Is Anyone Really Included?

Colossians 4:5-6  Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer every one.


In a supposedly inclusive society it is probably politically incorrect to say act wisely toward outsiders. Who do we think we are to say that someone is an outsider, outside of what? You see if you take the modern view than it must be assumed that no difference exists between one set of belief and another. All beliefs are just fine, whatever floats your boat or fills your sails will be just great. Therefor this outsider mentality is viewed as judgmental and wrong, but what if it does make a difference what you believe? What if all beliefs are not equal or not ok?


Clearly some children think it is good to put metal objects into electrical plugs, and need to be taught that it is hazardous. I'm glad somewhere along the way I learned that swinging a golf club in a lightning storm is dangerous at best if not lethal. Somethings are outside the realm of wisdom. Should we call them wrong?


Are harmful things only physical? Could ideas by harmful, and if they are should we just ignore that they are harmful as some people choose them? We as a society have behaviors that we judge as illegal. Some of those aren't even agreed upon by everyone. Other behaviors are even less uniformly accepted, but does that mean that all positions in the dialogue not be acceptable if the individuals conduct themselves wisely while  always being gracious? It seems to me that we have too much judgement of others today in most every arena of our lives.

Open Please!!!

Colossians 4:2-4  Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving; and pray for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, as I ought to speak.


What do you pray about? I have a long list of people who I think need grace for one thing or another. I pray for my life and even my life in Christ. I pray giving God thanks and praise for who he is and what he has done. Paul wants prayer for a door to open for him to spread the word, to declare the mystery of Christ. I try to look for opportunities and possibilities that God provides, but I don't pray for God to open doors for the word and mystery of Christ. I think more often the opportunities and possibilities are situations to love and serve, not openings for the word. It might seem peculiar for a preacher to say they doubt that they pray to open a door for the word, but I think it  means an open door for folks who would never be in church to hear the preacher. 


I remember my young friend John Bernard who would sit with his bible and it was like magnetism as people would be mysteriously drawn to hear the word. I marveled at how that happened, but perhaps it was his prayer that God would open the door for the word. What makes an evangelist? Is it God alone or our desire to have God open the door for the word? Do we really want to share the gospel? Let's pray for doors to open.

Obedience

Colossians 3:16-17  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.


One purpose of our life in Christ is to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. I've thought about that often and even for myself I would say that it is easier to let the love of Christ dwell in me richly than to let the word of Christ dwell in me richly. I think we often even mistake the two or substitute the two. The rector on Sunday did a stewardship sermon. He said he hated to talk about stewardship because people turn off immediately that internal button for listening because they think it's all about the money. He then said it's not about the money, it's about obedience. Obedience for me comes from letting the word of Christ dwell in me richly. That can be much more uncomfortable than the love of Christ. With the word of Christ dwelling in us richly we can teach and admonish one another in all wisdom. The love of Christ dwelling in us richly might give us all a warm fuzzy feeling to share, but is not much to teach and admonish about. I love to focus on the love of Christ, his love for me and my love for him. It changed my life permanently for good, this love of Christ which dwells in me richly. The problem is it is only a starting place for a life of obedience. Having experienced the love of Christ we are called to discipleship which requires that the word of Christ dwell in us richly.


When I get too comfortable in the love of Christ I read again and again just the sermon on the mount. Perhaps Matthew's gospel chapters five to eight. My comfort becomes uncomfortable as I let those word dwell richly, especially as I read them as my call to obedience.

Image Of Christ

Colossians 3:12-15  Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on 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.

After having proclaiming that we need to put aside anger and hatred, maliciousness and foul talk, Paul highlights the positive character of a Spirit led Christian. We are to be different in the world. We should shine as examples of Christ like character. This is not what I see from the world in which I live today, both those in the world and those in the church. I see a polarized society where division is the name of the game and any insult, malicious or worse is seen as fair play. We call ourselves a Christian country and yet the inability for people to show any tolerance for anyone who thinks differently than they do seems almost impossible to find. 

