[On the Sunday before the US election that saw Donald Trump win the presidency, I wrote a targum on Colossians 3.1-17. Written for my Bible Remixed class, Colossians Revisited, it was clear that the present moment in history, specifically what was then an impending election, was also in my sights. I post it now, the day after an election in which it became clear who we are. Or at least it became clear what our historical context now is. I encourage you to read Colossians, perhaps the whole letter, but certainly 2.8-3.17, to get the way in which I am rewriting this passage as if it were written to us just the other day.]
So friends …
you know the story.
You know where you are.
You know that there are forces of oppression all around you.
You know that they will try to take your imaginations captive.
You know that it is all rooted in deceit.
You know that the myth of exceptionalism, of ‘greatness,’ is a lie,
regardless of who spouts it.
You know that a self-righteous ideology of exclusion is literally a dead end.
You know that puffed-up, narcissistic demagogues are fakes, they have no substance.
You know that the idolatry of wealth, nation, and power is at its heart of it all.
And … You know who you are.
You know that this story of empire is not your story,
and the national anthem is not your song.
You know that you have died to this culture of death.
You know Christ has disarmed these forces of empire on the cross.
You know that you have been buried with Christ in baptism.
You know that you have been raised with Christ to new life.
You know that in Christ, you are no longer subject to demands of empire.
You know that in Christ you have a different story, a different song.
So then, why do you still play by the rules of the empire?
Why does that story continue to have a hold on you?
Why is your imagination so constricted?
Why do you live pretty much like everyone else lives?
If you’ve been raised with Christ,
then let your imaginations be set free
by his loving rule, at the right hand of God.
It’s not what goes on in Washington or Ottawa that matters.
It isn’t Wall Street or Bay Street that rules this world.
That’s not where the real sovereignty lies for you.
The risen One is the ascended One,
so let your minds and let your hearts
be directed by the One on the throne.
Set your minds on the sovereignty of the risen One,
and be set free from the earthly principalities and rulers
that have no imagination beyond the stock reports and GDP.
Jesus is Lord, not the Market.
Secede from this culture of death
and live in the Kingdom of life.
Seek first this kingdom, this rule of justice,
this restoration of all things,
because that is where your real identity lies.
You know who you are,
but you live in the tragic gap between
that knowledge of transformed identity,
and the present reality of brokenness, compromise and failure.
Think of it as being hidden in Christ.
Jesus knows who you are.
And in Christ you know who you are.
But just as his full restoration of all things
has not yet been fully realized,
so also are we all in the process of full reconciliation,
the process of coming fully into ourselves in Christ.
But here’s the deal.
When Christ is revealed,
when Jesus returns,
when the full redemption of creation is accomplished,
then we will also be revealed …
and it will be in glory.
The glory that is the presence of God,
fully at home with us in the new earth;
the glory that is the realization of our calling
as caretakers, gardeners, homemakers in that new earth …
that is where this story is going.
You know who you are.
In Christ you have died.
In Christ you were buried.
In Christ you have been raised.
In the ascended Christ your imaginations have been set free.
In the return of Christ will you be fully redeemed to home in creation.
This is your story. This is your song.
Don’t lose the plot.
Don’t forget who you are.
And … don’t allow your lives to be subsumed again
in the deathly patterns of life, the deathly practices
of this idolatrous culture of death.
These powers of death are so powerful,
that we need to kill them before they kill us.
So put to death, my friends,
whatever blinds you to the path of life,
whatever will hold you captive to this culture of death.
You know what I’m talking about.
It’s not all about sex,
but our insatiable sexual appetites,
our consumptive sexuality,
the violence of it all, the disrespect,
the lack of intimacy,
and the absence of deep fidelity,
is but an image of the consumerist idol that rules our lives.
That is a god of exploitation and anger.
That is a god of resentment and retribution.
And that is a god of greed,
of avarice, of endless growth.
That is the god of a cancer cell.
The whole edifice, the whole culture,
the whole ideology, the whole system,
is rooted in such greed,
constructed in the image of a false god.
And I tell you friends,
the Creator who called of creation to being in love,
the Christ who reconciled all things on a cross,
will not abide such idolatry,
will not sit idly by as this creation of delight is desecrated,
will not be passive in the face of such disobedience to God’s loving rule.
No, friends, out of God’s incurable love,
and in the depth of God’s grief before what has transpired,
God will respond in judgement.
You see, the world matters that much to God.
God cannot simply turn a blind eye to such injustice.
And from such injustice,
from such idolatry,
you have been set free.
The story of the empire is no longer your story.
The catchy pop song of consumerism is no longer your song.
Nor are the anthems of national superiority and exceptionalism.
So, telling a different story, and singing a different song,
do not allow the emotional dynamics of our conflicted culture
distort how you experience and talk about the world and our neighbours.
My goodness, the discourse of anger, wrath and malice
has dominated the campaign trail, hasn’t it.
Once deceit replaces truth, it is no surprise that slander
is every day talk these days.
Once you have bowed the knee to idols,
abusive speech becomes the lingua franca.
