Christ's Simple Way Amidst the Fray

The New Revised Standard Version Fullness of Life in Christ

6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, 14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

16 Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. 17 These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

Have you ever over complicated a problem?

There is a great scene in the movie Apollo 13 about finding our way through a deeply complicated problem. The Apollo shuttle is losing oxygen, damaged on its mission to the moon. The scientists, physicists, NASA specialists, have been knocking their heads together to solve it and bring the crew home safely. But the math doesn’t work, the physics are off, the human factors are too complicated.

I was a new homeowner and hadn’t dealt with this kind of request before. And I kinda freaked out — can he do, can he ask me that? Well, what if the tree needs those branches? What will that do to my property value — am I going to get in trouble for that, because I didn’t plant the tree — are those branches supposed to be cut?

In my own little internal self-system, I worked up all kinds of scenarios that made the problem worse: well, what are the other neighbors going to think? Are they all going to start telling me what to do too? Should I stand my ground, make an example? Are they all talking about me? Do they not like me, the new guy on the block? Should we move!!!???

Have you ever over complicated a problem?

I called every expert I knew - my relator, my parents, my in-laws, I asked my boss about it — all the people I trusted about this stuff.

Then I complicated it further - well, if those

What are the elemental spirits of the universe?

Empty earth and dirt that lack life or depth, wisdom or knowledge?

My favorite scene is when they go into a big conference room and dump out, onto a table, all the usable parts from the Apollo ship. If they’re going to solve the problem, they’re going to need to use this material. This is what they have at their disposal. And slowly, then suddenly, a plan emerges. Not by using the materials in the way they were designed, but breaking the rules, reconfiguring, rethinking their rigid structures and plans and forging a new way. A solution emerges — born of collaboration. From an over complicated problem that had no solutions, suddenly there comes the possibility of hope.

Forces of wickedness that would seek to distract us?

Sometimes, the solution is right in front of us. We just need to stop thinking one way and open our eyes to wisdom.

Have you ever been distracted?

Have you ever been distracted?

Before we dive in to the beauty of this text, I want to clarify and hopefully un-complicate the question of circumcision in this text. It would be easy for us to be distracted by that prominent theme in these words and miss the goodness.

For new believers, the question of how one was marked or claimed in the faith was a big question. What did it look like to be “indwelled” with the fullness of Christ, in whom is the fullness of God?

Christ is the Image of the Invisible God — in him the fullness of god dwells.

Christians took upon them the practice of baptism as the sacred way to enter into this new life. But for many who had links to the Jewish religion, out of which Christianity blossomed, there was also the question of the role of ritual circumcision for males.

Our fullness is through him.

Talk about circumcision

We certainly see this as a primitive practice today. Some would say its barbaric.

Through the New Testament, the conversation about circumcision develops

First we question whether it must be done to all who convert

Then we begin to see more leniency on this as long as other customs are abided by

Many Christians now do not practice this and it has become

Regardless of the role of physical circumcision today — the point is this: In Christ’s dwelling in us, in our becoming the fullness of ourselves by Christ’s life in us, we let complicated, superstitious, distracting matters be cut off, swept away, left behind.

This is the same process that Paul describes with baptism — we are washed clean of what binds us, what holds us captive to the demands of lesser powers, the allegiances to that which does not last. We are instead swept up into a full life with Christ where we live in truth, where we are brought into triumph over all that would distract us.

That’s what’s important here. Circumcision, for the Hebrew people; Baptism for us Christians — the important piece is they are a cleansing ritual meant to mark those whose life has become fully indwelled with the Love of Christ.

Let’s not over complicate this.

Alright — let’s dive in.

Let No One Condemn You

What might have been a minor blip on the news radar this week, among all that we are inundated with day after day, there was one story that captivated my attention because of how deeply it connected to my own formational years as a teenager.

In the news this week, Joshua Harris, former author of such books as “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” made a public statement to the effect that he no longer calls himself a Christian — at least in the way that the world has been defining it, as rigid, bigoted, divisive, purity-focused. For those of you unfamiliar with Joshua Harris and his books, in the 1990s, he was the prominent voice in the Christian purity movement. His writing and speaking led many Christian teens to swear off dating, to withhold from even being with members of the opposite sex lest they should be tempted by the desires of their bodies. Many young Christians of my generation were influenced by his writing and made pacts to never kiss a person before their wedding day, to only “court”, not go on dates.

There was some good to this movement, as it brought intentionality to the Christian dating world, but for many of my generation, this led to a very legalistic, stunted form of sexuality and relational development. Where I have found that Christ offers freedom and liberty as I have grown older, at that point in my life, I was pretty certain that all desire was wrong and needed to be stifled. And for many of my friends and peers of that time, the shame and judgement they felt by this brand of religion was more than they could live with and they have turned away, finding freedom in letting go of Christ.

Anyway…this is all a broader topic for another time. The point is, a cultural movement grew up out of this man’s work that equated healthy Christian faith with quite fanatical, rule-following sexual ethics and purity, which for many became oppressive and ultimately led them to walk away from the church. It was too much — too many requirements: Don’t hold hands, always have a third person present, lest you be tempted, etc., etc.