We are called into the one body and yet it feels like many would refuse to participate if it means being included with the people on the supposed other side. I'm not saying that God doesn't care about right and wrong, but I know he cares more about our character which requires us to love our enemies. I don't talk to people very often with the peace of Christ ruling in their hearts.

What is more important that we win in some political battle in our country, or some social agenda between the 99% and the 1% , or that we show the image of the risen Christ to a broken world.

God's Order

Colossians 3:1-4  If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.


Seek the things that are above. Life is tough for us on this earth. We are busy with work and family, and even church. Life gets filled up with one activity and then another. Our attention goes from task to task or relationship to task to relationship. Time gets used up and our focus is here in earthly matters. I don't know how many people tell how stressed out their life is, or how tired they are. Parents who go from soccer to lax with kids in tow and running through McDonalds for supper on the way from one to the other. It is so easy to be consumed by earthly concerns. 


St. Paul says seek the things that are above which sounds similar to Jesus saying seek first the kingdom of God. It is challenging to discipline ourselves in a busy life, but challenging does not mean we can forget about it. Remember that disciple and discipline seem something alike. According to Paul it is linked to where you set your mind. It amazes me that when I set my mind on Jesus and seek his will, life slows down and makes sense. I find the strength to say yes to what I should approve and no to the things that would over do it, or draw me from God. 


I lacked discipline in my life when I was younger, and found it amazing that I found self discipline during the busiest time in my life. God was at the center of my life and I was without stress and wasn't tired even when life should have overwhelmed me. With my mind centered on things above the earthly priorities fell into line smoothly and easily. God's order works.

Sin No More

Colossians 2:20  If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?


The world in the images of St. Paul so often represent all that draws us from obedience to God. The world and the flesh fight against the will of God. For Paul if we have died with Christ to the elemental spirits, then we have been given the power of the Holy Spirit. With such power Paul writes in a number of places that we need not sin any longer. We have all sinned and fall short of the grace of God, but with the Holy Spirit that need not remain so. Jesus spoke in the positive about what living in Him would mean, love your enemies, turn the other cheek, while Paul taught in the negative, all the worldly choices that are against God's will. He made many of those choices until he accepted the power of the Holy Spirit.


I don't know about you, but I have found that in times of temptation, if I turn to the Holy Spirit for help I can resist, but at other times I don't think to turn to God. Even some of my most troubling weaknesses have surrendered to the power of God. I depend on God for awhile and I live in peace and harmony with God and man, but soon I get distracted from my spiritual center and fall prey to the pressures and temptations of the world. 


So why do we live as if we still belong to the world? I was talking with some folks at bible study last week about the serious deception that has infiltrated the church. It sits in our subconscious because it has been so ingrained. It becomes the normal response to our behavior, and what is it you may ask? I think it is the prevailing notion that sin is unavoidable, as if we have no availability to the power of God.


Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery remember, "Go and sin no more!" 

No More Demands

Colossians 2:13-15  And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.


Jesus cancelled the bond against us with their legal demands by nailing them to the cross. We are forgiven our trespasses because of the unique one of a kind, once for all time free will sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. I say unique because that has been the witness of the church from the first Easter until today. The claim that this is true was registered by prophets for centuries before Christ and the fact that Jesus came to forgive sins came from Jesus mouth itself. St Paul writes that without the unique life death and resurrection of Jesus, we are still trapped in our sins.


God worked out for me what I was never able to accomplish for myself. I had been on the edge of accepting the blessings God had prepared for me for a number of years but was held back by my own inability to just accept that God would do this for me. Forgive me, and all I had to do was accept his forgiveness through faith in Jesus. God loved me unconditionally, how could this be true? I couldn't love anyone unconditionally. I was a score keeper, who thought I could keep an accurate ledger of who owed who what in my life. What is this unconditional stuff anyway? Don't we have to be worthy? 


