Set Your Mind on Things Above: A Meditation on Colossians 3

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,

where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,

then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

For this week, the focus of our readings (Ecclesiastes 1-2, Luke 12, and Colossians 3) invites us to ponder what is permanent versus what is transitory—what is temporal, versus what is eternal.  Fallen as we are in this broken world, our eyes have difficulty seeing things as they really are, and our minds have difficulty keeping our priorities straight.  From King Solomon writing 3000 years ago, to Christ and His Apostle Paul teaching 2000 years ago, and the myriad of Church Fathers, Saints, and Martyrs across our history confessing Christ’s Word in their own times and places, we hear repeatedly that there actually is a difference between what endures for the present and what endures for eternity.  As people with eternal destinies yet living in a fallen temporal world, it would behoove us to listen to what God has to say about these things, rather than relying solely on our own darkened intellect and suspect sensibilities.

The first delusion we need to unshackle ourselves from, is that we are temporary beings.  The sophistic lies of Materialists and Evolutionists have become so pervasive in our day, that far too many people believe they are only blips on the cosmic scene—here today, gone tomorrow.  They cannot see their lives as having extension beyond the physical world around them and their ability to interact with it, and so they conclude that when a person’s body dies, that’s the end of their story.  After all, from a Materialist point of view, dead bodies don’t climb out of graves, or reconstitute themselves from incinerators.  This temporal perspective breeds a kind of Utilitarianism or Hedonism, living one’s life in pursuit of efficiency or pleasure, relative only to what is seen and experienced in the physical world.  The unfortunate consequence to such thinking is that people turn themselves and others into means to their own gratification, be it their greed, lust, ambition, pleasure, or happiness.  People without an eternal perspective lose the sense not only of their own dignity, but of the dignity of others; for if today we live and tomorrow we die, why not eat, drink, and be merry?  If all that awaits each person upon their death is the darkness of oblivion, why not use our temporal power or influence to take everything we can for these few fleeting moments of life we’ve mysteriously and  inexplicably been given?

God, our Maker and Redeemer, tells us something different about ourselves.  While it is true that we have been created to experience time and dwell in a material universe, we also were created as spiritual beings which never really die.  Due to our collective Fall into sin, each person’s spirit will eventually be separated from their physical body in a kind of death, but every one of those people continues to exist.  God tells us that someday He will resurrect the whole creation—the whole physical universe—putting it back together in such a way that spirit and flesh will never be separated again, and that sin and death will never plague it for eternity.  When that occurs, all those people who have lived and died across all of human history will be resurrected with the whole of creation, and given their place in the world to come.  Those who have lived by grace through faith in Christ will rise again to dwell in the blessedness of Christ’s Eternal Kingdom, and those who have repudiated God will rise again to eternal condemnation in the fiery prison of hell.  In that Last Day, each person will find the fulfillment of God’s Word to them and their response to His Word, as the eternity of their existence shall be established forever.  Regardless of the delusions we buy into or the philosophies we pursue, the truth remains that we are created to be eternal beings, and we will retain an eternal relationship with the only infinite, eternal, and almighty God:  either living in His grace by faith in His Gospel, or condemned in our evil by the justice of His law, forever.

While God tells us little of the intermediate state of souls between their physical death in this world and their resurrected lives on the Last Day, we know that those whose lives are hidden with Christ by grace through faith remain with Christ until that Day comes, and those who reject Him remain apart from Him until that Day comes.  Whatever the fate of every soul, it is set at the moment of their temporal death, and the relationship they have chosen to maintain with God shall be ratified.  The ancients of the Church used to say, as the tree falls, so it remains—that a soul’s eternal destiny is set as they close their eyes to the physical, temporal realities of this world, and open them to the eternal realities of the spiritual world which was always all around them.

And so, dear Christian, how does this reality impact you?  As you look around you with the eyes of faith to see the world as God’s Word reveals it to you, can you discern between the things which will endure forever, and those things which will eventually all be consumed by fire?  Can you see the vanity which Solomon warned about in the pursuits of wealth, power, and pleasure?  Can you discern the wickedness of using and abusing your neighbor—another eternal soul with an eternal destiny—for your own passing appetites, or gluttonously consuming that which your neighbor needs?  On the contrary, can you see the eternal spiritual realities of virtue, compassion, faith, hope, love, and sacrifice?  Can you see in yourself a penitent pilgrim trying to work out your own salvation in fear and trembling before the Cross of Christ, and through that same Cross see your neighbor’s eternal need for the same forgiveness and reconciliation with God you so desperately need?  Can you see the dignity of eternity written in the life of every person, as each one is an eternal soul for whom Christ has suffered and died?  Can you see yourself and your neighbor in the resurrection of the Last Day, where all the ugliness of self serving evil and the trophies of material pursuits are forever put away, while the good fruits of righteousness, mercy, and truth endure forever?

