Set your mind on the things that are above

“Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:2-3)

Oliver Wendell Holmes is credited with the saying, “Some people are so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good.” His words come to mind when I read these verses from Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

“Set your minds on the things that are above”, he says (Colossians 3:2). It sounds like spiritual escapism – detaching yourself from all things earthly so as to rise above the world and its worries. The Maharishi Yogi probably said similar things when leading a session of transcendental meditation.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was the Indian guru who introduced TM to the Western world and so influenced the Beatles back in the 1960’s. I can see John, Paul, George and Ringo sitting in a circle with the yogi, chanting ‘OM’ together. I just can’t see Saint Paul in that circle!

“When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom ‘Let it be.’” That’s The Beatles, of course, not Saint Paul, sharing wisdom form their TM days. Paul was not a ‘let things be’ king fo guy.

I’m sure Paul exuded the peace of God at some level, but he wasn’t good at just accepting things that he believed were wrong. He was passionate, angry and active. Indeed, if Paul had believed in ‘let it be’, he probably wouldn’t have written any letters.

Paul was a mystic. He just wasn’t a Yogi. Paul’s mysticism lay in believing there is a tangible physical union between our bodies and the body of the risen Christ! Paul spoke of ‘walking in Christ’ and ‘being in Christ’ and ‘living in Christ’, and he wasn’t speaking metaphorically. He really believed that we do genuinely get caught up in the Divine mystery of Jesus such that our bodies are no longer our own but are animated by Christ living within us. One key difference between Paul’s thinking though and that of the Maharishi Yogi is that instead of this state of spiritual integration leading us into quiet bliss, our union with Christ takes us through the resurrection and back to the cross!

“Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea.” (2 Corinthians 11:24-25)

Yes, Paul had his head in the clouds, but his feet were deeply buried in the dirt. Paul’s mysticism was never about detachment. It was about incarnation. When he says our life is “hidden with Christ in God”, he’s not pointing to a blissed-out soul hovering above the fray. He’s naming a mystery – that our identity is locked into a crucified-and-risen body that walks dusty roads and touches lepers. The Maharishi offered a ladder to the sky. Paul offers a table, a basin, and a cross.

Paul’s letter to the Colossians does not invite us to transcend human suffering. Rather, it invites us to join Christ in it. Being “hidden with Christ” isn’t a cloak of invisibility. It’s a mystical re-centering that defines how we show up in the world. The resurrection didn’t float Jesus out of the world but sent Him back in with His scars still visible! Our hidden life in Christ makes us more present in this world, not less.

C.S. Lewis said, “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next” (in Mere Christianity)

This is the paradox of Christian mission as Paul saw it – that the more heavenly minded we are, the more we are compelled to act in the here and now. Paul saw our union with Christ, not as a way of transcending human suffering but of transfiguring it. For Christ doesn’t flee the world but loves it fiercely, and it’s in the dust and blood of human history that we meet Him.

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is your life, is revealed, you also will be revealed with him in glory” (Colossian 3:3-4)

Our Sunday Eucharist

We had another wonderful Sunday Eucharist last weekend, with Rob Gilland and Rev. John Jegasothy joining me on the panel. I’ve pasted the two most popular shorts from last Sunday below. See all the shorts on our Sunday Eucharist Instagram page, or watch the entire broadcast on our YouTube channel.

This Sunday I’m looking forward to having David Baldwin and Tom Toby back with me, providing Tom hasn’t already been arrested by that stage for attempting to march across the Harbour Bridge in support of Gaza. Either way, we’ll be broadcasting from noon @TheSundayEucharist.com, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia and Streamyard.

I do look forward to sharing this Eucharist with you. 😊

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What’s On?

Sunday, August 3^rd– Our Eucharist from noon @thesundayeucharist.com, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia or Streamyard
Tuesday, August 5^th – Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm
Wednesday, August 6^th – Online Bible Study at 12.30 am
Thursday, August 7^th – Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm.
Friday to Sunday, August 8 to 10 @Binacrombi. Please join me.

I’m tempted to say that it’s been a fascinating week, except that the word ‘fascinating’ seems to disrespect the many who have suffered and died in the last week from the violence that continues to rage around the world. What truly is fascinating though is how the false narratives that have functioned to maintain the machinery of violence are starting to falter, most obviously with regards to Gaza.

What does it take for people to come to the realisation that they’ve been lied to? I’ve just finished reading an excellent book on Tobruk that dealt very sensitively with stories of how German soldiers in World War II came to the realisation that they’d been fighting for the wrong cause. For some, this dawned slowly. Others snapped to reality when they saw the images coming out of Auschwitz. Either way, it’s very difficult to let go of a narrative that you’ve lived with for a long time, and the longer you’ve lived with it and the more you’ve invested in it, the harder it is to shed.

The propaganda of the Israeli government, justifying the Gaza genocide on the grounds that Israel is defending itself, proved broadly effective for a long time. Now it looks increasingly brittle. Global political leaders, including the Prime Ministers of England and Canada, have publicly questioned the narrative, and mainline news media are being far more reticent in parroting official Israeli hasbara. Even stalwarts like Mr Trump seem to be faltering at times as the overwhelming evidence of the atrocities continue to confront everyone who can consult a cell phone.

What will it take for the whole edifice of lies to topple, and what will happen when it does? What new narratives are the spin-doctors working on in order to maintain the status quo? Will these new narratives work or will everyone have wised up, and what will be our role in all this, especially if everything does fall to pieces?

I have so many more questions than answers, and it will be fascinating to see how things develop – fascinating but potentially catastrophic too. What can we do but ensure that our lives are ‘hidden with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:3) so that “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)

Your brother in the Good Fight,