Sermon: Christ in You!
August 11th, 2019 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: Colossians 1:15-28
This short letter to the Colossians has been called a “little gem” in our New Testament scripture. That being the case then, this passage within Colossians is the jewel, the diamond, within the setting of the rest of the letter.
As I shared last week, Paul has written to a group of Christian believers to celebrate the gospel fruit that is evident in their small church in Colossae. But as we heard in Paul’s prayers for them, he has also written to address concerns that they continue to grow and mature in their faith. He is concerned that they should not get pulled back into the way they lived before, but that they stay strong. He is concerned that they should not slide back into the way people around them live, but that they build patience and endurance, so that as struggles and challenges come their way their faith will remain firm, knowing they live securely in the reality of Jesus Christ. Paul wants to remind them (vs.21) that “estranged, hostile and doing-evil is no way to go through life!”
Evidence of that way of going through life is all around us. We become estranged from one another when we use text messages to avoid talking face to face. Hostility simmers between people, communities – racially, economically, religiously, by nationalities or ethnicities, politically. This is no way to go through life! The perpetrators of mass violence (over 250 incidents already this year in the USA) are often described as loners, estranged from family or friends. Their evil deeds of mass murder, taking the lives of fellow human beings with little to no remorse. This is no way to go through life! We see this hostility in other ways closer to home – when I was at The Tree House in Elkhorn on Tuesday with the VBS kids to drop off supplies for the families they work with, a staff person shared that Walworth county is second only to Milwaukee county in the rate of child abuse and domestic violence. This is no way to go through life! Traumatized, hurt, resentful of others, driven by anxious competition, filled with distain, afraid to go to Walmart. This is no way to go through life!
The Good News is: there is a different way to live! There is a secret to a better life. God, our creator, revealed that secret through God’s Son, Jesus. Our brokenness, the world’s brokenness, is the result of our disconnect and antagonism toward God, our misunderstanding of who God is. The secret is that when we are reconciled with our Creator, with God, we are reconciled with one another, with the world. The end of the hymn, verse 20, celebrates that God reconciled all things to Himself, through Jesus. Through Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross, God created the possibility of peace. The secret is discovering the mystery of who Jesus really is and who we really are when Jesus comes to live in us. That is the hope of glory! The hope of peace, of love – Christ living in you!
This song of faith in verses 15-20 is sung for two reasons – First, it brings a message to each one of us, each believer personally, to remind us again of whose we are – who created us, why we exist, where our hope lies; but this song is also a message to the world, a revolutionary and courageous message to the powers that be about who is really in charge.
These 5 verses of the hymn are packed with amazing statements about God and about Jesus the Christ. So let’s just pick out a few to look at more closely. The very first line, jumps off the page at me. “The Son is the image of the invisible God.” Jesus is the image of God the Father. We read in the creation story in Genesis, “God created humankind in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”(Gen.1:27) Yet sin marred that image of God in us. Humanity no longer reflected God’s image accurately or consistently to the world, so God sent His Son, the One in whom God’s image was consistent, unblemished, and true. When we look at Jesus, when we learn about who he was and what he did, we are seeing God.
If someone is sitting in the next room, I can’t see them because there is a wall between us. But if I place a mirror in the doorway, and angle it just right, I can look at the mirror and catch sight of the person in the next room. In that same way, we cannot see God but Jesus positioned himself so that by looking at him, we are able to see what we normally can’t see. When we look at Jesus we find ourselves looking at the True God himself. Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
But even more than that, we learn that all the fullness of God was pleased to live in him. Fullness is the totality, everything. Everything God is, everything God did in the past, is doing in the present moment and will do in the future, is present and active in Jesus. All the qualities and character of God the Father is present in Jesus the Son. Can we even wrap our minds around that Truth?!
Jesus existed before anything in this universe existed. Everything, absolutely everything, things we see and things we don’t, rank after rank of heavenly powers and earthly powers, everything got started in Jesus. And everything finds its purpose in Jesus as well, for not only were all things created through him, but all things were created for him. We were created for our Lord Jesus. And, even further, he didn’t just create the world and send it off to figure out how to survive on its own, Jesus continues to hold all things together in himself. Jesus holds together the past and the future. He holds together those of us alive today and those who have passed from this life. He holds together the earthly realm and the heavenly realm.
Jesus went ahead to make the way through death to everlasting life. He did that by taking on all of the brokenness, the estrangement, the hostility, the anger and fears and evil of the world, and carrying it to the cross and into the grave with him. God in Jesus did that in order to reconcile all things to Himself, to bring healing and bring peace.
This is our song; this is the mystery, this is the secret of life, true life. When we come to truly understand, to know this love, this gift of grace, to begin to know God through knowing Jesus, then Jesus Christ enters into us and we are changed. We are transformed – our lives, our relationships, our communities and our world.
Which brings me back to what I said earlier about there being two reasons to sing this song. Singing this song of faith is a religious act, an act of worship, an act of personal surrender to Jesus, that brings personal transformation. But it is also a political act, a statement to the world of where our ultimate allegiance lies and a statement of who holds the real power, who is truly in charge. Singing this song may at times be seen as an act of political defiance and civil disobedience.
When the Christians in Colossae sang this song, they were making a sharp political statement, for if Jesus was first then Rome and Caesar were not. If Jesus was the one who held things together, if Jesus was the one in charge, than all earthly rulers served Him. It was not the power and force of the Roman army and its leader that brought the peace, it was Jesus. It was Jesus who brought peace, through the ways of love, of compassion, of embracing all people, of suffering, of laying down one’s life for another. Jesus Christ is king, emperor, ruler, leader. By making this statement, by singing this song, the church in Colossae risked their reputations and their lives. Many of them were seen as enemies of the state. Some were arrested, imprisoned and killed.
The audacity of claiming Jesus as Head, of pledging allegiance to him alone, the risk that entails, reminds me of a statement made by a wide group of Christian leaders in this nation about a year ago. Denominational leaders and clergy from Baptists to Methodists to Episcopal and Christian Reformed and Disciples of Christ, and many more Christian institutions and ministries, came together to write a statement to declare Jesus as Lord in our times. The movement is titled Reclaiming Jesus. Here is their statement, their song (see reclaimingjesus.org, or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpmjurAXAok)
The mystery of Christ in You is that first you are transformed, and then through Christ in You the whole world around you can be transformed! Jesus is Lord! Let us sing this song to encourage one another, then let us go out and sing it to the world. Jesus Christ is Lord!
Closing Song: “He is Lord” # 97
Jesus Christ is Lord! This is the mystery: God lives in Jesus, Jesus lives in us. Christ in You, the hope of glory! Amen!
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