Rooted in Grace, Resisting the Noise

Introduction

I recall one of the earliest lessons I learned in grade school was writing a persuasive letter.

We would write to our state senator about something we wanted to see changed

…and as a third grader…

I wanted to see macaroni and cheese served more regularly in the cafeteria.

From an early age, we tend to be conditioned to influence others to agree with us...

Perhaps it is from a desire to reinforce our worldview and help us feel more secure.

Yes… more secure in providing Southern comfort food in our cafeterias, five days a week.

In our epistle lesson today, we learn that Paul is writing to the Colossian community to persuade them to reject teachings and philosophies that run counter to the teachings of Christ.

Now remember, Christianity had not yet evolved.

Like John Wesley, who never started Methodism as a religion but as a movement in the Anglican church and remained Anglican until his death...

Jesus and Paul were Jewish, and a movement had been started.

Some teachers were appealing to the Gentiles or non-Jewish population, who were inviting them into Judaism.

But to be part of Judaism, they need to enter into a covenant with God through circumcision.

You also have the Roman Empire in the background, oppressing the people, gradually erasing their cultural heritage in favor of adopting Roman traditions.

Paul was trying to liberate the Colossians from these oppressive teachings.

Paul wanted to free them from these customs and shed these physical rituals…

In place of this physical covenant was a spiritual one through water and the Holy Spirit.

So here we have multiple views within Judaism trying to persuade this community of the proper way to be in a covenant relationship with God.  

Today, we are bombarded with a variety of different messages telling us how to

live,

how to look,

how to be in a relationship,

What to believe.

Today, we hear “Fake News” any time someone is shaken by something they disagree with.

Companies like Apple have conditioned us to get the slickest and latest technology.

So much so that our lives and productivity have been molded around technology and the latest updates for many of us.

Tick Tock influencers are now the rave and part of budgets to promote political, branding, and societal trends.

Podcasts played a significant part in the election among the younger demographic and helped to shape views on issues such as health care and immigration.

All of these voices and ways to influence or shape our perceptions can create much noise.

Sometimes this noise can lead to feeling broken or getting off the right path.

These feelings amount to what it feels like to be dead in the heart… dead in the soul.

We experience these feelings because we have allowed

society,

consumerism,

bureaucratic systems,

and media influencers

...to tell us what to value rather than lean into how God calls us to live.

There are times when others attempt to shake our faith. When this occurs, scripture encourages us to be rooted in Christ.

God wants nothing more than for us to have an abundant life. We experience this abundance by participating in the church and the means of grace, such as baptism, community, and prayer, to experience God’s love.

The question for us to examine this morning is, how do we strengthen the roots of our faith?

Remember our Baptism

Who here can remember their baptism or recall witnessing someone else's baptism?

I imagine you remember water being present during the course of the ritual.

Why do we use water in our baptism?

Water has significant meaning throughout the bible...

Waters of creation and the flood.

The liberation of God’s people by passage through the sea...

The gift of water in the wilderness...

The passage through the Jordan River into the promised land.

This water, this sacred water, is administered in the name of the triune God, our creator, our redeemer, and our sustainer.

Through baptism, we participate in Christ’s death and resurrection.

We acknowledge that God is working in our lives before we are baptized, during our baptism, and after our baptism.

This amazing grace is being extended throughout our lives, our salvation is an ongoing process, and God is with us every step of the way.

...and as the apostle tells the Colossians as you have “received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

We are being called to remember our baptism always—but especially

...in these moments of darkness…

...in these moments where our faith is being shaken…

...in these moments of noise all around us telling us to be in covenant, how to live, look, and act...

Here, we have a ripe and enthusiastic community desiring to be in relationship with Christ.

Yet teachers were telling them that for their salvation, they needed to follow the law of Judaism, which is circumcision.

Paul reorients their thinking from the usual way people tried to reach God—through rituals—and instead taught that God initiates a spiritual relationship with us through baptism.

Have you ever felt so pressured to shift your behaviors to avoid consequences?

To remember our baptism vows is to acknowledge that Christ has defeated the powers of this world.

Despite all these outside pressures coming at Jesus, questioning how he lived out his ministry...

Despite all the vitriol and hatred of those around him...

Despite the overwhelming and oppressive Roman Empire...

Christ defeated them.

Christ was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead.

On the third day, he rose again.

He ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of our Creator.

So when we feel shaken by our faith…

…when those pressures, when those oppressive forces

…are trying to shape how we think, how we should act, how we should treat one another…

...know this… Christ has defeated those powers.

And in our baptism, we share in this defeat and are called to live into Christ.

