Sunday of the Holy Forefathers. Our Venerable Father Daniel the Stylite (493)
Colossians 3:4-11; Luke 14:16-24
Read Colossians 3:4-11
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In scary situations we want someone else to go first. Dying is scary. We take comfort in Christ having gone first. His victory over death is the hope of ours, an incalculable comfort.
But what about the loss of things we live by? Giving those up can feel like death. Listed in today’s reading, “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness… anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk,” look as ugly as they are. But when we are energized by such things, lines can become blurred, and rationalizations justify them as part of a natural life.
In rock climbing, the lead climber goes first. He wears a harness connected to the climbers below and connects himself to bolts he puts into the rock. That is analogous to our connection with Christ by the means of grace received through faith.
But opposite things happening on each end of the climbers’ rope do not lead to life for all. Climbers doing careless things can still lead to injury or death for themselves and others, no matter how well connected they are to the anchored lead climber.
We like how our reading begins with us appearing with Christ in glory, but the preceding verse shows that we are connected to that by dying with Him to the earthly things on account of which the wrath of God is coming: “For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
“As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him…If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?” (Colossians 2:6, 20)
So, let go of behavior that leads to death, even if it feels like dying to do so. Remember, Christ has gone first.