Sermon: The Sacred Ordinary
Scripture Text: Colossians 3:1-17
Quotes for Reflection
Amy Peeler, Ordinary Time
Jesus’ life would have included many ordinary days, days in which he was simply walking from one place to another. His human experience was no less redemptive on those days than on the ones that eh did or said something the inspired evangelist chose to record. In fact, for his work on those memorable days to be fully redemptive, it had to be interspersed with these ordinary days, because such is experience of being truly and fully human. If Mary asked him at the end of many days of his life, as I might ask my own children, “What did you do today?” Jesus’ answer, true for all intents and purposes, would be the same as theirs: “Nothing.”
This is so often how the Lord works. God does a radical thing and then grants us time to reflect on it. If every day were radical, we could not take it in. Conversely, if there were no radical events that disrupted the world as we know it, it would be difficult to remember that God is always at work. Hence, the Lord gives us just the right balance between the extraordinary and the ordinary. The liturgical year aids believers' perception of this grace. It is during the ordinary times that we are given space for re-flection, and through it, space to grow. We probably do most of our growing not in the midst of the radical but in reflection on it.
Eduard Schweizer, Colossians
In the gospel the call to obedience is because one has already been saved and created anew, while in the law, by contrast, it is in order that one may become so.
David Garland, Colossians, The NIV Application Commentary
Law codes cannot produce the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23) or the virtues listed in Colossians 3:12–13. A tree, for example, does not produce fruit by an act of Congress. It is the nature of a good fruit tree to produce good fruit. In the same way, living according to the standard set by Christ will not come from any demands to live that way. It is the fruit of a new nature that God gives to us through Christ. Consequently, Paul does not offer a “detailed code of what constitutes proper and improper behavior.” Living a life pleasing to God comes spontaneously when we put on Christ. Those who are being renewed in the image of Christ will produce Christlike conduct because that is now their new nature.
Application Questions
1. Why is it so challenging to see the ordinary as sacred?
2. How would you describe the difference between gospel-centered transformation and moralism?
3. Repentance and faith are central to the sacred life. Where is God leading you to “take off the old and put on the new”? As you live into the new in the name of Jesus, how might your life look different in this area?