Lift up your eyes once again, to see the world and yourself as God’s Eternal Word reveals it to you.  Turn from the darkness of dying and condemned pursuits, and set your mind on the everlasting things which are above, where Christ your Savior offers the free gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation to you, and all who would repent and believe His Gospel.  Reject the lies of the devil and wicked men, which would take from you your endowed dignity, and the dignity of every human being created in the image of God.  Hear the Word of your Savior remind you once again who you really are, and what He has always called you to be—an eternal heir of His eternal salvation in His eternal Kingdom.  Hear Him.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.

Teach Us to Pray: A Meditation on Luke 11

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place,

when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him,

Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say,

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

Give us day by day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

And he said unto them,

Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at

midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me,

and I have nothing to set before him? And he from

within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut,

and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend,

yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;

knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth;

and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?

or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children:

how much more shall your heavenly Father

give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

There is something very mysterious about prayer. To the outside observer, it seems a one way communication between a person and something or someone else who isn’t really there.  To a skeptic it might seem almost delusional, like the outworking of an inner desire or even schizophrenia, which so badly wants someone to hear their pleas that they make up an imaginary friend—or god—to hear them in their angst.  The Materialist of our age might acknowledge some general medical catharsis which people feel when they pray in times of trouble, perhaps a chemical reaction of dopamine or endorphins which at least provide some physical comfort.  The Scientist might look upon prayer as a dubious pursuit, recognizing that the results of experimentation with prayer can’t be reliably duplicated in the laboratory.  To the unbelieving world, prayer may appear anything from pious poppycock to mental illness to rank fantasy.

Of course, the disciples who were walking with Jesus were not unbelievers.  They had been raised up in the traditions of the Old Testament Prophets, the Word of God given and preserved in the Scriptures, and they knew that their God was both present and attentive to His people’s prayers.  They knew that God both spoke and listened from the beginning of His creation, maintaining a fellowship with His people who abided in His Word by faith.  In addition to their catechesis in the faith of Abraham, Moses, David, and the Prophets, they now found themselves in the presence of the Word of God made flesh—the very God who spoke on Sinai was present with them in the person of Jesus Christ.  From this crucible of faith comes the disciples’ request of Jesus, that He teach them how they ought to pray.

Jesus obliged them, and gave to them the form of the Lord’s Prayer which has been on the lips of faithful Christians ever since.  It begins with an acknowledgment of who God is, His paternal relationship relationship to His people by grace through faith in Jesus, and the holiness of His Name; it then acknowledges God’s Kingdom and His will (known to His people by His Word) in both heaven and earth.  Only then does Jesus teach His disciples to ask their God for their daily bread which would satisfy their daily needs, the forgiveness of their own sins in the context of having already forgiven those who sinned against them, and the plea for not being led into temptation to evil, but rather to be delivered from the evil one.  Matthew’s Gospel adds a doxology to the end of this prayer which parallels the beginning:  For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.  Amen. 

After He taught His disciples to pray appropriately, which is what they asked for, He then taught them why they should pray.  Jesus showed His disciples that God was their loving Father for the sake of the Son, and that He was always willing and ready to give the good gifts of His Holy Spirit to His children.  Jesus taught His disciples that God wanted them to pray, wanted them to ask Him for His good gifts, and wanted to give His good gifts to them, all for Jesus’ sake.  Unlike the pagans who thought they had to bargain with their gods to get things out of them, or manipulate their gods through incantations and witchcraft, or appease their gods who were either angry or malevolently inclined toward them, Jesus taught His disciples that the true God already loves and cares for them, and is always ready to give them exactly what they need.  The Father revealed by the Son is a good and gracious King, ever desiring the good and salvation of the people whom He created and loves, and ever ready to pour out the blessings of His Holy Spirit upon them that their lives may be full of His love, mercy, compassion, and joy.  He goes so far as to draw the example from fallen and sinful human fathers, who despite their own evil hearts still are inclined to do good for their children, and to ask rhetorically how much more the all powerful, all loving, all good, and ever present Father is inclined to give His children all the good gifts of His Kingdom.

