Rich Dwellings

Resolutions: Baptisms and New Year’s

The previous three Sundays, we – as a congregation – have participated in a holy, wonderful grace. We have witnessed three successive Sundays of baptisms, where our church family has added four children into our community of faith. And in every baptism, our common hope was that the child would experience definitively the love of God.

However, something else occurred these past three Sundays – something that seems all too appropriate for New Year’s Eve: resolutions were made. During every single baptism, you saw and heard parents of young children resolve to rely on God’s grace, to live out their faith in Christ and to pass on their faith to their children. And, lest you forget, you – the community of mentors, teachers, and friends – also made some resolutions: to guide and nurture these children, to encourage these children to follow Christ and to be faithful members of this church.

Just like millions of people are doing today or will do this next week, we made resolutions.

Resolutions Past and Present

New Year’s resolutions have been around for centuries. In fact, my wife heard a radio clip this week detailing are earliest reliable resolutions – written out by Roman citizens around 180 A.D. They are (not surprisingly) very familiar to us: to get along better with their neighbors, to help the poor and to improve their bodies. The more things change…

When we make New Year’s resolutions, we sometimes shoot for the moon with lofty goals like the Romans: to be more loving or giving. But, many of us strive after more practical matters: trimmer waists or healthier diets. We decide to save more money, read more books, or watch less television. The thought is that if we can bring a couple small areas of concern under control, we will be well on our way to reforming our whole life.

The resolutions we make during a baptism, however, are the exact opposite; they are grand – like the Roman resolutions of old. It makes sense, too, because baptism is not about minor changes. Baptism is a major life-overhaul – more akin to the type of resolution you make on a deathbed versus the ones you make on New Year’s Eve. For it is during baptism we come clean – confess how inadequate is our current make-up. We acknowledge that we don’t just need a new plan to make ourselves better. We need a whole new way of being who we are. We need to be resolved to live differently. Or as Paul tells us in Colossians 3, we need a brand new wardrobe – new threads, new garments – something more appropriate for the new life given to us through Christ and salvation. We need new clothes.

What are Clothes?

Clothes – the materials we place on our bodies – are telling. Clothes inform us of the type of priorities we have, the type of income we have at our disposal, the type of activities we enjoy. Clothes speak volumes about who we are or who we are not. They speak through their labels, through their trends, through their brands, and sometimes they speak directly with words splattered on the front of our t-shirts.

Clothes are more than just 80% cotton and 20% nylon. Clothes – especially if worn by a celebrity – are popularity or success or wealth or luxury or sex. And, whether we are bold to admit it or not, many of us form opinions of persons based on the clothing they wear … or don’t wear.

The truth is clear: what we put on ourselves speaks volumes for who we are.

Trying to Clothe Myself in Riches

When I got to jr. high school, I started to realize the power clothes have in creating our self-image. Previously, in the first eleven years of my life, Christmas meant only one thing: toys and video games. But jr. high changed my Christmas modus operandi.

During my adolescent years I awoke to the reality that our clothes can define our image. I realized in the cruel hierarchy of popularity, fashion was the key currency, and I realized that popularity didn’t allow for thrift stores or hand-me-downs. And with those realizations pounding in my brain, I began to see Christmas as a desperate attempt to revamp my wardrobe. So it was that over time I stopped asking for G. I. Joe’s, and I started asking for Gap Jeans. I thought I needed a new wardrobe.

But during those difficult jr. high years, what I was doing was clothing myself with worldly threads. I was putting on envy and greed. And I was falling prey to the subtle, yet lethal belief in our culture that we can make ourselves more attractive or more luxurious depending on the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the home we live in. Our culture wants us to believe we are only one small possession, only one small New Year’s resolution away from completely revamping our life – that if we can change the exterior of our lives, we can live richly.

Well, baptism takes this mentality and smashes it on the ground – breaking it into a million pieces. Baptism reminds us that richness is not something worldly or materialistic that we can adorn ourselves with. Baptism is about being stripped of our worldly threads.

Being Stripped so that We Might Be Rewarded

In one of the more liberal days of Christianity – back in say 300 or 400 A.D. – it was not uncommon for Christians to be baptized in the nude. Yes, you heard me correctly.

First the children, then the men and finally the women – they were separated for obvious reasons. And once separated each group would be expected to take off their clothes, be immersed in water, and then afterwards they would be given a clean, white robe – symbolizing their newness of life. It was a way for them to enact the reality of God washing them clean of their sins and of their own resolve to live differently.

Although such a practice will not be initiated here anytime soon … or ever, the practice of being baptized “in the flesh” was wonderfully accurate based on what we are told to do in Colossians 3: take off your sins, be washed clean, and put on new clothes. Be stripped so that you might be rewarded with clothes of eternal brilliance. Put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and above all, love.

For being a Christian means being someone who is willing to abandon our old wardrobes and dress in entirely different threads. Being a Christian means being saturated in God’s love and being overwhelmed by God’s peace.

Richness results from Christ in us, not from Riches on us

The principle that is instructing Paul in Colossians 3 is also clear: richness results from Christ in us, not from riches on us. And so we are to be resolved to live richly from within.

But maybe the problem is that it is easier to fulfill our minor resolutions – to lose five pounds or save a few more dollars. It seems far easier to track our weight on a scale or our retirement accounts on the internet than it does trying to figure out if we are really experiencing Christ within us. And, then, of course, there is the reality that the glimmer of a new ring is more alluring than the gentleness of our spirit. The fabric of this world and its fleeting desires do seem to sparkle so!

Yet, there are things we can do to be better resolved in living our new life in Christ. We can forgive. It’s not easy, but it’s practical. We can think of someone we have hurt; we can address the pain; we can ask for their forgiveness. We can do that.

We can let peace rule in our hearts … even if it doesn’t rule throughout the world. We can breathe deeply – inhaling the lavish love of God.

We can give thanks … can’t we? We can give thanks for our health, for the provisions God gives us to survive and thrive: food and shelter, jobs and family. We can do that.

If we are truly bold, we can sing … not just on the inside but out-loud, like we sing when it’s just us in the car, driving down a country road on a sunny day.

And, finally, we can do all that we do in the name of Christ who has saved us. We can act in the name of the One who loved us enough to be stripped of all his glory. We can follow after our Savior, Jesus Christ, who did not dress himself in the fine linens of luxury but dressed himself in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, … and … above all … LOVE!

We can do that. You can do that. I can do that.

Forgive. Be at peace. Give thanks. Sing songs of joy. Do all in the name of Christ Jesus.

Those are some good resolutions. That’s a start. So, go on, put on your new threads … you’ll be surprised at the rave reviews you will receive in the coming year.

To our God who dwells in us richly be all the glory forever. Amen.