Text: Colossians 1:15-28
The town of Colossi lay in south western Turkey on the Lycus river. In its heyday it was an important trading center and it controlled passage through the Cadmus mountains. Yet when Paul wrote to Colossi, the city had lost its glory. Laodicia and Hieropolis, its neighbors, had surpassed her in importance. To make matters worse, Colossi’s name dissappeared from historical records after 60 AD when an earthquake stroke the city.
Colossi may have been an unimportant city, but Paul considered the small church there important enough to write them a letter. Why? Apparently there was a false teaching making its way through this small body of Christians. Scholars disagree over what to call this false teaching for the letter itself never spells it out. Some call it Gnosticism because of some basic similarities. Others, stating that Gnosticism did not occur until the mid second century AD, hold that this false teaching was a form of Judaism that had been swayed by Greek or Hellenistic beliefs. But, what to call the false teaching is not half as important as the consequences this false teaching had for early Christianity.
The challenge this false teaching brought against the gospel was the very elemental question “So what?” So what about this Jesus who died and was resurrected? Did he really free us from the spiritual powers that surround us and control our lives? Does faith in Christ really give us access to God? The false teachers answered these questions by saying not quite, that Jesus is only a halfway solution to controlling the spirits and for gaining access to God. These false teachers believed that faith in Jesus was only a guarantee to eternal security and that one must practice self-denial, observe specialholy days and times, and worship the celestial powers as means of ensuring control over the spirit world and of gaining access to God.
Even today the question “so what” is still around. For reasons of our own personal faith we must know for ourselves if Jesus death and resurrection is relevant. We have all at one time or another asked what does knowing that my soul is eternally safe have to do with whether my children are safe at school and whether my job will still be here tomorrow. Even today we wonder how we can control the spirits around us. Sometimes Monday seems to be everyday of the week. Everything has gone so wrong that we could vehemently swear to the existence of evil powers in the universe who constantly go out of their way just to get us and we long for a way to control them. Some days we really are willing to try Shirley Mclean’s new diet that’s guaranteed to give us a less complicated place in life the next time around. Even today we wonder if God is really out there. If we can really know God. We will see that Paul’s answers to the so what’s being asked in Colossi are just as relevant to our so what’s today.
These false teachers in Colossi were influenced by an ancient belief that spirit is good and matter is evil. It follows that God who is spirit cannot touch evil matter and therefore could not be the creator of this world. So these false teachers taught that God put forth a series of emanations that went further and further away from God like ripples in a pond. These emanations were spiritual beings and as they became more distant from God they grew more and more ignorant of and even hostile to God. It was one of these hostile emanations who created the material world in which we live.
This false teaching puts forth several challenges to basic Christian belief. This teaching claims that God did not create the world in which we live, that God can not be involved in this world, and that all of creation is evil and hostile to God. To these challenges Paul responds that Jesus is the image of the invisible God and in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, that in and by him all things were created and hold together, and that through Jesus God is reconciling to himself all things.
Jesus is the image of God. Jesus is like a photograph of God. When we look at Jesus in him we see the nature of God. The blood of Christ’s cross shows us the extent to which the Triune God of grace was willing to go to reconcile us to himself. We see that God is faithful and long-suffering not an evil emanation. Paul also says that in Jesus the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Jesus was not only a photograph of God. Jesus was God. By saying that Jesus is the fullness of God, Paul is doing away with all those emanations and proving that God is involved in this world to the extent of becoming physical matter.
Furthermore, Jesus is the very power in or by which the Trinity created this world and holds it together. With these words Paul is boldly stating that God created this world and is intimately involved with it, sustaining it. If Jesus shows us the nature of the true God then the God who created this world is good and not evil and that this world is also good, not evil. Everything that brings order into this world -- all thrones, dominions, rulers and powers -- these all have their place in the fullness of God and they are part of the Trinity's involvement in this world.
Paul was not naive. He could see that all in this world was not good. Paul knew that accidents and disasters happened as if some evil god were whimsically playing with us. Paul could see there were some very cruel people who did heinous things. Paul himself had suffered much for the sake of Christ and the church. Paul was aware bad things happen to good people. And this creates a problem, the question, if God is so good and is involved in this world why does this world appear so evil? This is the question that all belief system’s must answer and those false teachers in Colossi had come up with a good one.
Paul responds that in Jesus Christ God the Trinity is pleased to reconcile all things to himself. Reconciliation is the third aspect of the Trinity's involvement in this world. The Triune God of grace has created this world and sustains it. When this good creation appears evil, our God who suffers with us is involved in its reconciliation. We ourselves have been ignorant of and hostile to God in the evil works that we have done. If the Trinity can change us and continually work in us to shape and form us into the likeness of Christ, then the Trinity can change all of creation.
Thus far, Paul has made some very basic theological statements about God, about Jesus, and about the world. These statements offered a different and hopeful world view to the Christians in Colossi. In Jesus they saw that God is good. This world is good. They could trust the fundamental elements of life as they knew it. So, now we must answer that fundamental question, “So what?” Paul has given us a good basic belief system, but we must know for ourselves if Jesus death and resurrection is relevant.
This Jesus through whom the Trinity creates, sustains and reconciles is not so far removed from us that we can not see him. Jesus is the head of the body, the church. We, the church, are Christ’s body and within us lies a mystery. Christ Jesus is within us. In each one of us the Trinity is at work first creating, sustaining and reconciling each one of us to himself and then we are to be a part of the Trinity's works of creating, sustaining and reconciling in the whole world. Through us people see the hope of glory.
Once we did not know God. Once we were hostile to God and worked against God. Now we want to work for and with God. We will do this provided that we continue securely established and steadfast in faith without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that we heard. Hope is the elemental core of our faith. Jesus’ resurrection gives us hope not only for our eternal situation but more so to live faithfully now for him for we know that our works in him are not in vain. Our hope comes from seeing in our own hearts that the Trinity is creating, sustaining, and reconciling us. God the Holy Spirit is at work in us changing each of us to be more like Christ Jesus and our fellowship here to reflect more clearly the image of the communion of love that the Triune God of grace is. We are the “so what” of Christian faith. The way we treat one another is what makes the gospel relevant. The Christian faith is only as relevant as we have faith to believe in and participate in the creating, sustaining and reconciling work of God in Christ. The relevance of the Christian message lies with us in the task of reconciliation. Amen.
