The Christian Conundrum

Colossians 3:1-11New International Version (NIV)

Living as Those Made Alive in Christ

3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other,since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

The title of today’s sermon is “Head in the clouds” but a more fitting name is “A Christian Conundrum.”  I am not saying that because the second title seems more sophisticated but it really is a conundrum.  The topic of today’s sermon is one that nearly every Christian has wrestled with.  The question of up there (pointing to the sky) or here (pointing to the ground).  The question of out there (pointing to the door) or in here (pointing to my heart).  I had an amazing opportunity last night to become a Godparent.  The duties of that position have decreased insignificantly since things like the Bubonic plague no longer exist but nonetheless it was a ceremony to let Hank know that I will be there for him.  It was a ceremony to introduce Hank to his church family and vice-versa.  And while I was there last night the priest talked on this very subject.  He recalled his mother telling him not to do two things at once.  This conundrum of knowing how much time we are meant to spend looking outward vs, inward and upward vs. downward.  How much time do we dedicate to God vs. how much time do we dedicate to one another?  How do we divvy up our time?  How do we plant our feet firmly in God’s word yet not lose focus on things important to us here on earth?

For example, earlier this week Cora was tired, cranky and only wanted things done her way.  We were getting done with supper but I don’t know exactly what set her off but she refused to listen after she didn’t get her way.  I then made her go to bed which only intensified the screaming.  She brushes her teeth, takes her vitamin and get her jammies on through all the tears.  Finally, she makes it to bed where the screaming and crying continues for a couple more minutes.  I go back in there because I am going to ask her one last time to get to sleep and suddenly, a calmness comes over me and I change my approach to see if taking a different angle will help the situation.  I walk in there and tell Cora, “I still love you even when you’re in trouble.”  Her arms shot up in the air to hug me and she hung on tight.  She kissed me goodnight and within a couple minutes she was asleep.  It was almost as if she thought I no longer loved her.  In her mind, it appeared that she was no longer loved and that absence of love led her to her current situation.  It is completely ridiculous for her to think I didn’t love her.  Ridiculous.  I was almost bothered by it because it seemed so far fetched and then the light went off.... As grown adults we do the exact same thing to God.  How often do we blame our current earthly situation on Him?  How often do we feel like some of life’s events have happened because God either doesn’t love us or He is too busy for us?  

If I was only focused on heavenly things, I would have missed that moment with Cora and countless other moments with my friends and family.  However, if we are too focused on earthly things then we lean too far the other way.  Some religious groups only worry about the spiritual aspect of faith and ignore the duties we have to God and one another here on earth.  Other religious groups don’t spend hardly any time in the spiritual realm of faith because they are too busy with earthly duties.  I said this a couple weeks ago, we can make an idol out of anything and when we do, we taking God’s place with whatever idol we put there.  Faith is mind, body and spirit.  The journey we are all taking, the individual paths we are currently on to get to God’s glory must include a combination of mind, body and spirit.  Prayer without action doesn’t get us very far and action without prayer lacks guidance and an understanding of the whole picture.  

In our scripture for this morning, Paul reminds us that we are a new creation “which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of our creator.”  Here is where the mind comes in, “knowledge of the creator.”  It is this phrase that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.  We have knowledge of our creator to where every other creature on this planet does not possess that knowledge.  It is not some secret knowledge only meant for a few as Paul also points out, “There there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”  Even as a new creation, we aren’t perfect... Yet.  This is why we must be so hesitant to be judgmental of others’ situations.  Some people will focus too much on the earthly aspect of life while others will spend too much times staring into the heavens totally ignoring their obligations to their fellow human being.  

So where do we place the line?  Honestly, we don’t need a line of how much of this vs how much of that.  The line becomes the focus instead of the task at hand: to show more and more people how much God loves them.  Your situation is between you and God, the point of this message today is directed at a little inward reflection, outward action and less judgments of others’.  You know, if we spent half as much time being as critical of ourselves as we are others, we would be much better for it and the world we live in would be less filled with hate.  God loves us, he always will but don’t treat your salvation like some new toy that you don’t want to share with anyone else.  It seems like we want to know our limits and our boundaries so we can walk right up against them.  Last night at the races, we sat in a section that was pretty empty and the kids could run and run but they kept wanting to go out onto the stairs.  There had a full section to run and the boundaries were the stairs and they wanted the stairs.  Again, faith is not about trying to find the boundary, or the minimum, it is about focusing on God through prayer, through life and through the spirit.  

This duality of being a Christian is difficult.  We all do it the way that we think it ought to be.  The only problem is that we think our way is the correct way and most everyone else is wrong.  Please, take some time this week to explore, question, meditate, or even doubt a little bit and look at the depths of your faith.  Not for the purpose of finding strict guidelines and/or boundaries but for the purpose of showing God’s unconditional love to many, many others. Amen.