Seeking the Things that are Above
Video Link: https://youtu.be/yFZm71-UaPE
Readings: Colossians 3:1-17, Psalm 1, Luke 6:17-26
Sometimes in this world, it can be pretty hard to imagine how unity can happen. We meet people that are too proud to even realize their own misconceptions - we can be too proud too. We see the world arguing over what kindness, freedom, and love actually look like. We can so easily belittle life, whether it is our own or another's. The church universal even struggles with finding a shared voice. How can we ever find our way with seemingly unreconcilable differences? How can we ever find unity in such a world as this? The hard, but true answer is we can’t. Instead, we have to seek a new world.
One of the problems is where we start. What are we focusing on, or looking toward? Often we start with this world and want to make it just a little better. I know I often focus on the world as a starting place too. I remember one of my mantras as a child was “try to leave each situation a little better than how you found it”. In an atheist worldview, this might be one of the best things we can hope for, even if the idea of better can only be defined by some subjective reality that will not always be better for everyone else. Starting from the world means that we are starting with a subjective and broken reality. Just imagine building a house on a broken and unleveled foundation, or sand as Jesus’ parable said. That is what we are doing when we start with the world.
So, where do we start? Paul tells us to “Seek the Things that Are Above”. I recognize that seeking after the things that are above, or seeking God, or heaven can feel very abstract. What does that even mean? Part of that mystery, otherness, and abstraction, is important because what is above is beyond our world. Because it is other, it means that it can utterly change the world. The difficulty of the abstraction is, how do we see, how do we grab hold of, how do we realize something that is other than us?
Thank God that this other, this thing that is above came down to us in Jesus so this world might be changed through something that is beyond it. Jesus can still feel other though, so how do we reach him?
The answer is simple: faith. Faith is the realization of things hoped for. Faith is the realization of what is above. Faith is the realization of who we have faith in: Jesus Christ. That is where Paul goes next. Seek the things that are above, where Jesus Christ Himself sits enthroned. We only have to look around for a few seconds to realize that Jesus Christ is not Lord over most things or people in this world, by their own choice. Even we Christians often follow things of this world before Jesus; when we follow anything that isn't Jesus it clouds our vision of Unity, love, freedom and so much more, but this should not be. What we should be seeking is what we pray every Sunday in our Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven”. We want God’s will to be done. We want God’s will to be done, not just a little more here and there, but we want it to be the ruling will, that decided the very nature of our lives and this earth. We want God's will to be done like it is in heaven.
That reminds us of something we learned a few Christmas’ in our Surprised by Hope sermon series. It is not that the Christian life is the pursuit of heaven, it is rather that we pursue the realization of heaven on earth. We want God to rebuild his Kingdom here.
God can and does use the things of this world, as He uses us, but we forget how corrupting evil and sin is. Sin builds walls between us. Evil in our hearts and lives clouds our vision, understanding, feelings, ecerything. Sin corrupts the very nature of us and the things around us. We don’t need things to be a little better; we need things to be transformed. It is true that we can’t even point things in the right direction if we don’t start with what is above, but we don’t often realize that we don’t even have the right material.
If you start with water that is corrupted, filthy, and would make you sick, you can’t mix it with a little less filthy water and hope for great results. Instead, ideally, you start with clean water and you just give that, or you bring something that utterly transforms that water. We need something whole and powerful to make us new.
This is why the spiritual reality of dying to this world through baptism and daily faith is so important. We are born to a new world. We start and live in God the source of all that is good. That is what we need in this world and that is what it means to start with things that are above.
We too often really like the things of this world, we like the moments of comfort, the moments of happiness that these are fickle and lesser realities. We know that when we are filled with such worldly things, we quickly become hungry. We know that when we are comforted by most things in the world we quickly find stress and anxiety. We know that when we receive praise in this world it is a fickle, fleeting reward. We hold onto our little pockets of life like they should be defended at all costs because they seem to be the best we can have, but this is ignoring the realization of our faith, that there is far more and far better just beyond the horizon.
This unseen and above reality, probably still feels beyond you, but most of you have realized and seen what is above at least in moments of your life. And many of you have even recognized it. Can you think of a moment where you stepped out in faith, where you trusted, where you lived as if in a different world, as if heaven was already present? Can you remember a moment where something other took shape? Where God became powerfully present? Can you remember a great joy or peace that was different, lasting, more powerful and yet humble and simple. Each situation is different, but they all have a way of putting God in the rightful place in that moment and so they restore and transform that moment to be a little taste of heaven.
