“Keep Focused on the Kingdom and the King”
“Keep Focused on the Kingdom and the King
Colossians 3:1-4
Colossians 3:1-4
Increasingly these days there’s a lot of TV shows that feature people in competition when it comes to singing, magical skills, and sports. Many are phenomenal – in a class unto themselves, but to me, they have nothing over a superstar from back in the 1950s. Did you ever hear the story of American swimmer Florence Chadwick? She became the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways in record time. Also, she swam the straits of Gibraltar and the Bosporus in Turkey. Then in 1952, at the age of 34, Florence attempted to make the 26 mile swim from Catalina Island to the coastline of California.
What made her attempt so newsworthy was the reason she didn’t make it. It wasn’t the cold water or muscle cramps. It wasn’t the sharks – two men with guns were on the look-out – or a school of jellyfish. It wasn’t the physical exhaustion of a 16-hour swim. The reason she quit was fog.
When the fog rolled in, she wasn’t able to see the coastline. She got unplugged as it were and began to lose power. She lost contact with the object which was her driving force. Her tenacious strength of spirit began to wane. She lost her will to go on, and told her mother to haul her in. Then when she climbed into the boat, she was informed that she was less than a mile from the shore. If only she’d known how close she was, she could have persevered. Instead, not seeing her goal, she felt herself floundering, going nowhere, and gave up.
For each of us aren’t there those times in life when the fog rolls in and we lose sight of the shore? I dare say everyday there are those obstacles that arise in our minds that seek to stop our momentum. Fog-like doubts begin to blur our vision. Someone you trusted takes advantage of you. Someone you love stops loving you in return. A good plan goes off the rails. Unexpected physical or financial hardships come fast and hard. When the fog is thick, it’s easy to get discombobulated and flounder. We think things are worse than they are. Without realizing it, we start to feel sorry for ourselves and want to quit. It seems all so overwhelming, but just a view of the shore can change everything.
Following her swim, Florence Chadwick experienced an immense sense of failure and loss. Then, for the next 3 months she set out to envision the California coastland in her mind. Through constant effort, she pictured it constantly and then she made another attempt. Again, the fog was quite heavy. Again, she couldn’t see the coastline – but this time she finished the swim. She said that this time, when the fog rolled in, she kept that mental image of the shoreline in her mind and prevailed.
On this Resurrection Sunday hear again the first two verses in our short lesson from St. Paul’s letter to the people of Colossae:
“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 earthly things.”
Twice you hear it: “Set your mind and then your heart on Christ and things above.” At first glance, doesn’t this seem utterly out of touch for those of us who have to, you know, pay attention to things on earth, like chasing toddlers, returning phone calls, adjusting quarterly budgets, paying bills, watching the pot on the stove, and shifting lanes while driving. How are we supposed to set our minds on things that are above when the things on the earth are so urgent and necessary? Yet if that is the case, aren’t we like Florence Chadwick caught up in the fog? It’s so easy. Our daily chores, routines and stresses of life take over. Each step or swim stroke seems all important. At times we are simply trying to make it through the day or even the next hour. Even godly pursuits such as reading the Bible, praying, and exercising hospitality lose focus. Why? Something has been lost when our Christian life becomes more about following ethical principles.
What’s missing? Have we like Florence lost the vision? And what vision must the Christian keep before his or her eyes? One must be above all others – to set our minds on Christ – on the coastline – heaven – the ultimate goal of our life’s journey. It is our focus on Him at the heavenly coastline that gives us hope and the strength to go on. Through His cross and resurrection, He remakes our lives from the inside out by the power of the Spirit. He brings the future new creation, the omnipotent power through which God renews and heals the world into our present. He bides us to participate in the future resurrection life in the way we live now - how we conduct relationships, our attitudes toward wealth and power, how we work in our vocations, and the way we look at sex, race, and justice.
Yet for this resurrection power to be unleashed in our lives, it means getting beyond religion - keeping our beliefs and practices in the hope that God would favor us and answer our prayers. No, the power of the resurrection points to relationship. As it was with Florence Chadwick, it’s from setting our minds but with us, “in Christ.” In his letters, St. Paul spoke about this relationship of abiding in Christ’s love 160 times.
What does it mean to be empowered by this living relationship? It’s like this microphone. Normally, when it’s off or not working properly, you call it “dead.” But if you throw the switch, now it’s alive to you and your voice. So, it is with God’s resurrection power, and the way I see it best lived out is through practicing the instruction of Proverbs 3:5-6 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your under understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will bring to it to pass.” He’s where it starts. Before you drive, meet with people, talk on the phone, perform a task, ask Him to go ahead of you. Then have a focus as you go through your day. “You are my Lord and God. You are my rock. You are so lovingly patient with me.” In this way you’re setting your mind on Christ and He’s becoming more a living part of your day-to-day faith walk.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, if you’re anything like me, you sense the power of the fog of life’s distractions that weakens the momentum of your faith, and I believe you desire to make more of a difference for Christ through your faith walk. May it spur you on to further cultivate that living relationship. It’s the vital and saving union of personal faith that Martin Luther described as uniting the soul to Christ just as a bride is united to her bridegroom. Regarding this living faith, good questions to ask are:
How real has God been in your heart this week? How clear and vivid is your assurance
and certainty of God’s forgiveness and fatherly love?
These questions help distinguish between believing in a remote God and having a living relationship with a living God. In such a relationship based on Christ’s grace, there is an actual interchange of knowledge and love as God challenges, comforts, and leads us. In this way the truths of God fill us with love, joy, confidence, peace, and power. It changes how we live every day through setting our hearts’ affections on Jesus – the gloriousness of Who He is and what He has done – His beauty, greatness, and wonder.
Setting our minds on Christ and the things above where our lives are hidden with Christ. It reminds me of the contemplations of Cosette, the little girl in the play Les Misérables. She’s in miserable circumstances as a servant girl as she seeks to survive the treatment of a wicked husband and wife and she sings the enchanting song.
“There is a castle on a cloud. I like to go there in my sleep…
I know a place where no ones lost. I know a place where no one cries.”
Dear fellow redeemed; do you see where this little girl set her mind – the castle in the cloud – the place above the fog of life as it were and so it is when our lives get out of control – too much to handle. We have yet that mystical union “in Christ” where we are safe in Him, surrounded by His grace. That is our future home – in Christ in the things above. May it give you resurrection power for living and the assurance of being connected to Him by living faith that He will get you to that distance shore. May Christ – His qualities, the beauty of His character and astonishing mercies and gifts for you – may it give peace and hope that no fog can ever obscure.