Text: Colossians 3:1-11

Title: Set your minds on things above

In today’s Gospel lesson, the Lord is confronted by bickering brothers, who couldn’t agree on how to divide the family inheritance.

The Lord knew what was the foundation for their fussing; it was a good case of coveting. He told them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Then, in directly addressing these brothers, who longed for more and more possessions, the Lord told about a rich man, whose land produced a bounty.

The man had so many crops, he needed more barns. The man was so rich, he didn’t only build more barns and silos and cribs, he tore down the old ones, first. And, trusting that his many possessions would take care of him well into his sunset years, he declared to his soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry."

Now wait, is there a single human who is in control of his future? Even if you were to have what this rich man had—even if you had a nifty retirement account, and all of the stuff that the average American would find to have him all set for a long retirement—can you make the determinations as to how long you will live, or how healthy you will be, or the quality of your marriage and relationships with children, friends, and others; whether or not you will be visited by economic collapse, a fire that destroys all of your worldly possessions, or any of the other countless possible ways your pizza could be turned on its crust?

None of you can predict your future, and none of you can control your future. There is only one thing that you know, for absolutely sure, about your future: You are going to die—and that was the lesson for the rich man, who thought he was all set for many years. God called him a fool: "This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" Then, the Lord Jesus summed up the lesson for the bickering brothers, who were coveting their inheritance, exactly what the summary is for every person on earth, which means you: "So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

Everything you have will, one day, be left behind. Who will get it? Will he take care of it? Will she value it, as you did? Will your children argue over it? Will your stuff be a blessing to those who inherit it, or will it tear them apart because they will covet your stuff—as if having your stuff become their stuff will somehow be the answer to their lives?

God’s Word calls King Solomon the wisest man who ever lived. And, besides wisdom, Solomon had more money than he knew what to do with, and so much knowledge that people came from far and wide to listen to him teach. He used his fortune to build himself every building that one would want to enjoy. He used his position as king to cultivate a harem of hundreds of wives and mistresses.

Solomon never had to play the if only game, because Solomon lacked nothing. He lived the American dream. He was Bill Gates, and Albert Einstein, and Paul McCartney, and Abe Lincoln, and maybe even Michael Jordan, all in one.

Old Solly must have been one happy chap, eh? If you were paying attention to the Old Testament lesson, you know better. Here’s how it began, from the lips of the wisest man who ever lived: "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!"

What is vanity? Vanity is self-love. Vanity is an overblown ego. Vanity is excessive pride that a person has for his appearance, his abilities, his achievements. Vanity is the recognition that something is ultimately worthless, pointless, fruitless.

Solomon was the rich man of the Lord Jesus’ parable. He turned his status as the wisest man who ever lived into the status as the most materialistic man who ever lived. At the end of his life, he wailed the question that the Lord asked, "And all the things you have prepared, whose will they be?"

Listen to Solomon: "I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity."

What was Solomon to do, a man who was one of God’s chosen? What are you to do, who are one of God’s chosen?

Today’s epistle lesson: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is . . . 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."

The man in the Lord’s parable was about to die, but the Lord wrote in this epistle that you, His chosen ones, have already died, and that’s the reason you are to set your minds on things above—things that pertain to Jesus Christ and His gift of salvation—not on things below—all of the stuff of this life that you will be leaving to who knows whom, and who knows how they will take care of it.

But, your heart is still beating; when did you die? If you were with us last Sunday, you heard it from this same epistle to the Colossians: "In [Christ] also you were . . . buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with [Christ] . . . And you, who were dead in your trespasses . . . God made alive together with [Christ,] having forgiven all our trespasses."

When you were baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you died. You died to sin by being joined to Jesus Christ in His death for your sins. You were raised from the death of your sins just as Jesus Christ was raised from His death for your sins.

Having died with Christ, you are now dead to the power of sin. As Christ has conquered sin, and you are united with Christ, you are a conqueror of sin.

Your baptism into Christ makes you a stranger here; heaven is your home. That’s why you don’t live as the next guy lives, whose hopes and dreams are in his savings account, his retirement home, and all the stuff that he has to fill his days.

You are the wisest people on earth; you have the wisdom of God the Holy Spirit living in you. You know that everything around you is vanity. It’s self-love to build up your little kingdom. It’s nothing more than ego to be admired for your appearance, abilities, achievements. It’s all worthless, pointless, fruitless, because you can’t take it with you, and you can’t even see to how it will be used by whomever gets it after you.

This is what Jesus Christ began in you with the calling of the Gospel and the washing of Holy Baptism: You are being renewed in the image of your Creator.

This is how you keep your mind on things above, by rejoicing in the Good News that you have died to sin and live for righteousness, through the gifts that Jesus Christ purchased for you with His holy blood and innocent death on the cross.

This is how you keep your mind on things above, by recalling, each day, that you have been raised with Christ in His resurrection, through His gift of baptism, so that you don’t belong to this dying world, but are a citizen of heaven.

This is how you keep your mind on things above, by repeatedly coming to Christ’s altar to eat and drink the meal of His living body and blood—the meal which comes from heaven, to which only those who are citizens of heaven are invited to eat.

If only, if only, if only.

Here’s an if only you need never mumble or grumble: "If only I could beat death and live forever."

Dear Christians, set your minds on things above where Christ is, for He beat death for you, and He has already given you His eternal life. Amen.