I've come a long way since I accepted his love and forgiveness. I have learned something about unconditional love and have even been able to give it on a number of occasions with a number of people. The forgiven learn to forgive, the loved learn to love, the Holy Spirit keeps giving and giving as the Prince of Peace gives deep peace, the God of providence provides, it is an unending powerful relationship that changes us for ourselves but even more for those around us. 

Philosophy

Colossians 2:8-10  See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fulness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.


Philosophy is not the revelation of God but rather the perceived development of human understanding through human input alone. Most of us who have completed a college degree were required to take some philosophy. Some of it even sounds good as it is spelled out by the great minds that conceived it, but the odd thing is that is true even for philosophies that disagree with each other. They seem to build upon each other and move toward systems that rest on the notion that humanity is good and will continue to perfect and improve societies, but any reasonable assessment of world history or modern history mocks that theory with man's inhumanity to man. 


Paul is saying that all these human creations are either wrong or inadequate if that are not in agreement with the revelation we have from Jesus. In him the fullness of deity dwells and reveals to us the truth from God. He is the head of all rule and authority, not philosophers or sociologists or politicians, or economists. I know for me when I build my life and take my guidance from the life and teaching of Jesus, having received his spirit to live in me ad correct me, then my life really works. When I follow my superior intelligence, or my human needs I risk leaving the greatest blessing of my life. Living in harmony with God blesses me with an internal spiritual reality that surpasses all earthly pleasures. Save me from philosophy and the elemental spirits of the universe. I'll live in Christ thank you. 

Hope Of Glory

Colossians 1:27-29  To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ. For this I toil, striving with all the energy which he mightily inspires within me.

"Christ in you, the hope of glory" The basic truth here is that where Christ is present, his glory is present. Glory is not an heavenly thought or even an articulated praise, it is rather the shining of the Christ who is in us. Glory is what is described happening to Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. Jesus said that He was the light of the world but he also that we are the light of the world. Again if we grow more and more into the image of the Christ who is in us, we will more and more show the glory that belongs to him. Iy is very important to constantly remind ourselves that the glory is not ours and that we are not source and are not special to deserve this privilege, it comes to all who know "the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory".

Paul in writing this is pointing to the glory in and upon those who have heard and believed in Christ because he was "striving with all the energy which he mightily inspires within me." He travelled as an itinerate worker picking up work from place to place but never seeing that as his life. His life was the work inspired by God to help people become mature in Christ. He loved to see the light go on. It is kind of like the cartoons when someone gets the idea and the lightbulb appears above their head. With a Christian the light bulb glows from the inside as they carry the source, Christ, within. The stained glass saints are pictured with their halos around their heads, which is the representation of the glory of these mature Christians who have grown into the image of Christ.

Our mission is the same as Paul, to help turn the lights on, to help spread the glory of Christ in all the world. I have been so blessed to live the life God has given me. I have seen so many lights go on as Christ took root inside human souls. I love to sing praises to my God and to sit in prayer and thank him and praise him for who is, but I glorify God when I let the light of Christ shine through me, and as I hope for more and more glory to shine through me because of the Christ in me. Spread the light, that's how we glorify God. 

On This Rock

Colossians 1:21-23  And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.


Paul writes "provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast", and yet many think the ticket to heaven is found in a moment of confession proclaiming faith in Jesus, and is then permanent. I am not saying that a decision to believe in the true identity of Jesus has no importance. Of course we need to come to a saving faith in Jesus, a place where we acknowledge our need for his saving grace, a place where we place our sinful condition before his mercy seat. This saving faith however is only a great start on our journey with the God who never takes away our free will, and who will never prevent us from turning aside. Paul wouldn't use that word provided if we didn't have the possibility of discontinuing the stable faith. Jesus is quoted in Matthew's gospel saying, “Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.” The problem for some is they think a decision is enough when jesus himself says that after the hear and other sensory pieces we need to act on what we believe. Faith remember in the lives of these biblical people was an active word, a sort of noun/verb. If eternity could only be finished with a few words like Staples button Christianity (that was easy), but I'm afraid it is not that easy. It is simple but not that easy, it is free but it is not cheap for Jesus or for us. Paul says he presses on for the prize and I hope so do I. The race is longer than a marathon, but we're training for eternity

How Deep, How Broad, How High

Colossians 1:15-20  He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.