But of course, only faith can rest in such promises, and only faith can really pray to God our Father, trusting in Him for Jesus’ sake.  Far too often, sinful people are quick to pray for wicked things, for selfish desires, and to bend God to their own will.  When God fails to give them the desires of their darkened hearts, they become angry with God or reject Him altogether.  In their sin and unbelief they think God has failed them by not obeying them, when in fact it is they who have walked away from their good and gracious God.  Jesus never taught His disciples to pray for wealth, or prosperity, or political power, or the satisfaction of their appetites—these kinds of prayers begin with the worship of one’s self, and are not prayers of faith in, through, and under God’s Word.  The kind of prayer Jesus taught His disciples is first and foremost a prayer of faith—one that begins in the revealed knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, acknowledges the sinfulness of the person and the graciousness of their saving Lord, and then rests in the Gospel promise that their Father loves them and will give them everything they need in both this world, and the world to come.

What do the answers to such prayer look like?  They may raise the dead, heal the sick, cast out demons, and work miracles.  They may heal broken hearts, restore broken relationships, and salve burning communities.  They may bring individuals and entire nations to repentance before the Law of God, and to faith in His saving Gospel.  They may pierce the darkness of man’s political machinations with the pure light of His Eternal Word.  And they may be the simple bread upon our tables, the roof over our heads, the work given to our hands, and the strength to meet each day’s duty as it is given to us in our callings.  The answered prayers of faith can take many forms in this fallen world, according to the will of God in any particular moment and place.  But the most remarkable and wonderful answer of the prayer of faith is the gift of His Holy Spirit, which comes to us through His Word and seals us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ unto life everlasting—a gift which gives us the new birth from above by Water and Spirit, and the daily faith and repentance to walk with our Father in the reconciliation of Jesus’ Cross forever.  That holy and most precious gift of eternal life is something that cannot be washed away by flood or burned away by fire; it cannot be taken by criminals or tyrants or persecutors; it cannot be wrenched away by the powers of wicked men or the terrors of demonic hordes.  That great and eternal gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus Christ is the gift we always and only need, and it is the gift our loving Father is most anxious to give to everyone who will repent and believe in Him.

Hear the Word of the Lord coming to teach you to pray this day, and receive the wondrous gift of eternal life your Father has always intended for you through the shed blood of His Son.  Hear Him, believe, and live.  Amen.

Reconciliation: A Meditation on Colossians 1

 

And he is the head of the body, the church:

who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;

that in all things he might have the preeminence.

For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;

And, having made peace through the blood of his cross,

 by him to reconcile all things unto himself;

by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind

by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy

and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Given the violence, confusion, pain, and brutality of our time, reconciliation may seem like a word from a distant dream, somehow simultaneously desired but ungraspable. How does one reconcile the father of a murdered son to his son’s murderer?  How does one reconcile the daughter of a violated mother to her mother’s violator?  How does one reconcile the victim of thievery to the thief, the victim of slander to the slanderer, the victim of oppression to the oppressor?  In each case where there is conflict, one has wronged another.  Neither may be innocent in the absolute sense, but at least in some particular instance, the victim has lost something to the one who has taken it unjustly.  Such injustice and abuse creates division between individuals, groups, nations, and civilizations.

This division created over wrongs done or received, often meets with the most natural of responses:  a demand for justice.  Blood for blood, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, dollar for dollar—and perhaps a little extra for good measure.  What starts as an injustice of one person against another becomes the pursuit of vengeance in return, often escalating until one or the other is unable to respond.  We have something written deep into our nature that knows justice is right, good, and salutary.  Every human being has a sense of justice, of divine Law, written into their very biology, deduced by their natural capacity for reason, and imprinted upon their very soul. Every person knows that justice is better than injustice, whether they are the victim or the abuser; every victim is naturally inclined to seek justice for the wrong done to him, and every abuser is naturally inclined to flee from the justice he owes for his wrong.

