Dichotomy of the Mind – Earth and Above

Easter Sunrise Meditation

HMPC – Christopher H. Edmonston

March 23, 2008

Colossians 3: 1 - 4

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Where is your mind today? Is it on things on earth, or on things above? Speaking only for myself, my mind is probably a distracted one right now. I am worried about the cold this morning; thinking about breakfast; hoping my voice holds up through 12:00 Noon today; thinking about my wife and kids at home; my mind is wondering off to next weekend when I will take a couple of days off; I am thinking about not preaching for too long this morning….My mind is usually concerned with earthly things, and my best guess is that most of us find ourselves in similar circumstance.

In a sense that makes us no different that those first Christians. They were there when the Lord was crucified. All that they had worked for seemed lost. Saturday must have been awfully lonely for them. Hiding. Shying away. Realizing that they would have to go back to the family farm, to the lakeshore to fish, to the shop to make cabinets with the long forgotten brother-in-law. I often wonder how sad it all must have been. To see the new reign ushered in by Christ, to watch it proclaimed and lived-out by him, to hear the Hosannas of the crowd, the cries of ‘save us,’ and knowing that Jesus could, like none before him save them in ways that they had never yet imagined. Then – to see Rome win again as the enemies of Christ gloated over his body broken and his life spent.

But it is right there – where the demons and the devils and the Romans and the malicious come to gloat – it is right there that God breaks through. And if it is only for a couple of moments each year, let us be caught up in the joy of Easter and the delights of heavenly promise. Caught up in Easter joy like a child left alone in a room with an ice cream cake. Caught up that we forget about how silly we might look. Caught up in that we might, like those first witnesses, run to tell somebody about it. Caught up in the promises of God that we might forget the family business, the kids at home, the chill in our bones, or the despair of all the wrong in the world – caught up so much that our minds forget their earthly occupations and they dwell upon heavenly delight.

This is what Easter is all about: a promise so grand, a heaven so real, a Savior resurrected and a kingdom come! Eugene Peterson, perhaps the most respected Presbyterian thinker has written, “The gospel message says: ‘ You don’t live in a mechanistic world ruled by necessity; you don’t live in a random world ruled by chance; you live in a world ruled by the God of Exodus and Easter. He will do things in you that neither you nor friends would have supposed possible….”

God breaks through. He does the impossible. And claims us in the process. May your mind dwell upon that today, and all the sweet promises of everything else that is above. The Lord is Risen! Indeed! Amen!