Colossians 1 13-20 2004
Sunday of Fulfillment
Colossians 1: 13-20
November 21, 2004
“I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”
“Redeemed me Lost and condemned”
Introduction: A pastor met a young boy walking past his church. The boy was carrying a rusty cage with several birds inside it. They were nervously fluttering around. The pastor inquired of the boy, “son where did you get those birds?” “I trapped them out in a field”, the boy replied. “What are you going to do with them”, the pastor asked. The boy said, “I’m going to play with them and then when I’m done I guess I’ll feed them to and old cat that we have at home.” The pastor then offered to buy them. To this the boy exclaimed, “why would you want to do that, “they are just old ugly birds and they can‘t even sing very well. The pastor replied, “I will give you ten dollars for them.” “Okay” said the boy, “but you are making a bad deal. With that the pastor gave the boy his money and the boy skipped off whistling as he went his way. The pastor then took the cage through the church to the back door. There he opened the door to the wire cage. He then helped the struggling creatures out of the cage and helped them fly off into the blue sky.
In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the poet Maya Angelo describes her coming of age as an insecure black girl in the American South during the 1930s and subsequently in California during the 1940s. Maya’s parents divorce when she is only three years old and ship Maya and her older brother, to live with their paternal grandmother, in Arkansas. As young child, Maya struggled with the pain of having been rejected and abandoned by her parents. Maya also finds herself tormented by the belief that she is an ugly child who will never measure up to genteel, white girls. She does not feel equal to other black children. One Easter Sunday, Maya is unable to finish reciting a poem in church, and self-consciously feeling ridiculed and a failure, Maya races from the church crying, laughing, and wetting herself. People actually make fun of her to her face. Growing up in Arkansas, Maya faces a deep-seated southern racism. In the aftermath of these events, Maya endures the guilt and shame of having been sexually abused. Finally she runs away from home and becomes pregnant at sixteen. Maya Angelo knows what it is like to be a caged bird, ugly, despised and utterly without hope. Yet, through all the adversity she writes, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. “The free bird thinks of another breeze, and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own. But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams, his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream, his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.” The caged bird sings a song of life and hope for a future. We, too, can identify with the caged birds and with Maya Angelo.
I. We have been in the Devil’s cage. Like caged birds, we were all trapped in the Devil’s cage. Paul to the Colossians calls this cage the dominion of darkness. He writes, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. In this dominion of darkness there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. This darkness is darker than death or the pain that death causes. It is worse than being abandoned by our parents. It is worse than being rejected by society or being abused physically and mentally. It is worse than any human suffering or tragedy that we can suffer in this life. The Devil’s cage is a place for lost and condemned sinners to spend eternity where they will experience the wrath of God forever.
II. This was never God’s intention for us. God set up a Kingdom for us to Inherit. This kingdom is not a rusty cage with no way out. It is a kingdom of light where darkness does not exist. It is the kingdom of His Son. This is our rightful place, a kingdom and not a cage. This kingdom was set up for us from the beginning of time. It was prepared for us.
III. We lost our rightful place. Because sin entered into our world, because it entered into our lives, into our thoughts, words, and deeds, we suffer the consequence of the Devil’s cage. As a result no one was qualified to live in God’s kingdom. The sciptures say, “What sinner can see the face of God and live? There was not one righteous person. No. Not one. No one was worthy to enter the Son’s kingdom of light. Our sin’s trapped us in the cage of the Devil’s darkness. There was no escape for us.
Because of the Father’s love God set in motion His plan to rescue us and all people from the consequence of sin and to rescue us from the Devil’s cage. Though we did not deserve it He opens the door of death and gives us the wings of grace that we might fly to the kingdom of heaven. The Scriptures say, “He rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” God our Father brought us into His kingdom of light by redeeming us, by buying us back from the clenches of the Devil.
IV. Redemption means paying a Price. Jesus took our place in the Devils cage -- the cage of punishment, darkness and death. In our Gospel lesson for today Jesus hangs on the cross, “The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself…One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" That is precisely what Jesus was doing as he suffered shame and humiliation, as he suffered pain and death and as he suffered the ultimate abandonment of God Himself. The price that was paid was God’s only Son Jesus, who gave His own life for us. Jesus allowed Himself to be bound to free us from our sins that bound us to the dark cage. Jesus set us free from the valley of the shadow of death -- the darkness that knows not the light of God. By forgiving us of our sins we are free from our former life in the Devil‘s cage. We are like redeemed slaves, set from our old masters. As Luther wrote in the explanation to the second article of the Apostles creed, “He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own, and live under Him in His kingdom.
V. This is the faith that we confess. It was spoken by the thief that was crucified with Jesus. First he rebuked the other thief saying, “Don't you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Conclusion: Jesus has redeemed you a lost and condemned creature. You are free to serve Him in thanksgiving, doing what is pleasing to Him. You are free as birds to fly in the new life He has given you, to serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. Traditionally on this last Sunday of the church year we focus on the Lord who will come back in power to reward His faithful stewards, of whom He has left in charge of His kingdom. That kingdom has been ushered in. It came with power in might not in a burst of glory from the skies but with the cry, “It is finished from the cross. Here is where we see our glorious king ushering in His kingdom and freeing us from the cage of sin. The cross Christ opened the cage door of death sin and the devil. There He has truly made us free. That is why the caged bird sings. That is why we sing, “In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time. All the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime. When the sun of bliss is beaming light and love upon my way, from the cross the radiance streaming adds more luster to the day.