Colossians – Salvaged Faith

Bible 101: Pulling Meat Out of a Text

Posted on February 3, 2019Leave a comment

Text: Hebrews 5:11-6:3, Revelation 3:15-16

The author of Hebrews doesn’t seem very nice.
The people they are writing to are called lazy.
They are compared with babies, needing milk instead of solid food.
And… the author is impatient because they aren’t sure the people have been listening at all.

Well, maybe I might snap just a little bit too if I have been trying to teach a community about the importance of faith and I realize I had to start all the way back at the beginning all over again.

In contrast, I have actually been really excited to get back to some of the basics about the bible with all of you. And I think that is because we never really do this kind of work together.
In fact, I was talking with some colleagues and aside from the small groups of people who attend actual bible studies, most of their congregations, like ours, have not really been taught biblical literacy.
We simply don’t challenge each other to read scripture in depth.
We haven’t wrestled with the contradictions in texts and what they mean.
And as pastors, we have not equipped you with the tools that you need to dive into the text.
That is our fault.
Not yours.
And over this last month, I have seen just how hungry you are to know more, to read more, and to understand more. So… I’m excited you are on this journey with me and I can’t wait to see where it continues to take us.

In these last few weeks, we have already covered a few things.
First, we acknowledged that the Bible is a complicated text, full of mystery. In its 66 books, we find history, testimony, letters, poetry, prophecy, law… and we should approach each part of the text recognizing that it is trying to do something different.
Then, we heard from one of our lay folks here at Immanuel, about the overarching message of the scriptures: to love God and to love our neighbor… and how that helps us when we encounter people with whom we disagree or on our own journey of faith.
In the past two weeks, I’ve shared with you about how the people who compiled and formed our canon of scripture intentionally left us a diversity of perspectives within the text. Four gospels all tell about Jesus, but emphasizing different things, in a different order. In this past week, we’ve read passages from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles in our daily challenge and find the exact same story – but with different outcomes! The scriptures are not concerned with one right answer, but capturing a multitude of voices that all point to the bigger truths about God.
And last week, we talked a bit about translations – how the Bibles we read today might be different, but that inspiration of God has been carried through as each author was attempting to bring the message of God to a new people in a new place.

Today, we are going to dive a bit deeper into the meat of bible study. We’ve gone over some of the basics and so I want to give you some tools today to help you “press on towards maturity” as the author of Hebrews puts it. It’s time for some solid food!

First, I want to introduce you to the idea of exegesis.
The prefix (exe) relates to our English word exit… which we know as the way out. So when we use exegesis, we are working to pull meaning OUT of a text.
This is one of the basic building blocks of biblical interpretation. We want to figure out what the passage meant when it was written. It’s not always possible… but the more we research and learn, the more we discover.

Contrasting this is eisegesis.
Now, this is when you take meaning INTO a text. You don’t start from the text itself, but you start from what you know today and make assumptions based on modern understandings about what the text means.

Let’s dive into an example to show the difference.

These two verses are from a set of letters to seven different churches as a pat of the Revelation to John. These verses come from the letter to Laodicea:

“I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I’m about to spit you out of my mouth.” (3:15-16)

So first… and I’m going to need your help with this… what do we know about what it means to be hot in the context of our faith… in modern religious understandings?
(on fire for God, zealous, 100% committed, loving, justice filled)

What do you think it means to be cold spiritually?
(apathetic, dead, unloving, meh, no life)

And we understand lukewarm to be somewhere in the middle, right? So we might read into this text that the church is only partly committed to God… or who might go to church, but not be “on fire”. Right?

All of this makes sense in modern English. But what we are doing is bringing OUR understanding of the words into the text. It is eisegesis. And… we are left with the question… why would God prefer that we were either hot or cold? What would ever be good about cold? Wouldn’t lukewarm be better, or at least closer on the path to God than being cold?

If we use exegesis, if we go back to the text, back to the context, back to the location, we might learn something different.

Laodicea seems to be compared with hot and cold churches in this letter… so who might those churches be that they are unlike? If we turn to a map of the area and think about where and who the Laodiceans were, we might get some clues.

This city was actually part of a triad with Hierapolis and Colossae, in what is now modern day Turkey. In fact, when Paul writes to the Colossians, he specifically mentions these other two cities as a part of a little circuit that Tychicus, Epaphras, and others travel, supporting the people in all of those locations. The people know each other and they support and encourage one another.
But they were each unique places as well. The Colossians were supposed to pass their letter on the Laodiceans… AND they were supposed to pick up a letter Paul had written to that church and bring it back. Unfortunately, we don’t have a copy of that letter today.

Hieropolis was known for its hot springs and mineral baths. In fact, ancient Romans would travel to the city for health and healing.

Colossae on the other hand was located right on the river and it was known for its cool and refreshing water. There were also cold, freshwater springs in the city. It was a place where people escaped in warm days in order to find relief and refreshment.

But Laodicea had no natural source of water. All of the water for the city was piped in via an aqueduct and when it finally arrived, it wasn’t hot or cold, but lukewarm.

People traveled to Hieropolis for hot healing waters. They traveleld to Colossae for cold and refreshing relief.

But no one came to Laodicea for the water.
As Terance Espinoza writes, “Jesus wishes that they were useful, that they were either healing or refreshing to people.” (https://www.sagu.edu/thoughthub/exegesis-versus-eisegesis)

No one noticed them or would miss them if they were gone. They had figured out how to take care of themselves… but they weren’t in turn taking care of anyone else.

Now that is a church I recognize. Closed in. Focused on itself. If it disappeared from the face of the earth tomorrow, no one would know any different.

In this passage… being either hot or cold… healing or refreshing… being useful and making a difference is the goal.

And the Laodiceans were neither.
That is the difference when you work to pull meaning OUT of the text, instead of starting from where we are and looking backwards.
And friends, it isn’t easy work.
When you begin to chew on the meat of a text, here are some helpful questions to carry with you as you work to pull meaning out of it:
1) Who is the author?
2) When did they write the text?
3) What was life like at the time?
4) Who was their audience?
5) Why did they write to them?
6) What questions do you have?

And that might seem like a lot of questions and a lot of work, but also remember that we have at our fingertips today more resources and tools to do this kind of study than ever before.
Study bibles and commentaries can help by providing us with current scholarship and notes on the text. Our own church is full of these kind of study resources and you are always welcome to stop by and use them.
There are also million online resources with everything from Wikipedia to The Bible Project. I use BibleGateway.com to compare translations.

One source that I turn to almost every single week is called The Text This Week, or textweek.com. This particular resource is geared towards churches that use the lectionary, or the three year cycle of texts, but what I appreciate is that you can search by scripture and find a compilation of history, commentaries, and exegesis all in one place.

Above all, you don’t have to do this work alone! Those who are interested in studying scripture together will find that each can take a piece of the work. Or… you can utilize a resource together to dive deeply into a particular book of scripture or a topic.

Our goal, friends, is to not just be content to be spoon fed information… we each have the responsibility to engage with scripture ourselves.
We are called to press on to maturity.
We are called to take the foundation of knowledge we have been given and to move beyond just the basics.
I don’t promise easy answers.
But I do promise that you will be fed and nourished when you dive into the text and chew on it yourself. And I know that our faith is so much richer and more meaningful when we can pull out truth from the meat of our Bible and carry it with us into our daily lives.

The Tie that Binds

Posted on September 9, 2018Leave a comment

Text: Colossians 3: 12-17

I want to start off our message this morning by thanking all of you for the gentleness, patience, and tolerance that you have shared with one another these past few weeks. As a community, we have been exploring the larger conversation taking place in our denomination about human sexuality. There are still lots of questions and unknowns, but thank you for making the time to listen and pray and reflect. As these months continue before February, please feel free to ask questions and we’ll let you know of opportunities to have further conversation as they arise.
One of the things that these past four weeks highlighted for me, however, is that we are truly bound together in love. For the vast majority of those gathered here, our presence in this community of faith is rooted in something that goes beyond our disagreements or differences. And so I want to take some time today to explore that.
Will you pray with me?
Holy God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts and minds be holy and pleasing to you, Our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

Be tolerant. Forgive. Allow peace to rule your hearts. Teach and warn each other.
Paul invites us through his letter to the Colossians to think seriously about what it means to be a community formed by Jesus Christ. A community that takes seriously its baptismal vows. A community bound together by the love of God.

Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.

What unites us is not the rules we follow or our ethnicity or which team we root for, but Christ – who is in all things and in all people.
And the image of Christ should be renewing and transforming our lives and our community so that whatever we do, we do it as one coordinated body.
The truth is that this is harder than it sounds.
We have a really hard time putting into practice these things as a congregation because the demands of the world outside of this community are so heavy. Work. School. Sports. Dance. The lawn needs mowed and dinner needs made. Our lives are being pulled in a thousand different directions with every single one of them demanding that we wear a different hat or become a different person in order to be successful.
The vast majority of us spend less than 3-5 hours with our church community each week. 3-5 hours is all the time we have to look towards Christ, pray together, sing, hear the word, eat some cookies, and then we all head our separate directions once again.
You know… some of us spend more time each week in the fall in community at football games than we do at church.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing! I know I was gathered together with friends around the television yesterday watching Iowa and Iowa State.
But it made me realize that perhaps congregations today have much more in common with football fans than with the kind of community Paul is calling us to embody in these scriptures.
We are brought together around our common love – football in one case and God in the other. We sing and cheer together. We pray together – “Please, God, let us get a first down.” And when the game is over and the refreshments are cleaned up, we head home… back to our lives.
My experience with going to football games is that for the most part I don’t know the people around me. I know that we share a common passion and for a couple of hours we are all on the same team, but I have little, if any sense of obligation to the people who are around me in the stadium. I don’t get their phone number and check in on them later in the week. I’m not going to be invited their kid’s wedding ten years down the road.
Some of you, I know, are long time season ticket holders, however, and faithfully show up at every game, week after week. And I’ve heard a few stories about the community you have formed with the people around you. Over the years, you’ve gotten to know one another – you talk about what you do and how your families are.
I imagine the same thing happens here at church. When you sit in the same pew week after week, there are others who do the same. You take that time before worship and after the postlude to ask questions about how life is going. You know the names of their kids. You ask how work or school is going. You follow-up with someone has been sick.
There is a bond of love that starts to be formed as we gather together each week.

Before our Father’s throne we pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, our comforts and our cares.

What happens, however, when there is conflict?
What happens when we disagree?
What happens when we are offended by something that another has done?
If we were simply fans in a stadium, maybe you would stop talking with that person or switch seats. There is little if any sense of obligation to one another, much less accountability for one another.
But that is not true in the church.
In our baptismal vows, we promised to proclaim the good news and live according to the example of Christ. We promised to pray for one another. We promised to surround one another with a community of love and forgiveness so that we might all grow in our service to others.
Our congregation has 451 professing members on our rolls and has listed 87 people who have been baptized as infants or children. That means there are 538 people who are bound together under the care of this congregation. 538 people for whom we have made vows to surround with love and care.
There is a really key part of those vows that is really hard to remember.
We promised to surround one another with forgiveness… because we are not always going to get it right.
I know that when we look around, we do not see 538 faces in our midst.
Some members of our body simply live in new places, but their connection to our church continues and then come back and visit when they can.
Some members of this community can no longer be physically present with us on a Sunday morning, but we try to reach out in love and help them to remain connected through visits, cards, and calls.
But others are no longer active in this community because of something that went wrong.
Maybe an inappropriate comment was made.
Maybe they felt like they didn’t have it all together like they should.
I need to name a simple truth:
We are not saints. People in this church will let you down.
But you are not a saint either. And you will let others down at one point or another.
When we do fail one another – when we make mistakes, when we fall off the wagon, when we lash out in anger or frustration – well, that is actually when we need one another the most.
That is when we need this community of folks who are not only brought together by Christ’s love, but bound together by that love. And as Christ’s life transforms our community, then how we treat one another changes as well.

We share each other’s woes, our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows the sympathizing tear.

Too often, I have seen churches allow conflicts and problems to remain hidden. We don’t share with one another the woes in our lives for fear of judgment. And out of fear of being judgmental, we aren’t willing to hold one another accountable for the promises that we have made.
But listen again to the words of Paul in his letter to the Colossians:
Put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Be tolerant with one another.
Forgive each other.
Put on love.
Friends, you are part of a community that is unlike any else in this world. We are bound together by Christ and these words, these values, this attitudes, form the core of who we are and how we treat one another.
And the Body of Christ, we are called to be honest, share the truth, but always with those attitudes at the core of what we say and how we act. In that way, no matter our conflict or struggle, we can always love one another back into community.
When was the last time that you reached out to one of your brothers or sisters in Christ and gently asked why they haven’t been in church for a while? Give someone a call and listen more than you speak.
When was the last time you texted your friend and reminded them about the great children’s activities that they’ve been missing? Pull out your phone right now… and do so with compassion for the busyness that is probably bringing a lot of stress into their life.
When was the last time you stopped to visit the older couple who used to sit right behind you? Forgive yourself for not doing so sooner… just go!
Have you ever told the person who sits next to you what it means to you to give faithfully? Or shared how much it means to you that they are present here in worship each week? Or asked them if there is anything you can pray for in their life?
For too long we have talked about people and their problems and their failings behind their back rather than reaching out and letting them know that we are here, and we want to be on this journey with them.
I have seen too many churches treat one another as strangers instead of as brothers and sisters in Christ’s love. Siblings, bound together by a love so strong that it cannot be broken.

