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Text: Colossians 3:1-4
Narcissus takes a gander.
I have heard many complain that they did not want to be “so heavenly-minded that they were no earthly good.” But we are usually in no personal danger of this. In fact, I have yet to meet a human being who was. I have met people who were in danger of being so “religious” that they were no earthly good; but never too “heavenly-minded.”
When people speak of heaven they often wax eloquent as if heaven were an ethereal dreamland. But heaven is more real than you or I. While we are but a vapor upon this earth, we speak of the throne of God as if it were a wishful wisp of smoke from our great-grandfather’s pipe.
In the same way that we are insane to create God in our image (when in fact it is the reverse), so to project a heaven out of your own infantile crayon-on-paper theologies is cute but should go no further than under a magnet on the fridge. Heaven informs our lives and those places in our lives that now seem the most solid in Christ. These are the beginnings of becoming a citizen of Heaven where such creativity, vision, knowledge and reflected glory will be more powerful than we can imagine. What does C.S. Lewis say? Beings so luminous that if we were to see them today we would be “strongly tempted to worship” them.
Not only is heaven our future, it is to be our present. We are to “seek the things above”- present tense -“where Christ is”- now – “at the right hand of God”. The closest I can come to interpreting the meaning of this verse is that we are to seek the reality of the Kingdom of God in our life here in someway suggestive of the present reality we can not see, but is our future reality.
Jesus Christ is the most heavenly minded, yet the most earthly good. Can you name one man who has ever been more earthly good than Jesus of Nazareth? Now can you name one man who has ever been more heavenly minded than Jesus of Nazareth? The truth is, the heavens themselves reflect the eternal glory of Christ, yet no man has ever been more earthly good than Christ, the “Second Adam,” God in the flesh.
The Jesus follower who is heavenly minded, will always be active, Why? Because Jesus is the most active agent in Creation in all ways at all times, even holding all of it together relationally at this very moment in a way beyond human comprehension. To be a follower of this Living One to to actively become a part of that as you are “in Him” and He is in you.
To be “heavenly-minded” is to have the “mind of Christ”; and it is unfortunate that many of us simply want the old mind back. The eternal perspective is to be taught by God to see a bit from His vantage point. To be sure, in a “mirror dimly” is all we can take in. But someday “face to face” and then we shall be like Him.
We either stare at our own relfections as they fall away and get more dim and despair what we are, or if we have taken Paul seriously as the young Colossians did. Vision beyond self to Christ in the world, in the others you know, live with, work with or see on the street. With that understanding, the the impermanence of this world is obvious yet its beauty points beyond itself. Though the mirror away from self is dim, clarity is coming and even now, you have it from time to time in flashes, in a dream, in a moment. In those brief moments you know and embody what Paul asks, not given false hope in some benign state of passive bliss; buy real hope, the ultimate subversion of all fantasies with reality.
People can make long, detailed, and convincing arguments about why Jesus is so important. Those who often do have side agendas attached; those who don’t, just seem to want to use Jesus as a vehicle, a means to their ends.
And often, this is why people stop attending church, or are disgusted and detest preachers on television. I cannot say I blame them for an instant. Seems like a sane response if there are no alternatives.
My roommate was messing with me last night and had control of the cable channels. She kept flipping from the Yankees winning (groans) to this televangelist jackass who I knew was eventually gonna start talking about MONEY (groans louder).
I suppose I shouldn’t allow it to upset me any more than I should expect the Gecko to stop selling me car insurance (I like the Eckhart Tolle/Progressive girl “Flo” better); J.G. Wentworth to stop yelling that it’s my money; or Burger King to come on and start talking about anything but flame-broiled double cheeseburgers for a buck.
But it does. And she knows this and says “I’ll bet you have to write about this tomorrow”.
Well I do and I don’t. Why don’t I share a poem with you that not only addresses the deeper issue of cultural self-absorption, but also the reality (not speculation) that outside this autonomous mess that we continue to concoct, perpetuate and even imagine is meaningful, there is LIFE outside of religion, money, media and personal preoccupations. In fact, it may just be sitting beside you quietly waiting.
All About Us
Have you heard All about us? We are Everywhere us Talking about us Reading about us See There! That was us On the Television (I could swear that was Just us on the television) Everywhere us Talking about us Reading about us Sleeping with us Plotting with us Working and breaking up With us. Have you heard All about us in the streets The checkstands and restrooms? We walk these places alone But we always have us To think about. Has the Earth heard All about us? Oh yes But long ago shut its ears Dug in for the Long journey Living somewhere Under a pile of stones. Once a year The Earth comes out Of its hole Looks nervously To see if we’re gone Then disappears In our shadow Six more years of us. Have you heard All about us? I have. In the Great Meeting Hall I heard All about us Every story about us Story after story All about us. And I waited To hear about Someone else Because I’ve already Heard all about us And frankly I’m bored with us Because we can’t Get past us To any real news Can’t hear or see All that’s waiting Just outside of us. __________________ Christopher C. MacDonald (c) 1997
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