Colossians 1:1-14
July 11, 2010
“KEEPING IT TOGETHER”
Maybe it is because we are about to leave for vacation that I pictured a launder mat dryer as I read and re-read our text. We usually have to make a trip to wash our clothes sometime during vacation, and those dryers with the window in the door allow us to remember which dryers are ours. We can look through the window and watch our clothes tumble around and around…there is my “Life Is Good” shirt…and my swimming trunks…and my bath towel… and my running shorts. Round and round it goes, when it stops…it calls for the swallowing of more quarters because the clothes are never dry!
Maybe it is because our community has survived another Cherry Festival that I picture a merry-go-round as I read and re-read our text. Sitting on one of those majestic horses, we make the circle over and over again, and as we travel the circuit we can focus on specific things and people. There’s my family again…HI! There is the little girl with her hand in mom’s, staring at the traveling horses, wanting so badly to have a turn but anxious at the same time. There is the grandpa sharing a giant ball of cotton candy with a little guy whose eyes sparkle. There are the two teens who are oblivious to anything going on around them because they experience perpetual fits of belly laughter. That’s one revolution, and now we are ready to see each of them again…family…little girl with the huge eyes…cotton candy…belly laughter.
Paul does that to us when he writes. He is so passionate about the Gospel that his quill flies over parchment forgetting punctuation with a paragraph-worth of words housed in one sentence. As I read and re-read our text, words jumped out at me, words I may have missed the first or second time, words that are almost hidden in the barrage of verbiage. Paul and Timothy are writing to Colossian Christians, a church planted by brother Epaphras. As I watched Paul’s dryer go round and round, I saw faith, hope, and love fly by…faith in Christ Jesus, love for all the saints…because of the hope that is created for us in heaven. Over and over again I saw the words bearing fruit tumble by, which led me to realize that the Colossian Christians were living their faith, living the gifts and resulting fruit of the Spirit in their everyday lives. Whoa, the word grow tumbled by a couple of times. It must have been quite a service as Epaphras read this letter to the Christians assembled for worship. They must have smiled, along with Epaphras, as he read these words from Paul: “This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”
There are other things in our text that almost tumble by too quickly to ponder. We need to take our time examining these words. They will take our breath away.
Verse 13 of chapter 1 reads: “He (God) has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, (14) in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” The word rescue is a powerful word, the same word used in the Greek version of the Old Testament to depict God’s deliverance of
Paul’s point. We have been freed from the slavery to sin and guilt to concentrate on (verse10) “grow(ing) in the knowledge of God”…and (verse 9) “the knowledge of God’s will”…which leads to (verse 10) “leading lives worthy of the Lord”, and “bearing fruit in every good work.” The release from slavery has already taken place. The freedom has already happened. We are freed to love and serve.
As the dryer comes to a stop, as we peer into the window what do we see? It is the Cross.
As the merry-go-round comes to a stop after countless circles, what sight do our eyes fix upon? It is the Cross.
As the tumbling dryer of our lives is in constant spin mode, as our merry-go-round lives never seems to slow down, it becomes difficult to truly concentrate on what is real…what is essential.
What is not real is that we are alone. One of the promises of God is God’s presence, a constant walk with us as we travel through the wilderness and into the promised land. Look at the Cross!
What is not real is that we are unforgiveable. Yes, we might think or say, “God accepts, God forgives all…except me.” Look at the Cross!
What is not real is that we are not loved…for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Look at the Cross!
It is so easy for us to bring everything back upon ourselves. All of our sentences start with “I.” I am worthless. I am unforgiveable. I was forgotten or abandoned by God. I deserve better. Someone asks the question, “How are you?”, and what is our answer? “I’m hanging in there”…”I’m holding my own.” So often we forget what has already happened through the Cross of Jesus Christ…forgiveness has happened…redemption has happened…rescue has already taken place... acceptness is a given. The subject is not “I”. The subject is God through the Cross.
Verses 17-20 of Colossians 1 ought to be a part of our text, because they are the exclamation point of the Gospel. As we read “He” it is a reference to Christ. “He himself 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 firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”
“In him all things hold together.” How are you? “He’s holding me together.” “He’s helping me hang in there.”
In the midst of the tumbling, in the midst of the merry-go-round of life…Look at the Cross. Amen
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