The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (February 6, 2022)

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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Today is the conclusion of our sermon series “Living Sacrifices: Living into the Christian Story” that we have been doing during this interval of Ordinary Time before the beginning of Pre-Lent which begins next week with Septuagesima Sunday. Up until this week, we have been in Romans 12-13, the ethical section of Paul’s Epistle to the Church at Rome, in which he brings the dense theological truths of chapters 1-11 to bear on the conduct of Christians. First, we looked at how that works in the context of the Church in which our different gifts should be made use of for the common good and upbuilding of the Body of Christ. Then, we looked at how that applies in our interactions with those outside the Church. Finally, last week we saw how Paul’s teaching here shapes our engagement with common, civic spaces. Today, our reading isn’t from Romans but jumps to Colossians 3:12-17. The passage isn’t directly related to our readings from Romans but it does serve as a succinct summary of many of the themes we’ve been encountering the past few weeks and therefore operates as a fitting conclusion as we bring this series to a close.

What we’ll see is that in this passage, St. Paul summarizes the shape and contours of the Christian life on the basis of union with Christ that begins when we receive the sacrament of Baptism. This union entails “putting on Christ,” sacramentally at baptism but also ethically through the cultivation of virtue, becoming conduits of God’s peace, and letting his word dwell in us. When we put him on, we can join ourselves to his sacrifice by becoming living sacrifices, no matter what we’re doing, in word and deed.

To better understand our union with Christ in baptism, it’s helpful to revisit the Old Testament rite of circumcision. In the Old Testament, circumcision was how one was made a member of Israel; you could not become Jewish without circumcision. So circumcision acted as an entry-rite; it was not an endpoint, but a beginning in which an Israelite became bound to their community. But this came with a responsibility; a responsibility to keep the Old Testament Law. This means that, while circumcision was an indelible mark, one could be punished with what we might call excommunication through a lack of obedience. The problem with circumcision, of course, is that its gender exclusive, it’s only applicable to males (and it’s also kind of a tough sell if you’re trying to get people to join). Further, circumcision was an ethnocentric rite: it made you the member of a nation, it made you an Israelite. But it didn’t take away sin nor could it regenerate. In Colossians 2, Paul presents baptism as a new and perfect circumcision. Speaking to Christians, St. Paul says, “ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.” Baptism is circumcision because it constitutes a removal, not of flesh, but of sins. A person who has been baptized has had all their sins, actual and original, remitted. Baptism, this circumcision of Christ, is the basis for our union with him: “Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him.” Baptism doesn’t mean we won’t apostatize or fall away later, but it does mean that we become immersed into the story of Christ and become recipients of a new life. The central emphasis of Paul’s preaching is that because of baptism, there is no need for physical circumcision as a ritual because the goal is not to make Gentiles Jews because all people, regardless of their class, race, or gender, can be in Christ. But like circumcision, baptism is a beginning in that it imparts grace which must grown and be tended to as we become who are in Christ but it requires our co-operation.

It’s that theme of co-operation that Paul emphasizes in our reading this morning by laying out three different avenues whereby we can co-operate with God: virtue, peace, and the Word.

The image commonly used for baptism was putting off old, dirty garments that represent our old life and putting on new, clean ones. This image is reused by St. Paul to describe the acquisition and cultivation of virtues. We put off the old, dirty garments of vice for the clean garments of virtue. Of course, we should remember, the pursuit of virtue is not “works-salvation” but stems from the fact that, as Paul points out, the Church is the “elect of God” and is “holy and beloved.” Our pursuit of virtue is a way of realizing that we have put on the New Man, Christ. So what virtues does Paul have in mind for the Christian? Well, he gives us a list of seven virtues, the number of completion and the number of creation. The first is a heart of mercy or compassion (which literally means to suffer with or feel feelings with another) which should be manifested in a ministry of presence to those who are hurting and suffering. The second is virtue is kindness, treating others with dignity and respect regardless of who they are. The third is humility, being humble by recognizing our self-limitations and not seeing others as beneath us. Fourth is meekness, which is a kind of self-control that harnesses our power for the good of others. The sixth is longsuffering or forbearing that asks what we can do to help those who are struggling. Sixth is forgiveness which Paul correlates to the forgiveness that we received “just as” Christ forgave us. The seventh virtue is the one that stands above the others, binds them together, and summarizes this whole list: charity (or love). All virtues are, as Jerome Murphy-O’Connor says, “facets of love.” And what is love? To will the good of the other even if (or perhaps we should say especially if) it entails sacrifice on our part. Bishop Robert Barron reminds us of the flip side of this reality: if love is the cause and goal of all the virtues, then a lack of charity is the source and cause of all our dysfunctions. Therefore, St. John of the Cross warns us that, at the end of our lives, we will be examined as to whether we loved. That eschatological judgment should be an impetus for us to love God now, to allow ourselves to be permeated by his love for us, and to let that love flow to others by giving up “all that is your own.”

When we begin to see God’s love for us, we can give way to his peace. “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.” The Gospel brings us peace because our Lord has removed the barriers between us and God and between us and others so that we can become his children and partakers of the divine nature. Peace is restorative, it makes things the way they should be. It is a kind of right ordering. When we experience peace as the Holy Ghost orders our souls and bodies, we can become conduits of it. Part of being “ambassadors of Christ” is taking that peace into all of our contexts, our homes, our work places, our friend circles, etc. and helping other people to experience it.

We are further strengthened in grace and co-operate with God by letting his Word well in us. We should be people of the book, people immersed in the Scripture. It should dwell in us richly, become a part of us. Our common life is permeated with Scripture which should be used for teaching and admonishing, informing what we believe and how we behave. Even more, it should inform our worship which should be characterized by psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We do this both in substance (our various Scripture readings at Mass and Morning Prayer), but also in the material of the Mass itself: much of the Prayer Book is drawn directly or indirectly from the Scriptures and other features of the service, like the Minor Propers, are often taken from the Bible too. Scripture is the normal means God uses to communicate to his Church, so we must be a people who listen.

These three avenues for co-operation with God through virtue, peace, and the Word, culminate in self-sacrifice. “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” All of who we are should be transformed by God and be united to the sacrifice of his Son. That verse from our reading is, in my opinion, directly correlated to the part of the Canon of the Mass where we say “And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls, and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee” because we see everything we do (or at least we should see everything we do) as an offering for God.

The Christian story is beautiful. Is a story that God loves us so much that he gave his only-begotten Son to the end that all that believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Those of us who have been baptized have been immersed into that story so that we become not passive spectators but active participants with various roles to play in that story. We have varied gifts, as we established weeks ago, but we also share a common objective: to become little Christs. We do that by cultivating virtues that strengthen our love, by becoming conduits of God’s peace, and by dwelling in his Word so that his Word may dwell in us. These three avenues are a means to a greater end: to place ourselves at the altar as living sacrifices so that all of our actions may be transfigured for the glory of God.