December 28, 2003
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We
have in the last several weeks anticipated the birth of Jesus. We celebrated his
birth in the past week, we rejoice in his birth today. The celebration of
Christmas continues until January 6, when the Christmas season ends and
Epiphany, the season that lifts up the ministry of Jesus begins. Now, today, we
are in the time after Christmas, before the New Year, and a few days into
Kwanzaa. Most of you know that Kwanzaa affirms
seven principles that are about strengthening family, community, and culture. I
thought about the Kwanzaa principles of unity, self-determination, collective
work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith
when I read the passage from Colossians. The Kwanzaa principles occurred to me
not only because we are in the season of Kwanzaa, but because Kwanzaa calls for
a principled commitment to make a difference where we live, work, and worship.
It occurs to me that Christ calls for a lifetime commitment to one who
makes all the difference in the world and eternity to us. That
day in the temple, Jesus says to his mother,
“I am where I am supposed to be. I have had my bar mitzvah. It is time
for me to take my place in the temple, among those who seek knowledge from this
place of learning and worship. All my life you have told me that God gave me a
special and particular mission in the world. There are some things that only I
can do”. Jesus
is making a principled commitment to his faith and to his calling.
He is according to Fred Craddock claiming for himself that special
relation to God which was the real meaning of his dedication as an infant. To
this point, all signs of Jesus’ special nature or mission have been to or
through others the angel, Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, shepherds, Simeon, and
Anna, but now he claims it for himself” (Interpretation
series. Luke Fred Craddock. Louisville. John Knox Press, 1994, p.42). Jesus
says, “I must be in my father’s house, about my
father’s business”. The Greek word used here for must ‘means’, ‘it is
necessary’. It is a word Jesus will use that word again to reflect his
treatment by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the
third day be raised” (9.22) (www.lectionary.org/luke2.41-52).
His
parents don’t quite get it, Mary ponders what it means, Jesus goes home with
Mary and Joseph and is an obedient son. We are told that he increased in wisdom
and in years, and in divine and human favor. We are called to do the same. We
are told that, “Jesus grew in four dimensions, each of which is essential to a
well-balanced person: 1) Wisdom involves knowledge, but goes beyond an
understanding of mere facts. Wisdom involves solid values and priorities. It
involves an understanding, not just of what is, but what counts. 2) The term
“in years” has also been translated ‘stature’. It describes both
emotional maturity and physical stature. 3) Divine favor involves relationship
with God, and 4) human favor involves relationships with other people” (lectionary.org,
p.4). The
good news we celebrate today on this first Sunday after Christmas is that Jesus
is born, he will grow up, he will teach, heal, accept all who come to him,
declare new kinds of families (“whoever does the will of God is my family”,
he will say). He will show us how to live with faith, die with courage, and live
again as one who through God conquers death. Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem,
has come to us as Savior and teacher. He
comes teaching us that his declaration to Mary is ours to make too. Jesus teaches us that it is time for each of us to be in
God’s house, to be involved as much as we can in this community of God. It is
time to be about God’s business which means that it is time for us to make
principled commitments of our own. How do we make these commitments? Paul uses
imagery that comes from the ancient baptismal ceremony in which candidates took
off their old clothes, entered the water naked, and emerged to be enfolded in
new robes. He says to the church in order to make some commitments to Christ it
will be necessary to take some things off. Take off what gets you between you
and God. Just like in that
television show, “What Not To Wear”, Colossians comes as a word of friendly
advise, letting us know that we are wearing some things that just no longer look
right on us, they don’t fit anymore. We
are the people of God, beloved people, why are we still wearing hurtful
attitudes that isolate us from people? Is there anything in us that keeps us
from loving God fully? Take it off. We
may be due a spiritual makeover. We may need to put on some articles of clothing
so that there will be no mistaking what is important to us here. In the book Crowns,
African American women talk about their church hats. Their hats are meaningful,
not only because they are fashionable, but because their hats are part of their
presentation before God in the sanctuary. One
of the women, Shirley Manigault, says, “when you present yourself before God,
there should be excellence in all things, including your appearance.” Looking
good on the outside is good, but wearing the right things in our heart and soul
is vital to our ability to make a commitment to God. We
can put on a right attitude. Too many people live with ill-fitting attitudes
that suggest that we are all that is, and that we do not matter to God or
anybody else. The truth is that we are among those chosen by God, God loves us,
each of us without reservation and without conditions. God simply loves us. We
expect good things from those we love, we want the best for our loved ones and
God expects great things from us. What
God expects is that we will act with compassion caring for one another. God
expects kindness, that is that we treat each other and visitors, the ones who
grace our pews and the ones who knock on our doors and ring our doorbells and
sometimes just come right in, with respect. God expects humility from us.
Humility is not self-effacement or self-negation. Humility does not mean that we
do not think highly of ourselves. Humility means that we can think well of
ourselves without thinking ill of others, and that we are not surprised because
others think highly of themselves. Humility can help us to develop the sense
that we are not the only important ones along with a sense of patience, of
developing the discipline of waiting for the next thing God will do. We
are called to put on attitudes like we put on our winter clothes – we are
putting layers. So after we put on the right attitude within ourselves. There is
the attitude we put on toward others. Paul
writes to the Colossians and to us that we are to bear with one another. Not
every one knows all you know, has your experiences, nor have they lived your
life. Be patient with them. We have been in the church a long time and for a
short time. We know that right thing to say and get it wrong sometimes. Every
now and then we are gracious, occasionally we are rude. We can do great things,
and we can do great harm. Can
we put on forgiveness? Can we let go of all that has hurt us; can we forgive
ourselves for hurting others? Can we remember that we have been forgiven by God
more times than we can count. Put on forgiveness. Then
when you have put all of the new clothes on, add this one thing. Put on love.
When love is deep in us, when love moves in us we will be moved to act, by the
peace within us, and by the love God has shown us. After
all, “since God is compassionate, kind, humble, meek, patient, forgiving,
loving, and peaceful, God’s people are to be and live in like manner. They
take their cues for life not from their innate constitution as humans or from
what seems to work best in the world, but from the character of God’s
self-revelation in Jesus Christ” (Texts
for Preaching, Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994, p. 72). In
all that we do, we are called to make principled commitment to doing God’s
business. As we do, we will find our sense of unity, we really are in this
church together. We
find a sense of self-determination – we can find the clarity and vision and
purpose we need to be the church Christ calls us to be. We
will have a deep desire to work together and to be responsible for living out
our own call and to help others discover and share the gifts God has given them.
Cooperative
economics? That is what stewardship is about. The resources we have are put to
use for the support of this congregation and as a means of witnessing to the
Christ we love into the world. We will do a better job in 2004 of helping this
congregation understand the importance of outreach in Colossians and throughout
this country and world. Our
purpose will be to be and to live the good news of Jesus Christ wherever we are.
If our purpose is clear, we will be able to put our best creative minds and
hearts to all that we do. Finally
as we exchange our old clothes for new clothes, we worship God. We can worship
with gratitude and we can sing. When we worship, we sing hymns, “The Lord Is
My Shepherd”, “Savior Like A Shepherd Lead Us”, “The King of Love My
Shepherd Is”. We
can sing hymns as we have done today, and as we do each Sunday. We can sing
spiritual songs, like the ones we learned in camp, and like the ones we have
learned as recently as youth Sunday when the choir and our youth led us in
singing, “Our God is an awesome God…he reigns.” At
the age of twelve, Jesus makes his first statement about who he is and what he
will be about. He must be in his
father’s house, and we must be in this house ready to do all that we are
called to do in the name of Jesus Christ. “Hail
the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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