It is summer!
Today is the fourth of
August, and for many it is tough going.
No matter where you
live in the United States, summer and August make for some uncomfortable days.
It gets hot and dry.
Vacations are used up;
school is almost ready to begin.
Early August is an
in-between time and it is easy to feel a little worn, a little down, a little
tired.
So the church serves
up a great text to boost our spirits and help us keep going. Here in early
August, in the middle of summer, we get the spiritual equivalent of a
supervitamin.
I will take the
liberty of creating a paraphrase for today’s text about being raised with
Christ.
The writer of
Colossians seems to say, “If you have been raised with Christ, then live like
it!
Don’t get dragged down
into ordinary, casual living.
Live like people who
are alive in Christ.
Remember how good you
look in the new clothes Christ has put on you.
Walk with a spring in
your step and a song in your heart.
You have been raised
with Christ.”
In the dog days of
summer this is a great text to take to heart.
Living like we have
been raised with Christ means to take faith off the shelf and onto the street.
It means to realize in
fresh ways that the Christian faith is not so much about what we know as it is
about what we do.
Think of faith as a
verb and not a noun.
Let’s consider how the life raised with Christ
might look in these days.
When we are raised
with Christ we can dare to live tomorrow’s life today.
We can stop putting
off living the best lives we are capable of.
We no longer have to
make cheap and easy compromise with our best selves that says, “One day when
things are right, I will do this or I will love more or I will be more kind or
trust more.”
Today is the day to
live like this.
Because we have been
raised with Christ, we can take the future and live it now.
We can dare to make
real the petition of the Lord’s Prayer for the kingdom to come on earth as it
already has in heaven.
We can dare to live
lovingly in a world in love with war and destruction.
We can dare to live
generously in a world choked by stinginess.
We can dare to offer
cups of cold water to strangers whom everyone else fears. Let the experience of
being raised with Christ intoxicate you so that you dare to live as though
tomorrow is today.
If you have been
raised with Christ, do something for the good of the world.
Don’t get weighed down
by the mundane concerns of life.
Keep scanning the
horizon and working for the kingdom of God.
A college professor
once told his students, “All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life,
just to arrive at death safely.
But dear children, do
not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance; just don’t tiptoe.”
Bored people tiptoe through life.
The antidote for
boredom is to give ourselves to something larger than ourselves.
Have you ever had an
idea pop into your head about how to do something or create something that
would make life better for others?
I am sure you have.
When that happens,
usually another voice starts in our heads saying that the idea is not
practical, or no one will listen, or we should not be so foolish.
We should just get
back to doing what we know and are familiar with. Unfortunately, too many of us
do just that and we start tiptoeing toward death. It is a tragic way to live.
I believe that people
who have been raised with Christ have the power to create a new world.
The challenge of
faithfulness is to live that power every day; to stay so focused on the
resurrection experience
that we know we have
overcome all obstacles and can dare to live with holy boldness because of a
Savior who walks with us every step of the way.
It is summer.
The days are long and
at times oppressively hot.
To hot and tired
people comes the challenge to reclaim the experience of being raised with
Christ in order to know his energy and aliveness for today’s ministry.
A minister friend of mine related a story that
he says is true and that illustrates what being raised with Christ means today.
An Episcopal priest,
dressed in civilian clothes, walked into a motorcycle shop to look over the
latest in two-wheel travel options.
As he stood on the
showroom floor wishing he could afford a large and powerful motorcycle, a
salesman began to talk to him.
The conversation went
something like this.
“Hey, dude. That’s
some bike, ain’t it?”
“It sure is,” said the
minister.
“Man, you could put
your woman on the back of this baby and really haul. I mean, it will leave
rubber in three gears!
Dude, if you come to
town on this hog, there ain’t anybody who will mess with you.
I’m telling you, this
is one mean machine.
By the way, bro, what
do you do for your bread?”
“I’m a minister.”
“Oh, excuse me . . .
Reverend or Mister. What do they call you?
You know, these bikes,
I mean machines, they really get good gas mileage, and you can park them
anywhere.
Why, I sold one to a
doctor the other day.”
Reflecting on this
encounter the minister observed, “No one is surprised to find a Christian
looking at lawn mowers.
Lawn mowers are safe,
middle-class, and boring.
Is being a Christian more like pushing a lawn
mower or riding a motorcycle?”
Good question!
“If you have been
raised with Christ . . .” Brothers and sisters, maybe it’s time we take our
living faith out on the road and give it the gas and see what the old church
can do.
Vroom!
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