God’s grace, peace and
mercy be with you. My sermon is entitled Three C’s of Colossians:
Church, Circumstances and Challenge. My focus is our Epistle (Colossians).
… Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when
they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now
that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we
listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply
as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
If you were to write a
letter to a church you’ve never visited—one facing confusion, cultural
pressure, and spiritual drift—what would you say? Paul’s letter to the
Colossians does just that. In its vision of Christ, of his body the church, and
of the mystery of God hidden for all ages, Colossians is truly majestic, and
certainly a worthy representative of Pauline heritage.[1] The city of Colossae was an important
commercial route in Turkey that connected Ephesus to Tarsus and Iconium, all
centers of early Christian activity. It was a textile center noted for purple
wool products but compared to other cities and towns in the region, Colossae
was one of the least important. Jewish families from Babylon had been forcibly
resettled there around 200 BC. Today, Colossae is a site for archeological
digs. For the pilgrim or casual observer, there is nothing to see.
The church was probably
founded by Epaphras, a native son of the city. He is mentioned in Paul’s letter
twice. We read in chapter one that the people learned the Gospel from Epaphras,
Paul’s dear fellow servant and a faithful minister of Christ. He told Paul of
the church members’ love in the Spirit. (Col 1:7-8) Paul
mentioned Epaphras again in closing his letter: He is always
wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God,
mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and
for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. (Col 4:12-13)
Under Epaphras, the
church in Colossae grew and bore fruit. When Paul wrote of faith, hope and love
in the opening verses and which he expanded upon later in the letter, he meant
this. Faith in Jesus is a condition for being presented holy and blameless before
Christ and was how believers were raised with Him. (Col
1:4, 23; 2:5, 7, 12) Love is the practice within the church that holds the body
together. (1:4, 8; 2:2; 3:14) Finally, hope is something outside the believer.
(1:5, 23, 27) Paul wrote of this hope produced by Christ’s death and
resurrection when he wrote these words to the Romans, “For in this
hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what
they already have?” (Rom 8:24) A better
translation is “How can anyone still hope for what he sees?”[2]
Paul realized that the Paschal
Mystery, Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, already saved the
Colossians, and indeed all believers in Christ as Lord. What happened on the
cross rescued Christians from evil (moral and otherwise). Yet, Paul realized
that its end is still something of the future. And the intercession of Christ
Jesus at the right hand of God is why Paul can write that Christians must work
out their salvation with fear and trembling. (Phil 2:12) God’s grace working in
us reminds us that we cannot have salvation without the grace of God.
Therefore, he reminds the Christians in Colossae and in every time and place
that we must always hope because we will all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ. (2 Cor 5:10; Rom 2:6-11)
We can never remove hope
from the church. Faith leads us to Christ. Love holds us together in Christ.
Hope motivates us to stay focused on what we cannot see, but believe is held
out for us in heaven, which is eternal life in our Triune God. But even a
church grounded in faith, hope, and love is not immune to confusion. That
brings us to the second ‘C’—Circumstances.
There is a second person
from Colossae who is named in Paul’s personal letter to Philemon. That person
is Philemon’s slave, Onesimus. He brings to mind the circumstances in the
Church at Colossae and the purpose of Paul’s Letter.
Paul did not establish
the church, nor did he visit it, but the purpose of his Letter was to bolster
the faith of the community and correct errors that Onesimus reported about the
church. When Paul wrote, “See to it that no one takes you captive
through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and
the elemental spiritual forces,” (Col 2:8) he was concerned about false
teaching. He further elaborated on the worship of angels and demands to observe
food rules and festivals, new moons and sabbaths, as well as ascetic practices.[3]
This teaching arose
within the believing community. Jewish and Greek elements were woven into
Christian teaching. It was a complex syncretism that incorporated features of
Judaism, paganism, Christianity, magic, astrology and mystery religions. Paul
referred to some initiation rite and expressed his concern not only for the
church in Colossae, but also Laodicea, which was the center of these mystery
cults.
Paul strongly stated
that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ, (Col 2:3) and
that no other elements of the universe hold power over Christians because they
have been delivered from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom
of God’s beloved Son. (Col 1:13) So, believers in Christ do not need to worry
about food or drink, for Christ through his death will present believers holy
and without blemish before God the Father.
Now, a number of people
have written with great certainty about the false teaching Paul addressed in
Colossians, but they are guessing. There is nothing wrong with guessing if all
are aware of how much guesswork is involved. What we do know is that Paul’s
opponents combined belief in Christ with Jewish and pagan ideas to shape a
hierarchical system of heavenly beings in which Christ was subordinate to
angelic powers to whom worship was due.[4] As Paul wrote, all things are mere
shadows of what is to come, but only in Christ can we find reality.
