As I was
preparing to come home from a few weeks in Italy and take up the role of
Interim Rector, I was excited to see that the lectionary epistle readings take
us through Paul’s letter to the Colossians. I’m excited because this letter
wonderfully teaches us about who Christ is, from all eternity, and what it
means that our identity as a church is the Body of Christ. That is who we are. The
theme for my sermon today is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Next week the
message will be “You have been given fullness in Christ.” And the third week
is, “Christ is all in all.”
Our
passage begins at verse 15, “He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in
heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers
or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all
things, and in him all things hold together.” Notice how many times Paul says
“all things.”
By Christ all things
were created…all things were created
by him and for him. He is before all
things (meaning “preeminent”),
…in him all things hold together.
Without Christ, nothing exists, because everything in creation—every star,
galaxy, planet, sea creature, bird, every animal, every man, woman and child, and
all powers, rulers, and authorities, all things visible and invisible, exist
and consist in him. There is nothing that exists apart from Christ. A medieval
theologian, St. Bonaventure, wrote that God’s “center is everywhere and his
circumference is nowhere.” Christ’s center is everywhere and his circumference
is nowhere. We could also say, “The Holy Spirit’s center is everywhere and his
circumference is nowhere.” There is no place where Christ is not. So the first
important point we see in this passage is that Christ is the creator who holds
all things in existence.
I’m reminded of
going to see an Omni Theater movie about the Hubble Telescope. Maybe some of
you have had an opportunity to see it. It is amazing. The beauty and vastness
of deep space is overwhelming. With your 3D glasses on you travel to the
farthest reaches of space, through galaxies and supernovas and incredible
mysteries of the cosmos. As you watch this movie, you’re thinking this isn’t
Star Trek or Star Wars. This is really the universe that God created. It’s vast
and wondrous beyond imagining; our finite minds can’t really take in the
unbelievable expanse of time and space.
Paul is trying
to get us to put on our spiritual 3D glasses, so to speak, so we can see who
Christ really is. At a 3D movie if you take off the glasses everything looks
strange and fuzzy. It doesn’t look right at all. But when you put on the
glasses, Wow! Suddenly everything pops out and it’s like you’re actually
traveling through the cosmos. We need our spiritual 3D glasses on to see the
world properly. I’m reminded of Romans 1:20 which says that “since the creation
of the world God’s invisible qualities”—that is, his eternal power and divine
nature—“have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so
that people are without excuse.” He is saying that creation reveals its Creator
in a very powerful way.
If we put on our
spiritual glasses, we can see that there is an intimacy between God and
creation. All things were created out of love, and are sustained by God’s love.
Jesus says that not a sparrow falls from the sky that God doesn’t notice and
care. Gerard Manley Hopkins, a 19th century Catholic poet, wrote, “The world is charged with
the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.” Without
our glasses, we look out and we see a nice tree, a pretty flower, a lovely
bird. With our glasses on, Wow! We see
God everywhere in his creation, that
flames out with the grandeur of God.
But now in
verse 18, Paul draws our gaze from the vastness of Christ and Creation to focus
our eyes on Christ and the Church. He says that, “he [Christ] is the head of
the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the
dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” Into the midst of
this grand scale picture of Christ, Paul places Jesus’ resurrection from the
dead, and he says in verse 19, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness
dwell in him.” That means that the sum total of God’s perfection and power and
attributes dwell in Christ. Remember back in verse 15 it says Christ is the
image of the invisible God. When we see Christ, we see God. Through Christ, who
is the bodily image of God, the Incarnate One, God is pleased, verse 20, to
“reconcile to himself all things”—there is that expression again—“to reconcile
to himself all things, whether things
on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the
cross.” The great creator of the vast universe takes on human flesh and dwells
among us as one of us so that all things can be reconciled to God. And, as the
Church is now Christ’s body in the world, God continues to do his vast
incredible work of reconciliation and renewal of his creation through the
Church. That’s right, through us!
Do you have
your spiritual glasses on? Do you see who we are? The work of the Incarnation,
God in human flesh, now continues through us, the Church, the enfleshed body of
Christ in the world.
This is
amazing! How can this be? Paul explains that God has made this possible through
Christ. At verse 21, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your
minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s
physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish
and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm,
not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.” So if we continue firmly in
our faith, we receive this gift of being reconciled to God through Christ, and
are made members of Christ’s body, the church.
Finally in verse
26 Paul speaks of “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and
generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make
known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory.” There is our message for today: “Christ in you, the
hope of glory.” Because Christ dwells in us as a church, we now have the work
of Christ to do in the world. We have a tremendous call and purpose. Our work
is to call the world to know the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ, to be
giving out spiritual 3D glasses, so that people can come to a saving
relationship with the Lord. So then, what is our purpose in gathering together
on Sunday morning? Our purpose is to be spiritually formed, through the liturgy,
into the body of Christ so that we might show forth God’s glory and redeeming
love in the world. What we do together on Sunday morning is vital to our
becoming who we are meant to be as the body of Christ. All that we do through
worship in the liturgy, by word and sacrament, is for the purpose of being
formed into Christ’s body. And all that
happens, as we participate in that liturgy, culminating in the Eucharist,
should move us toward that purpose of becoming one body in Christ. “Christ in
you, the hope of glory.” Paul is speaking about the body.
As we are
formed into Christ’s body, we see more and more through our spiritual glasses. More
and more we see each other as God sees each one of us. I look at you and, Wow! I
see Christ. I see Christ in you, and you see Christ in me. We are beautiful to
one another. We see that each one is precious and lovable. And I look at
myself and I see Christ in myself.
The Trappist
monk Thomas Merton wrote about a spiritual experience he had one day standing
on a street corner. He writes, "In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and
Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with
the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I
theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total
strangers." Merton later reflected, "There is no way to tell people
they are all walking around shining like the sun." Merton had on his
spiritual glasses. He had the contemplative gaze of love. He saw people through
the loving eyes of God.
If we put on
our spiritual glasses our vision will be corrected, and we will see that it is
Christ who holds all things in existence by his love, that this “Christ is the
head of the body, the church.” And we will see the great mystery of “Christ in
you, the hope of glory.” So let us continue in faith, established and firm, not
moved from the hope held out in the gospel, and let us be the body of Christ. Let us
be who we are. This is our true identity, so let us live it out. Our true
identity as the church is not as individuals, it is corporate. Our identity as
the church is made manifest as we live in love and fellowship with one another,
showing the glory of God to the world through being Christ to one another and
to everyone we meet. Then we become a reflection of God, a union of love and
fellowship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are one, and we are one
with them and with one another. This is who we are: Christ in you, the hope of glory. Amen.