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Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

The right mindset

In Colossians 3:2 Paul stresses the importance of having the right mindset as a disciple of Christ.

Context

  • When Chloe Kelly stepped up to take her penalty in the final of Euro 2025, she had one thing in mind, scoring what would be the winning goal. Just a few days previously her penalty had been saved in the semi-final. She refused to let the memory of that inhibit her and embraced the vision of victory. In Colossians 3 Paul exhorts his readers to leave behind (or put to death) all that has been wrong in the past and embrace all that has been gifted to them by the victory of Christ.

  • On July 25th (2025) the BBC screened the superb biopic Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody. The film tells the story of one of the greatest vocal talents the world has seen. It celebrates her meteoric rise but also tells with sensitivity the story of her tragic demise despite the loving care of those who urged her to ‘get rid of all such things’ (Colossians 3:8). Part of the tragedy of her story is a modern outworking of this week’s gospel parable as Whitney and some of those who exploited her wanted ever more of the things that ended up destroying her.

  • Paul’s exhortation to ‘Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth’ (Colossians 3:2) was famously criticised by Karl Marx as an example of how religion in his view was the ‘opiate of the people’. The theologian Alister McGrath  rejects that, saying ’I think [Marx] failed to grasp the all-important point that the Christian vision of heaven gives us both a template and a motivation to change this world. If heaven is a place where there is not more suffering, why should we not try to make earth more like heaven?’ (Alister McGrath, The Landscape of Faith, SPCK, p230).

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

  • In his book The Landscape of Faith Alister McGrath explores what he calls the ‘discipleship of the mind’. In Colossians 3:2 Paul stresses the importance of having the right mindset as a disciple of Christ, urging his readers (us) to set our minds on things that ‘are above’, and particularly to reject (put to death) things that damage human flourishing and godly living and to embrace a new humanity remade in the image of God. You might like to explore the important part our minds have to play in our discipleship and the difference a focus on things that ‘are above’ can bring.

  • Both this week’s gospel and this week’s epistle contain clear warnings from Jesus and Paul about the dangers of self-centred and, in particular, greedy lives. The things that we crave ever more of can end up destroying us. One does not have to be a celebrity like Whitney Houston for this to be true. Celebrity culture and an enormous and powerful adverting industry can exert huge pressure and temptations. How can we be wise to these forces and how can we help one another to resist the power of destructive temptations?

  • There is a risk that thinking about setting our minds on things that are above can become quite selfish, reducing faith to only being about me and my salvation (important as that is!). Tales have also often been told of those who have been so heavenly minded to be of no earthly use. How do we strike a healthy balance between rejoicing in our personal salvation, looking forward to the full joys of heaven and living out the petition in the Lord’s Prayer for the Kingdom to come on earth as well as in heaven?

Questions for discussion

  • You might not have scored the winning penalty in a cup final but when have you overcome the memory of a previous failure or disappointment? How might this have been an outworking of the victory of Christ?

  • By setting our minds on things that are above, do we risk becoming quite selfish – reducing faith to only being about 'me and my salvation'? Is this a risk that you recognise, perhaps in some presentations of doctrinal teaching? Is it something we need to repent of – or, in other words, have a change of mindset about?

  • Should we try to make earth more like heaven? What might this look like in our local community? What could it look like in Gaza? What we can we do to make earth more like heaven?

Andrew Roberts is a husband, father, Methodist Minister and the author of Holy Habits. He enjoys watching football and cricket and once appeared on national TV dressed as a giant sunflower.

 

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Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

Football has come home at last and it has been brought home in the teeth of the great Lionesses. What a tournament! What drama! They lost their first group game to France. They came from behind in the quarter and semi finals. Then in the final itself, versus the world champions Spain, after trailing 1-0 at half-time they came back again to win on penalties. The tension and the passion was visceral throughout. The celebrations were explosive and intense and the commentary was effusive: 'overcoming adversity, creating their own destiny, more history and a true legacy,' the Lionesses had done it.

Interestingly though, if we look beneath the surface, we find something striking: not all Lionesses celebrate victory in the same way. Whilst they all cheered, hugged and got covered in a serious amount of glitter, the teenage striker Michelle Agyemang stood out. As a Christian she celebrates in a distinctly different way. Yes she jumps around the trophy whooping with the rest and the best of them but as she does so she also points and looks upwards, sometimes even kneeling. She narrates what she is thinking in her Instagram posts by using Bible verses such as Philippians 4:13 - ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ As people give her glory, honouring her for her abilities and performance (including a tournament saving equaliser in the semi-final!), she gives glory to God.

In acting the way she does, Michelle Agyemang embodies the core meaning of our passage this week. Colossians 3:1 and 2b say: ‘Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above … not on earthly things.’ Like Stephen who, when martyred, looked up and saw through the pain to see the living Christ, so Agyemang, in the ecstasy of victory, does the same and in doing so shows us all the way to go.

 

Gareth Crispin is Tutor for Youth and Children's Ministry at Emmanuel Theological College.

 

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