Dec 5th 2021 | Advent & the Christ Hymn (2)

Intro & welcome | Happy December everyone

I’m really looking forward to sharing some of the work I’ve been doing over the past month or so, for our new teaching series, ‘Advent & the Christ Hymn’.

In my intro back on the 21st of November, I majored on the Advent part, so I won’t be going back over any of that today, but do listen back and reflect on how you could mark Advent this year.

My goal this morning is to start the process of digging deeper into a passage from Colossians chapter one which is called the ‘CHRIST HYMN’ and to help us do that, I want to do two things.

To start with, I want us to think about some of the background & context of the passage and then based on that, I want us to look at the first half of the ‘CHRIST HYMN’ (vs 15-17) & reflect on what that has to teach us.

But before we get going, let’s read the text again.

…………. Is going to come and do that for us.

Let’s pray.

One of the closing comments I made when I was doing my intro a few weeks ago, was that this passage is believed by many, to be one of the earliest Christian statements of faith there is. But this passage is more than just a doctrinal statement, vs1-14 are full of all kinds of prayerful, loving & understanding correspondence from Paul, which is then capped by vs15-20 and it’s worthwhile paying attention to that pastoral impulse.

And to help us do that we need to think about the context a bit more.

At the time this letter was being written, every city, town and village would have had local gods and goddesses, that they worshipped. And they believed that their worship of these god’s and goddesses, was a way of keeping their city friends, neighbours, crops, and families safe and protected.

The worldview being that these unpredictable gods needed to be kept on side, because if they weren’t, bad things could happen. An earthquake maybe, a flood, a famine or some great disease that might wipe you and all your loved ones out.

And there were a whole class of people, all kinds of different priests, whose job it was to say whether or not they were keeping the right festivals and offering the right kinds of sacrifices and hosting the right processions.

So, you can imagine, how big a deal it would have been, if in the midst of all that, for someone to start talking about another Lord, another God, the one true God who is the father of Jesus and that instead of worshipping all the other local Gods with their family, friends and neighbours, that they were only going to worship Jesus.

This would have created huge tension within communities, and we can be almost certain that this dynamic was part of what was challenging the church in Colossae.

But even that’s not quite the whole picture, in terms of background ..

In addition to all of the local philosophies, religion and politics, there was a wider force to navigate, ‘the power of Rome’.

Any Christian of this time would have had to face the almost literal presence of the emperor too, with statues of him everywhere looking down on you and your small life.

Another common worldview of this time was that the roman emperor was the real power on the block. After all it was His face on the coins jingling around in their pockets & purses.

All of that to say, these were not easy times to be different or to live away from what was assumed and expected by everyone around you.

And as a result it was not an easy time to be a follower of Jesus

(Sound familiar?)

Which brings us back to the specifics of text.

Knowing all that they were going through and the intense pressure they were under, Paul offers up the CHRIST HYMN as a way of carefully reminding them of who Jesus is and all that it means to be his people in the world.

So, if you’ve got the passage open in front of you, let jump in and turn our attention first, to v15.

The language here is absolutely stunning

v15 presents us with two key assertions about who Jesus is,

starting with this amazing sentence, “He is the ‘visible image of the invisible God’

The Greek word that Paul uses here for “image” is the word (ee-kon) which has two meanings.

The first is representation. Like when someone’s likeness appears on a coin, or when someone sees their own reflection in a mirror. There’s that sense of connection.

But the second meaning, the meaning inferred here in Colossians one, is that of manifestation, which speaks of when a symbol is more than just a symbol andbrings the very presence of the object it is representing, with it.

Let’s just press pause there for a moment, Jesus is the (ee-kon)

Central to the hope Paul holds out to these poor struggling Christians from Colossae, is that Jesus isn’t a copy or likeness of the divine,

just another version or option among all the other gods they know, he is the actual manifestation of God here in the world. God in the flesh.

The 2nd assertion Paul makes about Jesus here is that “He existed before anything else’.

The Greek word Paul uses here for ‘existed’ is Pro-to-to-cus which translates as ‘firstborn’, ‘highest in rank’ and of being ‘superior’.

And this sheds light for us, not just on the relationship Jesus has with the Father, but within that it expresses something of Jesus’ relationship to the universe. The (ee-kon) is here in the flesh and yet Pro-to-to-cus he is ‘otherly too….

