Preached at Trinity Preasby Church, McKinney on Dec 27, 2009.

Colossians 3:12-17 and Psalm 148

Wearing Our Sunday Best

Colossians 3:12-17 and Psalm 148

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

Well, here we are. I have one year of seminary done, and you have changed. Look at this Great Hall! Nicely Done. When we first started at this church it was one hallway and  the sanctuary and it has been a pleaser to watch this church blossom. And now we have one Christmas Season under our belts. I want everyone to just take a moment and breathe. Ahhhh we made it through the holiday madness. Congratulations! Some of you travelled (I know I did), some had the in-laws over, some went to others houses, there was the Christmas parties, then there was the kids Christmas, and the wrapping and hiding gifts, and then there was the cooking, and the singing, and the worship services and the servis projects and the giving, then the clean up. All for what?  A gift? God’s gift. On Friday we celebrated the greatest gift the world was ever given, God incarnate arriving on the earth. That’s pretty cool. What a great gift “aww thanks God, … “

            Today I want to talk a little about Christmas Gifts. You know, the tangible ones that were under the tree on Friday.  Christmas gifts come in all shapes and sizes. Some are awesome, some not so awesome. Some gifts we treasure for a long long time (jewelry or that perfect tool ), some are things that we will use every day ( a new phone, or laptop, or if you’re my friends the Xbox), some our gifts that we only will ever pull out and dust off when a certain someone is coming over for a visit (Ugh that lamp, or that statue). Some things will be used only once (maybe a toy, or a gift card). Yet all of these things are gifts, something that someone else was willing to take the time to give us, simply because they like us.

            What is it about the gift that makes us decide whether or not we like it? Is it our expectation of how the gift should work? Is the gift useable? Is the gift making us feel beautiful or empowered? Or better yet do we even know HOW to use the gift that was given to us, what if the gift didn’t have a users manual?

            I would like to tell you a little story about Xmas last year. My dad had seen this really cool little helicopter. Man he thought it was so awesome. And SO my mom and I got it for him. What a better way than to make this little boy at harts Xmas than a toy plane? When he opened it up his face just lit up, like he was five. The rest of the gifts didn’t matter, he was ready to put it together and get to flying. The second the giving was over he had the batteries in that thing and was about to set off on his fist flight mission with this new helicopter. So he called us all around and placed in on the launching pad, and Zoooom, Smack! Right into the wall. The helicopter hit the wall and came spiraling down to the floor. Not but 15 seconds into its first flight it was broken, never to go Zoooming through the air again. Despite the tragic irony of this situation, daddy not seeing the humor in it as much as we did, he promptly picked up the helicopter judged the damage and said. “Well that’s stupid! Why was it designed in this way?!?” the automatic response was to blame the design and the fact that the user manual didn’t actually explain the flight patterns very well. This gift that he was so excited about didn’t behave the way he thought it should, the expectations were all wrong.

            So what do we expect out of our gifts?

            Do we have some grand idea of how our gift should work, and don’t really take the time to try and understand the fight patterns?

            What if we don’t understand the instruction manual? That thing is confusing and dosent give me clean cut answers to my question!

            The Apostle Paul tell us in our passage today :¹² Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. ¹³ Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. ¹⁴ Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵ And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.  ¹⁶ Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom God gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.            Ok Rose, I hear you. God gave up a pretty good explanation of how to use our gift here. ‘Clothe Yourselves in Love’, I hear it, I see it, but honestly what does that mean?! Is Jesus the love we should clothe ourselves with? Is it God’s love that we should clothe ourselves with? What dose clothing yourself with love look like? Do you get dressed in the morning and say. I have pants, and have on a shirt, and now I need to put on my love and start my day?             I am not here to tell you what it looks like? Because nobody wears the same clothes as another person? But I am here to help you ask the questions.  How do you put on tenderhearted mercy? How do you wear kindness? How do you bind yourself in humility, gentleness and patience? And above all, how do you clothe yourself with love? Love which binds us all together in perfect harmony?

            Earlier in chapter three of Colossians we are told to take off the old, get rid of those old dirty, tattered clothes and put on these new ones. Take off the stuff you were wearing before. The anger, the pride, the lack of reverence, and replace it.  In verses 9-10 it says “…for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. ¹⁰ Put on your new nature, and be renewed…”  Renewed… God gave us a gift card on Christmas for a new set of clothes; the olds weren’t looking to good, so we now go the store and get ourselves new clothes. Off with the old on with the new.  In a commentary about this passage by Eric Jones entitled “Please, Clothe Yourself!” he simplify these passages in this way “So the progression is (1) take off the old rags of the world and then (2) put on the new garments of the Kingdom. To simplify it: take off - put on. To really simplify it: off /on.” The oversimplification here by Mr. Jones is humorous but effective.  The important fist step in this passage is the taking off the old part. One cannot just put on new clothes over the old, the dirt will get on the new ones and might make them smell.

            So what I really want us to look at today is how are we going to clothe ourselves with love? What is it about this gift that we have been given? How will we treat this gift? Will we treasure this gift for a long long time? Like the Jewelry or like a perfect tool the tool that can fix anything? Will we use this gift of Love every day? Like a phone, to communicate and build relationships with those around us? Will we use this gift only once? Like the toy who manual we don’t know how to use or the gift card that redeem but never take the tags off our new garments, because old ones fit better and are more comfortable. Or is this the gift that we will only pull out and dust off when a certain someone comes into town?

            How are we going to use the ultimate charismas gift? Can we decide to take off those ratty, dirty clothes? And accept that because we are God’s chose people we should clothe ourselves in mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and most of all LOVE.  Can we begin to wear our Sunday best, everyday? Always wearing our love?

God so LOVED the world that he gave you his only son… now what are you gona do with that Gift?