Sermon Held prior to celebration of the Lords Supper

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 37:16
Psalm 51:1
Psalm 91:1
Hymn 1A
Psalm 30:12,13

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Every waking hour of day or night we breathe the air of this life, see, hear, taste and feel the bits and pieces that make up existence on this earth. What it is that makes up this life? It’s brokenness, so much brokenness. We see our own failings, our sins, and it makes us so discouraged…; that we can’t measure up to the standard we desire can fill us with self-loathing and insecurity…. We see the brokenness too in the failures of others, their sins, and that discourages us too…, and can fill us with bitterness, cynicism, even hatred for others…. Then we recall that we’re to love our neighbor, and we feel only worse ourselves….

With the Celebration of the Holy Supper our minds go back 2000 years to what happened on the cross of Calvary, how the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died to pay for our sins. Our minds can’t linger there, though, for the cross is today empty, and Christ in heaven. That is why the Form for the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper will tell us to "lift our hearts on high in heaven, where Christ our advocate is, at the right hand of His heavenly Father." It’s an instruction that comes to us in the midst of the sins and the brokenness we see all around us. It’s an instruction that comes to us from Paul’s words to the Colossians in our text: "Set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth."

What, we wonder, are the "things above"? In the surrounding verses Paul mentions two realities that describe what is "above". The first is recorded in vs 1. "Above" is "where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God." Christ: He’s not on the cross anymore, is not on this earth anymore either, but has ascended into heaven. In heaven He has a particular place, and that place reflects His function. "At the right hand of God" Jesus does two things. As King of kings He rules supremely over all the world, so that the bits and pieces that occurred in your life and mine in this past week came upon us through His will. As Priest He intercedes with the Father on our behalf when we come before Him in confession of sin, and he reminds the Father that He laid down His life for our sins, and so God the Father must see us as righteous – despite all we did in the week past.

That’s the one heavenly reality Paul wants us to focus our minds on. He mentions the second in vs 3. Since you died with Christ, he says, "your life is hidden with Christ in God." The point of the word ‘hidden’ is that the believer is so secure in God’s hand that no enemy can find the believer, and so the term captures the security that God promises to His children. Then it’s true: the naked eye may not see that security today, but on the day of Christ’s return this glorious reality will be evident for every eye to see (vs 4).

The kingly and priestly work of Christ on the one hand, and your own security with God on the other, are the two things Paul has in mind when he tells the saints of Colosse to "set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth." "Set your minds" involves an act of the will, involves a decision in the head to have one’s thoughts be busy with these heavenly realities and not with the brokenness that characterizes "things on the earth". That’s also the point of the word ‘seek’ in vs 1; this requires effort, work, sweat on the part of the Christian.

We for our part, brothers and sisters, know how hard it is to get one’s thoughts to be busy with the work Christ is doing for us in heaven, and to stick with that. Every waking hour of day or night we breathe the air of this life, see, hear, taste and feel the brokenness that makes up existence on this earth. That brokenness in ourselves and in each other fills our minds, can fill our existence with bitterness, hatred of self or of the other. Then yes, it’s so hard to "set your mind on things above," those glorious fruits of Christ’s work on Calvary.

The Lord our God knows the difficulty we face day by day in tearing our eyes off the brokenness of this earth and fixing our attention firmly onto Christ. That, beloved of the Lord, is why He sets before you His table today. From heaven on high He reaches down to us on earth, He sets before us His table with its broken bread and poured out wine, and He does that in order to direct our attention to Himself in heaven and the work He did for us long ago and continues to do for us today. Our sins, our brokenness, may not be the focus of our attention, but His redeeming work is to be the focus! So too, from heaven on high He commands not just me to go to the table, but also so many others, and so He tells each of us that He died not just for our sins but also for the sins of yonder brother – those sins that stare me in the face and make me so bitter. That sinner too, despite all his brokenness, has died with Christ, and his life is hidden with Christ in God. Today I don’t see that reality so clearly (even as he might not see it so clearly with me), but on the day of Christ’s return I’ll see it clearly of him and he of me….

How rich, beloved, is the compassion of our God. He wants us to see the world through His eyes, and not through our human, sinful, limited eyes. And yes, what I see of myself through His eyes, and what I see of my neighbor, is so very, very much more encouraging than what my naked eye sees of me and my neighbor!

Come, congregation, and receive from the Lord’s hand His encouragement to "set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." Amen.