So I was sad, yet in some ways unsurprised, to hear that through his long journey, this man has found himself at great distance from his faith, distance caused by a belief system that was too bound up with rules to actually let the light of grace and Christian liberty shine in.

I mourn for this, because it is the story of so many of my peers, my generation. The faith so many of us were given was legalistic, complicated, steeped in rules but thin on much meaning.

I do not blame my parents for this. Or even the school or church I went to. Rather, I think this is something much deeper that has been a constant struggle for the church since its birth.

Hear Paul go on:

The New Revised Standard Version Fullness of Life in Christ

16 Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. 17 These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

“Don't smoke, drink or chew, or run with girls who do” :-)

For the new church, for the church of Colossea, for the church trying to find itself amidst all the other narratives of the Roman or the American or the global world — these rules are so easy to gravitate toward. Its so easy to set up boundaries and laws that help us make meaningful sense of all the chaos we see around us.

This is a human struggle — as we seek to order ourselves, it is so necessary at times to put structure and rules around that order so that it grows and establishes.

But the problem the church of Colossea was dealing with was that people were telling them they needed to do more in order to be properly Christian. They needed to retain the Jewish festivals — new moons, sabbaths. They needed circumcision. They needed to eat a certain way, drink a certain way, act according to a prescribed set of rules.

In verses 16-18 Paul looks backward and forward, noting the influences that would pull these new believers out of sync with their present moment. Verse 16 and 17 remind us that the old ways, the practices that brought the people up out of Egypt, which kept them pure before God, that these are but a shadow of what was ultimately found in belonging in Christ. The old ways are not bad, but their a distraction if they get in the way of liberating power in Christ.

Verse 18 looks forward, drawing on mystic and mind-centered traditions that would dwell only on human thinking and gnostic revelation to come to God — these, also, are good in what they can provide for wisdom and understanding, but when they become “puffed up”, they become only heady philosophies that do not root us in the deep, abiding, living love of Christ.

These are only a shadow of what is to come.

Bring it on home

My friends — there is a better way. We do not need to overcomplicate this life. Life is complicated enough, we do not need a faith or a religion that adds to this. What we need, and thankfully, what we have, is a way of liberation and wisdom. The way of Jesus, the way of being indwelled by the loving God of all, is a way of freedom that opens up our lives, not close them down with rigid rules.

I want to pull back and look at this text from a different angle. We normally want to read this as a breaking apart of the rules, a clarifying of the past structures in light of Christ’s indwelling. And it is this.

But it is also, and I think in some ways is more helpfully, a text of wisdom.

Paul describes the systems of the world that hold power and overcomplicate things. This is the law. This is fundamentalism. This is purity culture or rigid philosophies about how the world is going to end or militant religion (conservative, progressive, or otherwise). Paul is trying to help us see that these black and white ways are over, the rigidity of the structure has caused it to crumble.

This is also a text that invites us to wisdom.

I’ve asked it repeatedly today: Have you ever overcomplicated a problem?

To know wisdom is to know that problems are complicated, and to have peace about this. Wisdom is the ability to hold in tension the complexities of our lives and not need to reduce them to definite answers, religious fanaticism, rigid structures that provide black and white answers. When we are indwelled with wisdom (which is another way of talking about living in the fullness of Christ) — we are able to hold the tension of that which is often unresolvable.

Wisdom (hopefully) develops as we mature in our faith, as we grow in life. But as you know wisdom, it does not add greater complication or structure of life. Wisdom actually opens us up — we become more free, more willing to accept tension. There is actually a simplicity that deepens, a simple way, the simple way that Jesus taught, as wisdom is found.

Let’s revisit the example of Christian purity culture. The rigid way is to say there are defined gender roles and norms that must be obeyed, rules to be followed that lead to a healthy marriage. Tomorrow Stacy and I celebrate our 14th anniversary. According to purity culture’s rules, the only way to have a healthy marriage for 14+ years is to abide by certain protocols, to have clearly defined roles in our home, to direct our desires in predefined, particular ways.

But the way of wisdom is different. For anyone who has had a long term relationship, you know its way more complicated than what I’m describing in rigid terms. Over the 14 years that Stacy and I have been married, our relationship has shifted, grown, changed, morphed, become more simple and more complicated and more simple again. If you’ve known relationship, you know that rigid is one of the last words that can be used to describe a healthy one. It needs flex, fluidity.

It needs wisdom. To know deep love is to know that it gets really complicated sometimes. And we must hold that tension.

The same is true for how we are to live in the life of God, the life of service and care for this world, the life that wants to call out life in others.

It has to be entered in to with wisdom, with buoyancy. With room for growth — as Paul closes this scripture section, talking about a whole body being nourished and held together, growing from God’s presence.

I long for our church to be this way, for our life together to have this kind of wisdom and buoyancy. I’m convinced that the way forward for God’s church, as we practice it here, is that we become more open, more flexible, more willing to hold the tension of the problems we face. The way of death will be rigidity, fear, closing in on ourselves, committing to old structures that may have helped at one point but now become engrained in such a way that they cause us to be immovable. The church of promise, the body of Christ of today and tomorrow, must be one nourished by the moving presence of God’s spirit, able to adapt and rethink and reawaken. A church alive, a church raised from baptism, a church of hope for a world that so deeply needs this kind of way as well.

May it be so here, among us.