In almost all churches in all major denominations the service includes reciting a creed that states in clear language a set of beliefs about the identity of God. Those creeds were usually agreed upon by long detailed discussions about each word by people centuries ago who had studied in great detail the scriptural accounts and the historical records of those who lived around Jesus. The passage from Colossians is an early creed in the form of a well known hymn of Paul's time.. It is a clearly known formulation of the widely held view in the extremely early church about the identity of Jesus. I could almost see us singing the words and phrases of that hymn.


I have at times with various creeds taken the time to meditate on each phrase to deepen my appreciation. In prayer saying, "He is the image of the invisible God" followed by some silence and repeat the phrase again, and then silence and the again. Praying to let the picture the words creates fill my heart. Each day moving forward through the creed or scripture hymn I meditate on the words and build the image. Asking God to show me what those words mean to me. What does it mean that, "He is the head of the body, the church" So much in so little space and yet he is infinitely more. So much said and yet just reading the words doesn't do justice to the reality it represents.  

Whatcha Got

Colossians 1:11-14  May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.


Endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father leaps off the page at me. The Christian reality as lived by Paul seems so foreign at times as I look at the modern world. Earlier in my life I experienced hardships that required endurance. Life was hard and life looking up seemed a long way away. Patience was needed and sometimes even found in the midst of those problems. I'm an internal person and have said so often to others that it is mind over matter. I could often calm the insides for a time even when life demanded endurance. I found however and observe frequently that joy only existed in moments separated from the trials of life. Paul says they exist together and I did not get that, and I most certainly was not thanking the Father in those situations that required patient endurance.


The most important part that I missed was we are qualified to have those patient endurance with joy. It's like young people today who get pre-qualified for a mortgage before they start house hunting. The Father has pre-approved of us for our entire life and waits with patient joyful endurance for us to accept his love. Our ability to have the power and strength to have patient endurance wit joy is among the gifts we have been approved to receive. 


I cannot claim to experience this reality at all times, but I mean it when I say that God gives us the ability to be unshakable in the face of trials and difficulties. We need not be tossed about at the whim of the universe, the God of the universe is on our side. I discovered that's what I got!!

Love To Hear It!!!

Colossians 1:3-5  We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.


Often when I read scripture I find passages like this one. How I would want Paul to write about me and my belief like this section of Colossians. I know that I have people who pray for me all the time, faithful people who care about me and my faith life. It is always moving to me when in my quiet prayer time I think of those I pray for who also pray for me. 


I wish I had the chance to be in this community in Colossus to see first hand what kind of life yielded Paul's description in this passage. I've spent many years now trying to be a creative part of a community with faith in Christ and love for all the saints. I've described that community as being so attractive that people would be drawn to it like iron filings to a magnet. Those who are not yet included in the company of the saints would find the unconditional love they need to fill the void that exists in all of us without God. 


Wishful thinking is a waste of time. The question is can I really live a life like those in this letter. If not possible, if it is only wishful thinking, than it is indeed a waste of time and a foolish goal. If it is possible than I need to deepen my faith and increase my love for all the saints. I know Paul isn't writing any new letters, and even if I managed to deserve such praise, waiting for or searching for such praise would mean it wasn't really unconditional love after all. How deep and pure that love of Christ must be. I still do seek such faith, even as I recognize I don't have it yet.


I often wonder if any of this is really possible in modern America, where it seems like everybody just chases having more and more. If however I look at Rome and Colossus, they seem for their historical time to fill a similar pattern. If Paul could write to them, the same must be possible for us.