30th Sunday after Pentecost; Octoechos Tone 2; 🕃 Our Venerable Father Macarius of Egypt.
Colossians 3:12-16; Luke 18:18-27.
Read Colossians 3:12-16
When it comes to clothing, some people have their own unique style. Others follow the latest trends. Still others prefer to dress the same as people have for years. Sometimes people express appreciation for our taste; sometimes they might not like the way we are dressed. No matter how confident or unconfident we may be about our appearance, putting on clothes we are comfortable in for an occasion helps those preoccupations recede into the background, allowing us to focus on the purpose of connecting with others.
In today’s epistle reading, Paul has just finished telling the Colossians to clean out their closets, as it were, and get rid of – put to death! – everything that we cannot appear with “when Christ who is our life appears”. Then he tells them and us how to start dressing for eternity now.
The thing that stands out about everything Paul in telling us to “put on” is how much these clothes are for others: “compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and love”. And this clothing is appropriate for peace, instruction, and worship as “one body” – again, others.
This is a wardrobe for all occasions but when we go out wearing it, we might find that it’s not to everyone’s taste. Some of the pieces might not feel comfortable on us at first. Each of us might have one piece or another that presents difficulty fitting, even after years. We might want to leave these clothes in the drawer and make do with what we already have on. But if we continue to make a point of putting on the one essential piece – love – we will develop a style with all the other pieces “that binds everything together in perfect harmony.”