When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart, and hope to meet again.

This church knows how to love, how to serve, and how to pray. When someone lets us know that they are in need, we show up. When a loved one is dying, we bring prayers. When someone is recovering from surgery, we show up with food.
Our greater challenge is to continue pushing ourselves to love when it is difficult. When we are disappointed. When we aren’t satisfied with how things are going. How to love as family, flesh and blood of the one Body of Christ. You never cease to amaze me with your outpouring of love… so now let’s allow that love to continue to move us deeper into relationship, deeper into the tough questions, deeper into the dark and troubled places of our lives. Even there… especially there… let us be bound together in love.

Transferred into the Kingdom

Posted on November 20, 2016Leave a comment

Over the last two weeks in worship, we have talked extensively about how we should give thanks for one another…

Because of our differences, we give thanks.

We gave thanks as we broke bread together.

We gave thanks around the waters of baptism.

We should give thanks always and everywhere for the people of this world who help us claim our inheritance, who help us overcome division, and who teach us how to practice what is true and holy, just and pure.

Today, we explore one more of Paul’s letters.

Today, we are reminded to give thanks to God who is the reason we all share in the Kingdom.

Let us pray:

This past week, the annual Bucksbaum Lecture at Drake University was given by Krista Tippet.

Many of my Sunday mornings, as I drive in to church, I listen to her broadcast, “On Being,” and I listen as she asks people from all sorts of traditions and backgrounds what it means to be human.

Recently, I picked up a copy of her book, “Becoming Wise,” and like she starts so many of her interviews, she starts by exploring her own background and faith tradition.

One of the interesting things about Tippet’s story is that she served as an aide to the American ambassador in Germany while it was divided.

She writes:

More riveting to me in the end than the politics of Berlin was the vast social experiment its division had become. One people, one language and history and culture, were split into two radically opposing worldviews and realities, decades entrenched by the time I arrived. I loved people on both sides of the Wall that wound through the heart of the city.

I keep thinking about the division of Berlin… the division of Germany after WWII… and the division of our own nation in this moment.

Especially in regards to our letter from Paul this morning.

As Paul writes to the Colossians, Gentiles who lived in what is now modern-day Turkey, he writes to encourage them in their faith… to help them grow into this new relationship they have found with Jesus.

And as Paul talks about the transition, the shift they have experienced in their life by accepting Jesus, he uses this really interesting phrase.

God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. (1:13)

Transferred us into the Kingdom.

As Neta Pringle describes this word – transferred, she writes that:

His image conjures up pictures of refugees, rounded up after battle and taken to the victor’s land, of Israelites marched far from home to live in Babylon – a kingdom so different, so far from home in both geography and style. Here the rules are different, the ruler is different. All assumptions about the way in which life goes on – indeed about its very meaning- are different. (Feasting on the Word)

Transferred into the Kingdom… much like those who found themselves on the eastern side of the wall in Berlin suddenly found themselves living in a different country, under different rules.

Transferred into the Kingdom… much like after an election a nation wakes up to a world where different people are in charge and different priorities come to the front.

You don’t always have to physically shift your location to feel like the world has changed all around you. For better or for worse.

Except, Paul is not writing here about a temporary shift in power that comes and goes with various political leaders and world events.

Paul is writing about a cosmic shift…

God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son.

And not just the people of Paul’s day and time. Not just the Colossians, or the Ephesians, the Philippians, or the Romans.

All of us.

We have been rescued from the powers of evil, sin, and death.

We all have been transferred into the kingdom of forgiveness, redemption, and life.

Thanks be to God.

Today in worship, we celebrate that Christ is King. That he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.

We celebrate that through his death on the cross, the blood of Jesus rescued humanity from its captivity to the powers of this world.

In the cross, in the resurrection, Jesus declared victory over the powers over evil, injustice, and oppression.

