your minds on things that are above,
not on things that are on earth.”
“Seek the things that are above,” he says.
“Put to death . . . whatever in you is earthly.”

These are words we are very familiar with.
“Set your mind on things above.”
Look toward heaven.
Look away from the earth.
It’s common Christian wisdom.
It’s the stuff of gospel song refrains.
“This world is not my home, I’m only passing through.”
and, “I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

But . . . but . . . there are numerous objections to such advice.
And I’m familiar with these objections.

For one, we are tempted to create a sharp dualism
between the spiritual and the physical.
Where everything spiritual and heavenly is good,
and everything material and physical is evil.
And that leads us to all kinds of heresies
that Paul would never support.
If the material world is utterly evil,
then a good God could not have created that evil material,
and Jesus could not have been God’s Son,
and still have a flesh-and-blood body.
And if we think of our bodies as evil,
we could go down one of two wrong roads.
We could starve and beat and deny the body,
practice a rigid asceticism to defeat this evil body.
Or we could do the opposite.
We could decide if the spirit is all that matters,
we can do whatever we want with the body,
satisfy its every desire.
In fact, these were some of the things going on at Colossae,
and Paul was deeply concerned.

Another objection to looking toward heaven and away from the earth,
is that it makes faith merely an escape from the real world.
We miss the real beauty and truth that exists in this physical world,
and exists within the lives of all human beings, to some extent.
Often, Christians are accused of being so “heavenly-minded”
that they are no “earthly-good.”
That’s a real possibility.
And one to be avoided.

So, what did Paul mean,
and how do we go about living this way,
with “our minds set on things above, not on things of the earth”?

Well, let me summarize Paul this way, in four words:
“Be what you are.”

Paul is saying that, in Christ, we are new creation.
And Paul repeats it. A dozen different ways.
We are raised with Christ.
Our life is hidden with Christ in God.
Christ is our life.
In other words,
our small life get subsumed in, gets lost in,
the resurrection life of Jesus Christ.
In Christ we have a new identity,
and we are called to live into that identity.
_____________________

Ernest D. Martin, long-time Mennonite pastor and scholar in Ohio,
wrote the Believers Church commentary on Colossians,
and the phrase he used over and over,
was that we must “orient ourselves to the risen Christ.”
He wrote, “Know which side is up.
Know who you are. Know where you are headed.”

So you see, Paul is not urging the church to forsake the world
and everything in it.
We are not told to live our lives as if the world didn’t matter.
No, we live with an orientation toward Jesus Christ,
and his resurrection, which is now our resurrection.

See, the great mystery of the resurrection is not only
that Jesus died and rose again.
This mystery includes the reality that God,
in God’s great power and grace and wisdom,
appropriated that resurrection to our lives.
We are raised with Christ and in Christ.
We are new creation.
So our lives need to reflect this.
Else, we deny the truth that God re-created us.
Else, we turn our back on our re-creator.
Else, we reject Christ in God as the source of our identity,
and settle for cheap substitutes.
Else, we become earth-oriented idol-worshipers.

When Paul used the words “above” and “on earth”
he wasn’t referring to geography.
He wasn’t talking about up and down.
He was talking about those things consistent with the Christ-life,
and those things typical of the self-life.

You are “in Christ,” Paul says,
so “be what you are!”
Be, in daily practice, what you are,
because of what Christ has worked in you.
Live as one oriented toward Christ.
_____________________

Easier said, than done, of course.
How do we, in the daily demands of life,
keep our minds set on things above?

I don’t think it’s a matter of saying there are two different worlds,
Christian and non-Christian,
so let’s spend all our time in the Christian world.
I don’t think it’s a matter of reading only so-called Christian books,
and listening only to so-called Christian radio,
and filling our homes and vehicles with
Christian plaques and knick-knacks and bumper stickers.