So, what is the
Challenge of Colossians for Christians today? Writing from a prison cell, Paul
understood what was happening in his world. If we could place Paul in our world
today, he would certainly address the same ethical and moral issues the Church
has addressed recently – abortion, euthanasia, alternate lifestyles, marriages
and family life, poverty, disease and evangelization. As I pondered this
passage, I began to realize what else he might say.
To put this in context,
let me go back to an email I received and my granddaughter’s visit. A while ago,
I was reading an email from Jordan Peterson, the Canadian clinical
psychologist. All his messages begin with “Hello” and end with a discount on
whatever it is he is selling. This email dealt with a question he is often
asked, “What is the meaning of life?” Peterson says the path to meaning is
through responsibility. For us, that responsibility is the call to
sainthood—not canonization, but daily discipleship.
Do I dedicate my life to
following Christ and His teachings? Am I a member of the Church, the
congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught, and the
Sacraments are rightly administered?[5] Isn’t that the highest possible goal for
each of us? Isn’t that your goal?
Pursuing that goal looks differently for each
of us. Life often dictates how we pursue sainthood because of age, occupation,
health, wealth or family, but dedicating myself to Christ’s Gospel and assisted
by the Sacraments is my highest goal.
That said, the second
incident that contextualizes the challenge of Colossians for the Christian
today happened when we took our granddaughter, Emma, to the Beaver Library to
return and borrow books and videos. As she was browsing, I took some time to do
the same in the sections for philosophy, psychology, religion and social
sciences. What dawned on me was the number of books, periodicals, websites and
other media that are available to us, and the importance we place on them. You
don’t have to have studied philosophy and theology to know that more people
will turn to psychology and social sciences to seek advice on how to understand
the meaning of life or avoid suffering rather than seek it from the ancient
philosophers, Paul, Augustine, Luther or the Bible.
My point is that while
these other fields help us understand, they do not save. Unlike the Gospel and
Cross of Christ, they do not deliver us from evil and into everlasting and
abundant life. And yet, even steadfast Christians readily seek them sooner than
the Sacraments and prayer to assist them deal with some situation or sin, with
temptations and trials, with relationships and right living.
So, what is the
challenge of Colossians for the Christian today? In a word, syncretism. Syncretism
is the blending of different religious ideas into one system. In Colossae, it
was angel worship and asceticism. Today, it might be the belief that therapy
replaces confession, or that success is a sign of God’s favor. While some say
that syncretism in the Church in America is materialism, individualism and
nationalism, others claim that is the integration of Buddhism and Confucianism
into Christianity which resulted in the Unification Church. Other cultures have
influenced God’s Word even before Jesus. We see the influence of the Canaanites
in Psalms; of Persian religions on later Jewish writings due to the Babylonian
captivity; and of Greek philosophy on Paul and Roman culture in Peter’s
Letters.
When cultures meet and
interact, they exchange religious ideas. The belief that all religions offer
truth, or that different religions present different paths to God is
syncretism. Syncretism operates on the assumption that combining certain
teachings produces a better way of knowing and/or reaching God. Now, this is
not to say that we cannot learn anything about ourselves as individuals,
families and society from psychology and social sciences. Nor am I saying that
our religion is now pure or distilled because we are always in some sort of
dialogue with other denominations when Covid, government restrictions, economic
downturns impact how we worship and support the Church. Even the loss of
self-control when dealing with one another over congregational needs impacts
our worship and church support.
The worlds of ideas,
religions and cultures impact my life, but when it comes to how I live, the
only road I take is the one that leads to and through the Cross of Christ and
His teaching for I am assured that heeding that call to come to Him through grace
will lead me to God the Father. Aided by God’s Word, the Sacraments and prayer
in solitude and in common, I hope to pursue my call to live as a saint among
saints. In closing my last sermon here, I ask you—what road are you walking?
Will you join me on the path that leads through the Cross, toward the hope that
does not disappoint? Even though we may never see one another again, I ask you
to join me on the Way, and when you do may the peace of God which surpasses all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Raymond
E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York: Doubleday (1997), p. 599.
[2] Joseph
A. Fitzmyer, SJ, “The Letter to the Romans,” The New Jerome Biblical
Commentary, Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall (1990), p. 854.
[3]
Ibid., p. 877.
[4]
Brown, pp. 607f.
[5] Augsburg
Confession, Article VII, “Of the Church.”
