Walking Out of the Cemetery--May 1, 2020

Walking Out of the Cemetery--May 1, 2020

"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 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 with be revealed with him in glory.  Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming. These are the ways you also once followed when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things--anger, wrath, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourself with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according ot the image of its creator." [Colossians 3:1-10]

So, let me pose a question:  why should I not be a jerk to other people?

(Ok, an aside to my own question: if you really have to ask yourself why you should not be a jerk to other people, you are probably currently being a jerk.  But Lutheran realism requires us to admit that indeed, we are all probably, at some level currently being jerks in some way.)

I pose this question because there are a lot of bad answers to it, and sometimes the worst ones have the veneer of religiosity to them.  And none of the bad answers are rooted in the resurrection, which is where the writer of Colossians goes with this.

Let's weed out some of the wrong answers so we can clear some ground for a good and true one to sprout from the soil.  Ok, so one approach is basically a utilitarian one: I should not be a jerk insofar as being a jerk gets in the way of me getting what I want.  This line of thinking says, "If you are rude, disrespectful, angry, scheming, and deceptive to other people, you will lose friends and allies and have a harder time getting what you want.  So most of the time you should be polite." The trouble with this line of thinking is that it still leaves the door wide open to being a complete jerk to others when you think it will get you what you want... or when you think it doesn't matter one way or another.  In other words, all that matters is Me-Getting-What-I-Want, and whether or not it is actually "right" or "good" to treat someone else crudely doesn't even factor into the equation.  This is the kind of self-centered narcissism that is on display around us all the time, and honestly, because it is so commonplace anymore, it is sometimes hard to remember that it is not OK.  It is sociopathy.

So, a second possible answer to the question, "Why should I not be a jerk to people?" often gets raised by religious people--at least the ones who are courageous enough to reject the first approach discussed above.  (And, ok, another moment of painful honesty, there are a painfully large group of "religious" folks who seem perfectly willing to accept the utilitarian logic of "I should be polite if it will get me what I want, but if not, being a jerk is acceptable, too... or at least, I will look the other way when powerful people act like jerks to others if they will do a favor for me later."  But that is a conversation for another day.)  The most common "religious" answer to why we should not be jerks boils down to a points and demerits sort of assumption about how God works.  This train of thought says that we shouldn't be jerks because we will lose "God-points" on our permanent record, and if we lose enough points, well then, we could be in danger of losing our salvation, or of going to heaven, or however we conceive of the "rewards" we imagine the angels are waiting to dole out.  

Now, this approach might seem a little less sociopathic than the "I'll act in whatever way gets me what I want" tactic, but it still boils down to the logic of self-interest.  It's just willing to consider that God is the one to avoid upsetting, not just other people.  But if my reason for not being a scheming, lying, malicious, jerk to other people is just that I'm afraid of going to hell if I act that way, again, I'm really just trying to work the system to avoid pain and to seek something positive instead.  And worse still, it suggests that our relationship with God is really still just a matter of bean-counting good deeds and bad deeds, like we earn our way into heaven, or at least earn our way out of hell.  And if that's how it works, well, then Jesus is entirely unnecessary to the whole system.  We can skip the cross and the resurrection, in that case, because it turns out that God just doles out punishments and prizes based on your tally of points.  I hope that will make it clear that even the "religious" answer ("Don't be a jerk because it will lose you points with God") is simply unsatisfactory.

Well, where does that leave us?  Maybe by now we have cleared enough ground that the resurrection-rooted answer from Colossians can rise and bloom.  Because the writer of Colossians is indeed very clear that for us who are in Christ, it is not optional, but essential that we give up the old patterns of rottenness.  But as he fleshes out his thinking, you'll notice that there is no talk of points, no talk of earning, and no talk of losing something that you have already been given.  It's not, "Be good, or else God will kick you out of the club and you'll go to hell." But rather, it's all about the resurrection.  

The writer of Colossians says, "Your old self is dead, and your new life has already begun in Christ, who is risen from the grave.  So you don't have to go back to those old patterns of meanness and greed.  You don't have to exhume that deathly old "Me and My Interests First" thinking.  And you sure-as-heaven don't have any reason to be abusive, crude, malicious, or deceptive in what you say."  All of those things are from our old self, the dead self--and when we feel the impulse to revert to them, it's like we are out digging up our old corpse in the cemetery to wear our decrepit, moldy burial outfit.  And that's disgusting.

Notice how the logic has nothing to do with "What you will get in return for your behavior," either as reward or punishment.  Instead it has everything to do with "what we ARE in Christ"--which is resurrected with him, and dead to our old selves.  That means that the reason not to be a jerk to others isn't simply that it could get in the way of my getting what I want. And it's not just that God will give me demerits for not being polite enough.  It is, rather, that we aren't meant to be those people anymore.  

So, when we find ourselves reverting to lies or scheming or wrathful, angry talk, or mean-spirited threats aimed at those we don't like, we have to hear the New Testament writers calling us out on it.  It is NOT OK.  It is not acceptable.  It is not how we act--it's just not who we are.  But don't hear it like a threat--like if you're too rude for too long, your heaven membership will be revoked.  Rather, hear it like a call to remember whose you are: you have been raised with Christ.  The old, scheming, crude selves, they aren't "us" anymore.  Running back to those old ways is like wallowing in the graveyard, rather than living fully.

And that's just it: Jesus is always about the business of bringing us more fully to life.

So the next time you find that self-centered, greedy, wrathful, scheming impulse bubbling up in you, open your eyes and recognize: you are digging up your own grave and trying to put the old burial outfit on again.  So drop the shovel.  Get up off of your knees in the dirt, and walk out of the cemetery.  Leave the old graveclothes behind.  You are already raised with Christ.  You are free to live like it.

Lord Jesus, we still struggle with the old self in us that doesn't want to stay dead.  Pull us close to you today so that we will remember who we are... and who we no longer have to be.