This is the truth of the eternal Law, which is holy, good, and righteous.  That people end up in endless cycles of injustice, retribution, and revenge is not a flaw in the Law—rather it points out that humanity as a whole is too flawed and fallen to keep the Law of justice we know deep down we should.  It is not the Law which has failed to be just, but we who have failed to satisfy the Law’s demand for justice between each other.  Some may be more guilty in any given moment than others, but every person on the face of the globe has failed to live up to this perfect Law of justice.  It is our curse as a fallen race to see the heights of glory which we are no longer able to reach, and lament for the pain and destruction we bring upon ourselves as we turn justice into spiraling pursuits of rage and vengeance.

Truth be told, God has every right under His Law to seek justice from us.  He has told us what is good, right, and salutary, and we have instead chosen to be evil, wounding the love of our Creator by our rejection and rebellion against Him and His whole creation.  Yet instead of demanding justice of us for our many failings, He provides for us another way:  forgiveness, grace, mercy, and reconciliation.  Where the Law could only be satisfied with justice, God shows forth another path marked by mercy.

Of course, the God of Mercy is also the God of Justice, and so in order to reconcile this fallen world to Himself, satisfaction still had to be made.  Rather than demanding of us our eternal destruction and condemnation in hell, He sent His only begotten Son into our fallen world to take our justice upon Himself—to suffer and die and descend into hell for that justice to be satisfied for every human being ever to walk the planet—and rise again with the Good News of our peace with God through the Blood of His Risen Son.  God, who had endured the wrongs we unjustly did to Him, took our just penalty upon Himself as well, so that He could come to us with a Word of grace and mercy which declared the Law satisfied, and our debt paid.  Through the Cross of Jesus Christ, who in Himself reconciled the world to the Father as fully human and fully divine, we are forgiven our debt to justice, and sent out to forgive just as freely as we ourselves have been forgiven.

The Law of justice is true, but it will not provide for the healing of the nations, the cities, the peoples, or our neighbors.  The Law can prompt an endless pursuit of justice between warring factions who demand satisfaction, and in their sin take vengeance which spawns ever greater retaliations, burning nations to the ground and burying whole generations.  But the Gospel of Jesus Christ rises up for salvation where the Law only condemns to death.  In Jesus we learn what it means to love sacrificially, to suffer wrong for the sake of others, to turn the other cheek to the one who would strike it, and to walk two miles for the oppressor who would compel us to walk one.  In Jesus we see our God not only suffer wrong, but suffer the penalty for those who wronged Him.  In Jesus we rise to a higher Law of love and compassion, knowing that there is no slight we could endure in this world which holds a candle to the wrong He suffered to save and forgive us.  In Jesus we learn that love conquers hatred, sacrifice satisfies justice, and humility overwhelms pride.  In Jesus we have given to us a grace which overflows our every need, and which impels us out into the world to pour His grace upon every neighbor we meet, no matter what he has done to offend or wound us.

Here is the healing of our land, of our people, and our times.  In Christ alone is the Law of justice taken so seriously, that it demands the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God.  In Christ alone is the eternal penalty paid for every man, woman, and child across the face of the whole world, from its beginning to its end.  In Christ alone is there grace, mercy, love, and compassion by which He lavishly and freely pours out the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe in Him and abide in Him by faith.  In Christ alone has the fallen world been reconciled to its Creator, and thereby all people reconciled to each other by His Cross.  In Christ alone can the victim and the victimizer be reconciled, where justice is overwhelmed by mercy, and vengeance is drowned in the flood of divine love.  In Christ alone is the Gospel of reconciliation, where death is traded for life, and war is traded for peace.

For all those who have been wounded, cast your eyes to the Cross of Jesus Christ, who was wounded for our transgressions, and who rises again to give His eternal life to all His wounded and downtrodden people.  For the abuse who is terrified of the Law’s righteous claims upon you, cast your eyes to the Cross of Jesus Christ, who pays your debt of justice, and makes peace for you with your neighbor and with God.  For both abused and abuser, cast your eyes upon the Cross of Jesus Christ, where your forgiveness, life, and salvation pour forth by grace through faith in Him alone—and rise up from the ashes of your pursuit or violation of justice, that you might be a messenger of the mercy, grace, love, and compassion which healed and saved you.  You who now live by grace through faith, forgiven, loved and free—take your witness to the love and grace of Jesus Christ to everyone around you, that the wounds in our world may be healed through Him, and His reconciliation be brought to all mankind.  Amen.