Putting on Your Parent’s Clothes
Video: https://youtu.be/WoZUlJPxgCs
Readings: Colossians 3:12-17, Psalm 98, Luke 2:41-52
Do you remember putting on your parent’s clothes as a kid? I remember doing this numerous times, but I especially remember in highschool putting on one of my dad’s suits. There was this kind of other worldliness to it. It was like stepping into this world that was special, respected, full of wonder and potential. Yet the clothes didn’t quite fit. The shoulders were a little too broad, the arms were a little too long, I needed a better belt. Everything hung a little baggy as I still needed to grow, I needed to fit into it.
Today, Paul talks about putting on someone else’s clothes. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. In these words Paul is telling us to put on our greatest parent's clothes. Just like as kids these clothes don’t quite fit, they don’t come natural to us, but they are things we have to grow into.
Just to take one of these as an example: When something frustrates us, when we are in a hurry, when things don’t go our way, when prayer isn’t answered on our timeline - patience does not feel natural. Yet patience when we are busy and rushing around often leads to those Godly encounters that we and others need. Patience in the midst of struggle and waiting creates greater faithfulness and hope in us, but it also gives us eyes to watch for God’s faithfulness. Patience in the midst of anger and frustration, leads us to not make rash decisions, it leads us to rebuild relationships and situations and to see the possible good in whatever comes. Patience opens up potential.
Our God, our Father in heaven, is immensely patient, longing for all people to be saved. This leads to mercy, forgiveness and a changed world. He is slow to anger, not acting out of wrath, but pointing us towards justice and acting in anger only when it is necessary. He is patient with us. Even when we screw up again and again, he forgives us. So don’t we want to be like the greatest parent we could ever have. So we also should be patient as we forgive one another and watch for faithfulness.
Just like patience, Godly humility, gentleness, compassion and kindness does not feel natural. Each one is like another world. Humility challenges us to lower ourselves to lift up another, see the greatness in them and ultimately to turn to God for our needs. Gentleness challenges us to not be in control, but be soft in our guidance and expectations. Compassion challenges us to carry one another's burdens even when it means absolutely nothing for us. Kindness challenges us to walk the fine line of helping people feel truly welcomed as they are, but also admonishing and challenging them to be something and live something greater. This is what Paul goes into in the following verses. These are clothes we have to grow into.
There is something else interesting about clothes. When I put on my dad’s suit, not only did I look like I was different, but I also felt it too. As I wanted to fit into these new clothes, just by putting them on, somehow I was already living into them. These clothes may not yet fit, or feel natural, but at any moment by willingly putting on God’s clothes of gentleness, compassion, patience, kindness and humility, we are being changed to be more like him.
I know many actors that will get their costumes as soon as possible. And I would agree, something changes when you put on that suit, or that shirt, or pants, or scarf, or whatever it is. An actor knows their character and can better live into that character by the clothes that they wear. I am not a clothes guy. I have fairly simple tastes and yet I know the difference that clothes can make.
Now, I know in many ways, Paul and I have been comparing the physical reality of putting on clothes, with the spiritual reality of putting on God’s character and that might not feel like an easy correlation in practice, but putting on God’s attributes in some way is an even more physical reality, even while it is very mental, spiritual, emotional, social and more. Patience, compassion, kindness, gentleness and humility are about how we are physically present to one another, to God and to the situation of the world. They change how we act, how we touch, how we speak, how we move as well as how we think, how we pray, how we feel, how we hold and let go.
Humility is one of the central parts of this. It is something we have to grow into, but just as a child putting on their parent’s clothes is an act of seeing the bigness and greatness of their parents, so we must put on God’s clothes with a similar mindset. God’s grandeur and majesty is so much more that these new clothes are worthy of even greater respect and will take even longer to fit into.
And it is thanks to God’s immense grace in Jesus Christ being born that we have been given these clothes at all. God being born as a human, means that God has come down and now can be born in us. As we heard yesterday, we have been adopted into a new household through faith in Jesus, that means we can put on our Father’s otherworldly clothes and become more like Him.
