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Clothed in the Light of Christ
(Colossians 3: 12-17)
A sermon preached December 31, 2006 at University United Methodist Church, East
Lansing MI by Kennetha Bigham-Tsai
We stand upon the eve of a New Year and in a season in which
we continue to celebrate the light that has come into the world through Christ.
But we celebrate not just the birth of that little child in Bethlehem. We also
celebrate the birth of the Church—constituted and born through Christ as a light
for the nations and a healing balm for the world.
I am talking about the birth of the Church this morning
because through baptism, the Church was born through individual people coming
together as a community in Christ. Through baptism, the community of the Church
was born and is reborn and formed as each one of us passes through the water and
emerges as a new creation—in an individual sense—but in a communal sense as
well.
I am also speaking of baptism today because our passage in
Colossians speaks of baptism. In the Early Church, it was the practice to remove
one’s clothes before baptism and then to put on new clothes after the ritual.
This is why this passage in Colossians makes reference to clothing oneself.
The connotation is that, through baptism, the old is
exchanged for the new—the old pair of clothes for the new pair of clothes--old
ways of behaving and believing for new ways of behaving and believing.
But understand that baptism in the Early Church meant much
more than personal and individual transformation. Baptism meant formation and
transformation of a community which would transform the world.
This meant that through baptism, a new community was formed.
This meant that through baptism, this new community would be marked and
identified by how each of its members treated one another. This meant that
through baptism, this newly formed community would be marked and known and
recognized by the way it treated others outside of that community. This meant
that this newly formed community in Christ would be known and identified by the
clothes it put on through baptism.
Indeed, baptism meant rebirth and formation as part of a new
community clothed in the virtues of compassion, kindness, forgiveness, patience,
humility, peace and love. These are the clothes of Christ. These are the
garments which he wore. And these are the clothes which his followers have been
called to wear.
Now let’s be more specific about what it means to be clothed
in Christ. To put on the clothes of Christ that mark membership in this new
community called the Church means that one would take off the old clothes of
malice and anger and wrath and put on new clothes of compassion and kindness,
(cf. Col 3: 8, 12). These are virtues which identified Christ in his lifetime
and which would identify his followers.
Kindness and compassion and mercy--do you remember the
stories about Jesus? He was a man of such compassion that he could not walk past
hurting people. Instead he was compelled to touch and to heal them. He was a man
of such compassion that he was willing to sacrifice time and comfort—indeed his
very life--for the good of the other.
Such compassion was the metaphorical clothing that Christ
wore. Therefore, when that woman with the issue of blood reached out and touched
the hem of his robe, yes she touched the power of God, but she also touched
divine compassion. She touched compassion, and she was healed, (cf. Mat 9:
20-22).
Friends, this new community, which we call the Church,
formed in Christ and through the sacrament of baptism, is called to put on these
same clothes of compassion and kindness and mercy toward one another and toward
the world. And when we put on such clothes, we can be the healing presence of
Christ for the world.
Look at what else our text tells us. It tells us that those
who would be part of this new community marked by the light and example of
Christ must take off the old clothes of arrogance and pride and put on new
clothes of Christ’s meekness and humility.
Now it is hard for me to think of Christ as meek, for he was
the one who overturned the tables of the money changers, (Mk 11: 15-17). He was
one who would not mince words and who called the religious leaders of his day
vipers and hypocrites, (cf. Mat 23: 1-7, 13-33). But what these observations
about Christ tell me is that meekness does not mean silent acquiescence to
wrong.
Instead, meekness means being in right relation to God and
to neighbor. Meekness means an attitude of obedience and surrender to God and
service to one’s neighbor-- service that does not expect recognition or
reward--service that is not marked by self-righteousness--service that is not
about patronizing and controlling others--service instead that only seeks the
good of the other.
Meekness is perhaps of one cloth with humility. For it was
meekness and humility toward God which Christ exemplified at Gethsemane when he
said, “Not my will but thine be done,” (Mark 14:36). And it was meekness
and humility toward others which Christ exemplified when he washed the dirty
feet of his recalcitrant and unfaithful disciples, (John 13: 3-8).
These are the qualities—the qualities of humility and
meekness—that are given such short shrift in our society today. We are taught
that we must seek control and power and recognition and reward. Rarely is the
message in our culture one of humility and meekness.
Indeed, national leaders who lead lives of humility, and who
approach the world with a degree of humility, are often derided as weak—their
virtues not seen until after their deaths, as has been the case with the
recently deceased President Gerald Ford. Our culture does not reward meekness.
Our culture does not recognize humility. Instead, we are often caught in the
trap of equating arrogance and bravado with strength—and we make that equation
at our own peril.
But friends this passage in Colossians tells us something
different. It tells us that meekness and humility are the clothes that this new
community in Christ should put on at its baptism. Our passage tells us that to
be clothed in Christ and in his light is to be clothed in such humility and in
such meekness.
