The First Sunday of Christmas Rev. Darrell Debowey Immanuel Lutheran Church, Springfield, IL December 27, 2015 Colossians 3:12 17: 12 Put on then, as God s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. You Are What You Wear TEXT: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text for today s message is the Epistle reading from Colossians, the 3rd chapter. INTRODUCTION: You ve heard the phrase, You are what you eat, right? Just what does that mean? If you eat donuts, are you re a pastry? If you eat hamburgers, you re a ground beef? If you eat brocolli, are you a vegetable that former president George H.W. Bush hates? I think what that means is that if you eat healthy foods like fruits and vegetables you re a healthy person; and if you eat junk food, well, I guess that means you re an unhealthy person! I like both healthy food and junk food so what does that make me? Probably confused! More accuarately though is this phrase: You are what you wear. If you wear your pants down to here, you re from the hood. If you wear an expensive Armani suit, you re probably a lawyer or some other professional. If you wear a t-shirt that hasn t been washed in days, you re Page 1
likely a college student. If you wear scrubs, you re probably a doctor or a nurse can t tell these days, though. If you wear a judicial robe, you re a judge. If you wear a police uniform, you re a police officer if not, you re impersonating one. Firefighters wear special gear to fight fires, and soldiers wear uniforms so they know who is who in the heat of battle. And the list goes on, from the simple, like the vests worn by WalMart employees, to the complex, like the football gear worn by football players. We can pretty much tell who a person is by what he wears. The apostle Paul teaches us that in baptism, you put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). But unlike a judge s robe or a police officer s uniform, people around you can t tell just by looking at you that you wear Jesus that you re a Christian, a believer in our Lord. Only God can see that He has clothed you with Christ through the gift of Baptism and has given you the faith that saves you from your sins. The world only knows you have put on Christ when they see your faith in Jesus at work, when you put on love WHEN YOU PUT ON CHRIST, THE WORLD SEES CHRIST IN YOU BY HOW YOU LOVE GOD AND YOUR NEIGHBOR. I. God s chosen ones, holy and beloved. Paul opens our text with these words: God s chosen ones, holy and beloved. That s very important because you aren t holy and beloved by what you do, but by what God has done for you you were graciously chosen for salvation. As God s chosen ones, holy and beloved, the Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel and given you the gift of faith in Jesus that justifies you before God and saves you from your sins. This saving faith is called passive faith passive in that it doesn t do anything to merit God s Page 2
favor there s nothing you can do to atone for your sins before God. Saving faith only receives God s grace and forgiveness won for you by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Martin Luther was famous for saying, Faith (in Christ Jesus) alone saves, but faith is never alone. By that he is saying is that saving faith is never found all by itself in a person but is always accompanied by love faith in action what we call active faith. This faith doesn t save, but it s the outward sign of inward faith in Jesus. Love for God and love for your neighbor are the automatic fruit of saving faith. Faith in Christ automatically responds to God s love and grace by loving God and neighbor in return. II. Putting on love is living in Christian virture. But sometimes we Christians need a reminder, so Paul says, 12 Put on then, as God s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. A sermon could be written on each of these Christian virtues so here goes! I think that as Christians guided and instructed by the Holy Spirit, we know what each of these virtues means it s just a matter of doing them! Compassionate hearts hearts filled with concern for other people especially for those facing difficult circumstances. Kindness acting in a way that is beneficial to others. When Christ cleansed the temple, it was an act of kindness, for His action benefitted those who were being robbed by the moneychangers. Page 3
Humility is that virtue that considers others more important than yourself. It s the opposite of selfish ambition or conceit it s the opposite of insisting on your way. Meekness is there a more Christ-like virtue than to set aside one s own rights and sense of self-importance and put another person s needs first? That s meekness. Patience is the power to remain tranquil, to control your temper, even when provoked; it s also the ability to allow God His time to work His will. Bearing with one another as we each struggle with our own temptations and sin, so we understand the struggles of others and are not so quick to condemn. Forgiving each other to bear a grudge is the opposite of forgiving one another. God alone has the right to bear a grudge against us but He does not He forgives. And so we forgive and thus maintain Christian peace with each other. Love and harmony We all know that a home where there is love and forgiveness is a harmonious home. So it is in the Church: where there is love and forgiveness, patience and kindness, humility and compassion, there is harmony and peace. So Paul concludes this love for your Christian neighbor with these words: 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. III. Putting on love for God in worship. Then Paul changes his focus to love toward God: 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Page 4
What else is Paul talking about but worship? Where does the Word of Christ dwell in you richly but in worship? Where do you receive God s Word and Christ s body and blood for your life and salvation but in worship? Where else is the Word of God taught to you but from the pulpit and the lectern? And where else do you teach and admonish one another through the hymns and the Psalms that you sing to one another but in worship? Isn t worship attendance the best outward sign of inward faith? Isn t our love for God best expressed in worship? We like to call unbelievers, the unchurched, don t we? What happens when believers stop going to church? Isn t that a sign that they have stopped loving God that other things have become more important? Certainly, you aren t saved by your worship attendance, but you are saved through it because in worship God delivers to you the means of grace. Furthermore, even unbelievers do good for their own kind, as Jesus said, For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (Mt. 5:46 47). But they don t worship the God who loves them and has given His Son to die for them. The best way for the world to see your love for the God who has saved you from your sins is to worship Him, faithfully the call to faith is also a call to worship. And as far as Paul is concerned, there s no difference between worshipping God in the life you live here in the sacred world and worshipping God in the life you live out there in the secular world. In the first chapter of Colossians, he writes: And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and Page 5
understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God (Col. 1:9 10). To love God is to receive His gifts and acknowledge His grace in worship, and to live lives that honor Him outside of worship that s what it means to be a holy people, a nation of priests. IV. Perfect love only comes from Christ. Now, each of these virtues was certainly embodied in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so when Paul says, put on love, he is saying, be like Christ. But this is hard work. In fact, it s impossible work. We live in a fallen world where we face a constant struggle with sin in ourselves and in the world. And the devil constantly assails us with all kinds of temptations to sin especially the sin of putting ourselves before God and our neighbor. The result is, we daily fail to love God as we should, and our neighbor as Christ loves us. What are we to do? I could tell you to do better just work harder, but that s not going to help you when you stand before God that s not going to help you overcome what is natural to all of us sin. There s no one who can love as Christ Jesus loves. What I can tell you is this: You ve put on Christ. That means, your sins are covered, forgiven. You re imperfect love perfected because you put on Christ. Paul says in Galatians (2:20), I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Life in the flesh will always be fraught with failure and sin, with shortcomings and deficiencies in how you love God and how you love your neighbor. But yours is a life lived in Christ, a life lived under the cross because that s what you need a Savior who loves you and has given His life for you not because you re perfect, but because you re a sinner. Page 6
That s what you come to church to hear not how wonderful you are, because you know deep down inside or maybe not so deep down inside that you don t love God or your neighbor as you should. So you come to church to hear that God loves you and Christ died for you and your sins have been washed away. CONCLUSION: Isn t that the Christmas Gospel God comes to us as a human being to save sinners. And it is this great love and forgiveness that empowers your love and forgiveness you put on love because the One who perfectly loves has been put on you! In Jesus name. Amen. Page 7