{"id":25320,"date":"2025-07-31T08:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T06:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=25320"},"modified":"2025-07-28T18:07:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T16:07:26","slug":"25320-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/25320-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Colossians 3:1-11"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost<\/strong> | 03.08.2025 | Col 3:1-11 <\/strong> | The Rev. Beth A. Schlegel<\/strong> |<\/h3>\n

Colossians 3:1-11 English Standard Version <\/strong>Copyright \u00a9\u00a02001 by Crossway Bibles<\/a><\/p>\n

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek\u00a0the things that are above, where Christ is,\u00a0seated at the right hand of God.\u00a02\u00a0Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.\u00a03\u00a0For\u00a0you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.\u00a04\u00a0When Christ\u00a0who is your\u00a0life\u00a0appears, then you also will appear with him\u00a0in glory.<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

5\u00a0Put to death therefore\u00a0what is earthly in you:\u00a0sexual immorality, impurity,\u00a0passion, evil desire, and covetousness,\u00a0which is idolatry.\u00a06\u00a0On account of these the wrath of God is coming.\u00a07\u00a0In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.\u00a08\u00a0But now\u00a0you must put them all away:\u00a0anger, wrath, malice,\u00a0slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.\u00a09\u00a0Do not lie to one another, seeing that\u00a0you have put off\u00a0the old self\u00a0with its practices\u00a010\u00a0and\u00a0have put on\u00a0the new self,\u00a0which is being renewed in knowledge\u00a0after the image of\u00a0its creator.\u00a011\u00a0Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave,\u00a0free; but Christ is\u00a0all, and in all.<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Baptism is a Change of Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.<\/p>\n

How hard it is to be a Christian! This might seem strange to many of us who don\u2019t remember a time when we were not a Christian. If this is true for you, it is probably because like me, you were baptized as an infant or young child and brought up in a practicing Christian family. We were immersed in the Christian life from the beginning and did not have a radical conversion. Being Christian is simply who we are.<\/p>\n

This was certainly not the case for the earliest Christians, and it is not the case for many people today who are converting to \u2013 and from \u2013 Christianity. For them, it is a conscious change from one thing to another, from a life defined by one set of beliefs and practices to a life defined by a different set of beliefs and practices.<\/p>\n

Whether we are cradle Christians or become Christian later in life, it is important for us to pay attention to this aspect of conscious change in our life. God\u2019s Word is clear that it is not our personal choice that makes us Christian, but God\u2019s choice of us. God acts upon us when we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and made children of God. It is God who unites us with the death of Jesus, drowning our sinful self and joining us with Jesus\u2019 resurrection from the dead by bringing us up from the waters of baptism. God\u2019s great love and mercy in giving us this new birth as Christians demands a response in how we live. This response \u2013 the good works we undertake, the life devoted to loving God with all our being and loving our neighbors as ourselves, our commitment to following the way of Jesus in this world \u2013 these fruits of faith are<\/em> a matter of our choice, an exercise of our will, as the Holy Spirit works in us. In response to God\u2019s saving grace toward us, we make conscious change a daily act of faith.<\/p>\n

So, St. Paul writes to the Colossians: GNT version<\/p>\n

You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Every morning when I wake up, I say a prayer of thanks to God for a new day and I recommit to living as a follower of Jesus.<\/p>\n

That prayer could be: Dear Jesus, help me to set my heart on things in heaven. Help me today to put away the sinful desires in me so that I can fully live the life you give me. Amen.<\/p>\n

Or, as Martin Luther prayed: We give you thanks, heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ your dear Son, that you have protected us through the night from all danger and harm. We ask you to preserve and keep us, this day also, from all sin and evil, that in all our thoughts, words, and deeds, we may serve and please you. Into your hands we commend our bodies and souls and all that is ours. Let your holy angels have charge of us, that the wicked one has no power over us. Amen.<\/p>\n

However we might pray, it is important to consciously ask for God\u2019s help to respond to our baptism life with thanks and obedience, because it is hard to be Christian.<\/p>\n

The believers in Colossae were challenged by their environment, a culture of sexual excesses, immorality, corruption and dishonesty, indulgence of destructive passions, and greed. And their behavior reflected this culture: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language.<\/em> Before coming to know Jesus Christ, they were used to living soap opera lives, lives with plots like TV crime dramas and political intrigue.<\/p>\n

I wish I could make a joke here about how alien such a culture from the 1st<\/sup> c. must seem to us in the 21st<\/sup> c., but, sadly, I can\u2019t. Like the early believers in Colossae, we face these same challenges and the reality that old habits die hard. And so, we too must heed the warnings and daily recommit our lives to the conscious change our response to God\u2019s grace calls forth.<\/p>\n

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly;<\/em> get rid of all such things.<\/em><\/p>\n

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10<\/sup>\u2006and have clothed yourselves with the new self\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, daily \u2013 just like we put on an outfit of clothes for our body–we mindfully put on Jesus Christ as the clothing for our soul.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

When we do this, Jesus with his Holy Spirit governs our life. Then, as Jesus calls us to follow, we can strive to be rich toward God.<\/p>\n

Jesus, in our Gospel reading from Luke 12:13-21, and St. Paul both highlight greed as a particular temptation for those seeking to live God\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

I confess to knowing this sin far too well.<\/p>\n

It takes many forms:<\/p>\n