The Wardrobe Picked Out for You

The Wardrobe Picked Out for You

(Colossians 3:12-17) 10:30 am, Sunday,

Dec 30, 2012; Windsor UBC; J G White

(Not Preached – Service Cancelled due to Storm)

The New Year is just around the corner.  The new things we just received as gifts may still be sitting under the shedding branches of our Christmas Trees.  Our New Year’s resolutions are yet to be made, perhaps.  Will we be serious about them this year?  We count Tuesday, January 1^st as a new beginning.  It’s kind of arbitrary, like the date to celebrate the birth of Christ.  But it’s nice to mark the end of one year and beginning of another sometime.  For us in the fellowship of Christ, we may seek this as yet another new chapter of our life story with Him.

Chapter 3 of the New Testament book called Colossians begins:  So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it.  And a bit later the words of the wise biblical author paint a picture of clothing to wear:  dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline.  And so on.

Did anyone get any clothing for Christmas?  Yeah, lots of you, I’m sure.  So did I.  This sermon is going to be a show-and-tell.  Perhaps, as we think about putting on new clothes, the Holy Spirit can teach us how to put on new compassion, new kindness, new humility, and the like.

So, is anyone wearing something new?  What?

I’m not. But I brought some things to put on.  All things I received as gifts this past week.  And none of them were things I picked out for myself and had someone wrap up and give me.  These were each picked out for me by someone else.

I was given a pack of new black dress socks.  You know I need these, if you have noticed most of my socks – they are holey, not holy!  I knew I needed these; I even hinted around (just in time) so others would know what I needed ‘for Christmas.’ 

Some of Christ’s wardrobe for us is what we know we need and want.  I know I want to cultivate thankfulness, gratitude.  And the Lord has that in my wardrobe.  I like to sing and worship; and this is also what Colossians 3 tells me to do.  Some of what the Lord wants to create in our lives is what we also want and seek.  It’s good to be on the same page with the God of purpose and beauty.

Some of the things that are part of life in Christ are like socks. We need a lot, a constant supply, and we need them daily.  Such as forgiveness, mentioned here.  You may need to forgive as often as you put on a new pair of socks.  And our Lord has a steady supply of fresh socks, er, forgiveness, for us.

I got this nice, short-sleeve shirt.  It fits well, it looks good, I’ll use it a lot.  This one might not be the best for winter, but the rest of the year it will suffice. 

So it is with some of the holy wardrobe of Colossians 3.  Love, for instance.  A basic, necessary garment for the believer.  Comes from God, tailored to fit each of us well.  I think that the ways I express love to you are different from the ways each of you show it.  There are similarities, and it is all love, but it shows up in many beautiful ways. 

Pastor and counsellor, Gary Chapman, has taught that there are five main languages of love.  There are people who show and understand love in terms of words of affirmation, for others it’s in acts of service, or receiving gifts, quality time, or physical touch.  How I show and receive love can be different from the ways Sharon shows and accepts love.  So we learn from this.  We learn the love languages of others, and become bilingual, trilingual, and more. 

Colossians 3 says, regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment.  Never be without it.  I guess I’d say, as the old American Express add said, Don’t leave home without it.  Love.

Of course I was given a tie – a seasonal tie.  Candy canes upon it.  One or two days a week I wear a tie, and this one I will use just in December in the years ahead.  It’s purely decorative, of course; but it may bring some joy.

To wear a tie like this one needs a bit of skill, a bit of training, or know-how.  I tie a half-Windsor knot.  It’s the only knot I know.  Some of you guys and gals may tie the full Windsor, or the Four-In-Hand.  Some of you may not bother with this, and have found enough clip-on ties to keep you going.  Some of you guys wear a tie once a decade. 

God’s wardrobe for us includes many things that take some skill development, some training, some practice to make more perfect.  Kindness and patience often need to be developed.  We may take up some spiritual practices to help us become more kind in our ways, more patient with ourselves and others.  Then, it becomes natural.  We don’t have to think through all the steps – we just start doing it naturally.  Our conscience gets trained.  Our automatic responses that we blurt out become grace-filled. 

