“If then you have been raised with Christ, see 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.” Colossians 3:1,2
Late yesterday afternoon I found myself lazily glancing at the television screen in the gym whilst taking a break from my workout. For a moment all I was taking in was the recognition of vague colour and movement until I read the CNN scroll at the bottom of the screen. Like a rude slap in the face the sudden realization of further horror and tragedy in our world brought a sudden, simple, audible response… No! Please no! Not again! As I write this, France is once again groaning under the weight of some sort of attack from within. Eighty four dead and hundreds injured. This kind of news seems relentless, a weekly confrontation with the brokenness of humanity and the resulting pain and sorrow. Sadly, the terror, suffering, and injustice we see and read of is but a fraction that takes place continually due to the fact that much of what transpires in the so called “developing” and “third worlds” is never reported through Western media.
As a human, on a good day, my empathy is active and close to the surface. As a pastor I feel the pull to instruct, comfort, pray – anything to help a congregation deal with this world we live in. And believe it or not I can be tempted to tear up planned sermons that seem, on the surface, to have little to do with our grim reality. And then a verse like the one above hits me like another slap in the face … “Set your minds on things that are above” or “look not to the things which are seen but to the things which are unseen (2 Cor 4:18)”. This is admittedly profoundly difficult. We worry for ourselves and others. We grieve losses of all sorts, personal and public. It is so easy to believe that such verses are trite and misplaced; and thus sympathize with the adage “so heavenly minded he is of no earthly good”. Yet this is precisely when the church needs to double down on its commitment to the “things that are above”. The gospel writer John wrote this of Jesus: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), and that it is his intention to fill us with grace and truth from his fullness (verse 16). It is a basic truth that you cannot give what you don’t have. Fundamentally, our world lacks both grace and truth. How can we minister in it, and to it, if we don’t have the goods ourselves?
As a church we open all our Sunday services with a “Call to Worship”. This is no mere religious observance. The Call to Worship is always a passage of scripture, and one of its functions is to put us in our place. It calls us to worship together as a community of faith, and under the authority of the Word of God. I am thankful to serve in a church in which the bible is one of the “things that are above” that we value. When we sing songs of worship that are faithful to scripture, when our worship teams read from the scriptures, or when Pastor Andrew and I preach from the scriptures, we place ourselves rightly under the Word of God. It is the primary way in which God fills us with truth. Grace operates in us and through us as we are sanctified by this truth (cf John 17). I know many of you hurt as the world around us hurts. We must believe God when he tells us that it is only his grace and truth that will satisfy or deepest hungers and confront our vilest injustice. If you struggle with the guilt of apathy toward the world’s suffering, or are frustrated by a church you feel is not enough engaged with it, the answer is to look up – not out or down. It is said of Jesus that he was “moved with compassion” when he looked upon his people that were “troubled and helpless” (Matt. 9:36). The answer to apathy within your own heart, or the heart of the church, is to know your saviour intimately, to deny yourself, be filled by his fullness of grace and truth, and thereby be moved toward the compassions your are called, and gifted to exercise.
Much love,
Pastor Gary