If then 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 on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4

 

            How many times have you heard someone saying, “If only I could make a real difference it would be worth the effort”?  A lot of people go through the motions at their jobs and they put in their time.  But they wonder if they are really making a difference.  Twenty other people might be able to do their job just as well as they could.  The routine is the same every day.  If all of a sudden you were not there would life all of a sudden come to a halt for everyone?  Or would it just be a bump in the road quickly overcome as life rapidly returned to normal for everyone?  We all like to think that we are indispensable.  But sometimes Satan likes to whisper in your ear that you are worth absolutely nothing in the end.  In fact, in his final temptations of the Lord, how often must he have said the same thing to Jesus?  Dying on the cross and bleeding to death, carrying the sins of the world – and people are laughing at him and mocking him and ignoring him.  All but one of his own closest followers were not even present to be with Him in His last moments.  “Jesus” Satan must have chuckled, “you really are worthless.. and the world will go on just fine without You.”  But Easter’s message is: “How wrong!  How wrong he was with our Lord and Savior. How wrong he is with you!”

            For St. Paul reminds you and me that you have been raised with Christ.  Now at first you may be a bit puzzled by that remark of the great apostle.  How can I be raised with Christ?  I haven’t even died yet!  Well, you haven’t died physically yet, and I pray that you don’t for a long time because we all need you here and love you.  But we all died spiritually in our sins and wrongs.  When Ephesians 2:1 says, “But as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins” the Word of God isn’t kidding.  That is the spiritual condition of every person apart from Jesus Christ.  But the focus today is not on death at all – all your sins and transgressions have been absolutely and entirely forgiven.  You are alive in the Lord Jesus Christ now and forevermore and the victory of Easter Sunday which Jesus won is yours.  In that sense the Bible is wonderfully accurate in saying that you have been raised with Christ.

            So you see life through an entirely different set of eyes.  It is like the three brickmasons who were each working on the sparkling new cathedral in the center of the city where they lived.  A man came by and asked them what they were doing.  The first said, “I’m working so I can pay the bills at home”.  The second one said, “I am making a wall with these bricks and cement”.  The third man, who was doing the exact same thing as the other two said, “I am building a home for God to His glory.”  He saw what he was doing in a different way because life for him had a new perspective.  He was seeking the things above.

            And I have found that being alive in the Lord Jesus makes me want to seek Him more and more.  I am going to let you in on a confession of mine.  It involves Monday night Bible Study.  I think many of you know that Monday night is one of my favorite times of night.  My spirit soars at the Monday night Bible Study almost as much as it does on Sunday morning with all of you.  But do you want to know specifically when my spirit soars on Monday night – it happens at 9:00 PM.  Now if you do some quick calculating you may say, “Wait a minute, I thought Bible Study began at 7:30 PM.  You just said your heart explodes with excitement at 9:00 PM. What’s going on?”  What’s going on is my confession.  At 7:30 I am very nervous I am usually not on fire for the Lord.  I am more concerned about who is coming.  I have spent a long day at work here and like a lot of ministers coming off the thrill of Sunday Monday is not a day when I have a ton of energy.  In fact, at 7:30 PM there are many instances where I wish I were at home or I would be praying for a snowstorm so perhaps we wouldn’t have to meet.  That is the earthly viewpoint in me, the sinful viewpoint.  The thought of being with the Lord in His Word is a chore and it is a burden.  But when we have been with each other then and have gotten into the Word and my eyes have been opened by all the saints who teach me there my spirit is jumping for joy by the time we have the closing prayer.  I wish we didn’t have to go home.  I wish we could stay there and go on and on and on.  In fact I have a feeling that this is in part what heaven will be like.  You just cannot get enough because your eyes are focused on the things that are above.  You’ve been with the Risen Lord.  You see things differently.

            Because as the text says you are seeking Christ.  It is not just a spirituality or some inner light we are seeking. That is what the world creates and convinces itself that it is spiritual.  In fact, I read in Last Sunday’s Hartford Courant that you can now take courses at some local college in how to create your own spirituality.  You don’t need a Church or Pastor or sacraments or anything.  Just sit down and come up with something that gives you an inner spiritual buzz.  But the one thing that stands out in this text is the name “Christ”.  It appears four times alone in these verses and in the rather short book of Colossians the name “Christ” appears twenty four times.  The Bible is trying to tell you and me that yes, the greatest thing we could ever do is to set our minds on the things above but the embodiment of “things above” is in the person of Jesus Christ.

            That’s what Satan is trying to get you to stop doing.  He loves it when people think they are spiritual.  They think they have it all together and when they do then there is no need for God except the God of our own making and that is an old lie of his.  But he hates it when you discover that Jesus Christ is the only One Who can satisfy the soul and the only One who can bring peace.  In fact, I love the way CS Lewis put it once in one of his books.  He said that most of our lives are spent focusing on the earthly things and sinful things.  And we all know what a thrill temptation can seem at the time.  Just ask any governor of New York or former governor of Connecticut .  And the things Satan offers us at times can make us lust and yearn for them with all our hearts.  But then comes Jesus.  And it is as if Jesus Christ is that long lost love a man once had who has somehow disappeared from his life.  And all of a sudden she walks into the room with open arms and a smile and she is dressed in pure white.  He can’t even catch his breath because he realizes that after all this time every one of his dreams can come true.  It is probably the way every man in this Church felt when he saw his future wife walking down the aisle at the wedding.  And as CS Lewis wrote it, for a moment you glance over at Satan.  And in disgust you see Satan for who he really is and he looks like nothing more than, and pardon CS Lewis’ bluntness and my own, a cheap harlot – a cheap harlot with gaudy ratty clothing and gobs of makeup smeared on the face to cover a multitude of warts and blemishes.  And you say, “How could I have ever found this slop of Satan’s attractive to me?  I’ll take Jesus Christ any day”.