These two key assertions about Jesus here in v15, speak powerfully of his work toward us as the one who manifests God to us.

And with that, it speaks of his work toward creation, and his prominence over it.

Which brings us to v16, let’s turn there…..

‘For in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.’

Paul uses three phrases here to describe even more of the meaning behind what he’s just said about Jesus in v15.

The translation I’ve just read from is the NRSV which describes the three phrases as ‘in him’ (16a), ‘through him’ (16b) and ‘for him’ (16b).

In English there’s a kind of repetition here, but in the Greek, each of these three key phrases expresses a different idea.

The first phrase ‘in him’, is an expression in the Greek that speaks about ‘Jesus’ sphere of influence and responsibility’.

The very basic point Paul is making here is that Jesus conceived of creation, as in, it was his idea that something else outside of the life of the trinity might exist. And the next phrase just builds on that idea.…..

The phrase ‘through him’, means that not only did Jesus conceive of creation but that it came to be through his power. He didn’t just will it to happen in the broadest sense but carried it out too.

And finally, then, Paul affirms that creation exists “for him.” Not only has Jesus ‘conceived of creation’, and ‘carried it out’ but in addition to this, Paul tells us that ‘Jesus is the goal of creation’.

The literal expression used here is “unto him”, which means that

everything that exists, whether in heaven or on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, powers, rulers, or authorities has been coded or designed to display his glory. There is no part of our universe in all its vast beauty and complexity, that is excluded from this reality.

Which brings us to the two part summary we find in v17

The 1st part of this summary features the phrase, “He existed before anything else”and the 2nd is “He holds all creation together.”

At first, because of the translation into English, the opening statement here seems like a repeat of some of the language used in v15, but that’s actually not the case.

The Greek word Paul uses here for ‘existed’ is ‘Ee-mee’, which means to ‘belong’ in a place, not simply to be present there, but to belong there.

These words don’t just point to Jesus’ pre-existence in the broadest sense, but the piece I really want to labour here is that ‘Ee-mee’, points us to the qualityor nature of that existence and that’s hugely significant for our thinking too.

These opening words about Jesus here in v17 want to tell us that creation is conceived of, brought into being and given its purpose, from a place of ‘belonging’.

This is a quick flash of insight into some Christian trinitarian geography.

Paul wants the Colossians to know that Jesus is no lone ranger, his whole life and purpose is tied to something much bigger than they could conceive of.

He moves and operates from a place of love and belonging, where, one with the Spirit & the Father, he is now actively pursuing and drawing all of creation back to into that love.

And the 2nd part of the summary here ties into that truth.

In fact the word Paul uses here for ‘holds’ is ‘cee-neese-tami’ which means to ‘stand with’ and ‘establish’.

The one through whom the world was made, is the same Jesus through whom the world is now being made whole again.

Revealing again, something else of the quality or nature of Jesus’ very existence.

One of the key messages here from Paul is that the Creator hasn’t forgotten his creation.

What a hugely helpful thought for a time like Advent too.

Love isn’t just an idea to God, it’s who he is, it’s how he operates.

He steps into time and space to redeem everything that has ever happened in time and space, as well as all that would every happen in time and space.

His heart is to ‘stand’ with us as he ‘establishes’ us, not leave us, forsake us or abandon us

He keeps his promises…. He finishes what he starts…..

These core truths are what lie at the beating heart of Christ Hymn.

And just like the first receivers of this message in Colossae, these words remind us that Jesus is an alternative to the dominant ways of the world, not a supplement to them.

These are words to live by, not just reach for when it suits or seems fair

We’ll talk about this in more detail next week, but these words remind us that Jesus is looking for a people who are willing to be a part of all he’s doing, to be filled with his presence & live for his purposes in the world.

Or as the theologian Karl Barth put it, willing to "set up in the world a new sign, which is radically dissimilar to the worlds own manner and which contradicts it in a way which is full of promise"?

Some of the questions we might want to reflect on through Advent are:

Are we willing to stand apart and be different?

Are we willing to embrace Jesus in all his fullness?

And are we willing to live for him in our day & culture?

Allowing these truth’s to shape our living & practice.

Let’s stand together.