And friends, in that great and glorious act, we have been transferred into God’s kingdom.

We have been transferred into the Rule and the Reign of God.

We are no longer merely citizens of this place, of Iowa, of the United States… Jesus is Lord.

Thanks be to God!

To emphasize this new reality, Paul continues his letter by breaking out into song.

While we don’t know the melody, while it isn’t a familiar tune to our ears, these lyrics in Paul’s letter would have been as familiar to the Colossians as Amazing Grace is to us.

They might have even started singing along.

And this song reminds the people in familiar words that when we look at Jesus, we see God.

They remind the people that in Christ all things in heaven and on earth were made.

They remind these new citizens of God’s kingdom that everything… every nation, every King or President, every Prime Minister or Governor, every Mayor and every Councilperson… everything is from God and finds purpose in God.

From the clouds in the sky to the microorganisms in the dirt beneath our feet, God in Christ holds everything together.

And Jesus is in charge of it all.

From beginning to end, Alpha and Omega, this kingdom will never end.

Thanks be to God!

And like any change in leadership… whether temporal or heavenly… the rules under which we live change a bit.

So this letter to the Colossians is a reminder that them and us that we are called to grow in love and faith.

Paul encourages us to bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God.

And we are reminded that just because Christ has already won, does not mean that evil death and sin are forever gone. Paul’s letter, in fact, is full of the reminder that we will be made strong in Christ and is meant to help us endure with patience the trials and tribulations that will come.

That is why when we gather around the baptismal font and we welcome new ones into our midst we make these familiar pledges:

We pledge to renounce the spiritual forced of wickedness and evil powers of this world.

We repent of our sin.

We accept the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice and oppression, in whatever forms they present themselves.

And we must hold one another accountable to the rules of God’s kingdom.

All because we confess Jesus Christ as our Savior.

All because we promise to serve him as our Lord.

When Krista Tippett talks about life in Berlin, she also talks about the day the wall came down. It was her twenty-ninth birthday.

She writes that “no one imagined that it could fall or the Iron Curtain crumble…. The wall finally collapsed with a whimper, not a bang, as fear lifted all at once from an entire nation. I had walked through Checkpoint Charlie hundreds of times, respecting its absurdity as authority. On the night the Wall fell… the entire city walked joyfully through it. The border guards joined them. It was truly nearly that simple.”

While we live under the rule and the reign of Jesus Christ, we work and pray for the day when all people will joyfully walk through the walls of division and hatred.

We work and pray for the day when fear is lifted for all people.

We work and pray for the moment when the powers of this world that keep us apart let go of their last grasp upon our hearts and we are finally free to simply be in Christ.

And until then… we live as people who see all things and all people in their true light… as the ones who already belong to Jesus.

Thanks be to God.

the wedding garment

Posted on October 9, 2011Leave a comment

When a girl gets married these days, one of the most important decisions she makes is what to wear. On television, you can watch Bridezillas and Say Yes to the Dress and Four Weddings – or even an hour long special on Kate Middleton’s wedding gown – and I guarantee, one of the most expensive items included in any of those celebrations and the one that causes the most anxiety is the dress.

I try not to watch those shows.

And… I tried really hard to “NOT” be one of those girls. I wanted to throw off the shackles of consumerism and find a nice, simple, elegant dress that did not cost me an arm and a leg.

As my mom and grandma and sister-in-law and maid of honor walked into the bridal shop, I made them promise: I was not trying on a dress that cost more than $200. I was not going to fall in love with something that I could not afford.

And seven or eight dresses into the experience, I found the one. It was simple and elegant, understated and yet gorgeous. It was MY dress. And after sashaying around the room and standing in front of the mirror, and picking out bridesmaids dresses that matched, I looked at the price tag: twelve-hundred dollars. I had done it. I had fallen in love with something that was far too expensive.

Unfortunately for the bridal shop, but lucky for me, I am a skilled online shopper. I found the exact same dress for about half the price a few months later. And the dress did make the day. It was and still is – MY dress. And it helps me tell the world who I am. One look in my direction, and people not only knew I was the bride, but also that I wasn’t showy, or stuck-up or traditional.

I love this dress… I really do… but the simple fact is, I can’t wear it to any other wedding. 😉

Wedding garments seem to be the theme for the day, because in our gospel this morning, Jesus tells the crowds a parable about a wedding feast. And he tells them – what you are wearing matters.

