"Healing in Christ"

 

"Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

 

I have been using a book of prayers called "The Divine Hours," put together by Phyllis Tickle, in my morning devotion time. I find the language in some of the prayers to be quite helpful.

"Increase and multiply upon all your faithful people your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal . . ."

This summer has been for me a season in which the language of temporal (or temporary) and eternal has taken on deeper meaning. It has been a good summer for us. Last year summer was mostly taken with Kathy's recovery from hip replacement. This summer it has been a series of trips and enjoyable activities. The schedule has been less demanding and what we have done has been quite interesting. But I have felt that in passing through a season filled with events that are temporal (baseball games, concerts, a pleasant time by the lake in Door County, some enjoyable social gatherings), I have felt the pull of the temporal. I can see the appeal of just stringing one event after the other and I can see how one can spend more time focusing on the score of the ball game and coffee on the patio than on what is eternal, what constitutes our life and hope in Christ. It is not that any one of these pleasant activities is wrong, but rather that when you begin stringing them together they distract you from what is important, from what is lasting and eternal. The eternal requires intentional living. For me, the question is, how will I adjust my life to keep my heart and attention on that which is eternal?

Paul says, "Set your hearts on things above." He is saying, in different words, "When you pass through things temporal, do not lose the things eternal."

There are two parts to setting our hearts and minds on the eternal. The first part is a process of letting go, or even dying to the life you once lived. This is verses 1-11, and is the difficult part of the message. The second part is putting on, or clothing yourself with lasting virtues and with love. This is verses 12-17, the part we like to read more often.

The process that Paul describes here, I think, is one of healing. Sometimes we think of healing in Christ as an instant cure for an illness through prayer. Here Paul is talking about the other side of healing in Christ, which is healing as renewal, a kind of awakening, and a process in which we experience a change of thinking as well as physical well-being. In this type of healing we come to new attitudes, new thinking and new actions as we get ready for heaven.

Paul states this process in the starkest way possible. He says in the first few verses that such healing requires a change of mind. We are to think about the things that are above.

Then he says it is a matter of death. Some of our current thinking and behaving must die. This is strong language. I think it helps our understanding to think about the meaning of the sacraments of baptism and communion here.

In baptism there is an action of dying as the person goes under the water, and of rising with Christ as he or she is lifted up again. This is why Paul says, "You have been raised with Christ." They had been baptized.

In Communion there is the initial focus on the cross, the breaking of bread and the pouring of the cup (death); and then the sharing of the bread and cup in anticipation of the feast in the kingdom of God (eternal life). The service moves from an awareness of sin and forgiveness through the cross to the joy of our hope in Christ. So Paul uses this language of death and resurrection.

Finally he says we are to rid ourselves of old ways of thinking and acting. This is like cleaning out the closet of old and worn-out clothing. I like to keep shirts and pants that are long beyond their useful life. I always think I will need them, or remember the comfort of that old pair of jeans, even though the fabric is torn has lost all strength. In the same way we can cherish old sins and hold on to them.

What Paul describes is hard work. It is not easy to change our ways of thinking. Negative attitudes become habitual. It is hard to let go of behaviors that come out of temptation and have been allowed to become a pattern in our lives. It is difficult to let go, to get rid of deep rooted anger and ways of speaking that are dishonest or slanderous.

He gives two lists of sins. The first list to be put to death includes four words describing sexual sin, beginning with "porneia," a general word for every type of improper sexual behavior. The list ends with greed, the "insatiable desire to lay hands on material things" (Peter O'Brien). These are sins that cling to us, sins that take hold once they are established.

The other list Paul says to get rid of. These sins begin with a settled inner anger and work outward to abusive or obscene speech. The list ends with lying. This is habitual or compulsive behavior. When anger takes over in a person's mind it becomes like a fire, and the expressions of rage, malice, slander and filthy language are like fuel added to the fire. The anger only diminishes when we learn to take the fuel away from the fire. It is not easy. A good bit of honesty and self-reflection is required, and a willingness to ask for the Lord's help.

Paul then concludes the first half of what it means to set our minds and hearts on things above, by speaking of the new self, or the new humanity. The new self in Christ is both personal, a life renewed after the pattern of Christ, and relational, a fellowship with no human divisions. The new humanity is what Christ accomplished on the cross. Through faith in him, we enter this new humanity, and we are continually renewed in it.

This new life is described in verses 12-17, the clothing of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. This new life is to be our experience in Christ, and it is hidden securely in Christ, who is in heaven at the right and of God. It will be manifested fully at the return of Christ.

Pagan religions of Paul's time spoke about people who died being "hidden in the earth." By that they meant that the deceased person was buried, gone, out of sight, no longer an active part of society. But Christians said that all who received Christ by faith were "hidden in Christ." They meant that these people were living a new life, were people of hope, people who were being healed, being renewed, people who through the power of the cross and resurrection of Jesus had died to sin and were living in a new way.

When we have new life in Christ we are committed to a process of healing, knowing that recovery from sin and restoration from evil is a slow, lifelong process. We know that Christ is strong and faithful to help us in our need. And we know that our healing is secure, that it awaits us in heaven.

I invite you to come to the table today, to come into the presence of the risen Christ who saves and heals us.

The door to this sacrament is our confession of sin and repentance, the putting off of the old ways, the dying to our sinful nature.

The place where we let go is the cross, the body of Christ broken for you, the blood of Christ shed for you.

The new life is experienced in partaking together in Christ and in the anticipation of the feast in the Kingdom of God.

The joy is experienced as we are renewed and healed, and given the sure hope of what awaits us.

         Come; let us gather at the table of the Lord.

         Amen.