Once you have lost the vision of creation as a home of welcome
for God, for humanity, for all of creation,
then language of “deportation” and “poisoned blood,”
“the enemy within,” and “drill baby drill,”
become a powerful discourse of violence in our time.
And it’s all rooted in the lie.
The big lie.
About who God is,
about who we are,
and about the nature of the world.
It is all a lie.
A distortion of God as the guarantor of the nation state
and legitimation of the systems of the world.
A distortion of our fellow humans,
dismissed as garbage and vermin,
and not recognized as created in the image of God.
A distortion of the nature of the world,
reduced to resources for an economics of unceasing growth and extraction,
and not loved as Creation, co-subjects of the covenant with the Creator.
In such a context, my friends,
before such threats and temptations,
don’t forget who you are.
Don’t lose the plot of the story.
Don’t start singing the songs of empire all over again.
Remember, dear siblings,
you were buried in Christ … naked.
All the old clothes of empire were stripped off.
All the trappings of power,
the posturing of status,
the uniforms of nationalism,
the presumption of privilege …
it was all stripped off.
And you have clothed yourselves with a new self,
a new identity,
a new place of belonging,
renewed in knowledge,
re-designed for a new story,
reflective of a new plot line,
bearing the image, no more of idolatry,
but of nothing less than the image of God,
to which you have been called from the beginning.
Renewed in the image of the Creator,
not the emperor.
Renewed in the image of the Creator,
not the content creators.
Renewed in the image of the Creator,
not the image of any pop star, politician, or billionaire.
Renewed in the image of the Creator,
so get busy, dear friends,
bearing that image,
engaging in loving restoration,
constantly having your imaginations renewed,
and … recognizing your neighbour in that image.
And, as scandalous and as impossible as this might sound,
that is why, in this renewal there is no longer,
“American” and alien,
naturalized citizen and immigrant,
Jew or Palestinian,
Russian or Ukrainian,
male, female, or trans,
straight or queer,
rich and poor,
black, white, hispanic, or Asian,
labour and management,
slave and free,
because Christ is all and in all.
The walls of division,
the systems of exclusion and privilege,
the binaries that keep us in boxes,
the categories of in and out, us and them,
are all dismantled, disarmed, stripped of their power,
in this renewal of all things in Christ,
in this renewal of community in the image of the Creator.
And so, dear friends, don’t forget who you are,
and live up to your identity in Christ.
It’s time to put on some new clothes.
It’s time to wear the clothing,
to cover ourselves,
to embody in our life together and in the world,
the clothing of those renewed in the image of God,
the clothing of those who are in Christ.
And you know where it all starts, don’t you.
If we are called to image God,
then we begin with compassion.
Clothe yourselves in compassion.
In the face of a world of sorrow and hurt,
find yourselves where God would be found,
in the midst of the pain.
Where there is pain because of oppression,
where there is sorrow because of ecological degradation,
where there is hurt in the world,
that is where you should be.
Clothe yourselves with compassion,
be those who are in the midst of suffering.
Renewed in the image of God,
imagine this world through the tear-filled eyes of pain.
This isn’t the prom that we are getting dressed for.
No, this is to enter into the war zones of life.
Bear each other’s pain,
as you embrace the pain of a broken world.
And when you are tempted with bitterness
wear the cloak of kindness.
If you are to sustain a life of compassion,
then you also need to be clothed in kindness.
This isn’t a sentimental “be nice to everyone,”
but a more radical commitment to neighbourliness.
Recognizing your neighbour as created in the image of God,
extend to your neighbour the care and generosity of kindness.
And recognize not only all people, but all of creation,
as your neighbours, as your kin.
What we’re talking about is a kindness
that permeates “all my relations.”
A kindness that is at the heart of our lives in our places,
at the heart of our homemaking in our habitats.
Such a life cannot be clothed in arrogance.
Self-serving arrogance only sees other people
and the rest of creation,
as either threat or opportunity for control.
No, my friends, these are not clothes of power that we are wearing,
but clothes of humility.
Engage the world, live lives of humility,
without swagger or self-important superiority.
When you are too sure of yourself,
wear humility as you listen, ever so closely,
to the voice of creation, the voice of your neighbour, the voice of God.
I guess what I’m talking about here is akin to meekness or gentleness.
In a world that is all about mastery,
all about control,
all about being better than those “other” people,
all about a sense of ownership and proprietary rights,
we are to clothe ourselves in a meekness
that receives the world as a precious gift;
we need to embody a gentleness
that will lovingly attend to the bruised, the vulnerable.
Lord knows we have enough bullying, enough manipulation,
enough power grabs in our lives,
in our politics,
in our neighbourhoods,
in our churches,
in our workplaces.
Let us be wearing different clothes, friends.
Let our lives bear witness to a gentleness that is
strong in humility, kindness and compassion.
But don’t expect quick results.
There is no quick fix to our struggles,
There is no easy solution to life distorted by idolatry.
These are clothes not for a short walk in the park,
but for the long and dangerous journey through the ruins
of our culture on the way to the coming rule of Christ.
