Knox Presbyterian Church

This is the third sermon in a sermon series on Colossians 3: 1-17

When Shaquille O’Neil was at the top of his game he was one of the most dominating players in the NBA. During his reign on the basketball court, The Shaq developed a funny little habit of coining different names for himself.

Sometimes the NBA giant referred to himself as the Big Continuity. Other times he called himself the Big Legendary. One of my favourites was when he called himself Shaq-speare, because as the Bard of Bel Air he enjoyed quoting the famous playwright.

On the occasion of accepting one of his many Most Valuable Player awards, The Shaq said, “from this day on, I want to be known as ‘The Big Aristotle’ because Aristotle once said that excellence is not a singular act, it’s a habit — you are what you repeatedly do.”

Now, in order to become such a successful player in the NBA The Shaq, obviously, possessed a lot of talent. It didn’t hurt, either, that he was one of the largest players who ever stood in the middle of the basketball court. He brought a lot of natural skills and gifts to the table.

But The Shaq also had a pretty good work ethic. After all, no one gets to the NBA without putting in years and years of hard work and practice. And once you arrive, if you want to really be the best and to stay the best you have to continue to work at your game.

The Shaq did that. He practiced a lot. He developed habits and patterns of behavior off the court that translated to success on the court. His years of hard work, practice, and dedication to his sport paid off. They helped him become one of the best players of the game.

Now, I don’t know if the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, would have been a big fan of today’s game of basketball, but I’d be willing to bet he would have been okay The Shaq calling himself “The Big Aristotle.” I hope he would have gotten a kick out of it.

You see, Aristotle was one of the first people to suggest that virtue is a state of character gained by repeatedly performing good actions. In other words, you become the type of person you are by what you repeatedly do.

A person becomes virtuous or good – over time – by repeatedly putting to practice habits of good behaviour. And in the same way a person develops a bad character – over time – by continually putting to practice habits of bad behaviour.

In today’s passage from Colossians, Paul provides a list of practices and habits that make up the character of a Christian. If you have the passage in front of you let’s read together what Paul says in verses 12-15.

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

As a player, Shaquille O’Neil brought certain things to the table, like natural talent and the gift of his physical size and body. But he couldn’t just walk out onto the court with those things and expect to be a great player. Those natural characteristics and gifts had to be developed. They needed to be honed and trained in order for him to put them together into a complete package as an NBA player.

It’s the same thing for us too. We bring certain things to the table. Paul tells us what those things are at the beginning of verse 12. Paul puts it this way saying, You are God’s chosen. You are holy. You are beloved.

Before we go any further here, let’s stop for a moment and let me ask a question:

When is the last time you heard those words said to you or that you thought of yourself in those ways? You are God’s chosen. You are holy. You are beloved.

Now, it’s quite possible you might hear those sorts of words from someone who really, really loves you. Say your husband or wife. Or your father or mother. But for the most part that would be about it.

Usually we hear all sorts of other names about ourselves. Some might be positive, but others might be less so. We can easily get beat down with all sorts of names, in the world around us; where we work, where we go to school, sometimes in our church, and even by those who swear they love us.

But those names are not who Paul says we are. Paul insists that we are God’s chosen. We are holy. We are beloved.

Imagine if we not only heard that about ourselves but if we looked at and thought about others in those ways. What if we knew ourselves to be chosen, holy, and beloved? What if we looked at others around us and also saw them as chosen, holy, and beloved?

What might be different?

Paul puts it this way. He says that since these things are true, we are to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Not only that we are to bear with one another. And if we have a complaint against another, we are to forgive them.

We may be God’s chosen. We may be holy. We may be beloved. But, that doesn’t mean we are perfect. We may have a lot of natural talent. We may bring a number of things to the table. But as it stands, we can’t quite put it all together into a complete game. We still have a lot of work to do.

So, Paul calls us to pick up the basketball and start practising. He encourages us to put on our uniform, to get out on the court, and to start putting in the hours, the energy, and the effort necessary to make us into real players.