Will you pray with me:

We could spend hours talking about the first half of this parable… about how the king threw a wedding feast for his beloved son and how the guests one by one declined the honor, made excuses, and in some cases slaughtered his servants when they showed up with the invitation.

As we have discovered in the past few weeks, there are a number of people in this world who think there are more important things to do than respond to the call of God. There are some who are so caught up in being religious, they forget about who they are accountable to. And as the gospel makes clear, they do so at their own peril.

But for today, I’m more interested in the second half of this story.

You see, when the king’s guests don’t show up, he doesn’t cancel the party. No, he just invites more guests. He has his servants go out and pull people in off the street. Homeless folks, addicts, fishermen, swindlers and thieves, families with children, small town merchants, teachers, retirees… the good and the bad, the simple, the unworthy, the unprepared, the underqualified. You and me.

Never in our lives would any of us ever dream of being invited to a king’s wedding feast. Through the miracles of television, some here got up very early in the morning to watch the latest royal wedding festivities, but our television screens are the closest we are ever going to get to that kind of celebration.

And for most of the people gathered around Jesus as he told this parable, that would have been true as well. They just didn’t bump elbows with those kind of people.

This unexpected invitation, this outpouring of love and acceptance, this grand gesture is one more reminder that God’s ways are not our ways… It is a reminder that the Kingdom of Heaven is opened up to all who will receive the call – the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the good and the bad… as long as we accept that invitation and drop what we are doing to respond.

Here WE are. In one way or another, you have responded to the call of God upon your life… to the invitation from the great King to participate in the holy celebration.

In the church, we often like to talk about how faith saves us. How belief in Jesus Christ and his righteousness leads us into the Kingdom of God. Jesus died for my sins, I accept what he has done for me, bing-bang-boom, one way ticket to heaven.

But you know what… this parable throws a wrench in that simple formula. You see, while everyone was invited… while the invitation and the gospels tell that each one of us is now entitled to heaven through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross… not everyone at the party is allowed to stay.

“When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” and the man was speechless. Then the King said to the attendants, “bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Sheesh – all because he wore the wrong thing?

If you are anything like me, you are utterly grateful for the grace of God in Jesus Christ that invited you to the Kingdom party. And you were more than happy to drop what you were doing in order to accept that grace and be found worthy of the feast.

We understand that our being a part of the Kingdom of God has very little to do with our actions, but everything to do with the righteousness of Christ, freely given to us through repentance and communion and baptism and faith and prayer. We know we don’t deserve to be here, we know we don’t deserve the grace that has been given to us, and we know that “deserving it” isn’t the point…. Christ is. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, that proves God’s love for us…

But (there is always a but, isn’t there), But, if you are anything like me, in the middle of the party, you start to worry about that guy who wasn’t wearing the right clothes… and maybe you look down at your own clothes.

At weddings today, the bride’s dress is gorgeous, the bridesmaids look lovely and the groom and his men are dressed to the nines. But who really cares what anyone else is wearing. As I have officiated weddings lately, I’ve seen people in suits, people in polos and khakis, jeans and t-shirts, cotton summer dresses, flip flops and sunglasses. And in my experience, no one has been thrown out of any of these weddings I have been to for what they were or were not wearing.

But there it is. At the end of this beautiful parable that has us feeling all warm and fuzzy because we didn’t deserve the invitation, we have a conversation about proper wedding attire.

As scholar Alyce McKenzie reminds us,

Though his actions are harsh, they are not completely unjustified, when understood in the first century context. It was the custom in Ancient Near Eastern weddings, that the guests would wear a garment that symbolized their respect for the host and the occasion. Often the host would provide a rack of such garments at the entryway for guests who had [not] brought theirs. Not to be wearing a wedding garment, when one could have chosen one on the way in, is a sign of disrespect for both host and occasion.

Ahh…. A missing detail from the parable.

When we, the unworthy, accept the invitation and show up for the wedding, we are supposed to “put on” this special garment as we come in the door. AND – it is something that the Lord our King will provide for us, if we only chose to accept it.

I am reminded that there are many places in the New Testament “putting on clothing” was used as a symbol for new life in Christ.

From Galatians 3:

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

From Colossians 3:

Since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self… Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience… And over all these virtues put on love.

