Where to Look

Where to Look--May 15, 2019

"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 minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory." [Colossians 3:1-4]

So... what kind of stuff is "above"?

If we are being advised not to focus on what is "earthly," but rather to focus on what is "above," because, as Colossians puts it, that's "where Christ is," we should probably get clear on which things go in which pile... because it's not really what we might think at first.

To get the obvious ones out of the way, it's not merely a matter of altitude.  We are not being told to avoid thinking about soil, or grass, or cars and trucks in favor of clouds, rainbows, and hot air balloons.  That should go without saying, but to be honest, sometimes religious folks have added confusion there by depicting heaven as a bunch of people sitting on clouds.  

And compounding that, an awful lot of the last 2,000 years of Christian history has involved people saying, "Don't make too much of a fuss about the terrible things that happen in this world and in this life, and don't try to make things any better, because one day we'll all just be enjoying the afterlife in the sweet by and by."  That led to a pattern of telling slaves, for example, just to accept their lot as slaves in the American south, despite the fact that they'd been ripped from their families and treated as property, and all the while the master-approved (white) preachers would tell them just to accept being enslaved and instead to think about having a nice time in heaven one day.  It led loud religious voices in Germany in the 1930s to persuade the people in their pews just to look the other way as yellow stars were starting to appear on people's clothing... and then as those people started to disappear.  And in so many cases, the official response from the church was, "We aren't supposed to get involved in these earthly situations--we're doing what the Bible says and only thinking about 'the things that are above'." That was a rather convenient way of reading the Bible, since it let Christians off the hook for speaking up on behalf of others who were endangered or pushed to the margins.

Maybe we need to actually listen to what Colossians has to say, though, rather than assuming for ourselves that we know what counts as "the things that are above" versus the "what is earthly."  Because the writer hasn't left us to guess--he's given us a whole list. We just don't often take the time to keep reading.  If we keep going in Colossians 3, even though many English Bibles make it the start of a new paragraph, we see that the writer keeps on describing what "earthly" things and mindsets he has in mind (this is also a time to note that the verse numbers, chapters, paragraphs, and punctuations are not original to the New Testament text, but have all been added by later scholars, translators, and students of the Bible trying to get at the intent of the originals, which would have all been written in all capital letters with no breaks for sentences, paragraphs, or verses).

And in the following sentence, the writer says, "Put to death, therefore, whatever is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)." And then about a sentence later, he rattles off "anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language" along with lying as things we are supposed to leave behind like a set of old dirty clothes, so that we can put on the new life in Christ.

Well, if that's the situation, then all this business about "what is above, where Christ is" and "what is earthly" doesn't teach us to ignore the present life or the present world--not at all! Just the opposite, rather--Colossians is very much interested in what we do and how we engage people in this life.  The idea seems to be that there are two ways of living in the world--one that is focused on getting as much for yourself as you can, even if you have to resort to lying, deception, malice, and manipulation to get it, and the other that is modeled on Christ's way of life, which seeks the good of all with kindness and generosity.  The "earthly" mindset treats everybody else as objects simply here for our gratification (so really this business about fornication and impurity are like greed in a sense--they are both about treating others as objects and amassing as much for ourselves as possible).  And the Christ-like mindset (what Colossians calls "the things above") is centered on the good of all, just like Christ was willing to lay down his own self-interest and valued others enough to treat them with honesty, integrity, compassion, and love. The "earthly" mindset says that the ends justify the means, so you can be as crooked, deceptive, and manipulative as you have to be in order to get people to do what you want or give you what you want.  And the Christ-like mindset says, NO--because other people matter as much as I matter, I don't have permission to deceive, trick, lie, cover up, scheme, swindle, or trick other people, and I don't have permission to just use them for my own purposes.  The creed of the "earthly" mindset is "Me-and-My-Group First!", and the motto of the alternative is, "Love like Christ: everybody, everywhere."

Nowhere does this voice from Scripture say we should just ignore the rottenness around us in this present life and instead distract ourselves with thoughts of floating of puffy clouds after death.  Rather, it's about how we live this life now, in light of Christ's resurrection.  And maybe that's the key here.  If Jesus is still dead and in his grave, well, there's no particular reason to give his voice any more weight or authority than any other dead teacher from the dustbin of history.  But if Jesus is alive and risen, then maybe (definitely!) he really knows what he is talking about, and the point of life is not merely to acquire and accumulate more stuff, more pleasure, or more conquests before our final breath!  If Jesus is alive, then maybe he really can be trusted to tell us that the "Me-and-My-Group-First!" attitude is a distortion of what we were made for.

So today, instead of hearing "set your mind on things above" and thinking it lets us off the hook from the hard work of living with integrity in a world of greed and avarice, or gives us permission to ignore when terrible things are being done around us so we can just think about clouds and rainbows, let's actually listen to the voice of Scripture.  And the message there is clear: the choice is whether we will wallow in the kind of self-interest that says "Me-and-My-Group First!" or dare to practice the kind of Christ-like mindset that says, "I will be good to all, because that is how the risen Christ has shown love to me already."  Colossians says that we have already died to that first way of life--we just have a habit of limping along like zombies in that old way of thinking.  What if we dared to believe that it is true--we don't have to keep going back to the old rottenness.  What if we trusted that Christ has raised us from the dead-end of treating other people as objects, and instead let him teach us how to live fully in love for all?

Lord Jesus, since you have raised us with you, teach us how to put away the old way of life, and to walk like you do, in love for all.