Everlasting God, you build up and tear down. We confess that we have erected idols that need to be demolished in our time. We embrace complacency and comfort over following your vision of beloved community and liberation. We measure ourselves not against your precepts but by the standards of this world. We close our ears to voices we do not want to hear and our eyes to sights too painful to see. Tear down the fear of discomfort within us and rebuild us with the pillars of holy love, compassionate care, and Spirit-led action. In your mercy, make us new. Amen.
By Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology, United Church of Christ.
Copyright 2022 Faith INFO Ministry Team, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115-1100
Colossians 1:1-14
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
3In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
9For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.
11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from God's glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13God has rescued [exodus, a new deliverance, a new freedom from slavery] us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians
Four Sundays in a row the second lection will come from Colossians. The apostle Paul almost definitely didn't write the epistle to the Christians who assembled at Colossae. Despite the greeting referencing Paul and his ministry sidekick Timothy, its grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and sentence structure depart from the style of Paul/Saul of Tarsus' seven undisputed letters, although Colossian's overall theology and especially its cosmic Christ go in directions Paul likely would have traveled. Could God have inspired this poetry and these proclamations in one of Paul's ministry companions, students, or a slightly younger sibling?
Even in translation, Colossians' poetic splendor takes Paul up a few notches. It's as if original Paul was super-concerned about carefully articulating formal theology, and Colossian's author already has all that down and feels confident to riff and gloss on those basics. This is the Christ who embraces and rules all creation, yet affects individuals at their core.
Scholars date this letter from 60CE to as late as 75CE, about three decades after Jesus' death and resurrection, predating the gospels. Colossae was in current western Turkey, 120 miles inland from the Aegean Sea.
The letter itself doesn't clearly describe the Colossian church beyond indicating Epaphras was their pastor and teacher. However, in Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire, Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat tell us this church met in the home of Philemon, Apphia and Archippus, from which the slave Onesimus had run away. They strongly advise, "Read Colossians with [the book of] Philemon and Onesimus in mind." I was almost literally ecstatic to discover Colossians Remixed, though given how much the world has changed since the 2004 publication date I'd love a revision or at least an additional chapter related to global events since then.
Today's Reading
After a classic Pauline-style salutation and greeting, this week's reading reveals the author's prayer-filled hope for the Colossians' future in Christ as it affirms the fruitfulness that has resulted from their comprehending or grasping grace. Future weeks will refer to the social and religious location that had the Colossian church pretty heavily involved in a syncretism that sounds a whole lot like some recent New Age religious smorgasbords, potlucks, and buffets. Apparently they were on the edge of heresy, so all along the letter affirms the sufficiency, authority, power, and divinity of Jesus Christ, in constant contrast with the supposed authority and divinity of the Roman Caesar.
All along the letter reminds its recipients of their position and transformation in Christ. As in Paul's authentic letters, Colossians are "in Christ," rather than followers or disciples the way the gospels describe Jesus' people. As with all of the New Testament, when we read Colossians we need to stay aware of the overall Roman imperial context as well as assorted deities, and practices of non-Jewish neighbors.
We live baptized into Christ, yet we necessarily also live in a particular earthbound geographical location. Because of that reality, it's necessary to contextualize and adapt Christianity in ways that make sense to where we are.
The end of today's selection, verses 13-14, God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. is basic gospeled Good News that especially echoes Paul's theology and that of Luke, who's mentioned in 4:14, "Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings."
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