From Ephesians 4:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self… to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

In his sermon, “On the Wedding Garment,” John Wesley describes this special clothing as our personal holiness. He claims that while the cross of Christ and his righteousness bestowed upon us entitles us for the Kingdom of God… only personal holiness with qualify us to continue there. The first makes us children of God and heirs of the kingdom… but the second makes us worthy of have the inheritance of the saints.

If we think about all of those New Testament scriptures – they have one thing in common – we are called to put on a different life in Christ Jesus. We are called to actually BE different. As Wesley describes it, “holiness is having ‘the mind that was in Christ,’ and the ‘walking as Christ walked.’”

The righteousness of Christ saves us… but as the parable reminds us, we have to show up… we have to honor the King through our actions… we have to participate in the Kingdom… we have to put on the life that he has prepared for us.

I keep my wedding dress hanging in my closet, in part, as a reminder of our wedding. But I have to admit, that it is also a reminder that I no longer fit into the dress. It is a goal, a challenge, staring me in the face and daring me to start exercising again. This dress has become like a mirror in which to evaluate my physical health.

In the same way, we all need to evaluate our spiritual health. We need to take time every now and then to look at what we are wearing and decide if it still fits. We need to remind ourselves of the wedding garment that God has provided… of the holiness that he asks of us… of the new life that has been prepared for every single one gathered here.

Are you putting on Christ?

Are you practicing patience and gentleness?

Are you humble?

Do you forgive others?

So you seek peace with your neighbors and your enemies?

By the grace of God and the strength of Christ do you seek to love everyone you meet?

Are you walking as Christ walked?

And if not… what are you going to do to get back into those wedding clothes? What are you going to let go of so that they fit once again? Which person in this room will be your accountability partner, pushing you and reminding you and walking along side you?

As John Wesley concluded his sermon, he reminded us that “The God of love is willing to save all the souls that he has made… revealed by the Son of his love, who gave his own life that they that believe in him might have everlasting life… But he will not force them to accept of it; he leaves them in the hands of their own counsel… Choose holiness, by [his] grace; which is the way, the only way, to everlasting life…. This is the wedding garment of all that are called to the “marriage of the Lamb.” Clothed in this, they will not be found naked.

May the power of the Holy Spirit fill us all with knowledge and guidance and strength as we seek to not only be children of God, but to be found worthy through his grace.

robed authority

Posted on August 23, 20102 Comments

I was blessed to officiate the wedding of my friends recently. And up until five minutes before the wedding, I couldn’t decide if I would wear my robe or not.

You see, I had packed the robe. And I was most assuredly wearing the stole. But the robe was an additional layer of formality, of tradition, of authority… that I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to assume at the time.

There is this great debate it seems among pastors about whether we should robe or not. As a woman, I have often argued that wearing a robe keeps people from being distracted by what we are wearing. It adds some authority simply by the fact that you are wearing something different from what everyone else is wearing.

But that in itself is also a reason to discard the robe when you are trying to be in ministry with people. It is a barrier between you and everyone else. It makes you distinct. Which in certain circumstances actually helps to conveys your authority and then I’m back to wearing the robe.

This was the inner dialogue I was having about ten minutes before the wedding – which ended when a family member said he was having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that I was one of the college friends and yet also had authority to do the wedding… I put on the robe. The authority and not the college student was the only image left to put out there… which of course also meant that when the ceremony was finished and the robe got put away, I felt more than comfortable dancing to “Love Shack” with everyone else.

You know how lawyers in England still wear fancy wigs when they are doing their official business in the courtroom? It’s a trapping of tradition and old sentimentality… and yet it also marks what they are doing as important. It sets that part of their life aside as distinct from the rest of their work and play.

I know that I allow myself to become something more… something different when that stole is draped over my shoulders. I read scripture in a different way. I preach and the words become more than what they were an hour before as I was practicing them at home.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12-14

Putting on the stole and the robe are ways of taking on God’s authority, of literally wearing a symbol of compassion and gentleness. It is a uniform, as much as a police officer’s uniform is… it conveys my role and my task in that place.

Does a police officer stop being a police officer when the uniform is gone? Or a surgeon when she takes off the scrubs? Or a lawyer when the suit is hanging up in the closet? Yes and no… sometimes we simply put on other hats and become wives and dads and little league coaches instead. But I think that deep down, once we put on a vocation – a persona – we can’t really take it off.

Once I have put on this authority that Christ gave me, once I have put on kindness and patience and forgiveness – they aren’t really things that I can take off again. Once I have put on love… it is there to stay. Perhaps it is just easier for others to see with the robe on.