Dan Herold | Colossians 3:1-4 | 5/28/2017
This is a busy time of year. The end of spring and beginning of summer always seems like it’s one of the most jam-packed times of the year. The school year is ending and summer vacation is beginning. The weather is getting nicer and nicer (and warmer and warmer) each day so there’s more to do outside. For those students in school it’s especially busy. There’s all the excitement of being done with school for a couple months and getting into a new routine. There’s the excitement of graduations as well. For high school seniors this time of year means getting ready for what comes next whether that might be moving off to college in a few months, starting some technical training for the career they hope to begin, or just starting a new job. For college seniors graduating this time of year brings even more to do as they start the job search, find a place to live, and start life on their own.
This time of year is a time to move on up. Whether it’s graduating from school, starting a new job, or changing the pace of your work and daily routine, Spring and Summertime are reminders that life keeps on going. Nature brings out new life, the sunshine gives you new energy, and the busyness of life is more than enough to keep us busy. But, along with all that excitement and potential fun can come some uneasiness and nervousness about the future. Moving on up can be an intimidating thing. New responsibilities and challenges, new people to work and learn from, a new place to live and try to fit in—those all can be intimidating things that can make us feel less than confident.
It just so happens that every year around this time when we are thinking about graduating and moving up we celebrate a day in the church year that is often overlooked. This day happens 40 days after Easter every year so it always falls on a Thursday. In fact, it was this past Thursday. The day I’m talking about is the day we heard about in our first reading and gospel reading today—Ascension Day. As the disciples watched Jesus rise before them until he was hidden in the clouds I would guess that they felt less than totally confident as they considered moving on up into their new jobs which they had been given. As they contemplated carrying on the ministry that Jesus began without him physically there the words “uneasy” and “nervous” probably barely scratched the surface of what they were feeling.
Try to imagine what the disciples must have felt that day…it’s not very hard to imagine is it? We have all felt those feelings of excitement and nervousness at the same time. Of being overjoyed and confused all together. Before Jesus ascended into heaven he promised that he was going to provide something that would help resolve that conflict of feelings. He promised that he was going to send the Holy Spirit—the Counsellor— to give us strength and guidance. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would help us as we moved on up. The Holy Spirit helped the disciples as they moved on up into their new roles as the leaders of the church and the Holy Spirit helps us too—when we move on up all throughout life God provides the support and guidance we need.
In his letter to the Colossians Paul explains how Jesus has provided everything we need. Jesus provided everything we need for salvation and that promise of having salvation in Christ is what can get us through even the most difficult times in this world. In the first two chapters of Colossians Paul reminds us of all that Christ has done and assures us that he did everything necessary to guarantee our salvation. Then in chapter 3, which we read from today, Paul encourages us to apply those truths of salvation to our daily lives and live like people certain of salvation even though we don’t see Christ face to face on a daily basis.
Paul wrote,
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
Now, you might hear those words and wonder what Paul means. What does he mean that we have been raised with Christ? What does he mean that we have died? I think I’m alive and you all look like you are alive as well, so what is Paul talking about? Well, he’s using the same metaphor that he used in Romans 6. There he wrote,
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Paul is talking to us about our baptism!
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Remember, in Colossians 3 Paul is giving us encouragement to live as people of the promise—to live like people who are certain of salvation. The way that we are certain of our salvation is that by baptism we were adopted into God’s family and made heirs of the kingdom of heaven. By baptism we were joined together with Christ in his death and resurrection. The fact that Jesus is now seated at God’s right hand in heaven doesn’t change that one bit. Your baptism gave you a gift that no one can take away. Your baptism made you a child of God—a child to whom God has promised many things. One of the greatest promises God has given us is that he won’t ever abandon us. He is with us each and every day. In fact, there will be a day when Jesus returns in a way in which you will be able to see him in the flesh with your very own eyes and then he will take you to live eternally in heaven with him.
Paul says that you died with Christ and your life is now hidden with God. You share in the victory which Christ won on the cross and now you are “hidden with God.” Nothing can take away what you’ve been given. That’s the fear we have though, isn’t it? When we are moving on up—on to something new and different—we are afraid of what it’s going to be like because we’ve grown comfortable with the way things had been. We get scared that when we move up to something new we aren’t going to have the same sort of comfort that we were used to.
The disciples spent three years with Jesus constantly walking alongside them, instructing them, and leading them—now, they would be the leaders and they were scared. Students spend time getting used to a teacher, their classmates, and the dynamics of a certain classroom and then they have to move up to something different and it can be scary. You spend years working at a job and learning how to get along with your boss and your coworkers, learning what sort of work is expected of you, and so on and then if you move to a new job or get promoted you have to learn a whole new set of rules and expectations. Those sorts of changes are good changes, but they aren’t always easy changes.
Jesus not being here on earth with his people was a huge change in the way that God’s people would learn about God and interact with him. It meant a whole lot of new things to learn and a new way of doing things. It meant getting accustomed to new faces, and hearing new voices, and doing new things. But, the foundation of our hope wasn’t changing at all. Jesus would be in a different place, but he wasn’t a different person. The leaders of the church were different people, but the church was still the church that followed Christ. The connection we have with Christ wouldn’t be as much a physical one anymore, but the bond created by baptism remained intact along with all the promises that God gave you and me.
That promise from Colossians 3:4 is the one that guides our lives.
“When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Ascension is such an important day in the church year because it marked a drastic change in what the church looked like and how it went about it’s earthly mission, but at the same time there is no change at all in the substance of the church. Ascension is a lot like a graduation day. When students graduate they don’t become different people. They sometimes dress differently for a new job and the way they go about things might change, but they are still the same person.
When Jesus ascended into heaven a lot of things changed in appearance and practice, but nothing changed in substance. The gospel remained the same. The promise of salvation through faith in Christ as our savior remained the same. God remained the same. In his gracious goodness God promised the send the Holy Spirit 10 days after Jesus ascended to give the disciples the push they needed to move on up and get started at their new jobs. In his gracious goodness God still provides the Holy Spirit today to equip, strengthen, and guide us on whatever adventure this life brings our way. Through it all we can remember that promise…the promise which became ours at our baptism:
“You will also appear with him in glory.”
There are a whole lot of things in this world that are uncertain. Your place in God’s kingdom is not one of them. Take his promises to heart and let them be the strength you need as you move on up through this life until you join your Lord in the next.
Amen.