And then this passage in Colossians tells us that, in
addition to compassion, kindness, meekness and humility, the new Christian
community and those who constitute it are called to bear with one another--to
put on the virtues of patience and forbearance.
There is an implicit assumption in this particular
directive—and the assumption is that no person is perfect and without fault. The
assumption is that no person in any relationship, in any marriage, in any
family, in any work environment, in any church, in any community is perfect and
without shortcoming. The assumption here is that we all need the patience of
others—that we all need each other’s forbearance.
So, as part of a new community of believers, constituted
through the Christ event and through baptism into Christ, we are called to
clothe ourselves with patience and to bear with one another. That means that we
are to put up with each other’s quirks and piques of personality. That means
that we are to offer the same compassion and grace-filled acceptance to another
person that we wish to be offered to us. That means that we are to approach our
life together from a posture of grace.
And, if and when we have a complaint against another, we are
to forgive. Wouldn’t it be interesting if our Scripture passage told us, “If
you have a complaint against another, complain louder.” No, instead, our
Scripture text tells us, “If you have a complaint against another, forgive.
Forgive as Christ has forgiven you,” (Col 3:13).
Friends, Christ did not forgive us because we changed and
became perfect. Christ did not forgive us because we ceased all sin. Instead,
Christ forgave us as an act of unmerited grace.
Therefore friends, I stand before you as a sinner, yet as a
forgiven and beloved child of God. And you all stand before God as sinners, yet
as forgiven, holy and beloved. We are all imperfect and limited, and yet
forgiven, showered with grace, and beloved. This is the forgiveness and pardon
and love that Christ has extended toward us. And through our baptism, we have
taken off our old clothes and put on the new one’s of Christ. And these new
clothes are aglow in the light of Christ and therefore in the forgiveness and
mercy of Christ.
What this all means is that as a new community in Christ we
are called to love, for love binds all of these virtues together. Remember that
call in the Book of Matthew—those greatest commandments—to love God and then
others as ourselves, (cf. Mat 22: 36-40). Love is the virtue that stands above
all other virtues.
It is so simple, yet so difficult for us to do—to love one
another. But we can love because God has given us the grace to love. All we need
to do is to open our hands and accept the gift of this grace—the grace to love
others despite their shortcomings.
It is such love which binds us together in unity and in
perfect harmony. Therefore, we are a unified community—a community where there
is neither Jew nor Greek, nor male nor female, nor straight nor gay, nor poor
nor rich. We are this unified and harmonious community in Christ to the extent
that we can exercise the grace to love.
If we cannot love, then we are a fractured community divided
by our differences and at odds because of our shortcomings. The degree to which
we can love, however, is the degree to which we can be a new and transformed
community clothed in the light of Christ.
And with the clothing of such love and light comes the peace
of Christ at rule in our hearts. This means that with such love and light comes
a peace which directs our every action and which defines our very way of being
in the world. With such love and light comes the peace of Christ in us, but also
working through us to bring peace to the world.
And friends the world is so in need of a community clothed
in peace. We are awash in wars brought on by hatred and arrogance and greed. We
are awash in all kinds of brokenness. Yet, we as the Church are the succor for
our broken and warring world, for we can meet hatred and prejudice with love and
grace. We can meet arrogance with humility and meekness. We can meet greed with
generosity. We can meet strife and discord and violence with the peace of
Christ.
I bemoan the fact that many of us in the Church sometimes
think of ourselves as powerless and ineffective in the face of the world’s many
problems. We are not powerless and ineffective. We have the power to effect
great good in the world. And we will affect that good to the extent that we can
clothe ourselves in the light and love of Christ, doing everything with the
recognition that we bear his name and his light.
Look at what the passage in Isaiah says. “Arise and
shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth…but the Lord will arise upon you, and his
glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light and the kings to
the brightness of your dawn,” (Isa 60: 1-3).
Friends, Christ came as a little child and as the light of
the world. Christ came as a little child and as the glory of God revealed to the
world. And, we are called, as a community in Christ, formed and transformed
through the sacrament of baptism, to clothe ourselves in the light of Christ and
in the light of God’s glory revealed in Christ. This is what it means when the
writer of Colossians says that we are called to clothe ourselves in compassion,
kindness, meekness, humility, peace, patience, forgiveness and love. These are
the clothes and the light of Christ which we are called to wear as the
transformed and reborn community bearing Christ’s name.
And, as a community clothed in Christ and in his light, and
we are called not just to show the light of Christ to each other, but to show
the light of Christ to the world. In this sense, we are called to be the light
of Christ in the world, extending to the world the love and grace and peace of
God which is in Christ.
And when we exemplify such light--we can live out our call
to be a healing and transforming presence in the world—a world so desperately in
need of healing and transformation. When we live out this call, we can be the
light which draws the nations to a new dawn.
So, let us hear this call this morning and into the New
Year, and do more than hear, but feel empowered to carry out this call. Let us
remember our baptism today. And let us clothe ourselves in the light of Christ.
Amen.
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