Disciples Give Ultimate Allegiance to Christ (Nov. 20, 2022) Col. 1.11-20

I read the story of a teacher who, while cleaning her attic (ironic that this story comes after the bazaar), found a crucifix she had purchased and then put away. It was a nice item, a wooden cross with a silver Jesus hanging and she decided to take it downstairs. Not knowing where to put it just yet, she did what all professionals do, she laid it on her desk at home. A couple of days later she needed some space to work and set the crucifix off to the side-on top of her checkbook. Seeing this made her pause and ask: If her money were really under the cross, how would that affect her finances? What would she buy or not buy? How much would she give and how much would she keep? To whom or what would she give money? A few days later she set it, without thinking, on papers that she was meaning to grade. Seeing the crucifix there made her pause again. If Jesus was really at the top of her life, how would that affect her faith in her work? How would she treat her students and co-workers? How would she prepare each day for her classes? Again, a few days later she set the crucifix aside (ever notice how long it takes anyone to hang something? Or maybe this was providence?) and it was placed on recent pictures of her family. This got her to thinking about how her faith impacted her relationships. If really under the cross and lordship of Jesus, what kind of wife would she be? What kind of mother, grandmother, sister, friend? Throughout those weeks the crucifix on her desk seemed to ask her the question: “What difference does faith (and Jesus) make in my life? What does the lordship of Jesus mean in my life?”

Today we come to the end of the Christian year and the time of Christ the King Sunday. It is a time of reflection of the past year and a time of looking forward to the year to come that begins next week with Advent. This is not an ancient celebration like advent or Easter, but rather a relatively new celebration being only close to 100 years old (though to some that is ancient). It was begun by Pope Pius XI in 1925 to remind the faithful that Jesus is the one to whom we owe ultimate allegiance. During this time there were several things going on in the world. The Great War and the horrors that were done to humans were still fresh in the minds of people after believing that things were getting better and better. Communism was on the rise and terrifying those who were opposed to it. Fascism was on the rise in Italy with Mussolini telling the people that he could and would settle things that were bewildering and leading to a fearful populace. In all this Pius saw that people were turning to things such as nation states to give their allegiance. When he saw this, he made certain that he stated that there was nothing higher to give allegiance to than Jesus: not self, not family, not nation. It was only Jesus that they were to give their allegiance.

Over time Protestant churches picked up this day. It is a reminder to us of the end of the church year but also a reminder that we have ultimate allegiance to Christ as well. That there is one king and ruler over us who has a claim on our lives and no others.

To illustrate this, we have in our confessions a statement known as the Barmen Declaration that was written in 1934, nine short years after the encyclical of Pius. This was the time of Hitler’s rise and his determination that to be a loyal German one had to give allegiance to the state and ultimately to himself. The writers of the declaration had something to say about this. They wrote:

“As Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so in the same way and with the same seriousness is he also God’s mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures.

8.15 We reject the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords—areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.”

They were stating that in no way shape or form were they to submit to other lords and that the church was never to become an arm of the state which is what happened in Germany. To them, Jesus was Lord and they and all Christians were to know this and follow Jesus.

Paul knew all of this. In his letters he proclaims that Jesus is Lord. Now to us this seems a tame declaration, something that we say week in and week out. But to those in the Roman Empire this was a statement of treason. Caesar was lord. Caesar was the son of the gods. Caesar was the savior of the world. To state that someone else was lord and savior was to go against what was taught and believed in the empire. It was to go against the grain and it was not to be tolerated.

Again, Paul knew this and yet he believed that he and the other followers of Christ were correct in stating that Jesus was the lord and savior.

To the Colossians he wrote that God had: “rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son…”[1] To understand this, one must know that in ancient times when a war was fought the victors would take those conquered and transfer them into their nation state. They were no longer a part of the country to which they had belonged. What Paul is saying here is that we were in the country of death and sin and that Jesus conquered both bring us into the kingdom of God where we find redemption from sin and death.

Paul continues with a soaring hymn of the supremacy of Christ in all things. Now when I say all things I mean allthings, not just some. If you noticed in the reading there were a lot of the word all written. In fact, it is written seven times there. This means that we should pay attention to this fact.

We are told that Christ is the firstborn of Creation. This does not mean that he was created and therefore not equal with God. This means that he was there before all creation. We are told in John 1 that he was the Word and was with God in the beginning, that all things came into being through him and in him was all things.

He is the one who is before all things, before heaven and earth were created. He is the one who holds all things together. Have you ever seen the sign that says No Jesus, No Peace. Know Jesus, Know Peace? It is a cute sign that can be easily dismissed as it is transferable to shirts, mugs, anything on which it can be printed. But there is a message in it that is powerful. If all things are held together by Jesus, then it stands to reason that we should have no fear of what comes to us that would cause us to question that. For Jesus is the one, the glue you might say, that holds us all together.

Verse 18 is where I want to look closely. In other letters Paul speaks of the church being the body, but he never speaks of the head of the body. Here he claims that Jesus is the head. This is significant in several ways of which I want to focus on two. First, when Paul is talking about the body, he is talking about a physical body. There were those in the church in Colossae who were Gnostics, those who believed that knowledge was the key thing in life, the body was something to be endured and gotten rid of as soon as possible. To state that Jesus is the head of the body is to point out that the body is good. If Jesus was part of the creation of the world and humanity in Genesis 1, it stands to reason that Jesus was one who proclaimed that the creation was what? It was good. Second, if Jesus is the head of the body, the church, this means that the church gets its life, direction, and control from only one source, Jesus Christ. Without the head the body does not function. It collapses and dies. As the head, Jesus is first and the beginning. Because he is the beginning and the firstborn of the dead in his resurrection, Jesus is to have first place in everything. Because of this, his reign is to be shown in everything that we do in our lives.

Where do we show our allegiance to Christ? In the beginning of this sermon, I told the story of a woman who asked the question of where priorities would fall if Christ was the head of all that she did. Where do our priorities fall and where does Jesus fall in the categories? Is he at the top or is he forgotten until found like the crucifix of the story?

Today our nation is in turmoil. We are divided more than we have ever been in recent years. And there is a troubling trend among certain groups who claim that to be a good Christian one must be a good American. This is known as Christian nationalism and it is troubling because it states that we are to owe allegiance to something or someone other than Jesus Christ. Now, one can be a good Christian and a good American, but there must be one over the other. Jesus told us that we cannot serve two masters, we will in the end hate the one and love the other. Again, I turn to the Barmen Declaration. It was written during a time when it was stated that to be a good Christian one must give allegiance to the state and in the end to one man. Let me read what was written one more time:

“As Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so in the same way and with the same seriousness is he also God’s mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures.

8.15 We reject the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords—areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.”

We need redemption and that comes only through Jesus Christ. It does not come from ourselves, our families, or our country. There are times when the country does things right. But there are times when the country gets it wrong: in the harassment of “others” who might be different from us, in systemic racism that continues in our culture, in whatever might divide us. If Jesus is the one who is keeping us together how can we not be decent to one another and fight for what Jesus calls us to be? Why can we not let Jesus be Lord?

To whom do we owe our allegiance? The title of the sermon states it all: We owe it to Jesus Christ and to him alone. Do we show this in how we live? Do we really believe that he is the head of all? What is our answer? Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print.