            To me, that is what it means when Colossians 3 urges us in the Lord to no longer set our minds on things that are on the earth.  Those are all the materialistic things that far too many people spend day after day pursuing.  But it also includes the negative things that I think have haunted too many of the Lord’s people lately.  For the things of the earth don’t just include the world’s delights. They also include the sorrows and hurts and frustrations that burden our souls day in and day out.  They are the things embodied by a New England winter which seems to go on and on and on as this one has.  They are found in the four funerals our Church was involved in last week and the many visits that have been made to God’s people suffering from illness and hurt.  It is Cancer and Leukemia and Heart Disease.  It is in the daily reports of a world gone crazy with violence and car bombings, where even peaceful nations like Kenya fall apart in violence and hundreds if not thousands die needlessly.  The things of earth include political leaders who fail us with their scandals where one resigns because of sexual misconduct only to be replaced by another who the day and week of his inauguration starts by admitting publicly to his multiple affairs.  And your girl friend dumps you or your boyfriend dumps you and people are self-medicating themselves for their stresses with alcohol or drugs. And to me the saddest of all is when I meet other Pastors, my own colleagues in ministry, the guys who should be the most upbeat of all, and when I ask them how things are going the best they can come up with is, “Ugh”.

            But in the midst of all of it is Easter.  And it is like all of a sudden after this litany of sadness and sorrow there comes a big “WHAM!”  Jesus lives.  He is alive. The Victory is won!  Does Easter make a difference?  You bet it does!  Because it tells us Who has the last word in all these things.  It is our living and victorious Lord Who also went through the world’s heartache and now He has overcome the world – and you are raised with Him!  Does it mean that this side of heaven we will no longer have our heartaches?  No.  But we sure have a different outlook on them!  For in all these things when the Bible today reminds us that our life is hidden with Christ in God, the better translation of that verb is: “Kept safe”.  Our life is really “kept safe” with God.  Not a day passes when you are not surrounded by God and by the love of His Son Jesus Christ.

            That’s why in setting our hearts on the things above I look forward to appearing with Him in glory.  We are the only ones who look forward to the day when this world’s history comes to a close or when earthly life draws to its end.  Because then the party gets going.  And if you will, I want to get the party going a little earlier because today is in fact Easter Sunday.  Lately in the news you and I have heard about the many ministers and Reverends and Pastors who preach and proclaim a political message of various kinds.  You have the Reverend Jacksons and the Reverend Sharptons and the Reverend Wrights.  And I am not here to criticize them or to tell them that they shouldn’t care about politics. But my only plea and hope would be that they speak with equal fervor and zeal for the name of Jesus Christ.  I only wish that on a day like today that these same vibrant preachers would point their people to the cross of Jesus Christ and the empty tomb with an equal fire and zealousness.  But in case they do not, I have decided to help them out today.

            For our Youth here at St. Paul ’s pointed me to a “You Tube” segment on the internet that fired my imagination. And though I give credit to the man who inspired this part of the sermon, whose name is Steve Harvey, I couldn’t help but read the words, “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” without wanting to give you my version of what that might mean.  I don’t expect everyone to relate to it but if today I was given the privilege of introducing to you our Savior now risen from the dead who on the last day will appear again in glory on this planet with as much fire as I can muster, this is how I would do it:

            Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my honor today to introduce to you a Man Who needs no introduction.  His credits are too long to list.  He has done the impossible time after time.  His Father is the author of the number one bestseller since the beginning of time.  His mother is still a headliner in the Catholic Church!  His communication system of prayer hasn’t had a dropped call or disconnect for two millennia and takes the “A” out of “AT &T”.  His medical plan outperforms every HMO and Health plan known to mankind and He offers universal coverage for all our infirmities.  His retirement plan outperforms Shearson Lehman, EF Hutton, Mutual of Omaha and the Oppenheimer Fund combined with benefits that are literally out of this world.

            Before there was a BB King, an Alan King, or even  Martin Luther King.. before there was a Lord and Taylor or Twelve Lords-a-Leaping He was and is King of kings and Lord of lords.  When He isn’t walking on water He’s changing it into wine and He continues to hold the single record for the greatest fish fry in history – using fives loaves and two fish – NO special effects and No camera tricks.  By His own self-portrait He has been the inspiration and guiding light over twenty centuries for the entire Sheep and Wool industry and is today the Sole Honoree in the Shepherd’s Hall of Fame.  The demons fear Him and the children love Him.  He is the Beginning and the End, the Bright Morning Star. Some call Him the Prince of Peace;  Some call Him the Son of Man.

            Hailing from a manger in Bethlehem and an empty tomb in Jerusalem – the favorite Son of Nazareth – Ladies and Gentlemen, can you put your hands together for a round of sound and show your love for the undisputed and eternally reigning champion over sin, death, and via a third day knockout Satan Himself- I give you risen from the dead, ascended into Heaven, the Alpha and the Omega – the very conqueror of Hell itself- the One – the Only-  Jesus Christ!