Pentecost 10

I don’t know what your idea of the "good life" is, but there are many companies out there that would gladly sell it to you. In fact, on the news Thursday they had a story about the opening event at the new convention center in Erie.

The event included a display of the latest cars. This car company’s idea of the good life is owning a Mercedes Benz. Living the good life in this case will cost you three to four hundred thousand dollars.

If that’s living the good life, I suspect none of us will ever even get a peak at it. It’s just as well, anyway, because a car of that value would need a hermetically sealed super-sanitized garage in which to store it and considering the weather and street conditions in the area, we’d also need a special transport vehicle to get it from place to place, because we surely wouldn’t want to risk having it get road salt on it or something sprung from going over a pot hole.

Of course, this is America. We have opportunity for all, so there are plenty of other items you can buy for less money that would symbolize the good life in our economic bracket: a late model SUV, golf club membership, a winter home in a warmer climate, a camper, a yearly vacation, a musical instrument, an HDTV, DVD, MP3 or other gizmo from the alphabet soup of high tech devices.

And generally speaking, there is nothing wrong with this kind of living the good life...unless they become the center of our lives or a source of sin. We each need to determine for ourselves when living the good life crosses over into one of those spiritually unhealthy areas.

On the other hand, the writer of Colossians tells us not only how to live a sin-free good life, but also one that doesn’t cost anything.

Let me share a few verses from the paraphrase, The Way: "Since you became alive again, so to speak, when Christ rose from the dead, now set your sights on the rich treasures and joys of heaven where he (Jesus) sits beside God in the place of honor and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts; don’t spend your time worrying about things down here. You should have as little desire for this world as a dead person does. Your real life is in heaven with Christ and God."

How often do we spend time reflecting on what being with Christ in heaven is going to be like? How often do we reflect on what having Christ in our lives right now - what having become alive again through Him - means for us right now? How often do we experience the joys of heaven compared to the amount of time we spend worrying about how to pay for that earthly symbol of the good life we thought would give us joy?

Last week I suggested engaging in a spiritual discipline in which we sit in silence regularly, allowing God to speak to us in the silence of our hearts. I also suggested practicing an openness to God’s presence in things, people and events of life.

Today’s spiritual discipline will appeal more to people who need more activity (at least mental activity) in their prayer life. Take some time each day for reflecting on what it is like to have Christ in your life now. Picture what being in heaven will be like. Think about and even record in a journal the joys of heaven you’ve experienced this day.

Try this and see if it isn’t a much less costly way to achieve living the good life right now. Rest assured this kind of good life is available to you whether you can afford a Mercedes or only a very old used car. It can be lived whether you are here in wintery NW PA or sunny Florida. It can be much more easily learned and used than a MP3 Player or other electronic toy.

Though the devil and the culture of our world would rather have us focus on the things of this material life, we have been empowered to live a brand new kind of life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It might seem that the Colossians were saved from a much more obviously unChristian life. Believers were surrounded by pagan religions. Some of those religions even celebrated sexual acting out and satisfying one’s lower desires was encouraged.

Those same religions operate today, and all around us. They are just more subtle in their draw. Our sense of right and wrong is dulled by constant reports of the ways the rich and powerful get away with wrong acts. Our sexual standards may be eaten away by exposure to the over abundance of TV sexually explicit programs, movies and ads of the media. Our ability to make God pleasing choices may be undermined by the high pressure constant activity life styles we think we must live.

But, like the Colossians we are told that we too are living a brand new kind of life. Christ has shown us the better way and by His Spirit was are empowered to choose that better way. We can make living the good life one that is firmly connected to Christ and focused on the rich treasures and joys He won for us.

And now, I’m going to indulge in another aspect of that good life and get out of this hot pulpit. Finish this sermon yourselves by taking a moment to let heaven fill your thoughts and see if that isn’t a better way of living the good life. Amen.