I can remember so many moments in my life, but particularly when my parents got divorced. Looking at it from a worldly perspective, it felt like utter devastation and I lived in that for a few months. I screamed, I emotionally rioted against the world, I ran away, I built up walls, I fought, that is until I gave it to God. Nothing had changed and yet, everything had changed. There was a new hope, love, and peace at the moment that was not just tranquility of mind, but it was something that began to be realized and transform my life and relationships and still does to this day as I witnessed a reconciliation, peace, and family I never imagined possible.
Paul looks at some really practical ways to seek what is above first. I would encourage you to really take some time to think about how your life and thinking may too often be grounded in or start from a place of greed, earthly desire, anger, lust, lies etc. Things that are not of heaven can easily dominate our desires and our passions. I don’t think I need to point to examples of how this can lead us astray and how it can lead us to fight and struggle in unproductive ways. That is evident in our world and sadly too often in our church communities.
Paul instead tells us to start somewhere different. With the renewal of our minds. With our minds transformed by the mind of God. With a new Lord over our minds. It is in our common Lord that our difference no longer becomes our defining reality. It is in this transformation of mind that we can have a common direction and goal. It is in this renewal of our mind that we see each other as God’s children. As people transform, reborn, redeemed, and renewed. Our minds are meant to start in a new place together. We are defined by God and so defined by an otherworldly, a Godly kind of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and love. This is the starting place, this is what is meant to define our lives. The things that are above. As discussed two weeks ago, kindness, love and humility are far more than the world presents or tells us. They are founded in God and so in their mysterious, powerful otherness, can found a new reality. They are the things that empower us to admonish one another, to challenge, to keep each other accountable, yet somehow we challenge in a way that is full of patience, thankfulness, praise and humility. They are the things that Christ used as he challenged the religious people and lifted up the downtrodden. They are the things that cause us to hunger, to mourn and be hurt for the world, so that we may be filled, comforted and realize the things that are above.
We are to seek the things that are above. The things that are of God. This is a whole new place to start. Instead, of starting with the things of this earth. We start with God. Instead of trying to make things better, we try to realize heaven on earth. We create little pockets of heaven that are a whole new reality. Something that transforms the situation as it brings God in as our saviour. Sometimes, we can only do that with ourselves and we have to be a new world unto ourselves, determined and defined by forgiveness, love and humility, but the more often we live into this, the more we will be able to invite others into it. The more often we will see God’s new world realized in our midst. If we follow Christ’s faithfulness, we will see that faithfulness and that new world realized. AMEN
Colossians 3:1-17
What do you think it means to seek the things that are above? (1)
What is the defining feature of what is above?
How does this relate to our being raised in Christ?
What do you think the contrast is between the things that are above vs. the things of the earth? (2)
Why do we need to set our minds on what is above?
What can happen when we set our minds on things of this earth? What has happened when you focused more on earthly things than God?
Are there things that we need that seem impossible on earth, but possible with God?
What is this new life of ours that is hidden in God? How is it hidden? From us, from others, from the moment? (3-4)
Why is it good news?
Why should we put to death these things? Why can they mislead us? (5-9)
Where do they lead?
Where does this new self start? (5-10)
How does this new self lead us in a new direction?
How does this new self overthrow the old things that ruled over our lives?
How does God’s Lordship transform us?
Why do we need this renewal, this new lordship to find unity in our difference? (9-11)
How are all of these things Godly, practically otherworldly traits? (12-14)
What does it mean to clothe ourselves with them?
How are these outpourings of our relationship with God and his Lordship over us?
What would it look like to admonish (warn, advise, reprimand) and teach someone in peace, worship, thankfulness, etc.? (15-16)
How could this change our relationships? Including our Christian ones?
How has all of this changed our understanding of what it means to be doing something in the name of Jesus?
How can all of this be a response of thankfulness?
Luke 6:17-26
How does our relationship with the world vs. what is above, relate to the hunger, mourning, and praise that Jesus is talking about? (20-26)
Why is it quite natural for a Christian to hunger, mourn, and be chastised when they focus on what is above?
How are we filled, comforted, and rewarded in our focus on things abovr? (Now in the time to come)
How is does the opposite natural occur when we are not centred on the things that are above?