The Lord works with our insides to make us into folk who naturally do better.  Jesus said, what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart…  (Matthew 15:18)  God’s wardrobe for us is clothing for the heart and soul.  It is beautiful, and shows itself in Christ-like moments.

I got this other tie as a gift.  This one is handmade, I believe.  Crocheted, actually – can you believe it?  It’s a bit long, which makes it a bit tricky to tie just right.  And it’s a bit tacky, eh?  Or is it?  Almost like having macramé hanging around one’s neck.  I wonder if I will wear it once in a while.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we say.  What do you suggest?

Some of the qualities the Lord picks out for us are not things we would go out and choose for ourselves.  Like I said last Sunday about a bit from Proverbs 30, I might not ask the Lord to make me neither poor nor rich.  Yet that attitude may be an attitude Christ wants me to put on.  Humility is on the list in Colossians 3:12.  Do I like the way humility looks on me when I first put it on?  Maybe not.  But if the tie fits, wear it.  If it’s of the Lord.  This tie is from my Aunt Mary Ann.

I received this sweatshirt.  Acadia Divinity College, it says.  Let me try it on.  Hmmm… a bit too large, wouldn't you say?  It’s labeled Large, but seems Extra Large.  Maybe this would suit someone else better.  Maybe I will ‘re-gift’ it.

Some of the spiritual gifts, the changes of attitude, the new apparel of the Spirit are much bigger than we imagined we needed.  More patience may be needed than we thought sensible.  Let Christ be your teacher.  Let the Spirit of God supply you with the graces as the Spirit sees fit.  Don’t toss out generosity if it seems too generous, or the song in your heart just because it seems too loud and embarrassing.  Discover if it is from God.

I got another piece of Acadia Divinity College apparel:  this hat, a ball cap.  It’s not the kind of thing I use much, as you may well know.  But, maybe I should.  My hair is not getting any thicker in the summer sunshine.  Putting sunscreen up there is not something I enjoy.  This could be better.

Some of the things for you, in your spiritual journey, are not tools and resources you thought you’d need.  Yet they become available in the Kingdom of God, and you will need them for your life here. 

For instance, I think I now realize that, back when I signed up to be a Baptist Pastor, twenty Decembers ago, I did not sign up to be a leader.  I said YES to being a pastor, a preacher, a visitor, a Bible-studier, and a worship leader.  I did not sign up to be a leader of people.  But this is part of my calling.  And certain gifts and lessons must get integrated into my life as a servant of the Lord.  I did not ever want to wear a ball cap, but God has one for me that fits, and I had better get into using it when necessary.

One last thing, by the Christmas Tree: I got this.  I wonder if it will fit?  My Christmas Stocking.  Is it left or right?  I don’t think I am supposed to wear this.  It is in the form of a piece of clothing, but it’s not really good to wear.  So I’ll take it off.

There are actually many things we have taken into our lives that are not to be worn by the human soul.  They must be cast off.  Before the reading we had from Colossians 3 are words that speak of killing off everything connected with the way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy.  …you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.

When I was younger, on Christmas morn some of us would keep putting on clothing whenever we opened up something new.  New pajamas?  Put them on over your pants and shirt.  New gloves?  Put them on as you sat in the living room.  New T-shirt?  Put it on over the PJs that are over your first shirt! 

We need to get rid of the rags that we cling to so that new apparel from the Lord can clothe our hearts and minds.  Christ comes to deal with sins, so that new things can take their place. 

That’s my show-and-tell.  That’s some good news, I believe, about what’s in our lives and how it can be changed by Christ.

To conclude, let us hear and receive some more words from Colossians 3, translated by Eugene Peterson.  More about what life is like when we put our confidence in Jesus, and put our whole life in His hands.  We put on Christ.

Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.