In this passage, Paul draws up quite a list of fourteen different qualities and behaviours that Christians cannot have enough of. When we think about that list of virtues our world seems to be in short supply of them.

In our own lives. In our own church: it’s easy for these sorts of things to go out the window, especially when we find ourselves overwhelmed by the pressures of life, or when we lose touch of our relationship with God, or when we have been battered by circumstances that make us feel mentally, emotionally and spiritually spent.

Which gives us all the more reason for us to work on our virtues each and every day, to exercise them and to put them into practice. Because, as the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.

Growing in virtue can be very much like training to be a pro-athlete. Both require repetition and hard work. Both are more easily learned by following examples. Books and classes and sermons can be helpful, but virtue is best learned by practice.

After all, if you want to learn to shoot hoops, actually playing basketball beats reading a book about it any day of the week. In the same way, if you want to grow in the art of forgiveness or anyone of the other habits and ways of being Paul mentions then you have to learn them by putting them into practice.

Some of you may recall a story from a few years back that happened near Nickle Mines, Pennsylvania.

Charles Carl Roberts IV carried his guns and his rage into an Amish schoolhouse. Five schoolgirls died that day, and five others were seriously wounded. A tranquil little schoolhouse in an Old Order Amish community, in just one short afternoon, became a house of horror.

What happened afterwards, though, was even more unimaginable than the atrocious act perpetrated that day. The world stood by stunned, in amazement, as act after act by the Amish Community demonstrated their commitment to Christ’s call to forgive.

• Members of the Amish community stood before TV news cameras and proclaimed to the world, “We have to forgive. We have to forgive him in order for God to forgive us.”

• Over the days that followed many members of the community went to visit the parents, the wife, and the children of the gunman. They held them in their arms, they prayed with them, and they said to them, “We forgive you.”

• Not only that, when the family gathered to bury the gunman, over half of those at the cemetery were from the Amish Community. They thought it was simply the right thing to do.

Story after story unfolded over the days and months after that incident. Each one visibly demonstrating the Amish community’s commitment to extend grace and forgiveness to the family of the gunman.

Many asked, how were they able to do it?

They were able to do it because in their daily practice the community not only taught the art of forgiveness but they worked at it in their everyday life together. Quite simply, it is impossible to be Amish and to live in such a tight knit and close community and not hear Christ’s call to forgiveness and not be encouraged to put it into action.

The lesson the Amish show us is that if you learn to forgive in the little things in life, if you practice forgiveness each and every day, then when the opportunity comes where you have to exercise forgiveness in some sort of big, overwhelming, and impossible way, then through God’s power you’ll be much more able to do it.

Why? Because you’ll already be a pro at it.

The other lesson the Amish show us is that virtuous living is a team sport. It is not an individual activity. The best way to put virtues into practice is through a community. It is in relationship with people who will hold you accountable and who will support you as you seek to live as Christ calls you too.

Such a community requires each one of us to care enough to take the time and energy to encourage one another to exhibit compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, love, harmony, peace, unity, thankfulness, wisdom and praise.

And not only that, it requires people to call us on the carpet when we fail. To say to us, “Hey buddy, you really blew it there. Christ calls you to seek reconciliation. Christ calls you to forgive them. How can I help you do that?”

That’s the sort of community of faith Paul calls the church to be.

Paul calls us to be a place where we remember that the virtues Paul mentions are not so much taught as they are “caught.” To be a community which contains both teachers and learners, supporting and encouraging one another to strive for excellence. Helping one another practice what we preach.

The truth is we have all that it takes. After all we are God’s chosen ones. We are holy. And we are beloved. All we really need to do right now is pick up our ball, get our uniform on, and start practicing.

Maybe we’ll never be a Big Aristotle like Shaquille O’Neil. And maybe we shouldn’t strive to be Big Jesus either. But it sure wouldn’t hurt for us to shoot for being a Little Jesus.

In that way our lives sure would bring glory, honor, and praise to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now and for ever. Amen.