Baptism is the doorway to the sanctified life.

This gift, given freely to us, calls us to depend on our love for God and neighbor.

When we remember our baptism and what it means as an ongoing reminder of how God works in our lives today, we strengthen the roots of our faith that transcend societal pressures.

Surround Ourselves in Community

In our baptism liturgy, we hear:

“Through baptism,

you are incorporated by the Holy Spirit

into God’s new creation

and made to share in Christ’s royal priesthood.

We are all one in Christ Jesus.”

In this letter to the Colossians, there is a sense of community.

“God made you alive together with him.”

Our baptism is never an individualistic event; it’s a communal event.

There are vows the individual takes, but there are also vows the community takes.

Through our baptism, we become a community of the resurrected.

We aren’t simply checking boxes that must be accomplished for our salvation… such as circumcision...

Instead, we achieve salvation by living a holy life in the community of the resurrected as modeled by Jesus.

Our identities are shared in one body.

As I begin my journey with this faith community, I have been asking questions to get to know the shared identity.

I have found that this is a place that seeks to create an inclusive environment where all people don’t just feel like they belong, but they actually do belong.

A place where we seek to create accessible ministries to all people, and are designed to meet people where they are in their lives.

This community has been focused on outreach and meeting neighbors where they are in the community.

There are times when others attempt to shake our faith. When this occurs, scripture encourages us to be rooted in Christ.

Most recently, people have been influencing us to close the doors of welcome, hospitality, and safety to outsiders...

Some people have been trying hard to erase people who don’t identify as them because they’re scared of what they don’t understand...

Part of your shared identity has been and continues to be to lead courageously.

You follow Jesus’ example together by resisting and dismantling all systems of evil, injustice, and oppression, striving for peace, justice, and reconciliation.

You go beyond the church walls to bring God’s love to people. This is part of your identity.

But it isn’t a single you who goes beyond the walls of the church… It’s not a single you who leads courageously...

It’s a royal “we...”

Christ’s royal priesthood of believers who go out together to lead courageously.

When we surround ourselves with community, we deepen the roots of our faith to resist those times when our faith is being shaken.

Cultivate an Active Prayer Life

St. Paul invokes communal memory early on for the Colossians by inviting them to remember what they were taught.

Our scripture has the book of Psalms with 150 song-prayers that capture the entire range of human emotion from love, forgiveness, anger, vengeance, compassion, longing, trust, joy, need, and the list could go on.

Prayers that place us before God for praise, adoration, thanksgiving, petition, confession, lament, homage, judgment, and justice.

In our gospel lesson, the apostles ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.

The Lord’s Prayer, taught to the apostles, teaches them to see God as a divine parent.

A creator who is close to us and easily accessible, someone we can trust and confide in.

A creator who is to be glorified above all earthly powers and influencers.

We move from this confession to asking God to support us in three essential needs:

Give us our daily bread; nourish and strengthen us in body, mind, and spirit.

Forgive us of our sins, for we forgive everyone indebted to us; we need forgiveness and reconciliation to be in the right relationship.

And do not bring us to the time of trial; we need to be protected from our faith being shaken.

Prayer is an essential means of grace because it’s how we experience God in our relationship.

We experience this relationship communally as the Lord’s Prayer has been instructed to be read; notice how it’s written in the plural form:

Give us our

Forgive us for our

Do not bring us

Christ is creating community.

However, we aren’t just called to pray in community on Sunday.

Last week, we discussed how worship is to be carried into every day of the week.

Prayer is one form of worship—like I mentioned earlier, it’s a means of grace in which we experience the presence of God.

When we cultivate our prayer life into our daily conversation with God, we strengthen the roots of our foundation.

Kerygmatic Fulfillment

We live in a world where there are cruel systems of oppression that shake our faith.

We live in a world where there is sickness… where there is unemployment… where there are challenging kiddos… where there is unfairness...

But we live as a resurrected community who can testify that Christ left all of this on the nails of the cross...

We live as a resurrected community that, through our baptism, supports and nourishes one another to live in communal love...

We live with access to a conversational partner…

who cares so much that they emptied themselves of everything to live and walk among us in the form of a human

who modeled what love looks like despite human hatred, jealousy, and sickness,

who defeated all of that to be resurrected and dwell among us still today.

Friends… strengthen those roots of faith by

remembering and honoring your baptism,

surrounding yourself with community,

and cultivating a daily prayer life

So that when your faith is tested, when your faith is shaken…

You have that assurance that Christ conquered all, and as you live in Christ, you too are being perfected by the divine grace and love of our creator.

In the name of Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.