Slingshots at Fort Knox

Slingshots at Fort Knox--November 15, 2016

"So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." [Colossians 3:1-3]

Ok, right as we get out of the gate here, we should clear something up: this life matters.  It matters a lot.  This day matters.  This week matters.  This month and this year matter.  And what you do with the next breath matters.

Please, oh please, don't go misreading the thrust of these words from the New Testament, even though we seem to keep trying to miss the point.  The third chapter of Colossians is not saying that we should turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to the broken places and injustices of the world and just say, "Well, maybe it will all get fixed in heaven," with an unconvinced shrug.  Colossians is not saying we should try to pacify (silence) those who have been stepped on in life by just whispering, "It will be better in the sweet by-and-by...now get ready for more abuse!"  To be a Christian is not merely to have heavenly fire insurance to get us to some celestial prize after we die--it has everything to do with living every moment in the presence of God.  So even though we have hope of life beyond the grip of death--because God will not let go of us even after we are unable to hold onto our own lives--we don't (or at least we aren't supposed to) simply ignore the needs of this day, and we don't pretend the disappointments, letdowns and heartbreaks of this life are irrelevant because they are only "just" for this life. 

But when we take these words from Colossians seriously, something does change about the way we see our choices, our actions, and our words in this day and this life: namely, we stop worrying and whining about protecting our own interests, and we find a remarkable courage and compassion we never knew before.

"Your life is hidden with Christ," says Colossians, which is a way of saying, that our lives are preserved by the hand of the living God in a way that no bullets, no tear gas, no threats of angry mobs or hateful tyrants can get to them.  The powers of the day will do their worst, and they will use the same old tired lines they always use to make us afraid and suspicious--they will try to make us afraid of someone out to "get" us, and they will try to get us to put our trust in our own weapons and ammunition as the key to being "safe."  The powers of the day go further--they want to make us think that our own lives are more important that other people's lives, and so I must protect myself and my interests at all costs--that I be ready to hurt someone else before they come and take my precious piles of stuff.  The powers of the day want to get me to misplace my trust in my own strength, and to redirect my fear at the face of the neighbor next to me.  All of that is to say, the powers of the day want me to doubt the clear promise of the New Testament--that my life is hidden with Christ. 

And if my life is hidden in God, and God will not let me go, then all my bluster to try and protect my stuff (and all my fear of what would happen if I didn't) is like trying to defend the gold inside Fort Knox from an oncoming truck with a slingshot.  The slingshot is no match for the truck--but the truck was never going to get through the fortress anyhow.  My slingshot is both totally futile and totally unnecessary.  My life is hidden with Christ in God.

That should give us courage and compassion in this day--because we no longer have to be biting our nails in worry about "what might happen to me... or my stuff?!" and instead I am free to look out for the protection of others around me, who really are in danger of being stepped on, harmed, or hurt.  The powers of the day just don't have any real... power... over me, once I hear the truth from Colossians.  They can do their worst... but the truck just ain't getting through the gates of the fortress. 

There's a story from back in the family album of the early church that seems worth mentioning.  The well-loved old father of the church John Chrysostom once found himself rounded up in front of the empire, when they were cracking down on followers of Jesus and their stubborn refusal to bow down to the powers of that day.  Chrysostom was in front of the empress herself, so the story goes, and she threatened to banish him if he wouldn't give in.

The old saint says in reply, “You cannot banish me, for this world is my Father’s house.”

“But I will kill you,” said the empress.

“No, you cannot, for my life is hid with Christ in God,” John says back--quoting these very words from Colossians.

“I will take away your treasures," said the face of the empire.

“No, you cannot, for my treasure is in heaven and my heart is there," John answered.

“But I will drive you away from your friends and you will have no one left," the empress pushed further.

“No, you cannot, for I have a Friend in heaven from whom you cannot separate me. I defy you, for there is nothing you can do to harm me.”

That is not a lack of concern for the present life--it is a fire-tested courage that can deal with the troubles of this life with greater defiance and greater love because it is grounded in the power of God to hold our lives.  The powers of the day can only intimidate us if we believe they are holding all the cards, but they are not.  There is an ace up God's sleeve--there always is.  There is a power at work among us that the threats and jackboots and dictators of history do not have and do not understand.  If we dare to believe the promise of the New Testament--that our lives are hidden in God with Christ--then the empires that come and go cannot make us afraid.  And without that fear, we have the renewed courage to speak up for those without a voice, to stand with those who are afraid of being cut down, to comfort those who are heartbroken and enter into their grief, and to love those who feel they have no one left.

Hear this truth, and know it in your bones:  your life is in Christ, and there is nothing that anybody, anybody, ANYBODY, can do to take it away.  Now, go and defy the empire with courage and love.  Go bring the face of Christ to someone who needs it today.

Lord Jesus, hold onto our lives, and go with us as we walk where you send us, no longer afraid, and no longer fussing about protecting our own interests.  You hold them for us--let that be enough.