11 September 2019 - hidden with Christ in God

Today's Readings

(Audio)

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Now we are poor and hungry, but hidden with Christ in his kingdom we are satisfied.

Now we mourn here as we still live out our own death in the valley of death. But at this same moment our life is hidden with Christ where we laugh together with him.

If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.

Hidden with Christ in God we do not need to strive after those things which do not last and cannot provide happiness. Riches and worldly delights can be relinquished for the sake of Jesus. Laughing and satisfaction anywhere except our hiding place in Christ is destined to give way to weeping and sorrow.

Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry.

We put to death what is earthly not so much as a condition of coming before Christ but more so because we are already hidden with him and secure enough in his love to do without those things which we once needed, the ways in which we once conducted ourselves, in which we once lived.

Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator.

Our knowledge is being renewed. We are learning to think from the perspective of creatures hidden with Christ in God. We are learning to act and live as if his promises are true, because, of course, they are. When we find ourselves slipping back into old ways, lying, being immoral, or giving into evil desires or greed, let us say, 'My life is hidden with Christ in God.' When our mind is renewed with this powerful truth we can go forward in poverty, in hunger, in weeping, facing insults, and yet knowing all the while a blessing which transcends every sorrow.

Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.

"my hiding place, my safe refuge.."