Sunday, July 31, 2022
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
8th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 13

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:
– First Reading: Hosea 11:1-11
– Psalm 107:1-9, 43
– Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-11
– Gospel Reading: Luke 12:13-21

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

The writer of Colossians says: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Yet, the writer of Colossian here says, in essence, “Picture it…”  “Picture your life not as you are headed toward death.  Picture it, you baptized people you, that you have already died in baptism, and you have been raised up to this new life.  That picture is to become a portrait of this life where we set our minds, as he puts it, on ‘seek(ing) the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.’”

It is a wonderful picture of our lives—that we have been raised up.  As those raised up ones, we can set our minds, our lives, and our actions on that which is above—we can set ourselves on Christ. 

This is why when the world looks at us, they should be getting a question on their faces.  How is it that we can be so positive, so up-beat, so hopeful in the world that we are in?  How is that possible?  It is possible because we not only have “set our minds on things that are above,” but because we are taking confidence in that which is above. 

The picture of our life that we project to the world is different.  For many in the world it is just a march to the grave.  For us it is a march to victory.  Look at that portrait of your life and see how you have been and have the opportunity to live with the view of life as resurrected and secure.

It is what the writer of Colossians means when he says that your “life is hidden with Christ in God.”  That is about security.  Your life is secure through Christ in God.  We are not held back but can live this full life in Christ with this incredible security that God-so-has-us!!  Picture it…your life with Christ in God.

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Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk