Living in the present with the end in sight . . .

      I have had a number of conversations with Adventers over the last couple weeks about my preaching.  Nearly all of it has been constructive.  Most who have engaged me, though, have complained that they wish I preached more on the Psalms and on the Epistles.  So, in a shock to everyone, I will preach on the letter to the church at Colossae today.  Now, before I get started, if you feel ripped off, you can go back either 3 years or 6 years on my blog.  One of those on Ecclesiastes was pretty good.  I compared human efforts to puffs in the wind–vanity—to God’s breath! I did not remember I had preached it, and the imagery was far too poetic to be mine, so it must have been a Holy Spirit thing!

     The letters or epistles are valued by the Church because they teach us a few things.  First of all, they teach us that little in the Church really changes.  If Lambeth has taught us anything this week, it has reminded us that people in the Church and in our churches like to fight.  And no matter the dispute, and make no mistake, few disputes are new, both sides are great at pontificating the mind of God and denigrating the other in ad hominem attacks or, in today’s world, offering snarky tweets and sound bites.  Second, these disputes should teach us about the pervasive nature of sin even within the Church, which, as Paul reminds us again today, is made up of individuals in the process of being sanctified by God.  If we, those who claim Jesus as Lord, can be so easily trapped by our own sins, what of the rest of the world?  Our understanding of sin ought to impel us with urgency and empathy to share the Gospel with those in the world outside these walls, even as we examine our own motivations and efforts.  Finally, and perhaps most comfortingly, we should be reminded by the letters that there is nothing new under the sun.  God is not surprised by our own or the propensity of others to choose our own ways over His.  And still He loves us!

     One of the reasons I have likely not preached much on the letter to the church in Colossae is the fact that we Adventers likely do not relate to it well.  It was a agricultural-centered town on the Lycus river.  About 100 miles to the west was the city of Ephesus, about 10 miles to the northwest was Laodicea, and about 10 miles to the west on the opposite side of the river was the city of Hierapolis.  Some of you have likely figured out from geography, and some of your travels, that we are talking about what is present-day Turkey.  To be fair, if you did not know anything about Colossae before this introduction, you are not alone.  Few people know much of anything about it.  Its only seeming importance to us in the Church is that Paul wrote them a letter in response to some issues their leadership raised with him.  But at least we hold it in some importance because of that.  The ANE seemed to value it less.  Nothing exists about the town of Colossae after the great earthquake of 61-62AD.  The other cities were rebuilt, and we have extent material discussing the reconstructions, but Colossae seems to have been wiped off the face of the earth by that one quake.

     Such knowledge is not all bad, though.  Academics, as you know, love to argue.  One of those great arguments in the Church is the authorship of the Pauline letters.  Our academics love to fight about whether Paul really wrote a letter or the order in which he wrote them.  I suppose an academic would remind me at this point that Paul mostly dictated the letters to his manumissives, Luke and Timothy and maybe others, who did the writing.  I would, of course, goon them and remind them I have seen the wall in Paul’s prison with my own eyes!  Some of the contents of the letters in our Bibles are on the walls of his prison.  All that is to say, we can be fairly certain, as a result of the earthquake, that Paul’s letter was written before then.  As was the case in the early Church, it was copied and shared with churches in Ephesus, Laodicea, Hierapolis, and eventually us, as it addressed issues facing the wider Church and other churches.

     If you have read the letter, you will note that Paul does not seem to be too hard on the Colossians.  Paul has a reputation for being a hard-you-know-what in our church because he holds churches and individuals accountable to what God has taught, instructed, or revealed to them in his letters.  And woe be to the man or woman who ignores God’s teaching or tries to subvert God’s teaching!  It sounds hard to our ears because we, like the Colossians, have been seduced by philosophies and the teachings of the world.  We forget that we, with teenager-like attitudes to our Parent, do not really trust our Father knows best.

     Paul’s reputed hardness, though, is easy to understand.  As we have been talking in our Acts Bible Study on Tuesday nights, Paul literally met the risen Jesus.  Other witnesses heard thunder or saw a bright light, so something happened.  Still other witnesses saw the scales fall from his eyes.  And still other witnesses saw the 180 degree change in his behavior.  Just like that, Paul went from being the chief persecutor of the Church, and Jesus, to being a zealot for the Messiah.  I think the other part of his perceived hardness is the fact that he was a great rabbinic student, likely Gamaliel’s best student.  He learned and taught by dialectic.  Y’all have heard of my adviser and professor, more thanks to Nathan and Robbie, but if I had a dollar for every time he asked me “Mr. McVey, how can you be so stupid and still remember to breathe?” . . . we’d certainly have a balanced budget!  Y’all laugh, and rightly so.  To be fair to Dr. Arieti, I was not always engaging my brain to the very best of my abilities.  Nor were my classmates.  We were 18-22yo boys.  It was his job to turn us into good men and good citizens, and it was his passion to cause us to discover truth.  I did not appreciate his job or passion at 8:30am at that age the way I should have, especially after great fraternity parties on Thursday night, but with some age and experience comes wisdom.  And though such creative . . . . encouragement is the source of hysterical tales among his former students today, the college had a list of such statements he was not supposed to make because they were too harsh to young ears. 

     Much like my former professor and adviser, Paul was seeking truth.  In our Prayers of the People we would say Paul was seeking the Truth, with a capital “T.”  The central Truth for him, thanks to that meeting on the road to Damascus, was that Jesus had been raised from the dead.  Because of the Resurrection, and God’s other works, we now have a fuller understanding of God’s plan for salvation history.  Because of Jesus’ Resurrection, we can trust that God knows what He’s doing and that we are free to be who He created each one of us to be, in Christ!  For us, like Paul, it should be the Truth.

     Which brings us to the letter.  For those who want to see what the problems at the church in Colossae were, read chapter 2.  Academics point to verses 8 to the middle teens as giving us an idea of the questions asked of Paul.  Part of the purpose behind our reading today is to remind us of the same truths, in light of vain philosophies, skepticism, and sin.

     Notice, for example, Paul’s gentle reminder that we are not supposed to be fixed only on the eschaton, the end times.  Those of us who grew up in other denominations may understand the wider Church’s fascination with life after death.  I was raised in a tradition where we learned we will walk on gold streets, will live in mansions, will wear crowns with jewels, and will be esteemed for our works righteousness.  Make no mistake, I teach and preach that faith without works is dead, but I also preach and teach against valuing or devaluing, depending on the individual and their perception, of any work given by God.  I also remind us that, at the end, we will toss all our crowns at the feet of Jesus, recognizing all that was made possible through Him.  And in that way, we are reminded of the words of the Teacher in Ecclesiastes today.  Our works, in the grand scheme of salvation history, only have meaning if God gives them their meaning and purpose.  But I digress.

     We are not called to focus exclusively on the eschaton.  When we consider the eschaton, and all Jesus’ warnings about it coming like a thief in the night, we should be impelled to work harder and faster for His glory.  We should want no one to be outside His saving embrace, were He to return this second.  But, because of sin and human nature, we think we have all the time and that God really doesn’t care THAT much about our sins.  I mean, it’s not like He thought only He could redeem our sins . . . oh, wait.  Yes, ironic laughter is appropriate.  Paul fights that complacency and reminds his readers, including us in Nashville 2000 years later, of the truth of baptism.  Because we have been baptized into Christ’s death, we are promised a share in the Resurrection.  But notice Paul’s language.  That promise has present day consequences.  Paul instructs us to seek the things above, where Christ is, and to set our minds on the things above.  Specifically, since Christ sits at the right hand of God, we are to seek His things and set our minds on His things.  Spoken more bluntly, that eschatological promise and understanding should govern our life today!

     Think of those Christians who get press today.  They do not represent Christianity in our minds, but for many in our country they do.  How many focus on the belief that they will live in heaven, but do not change the way they live on earth?  Nearly every denomination says the Lord’s Prayer; many Christians, however, live as if there is no call for things on earth to resemble those things in heaven.  My favorite example this week was the pastor in California, I think it was, who was robbed at gunpoint during the service of about a half-million dollars’ worth of jewelry.  I see some nods, but I see more confusion.  A pastor in the wider Church was robbed at gunpoint last Sunday.  The robber took all the pastor’s jewelry.  It was a good haul.  My first thought was, of course, why does my church not pay me enough to buy and wear that much jewelry?  Y’all are laughing, but only because you know me, right?  You know I am a sinner in need of God’s redemption just like you.  Do not get me wrong, I do have the same financial worries as many of you.  Well, that is not completely true.  Most Adventers are far better off financially and no one else is raising seven kids.  But you get the idea.  Of course, as the story further unfolded this week, members of the congregation began asking questions, questions for which they did not like the answers.  Soon, allegations of predatory stewardship and misuse of discretionary funds were alleged.  Was the Church or the world scandalized by the accusations?  Of course not.  Most were like us and nodded “of course.”

     Paul reminds us, and all those who claim Christ as Lord, that we are to be concerned about the things with which our Lord is concerned because of our baptism.  The sins of fornication, greed, pride, slander, evil desire, and name your favorite were literally crucified with Christ at our own baptism.  We have asked God to put them to death in us!  We are promised they will one day be killed in us.  But, like Paul, we know we will also suffer those thorns in our side.  How are we reminded to respond to our thorns?  By repenting again, and again, and again.  Over time, we sometimes notice that our sins change.  The Church calls that sanctification; we think of it as God’s grace.  But it really is a pattern of living in the present.  When we are seeking God’s things on a daily basis, we cannot help but draw near Him and He near us.  We become focused on doing those things He would have us do, no matter the perceived futility or our own frailty.

     Each of us gathered here today knows this on a fundamental level.  Will we ever rid our country of hunger?  Our state?  Our county?  Then why do we do it, if we know we can’t rid ourselves of that evil?  Because we know the One who can and will!  And because of our faithful service, how much more has He blessed us?  We have literally given away a couple hundred thousand tons of food we did not purchase since the pandemic began.  Tons, as in each ton is 2000 pounds.  Each one of us has had the privilege of living through an Exodus experience.  Because of God’s blessing, we have a reputation for generosity in the face of hunger.  Because of God’s blessing, we have a reputation for being the kind of Christians that non-Christians lament should be the kind of Christians all are.  Are we doing anything crazy or creative?  Not really.  We feed hungry people, like Jesus did.  Nancy might be a bit more forceful about us taking carrots than Jesus would be . . . lol  We remind them of God’s love for each one of them.  And we lament and repent that so many “Christians” live life focused on those things they supposedly put to death when they, themselves, were baptized.  Most of all, we trust that God’s grace will reach fattened or hardened hearts as a result of our obedience to His calling on our parish and our lives.

     Another reminder for us today is the reminder of both our sanctification and of our relationship one to another in Christ.  So often people like to think all identities are equal when reading these lists put forward by Paul.  In one sense, they are right.  God loves all humanity and woos every single human being who ever lived or will live.  God created all human beings in His image and has always taught His people that it was their job to reach those outside His covenant or outside that knowledge.  But what unites all those races and tribe and identifiers is the One in whose image we are stamped!  It is only when we are set on the mind of God and the things of God that we truly begin to show the image with which we are stamped.

     Those at Colossae seem to share the modern belief that the Resurrection is not THAT important, that those people were duped into believing it happened because they wished it or were too simple.  We hear such philosophies and attitudes repeated throughout the Church today, right?  The Apostles and disciples stole the body and created this myth.  The early Church suffered a kind of mass hysteria because they could not accept their Teacher had died.  We created the Bible.  We do not have to accept the creeds.  Such teachings make sense outside the Church, among non-believers.  But Paul reminds us all of the consequences of seeking those things that God desires, of setting our minds on His things.  The creeds remind us of the central Truth, that Jesus was raised from the dead, and that through believing in Him we will be redeemed, even from our own death!

     One of the chief complaints of non-Christians, but even among many Christians today is the seeming hiddenness of God, and especially Christ.  On one level, it is perfectly understandable.  Who would not want to meet Christ in person?  Heck, Paul is unique in that, of all the Apostles, only he was given the opportunity to meet Jesus after His Ascension!  Jesus, for His part, is unsurprised by that desire in us, right?  He reminds His Apostles and disciples that those who believe without seeing are truly blessed during His Resurrection appearances.  Heck, we vilify that desire in some way by naming Thomas the Doubter, as if he had a problem the other Apostles, disciples, and we did not have.  But both Jesus and Paul are unflinching in their reminders that we are called to follow God’s instructions and repent of our sins.  Period.  In some ways, such teaching sounds like a stern taskmaster.  But look at Paul’s teaching here on the consequence of setting and seeking God by virtue of our baptisms.  What happens?  We are being clothed with our new self, being renewed in our knowledge!  Put less formally, as we draw closer to God and those things He loves, we are becoming remade and renewed.  Better still, as we draw closer to God and those things He loves, we become incarnations with a little “i.”  We become the image of God, you might prefer the term “saint,” in the lives of those who desire to meet God.  Our identity, through God’s grace and our daily seeking and setting, becomes reflective of the Messiah, of the Incarnation.  Yes, by virtue of our baptism, by our daily seeking and setting, and by God’s grace, we become heralds of the Gospel, ambassadors of God, those who come in His Name!

     And this is, for our part as Anglicans, intentional, right?  When we gather for the Eucharist we always pray that God will use us for His purposes.  We pray that He will make us a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice; that He will sanctify us; that He will use us as He will to reach others in His Name.  We know, by virtue of experience and by our liturgies, that we cannot make anything of ourselves.

     Make no mistake, as cool as it may seem to be recognized as His in the eyes of others, especially the eyes of non-Christians, it is still a cross-bearing calling.  The world will treat His image as poorly as it treated Him.  But, we bear those crosses He has given us to bear, certain that the glory He has planned for each one of us in the end will surpass the esteem, the glory, anything that the world offers, and that His glory will be beyond all we can ask or imagine, and last for eternity!

 

In His Peace,
Brian†