So, be patient.
Both with yourselves and with each other.
Indeed, be patient with God.
God after all, has been patient with us.
We are, as one of your prophets has written,
both “working and waiting” for the miracle of new creation.
We are working,
and that is why we are putting on our working clothes.
But we are also waiting.
It will take “a lot of doing to see this undoing through”
(as another one of your prophets has noted),
and ultimately, we don’t bring that renewal,
we don’t, in the end, achieve that miracle.
So we will need to be clothed in patience on this path.
And, you know, we may be putting on new clothes,
but the old clothes still fit,
the old practices still have a hold on us,
the old self doesn’t die easily,
and neither does the metanarrative of empire.
So, here’s the sad truth, beloved community,
here’s the hard thing, friends in Christ,
we will not always live with compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness and patience.
Too often, these will not be the clothes that you will wear.
Cold heartedness, self-serving anger,
arrogance, harshness and impatience,
will too often be the reality of our lives together.
And that is why we must also
wear the robes of forgiveness in our lives.
Forgiveness, not retribution.
Forgiveness, not vengeance.
Where there is disappointment and hurt,
where there is grievance and injury,
allow a spirit of forgiveness to restore what is broken,
and to lead you on the path of reconciliation
May you wear compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness, patience and forgiveness,
as the very clothes of their lives.
But above all,
clothe yourselves with love,
which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Have you been keeping count?
Six virtues, beginning, of course, in compassion,
that then take us to kindness, humility, meekness,
patience and forgiveness.
And all of this is good, very good.
But the seventh virtue,
the seventh manifestation of what it means to be in Christ,
the seventh way that the story of Jesus is embodied in our lives,
is, of course, love.
The love that called creation into being,
the love that holds creation all together,
the love that went to a Roman cross,
the love that was made flesh in Jesus,
the love that constitutes the body of Christ,
is the love that “binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
In a world of enmity,
in a world of violence,
in a world of oppression,
in a world of misplaced loves of nation, power and wealth …
we must be known by our love,
we must embody love in our politics,
love in our shopping practices,
love in community development,
love in housing,
love in the arts,
love in caring for our places in the world,
love for those most vulnerable,
love for those most despised.
And if such love is manifest in our lives,
then the peace of Christ
will so rule in our hearts
that we will be a witness for peace,
advocates for peace,
agents of shalom,
on the streets,
in the halls of power,
in our households,
in our vocations,
in our communities.
We will seek the peace of the nations …
the peace, the shalom, the flourishing
of Indigenous neighbours longing for clean water, real control over their lives,
and healing from generations of genocide,
the peace, the shalom, the flourishing
of Palestinians removed from their land and subject to inhuman violence,
the peace, the shalom, the flourishing
of migrants villified and scapegoated by an angry population,
the peace, the shalom, the flourishing
of a land caught in ecological, economic, social and political turmoil.
Moreover, friends, in a world of entitlement
and dissatisfaction,
in a world so absent of the peace and love
that we are talking about,
practice radical gratitude.
I know, it sounds counter-intuitive.
There is so much to complain about.
There is so much to lament.
There is so much sorrow.
But compassion and gratitude need each other.
Compassion without gratitude gets lost in the pain.
Gratitude without compassion, is cheap and self-congratulatory happiness.
No, friends, this is a story that goes deeper than all of that.
This is a story that begins in joy, begins in delight, begins in gratitude.
And so, dear siblings in Christ,
let gratitude permeate your lives;
let thankfulness set you free from bitterness,
and empower you for the hard work of restoration.
Remember, we are talking here
about being revealed with Christ “in glory.”
This is a vision of creation-wide restoration and homecoming.
So, as you make a home together,
as you dwell together in covenantal love,
let the word of Christ dwell in your richly;
let this living and transforming word
be at home in your lives together,
so that you will be blessed with wisdom.
That’s why I’ve been writing to you.
That’s why we have struggled together,
in thought, and in prayer,
throughout these days of trial.
It has all been so that we might grow in knowledge,
wisdom and understanding,
so that we might bear the fruit of the gospel in all of life.
And Lord knows, we need more music.
You see, this knowledge, this renewal of our identities in Christ,
this restoration of the image of God amongst us,
needs to be sung.
Sung in the tears of compassion and of gratitude.
Sung with the blues and jazz, with cantatas and anthems,
and rock and roll.
So don’t forget to sing.
Sing songs of joy and gratitude,
sing songs of lament and hurt,
sing odes to joy and odes to pain,
but sing.
Put on these clothes, dear community,
array yourself with these virtues,
so that whatever you do in word or deed,
whether it be
caring for your neighbours through the food bank
or engaging your employment as a site of service;
making love or building homes,
exercising hospitality or restoring the local watershed,
engaging the political process or making investment decisions …
whatever you do in word or deed,
indeed, the very fabric of your lives,
will be done in the name of Jesus,
and in deep, deep gratitude to God the loving Creator.
Put on the clothing of Christ, dear friends.
In the days ahead, our lives will depend on it.