Garrison Keillor, on “Prairie Home Companion,”
talked about growing up among the Sanctified Brethren.
His parents had religious sayings
on plaques and trinkets all over the house,
even inside the car.
One night as a high-school senior
he went on a “hot date” in his parents’ car.
He was cruising down the road, and put his arm around his girl,
and thought, “This is going to be a wonderful evening.”
Then he saw the magnetic Bible verse
stuck to the metal dashboard,
and was horrified to find Proverbs 15:3 glowing in the dark!
“The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
keeping watch on the evil and the good.”
So he distracted the girl,
and quick put the magnet in the glove compartment.

We laugh, but it’s something we’ve all done.
We’ve all put our faith into compartments.
We act like the “things that are above” are for special occasions,
and we put them into a handy spare compartments,
for safekeeping while we go about the “things that are on earth.”
Then we retrieve the “things above” whenever necessary.

No, we who claim Jesus Christ as Lord
must live fully and participate fully in this earthly life,
while . . . we orient our life around Christ and the kingdom of God.
We don’t have one foot on earth and the other foot in heaven.
We have both feet planted firmly on this earth,
and both feet in the kingdom of God.
This earth is the place where God’s kingdom is taking root now.
We who are Christian live every day and every moment,
as citizens of God’s kingdom
and residents in this world.

This is why we must take the church seriously.
The church, as a community of resident aliens,
is a critical part of learning how to be Christian
in a land of idols.
No thinking person can deny.
This world is full of things that would distract us.
Full of things that clamor for our attention and loyalty.
Full of things that try to be a cheap substitute
for the identity God has given us.
And perhaps nowhere more than the United States of America,
are we saturated with so many options,
so many invitations to find our identity
in accumulating wealth,
in exercising power over others,
in pursuing our sexual desires,
or abusing the pleasures of food, or chemicals.
There are so many things vying for our worship.
There are so many kinds of American idols.
And God calls the church to live fully, live Christian-ly,
among these idols.
It’s not always easy to recognize idols.
Most idols—money, sex, food, power—are basically good things.
As we heard in Ecclesiastes,
God has made everything suitable for its time.
Idols are good things that we slowly allow
to overtake their rightful place,
and become a substitute for God.
Like the rich man in the parable we heard from Luke 12.
He found his peace and security in his abundant crops,
and ever larger barns in which to store them.
So we need people around us who can see the idols we cannot,
and vice versa.
_____________________

How well we do that, as a church, depends on our orientation.
In his commentary on Colossians,
Ernest Martin had some insightful thoughts on this topic.
He said it depends on whether we see the church
as a sub-culture or a counter-culture.

If we see the church as a sub-culture within a larger culture,
we might be tempted to think Christian values are options
to add to the generally accepted values in society.
And we see plenty of evidence of that view.
Some who claim to be Christian are hard to distinguish.
They take the values of the dominant culture
and make a few tweaks,
a couple additions or slight modifications,
Or they put a thin overlay of Christian language on
outright greed and power-mongering and pleasure-seeking.

But if we see the church as a counter-culture,
we begin at a different place!
We begin with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And we construct a common life and shared values
out of our communal orientation to Christ.

We don’t just size up the world’s values,
and then turn them upside-down and call them Christian.
We begin with Christ
and the values that Jesus Christ taught,
and demonstrated in his life
as he walked with a community of disciples.

If these values happen to be in contrast to the world’s values, so be it.
And they often will be.
If they are consistent with certain larger cultural values, so be it.
We can find some common ground and celebrate it.

But most of the time,
as a people shaped by self-sacrificing love
living in a self-worshiping society,
the church will be a counter-culture community.

If we think following Jesus
is taking a comfortable life in this world,
and adding some Christian blessings to make it just a little better,
then we have just successfully bypassed this whole thing about
“dying with Christ.”
We can hardly be raised with Christ, if we haven’t died, can we?

When we turn to Jesus, we die.
Paul advises us,
“Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly:
fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and greed (which is idolatry) . . .
[put off] anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language . . .”

We must die to those self-oriented values and practices
that are such powerful distractions,
that have such strong gravitational pull,
keeping us earth-bound, to use Paul’s language.
And, by God’s grace, we are raised to new life.
We become a wholly new creation.
Thanks be to God!

—Phil Kniss, August 1, 2010

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