Advent & The Christ Hymn (3) 12.12.21

Reading TEXT & Pray

My goal this morning as we close out our Advent & The Christ Hymn series, is to do some more digging into the passage ……… has just read for us again, and to help us do that, we need to do two things.

To start with, I want to do a brief recap on where we got to last week and using that as a bit of a launchpad, take some time to look at the second half of our reading and reflect on some of what we find there.

PAUSE

When biblical commentators write about the structure of The Christ Hymn they tend to use the language of stanza’s, like we might see in a poem we learned at school.

The first stanza, as we learned last week (vs15-17)is filled to capacity with all kinds of amazing and at times, complex language and imagery from OT books like Genesis & Exodus, as well as from the Psalms and proverbs.

Paul introduces us to the (Ee-kon), the true image or manifestation of God, the full character and purpose of God embodied in a human, Jesus. Who he tells us, is also the ‘firstborn’, Pro-to-to-cus, an OT phrase that talks about Jesus’ royal status over all of creation.

The one through whom all reality, all powers and authorities, spiritual and human are conceived of, carried out, and given their true purpose.

A central part of Paul’s message at this point, is that the Creator hasn’t forgotten his creation.

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.

Paul presents us with a stunning picture of Jesus as both the author and king of creation, who, with the Spirit & the Father, isdrawing all of creation back into the same love and belonging he himself lives and operates out of.

Which brings us to the second stanza.

This next section (vs18-20) begins with ANOTHERtwo statements about Jesus that sets the direction for the whole.

Let’s take it step by step, starting with v18.

The first statement about Jesus we find here, is that Paul calls him the (Kaa-pha-lee), in describing him as the head or founder of a new people.

(So-mah) is the Greek word used here for ‘body’ which brings with it the picture of a system of interconnected and interdependent organic parts all working together.

This is a metaphor we need to take really seriously.

The bottom line being that you can’t have a head without a body and likewise you can’t have a body without a head.

This is the holy soil into which the Colossians have been planted, the path they are called to journey on.

Paul wants them to know that they are joined to the head, to Jesus, joined to their (Kaa-pha-lee) and because of that, they are part of and caught up in all he is doing in the world.

As followers of Jesus, God’s people in the world, we become what Eugene Peterson calls, ‘conscious participants in holy mystery, (I just love that phrase), a people whose lives are given a new identity, the new identity of Jesus and his resurrection’.

This is so helpful for our thinking, especially at a time like Advent.

How do we discover what God is doing? Or discern where he is at work?

How might we cultivate our ability to listen well for his guidance?

How can we be conscious participants?

Church is not what we do, it is something God does and invites us to be part of.

Which brings us to the 2nd statement Paul makes about Jesus here in v18.

Paul writes that Jesus is the (Are-heee), he is ‘the beginning’, which translates as the ‘origin’ or ‘first cause’ (some language we’ll need to come back to).

He is ‘supreme over all’, the NLT goes on to say, or to quote the NRSV again, Jesus is ‘the firstborn from the dead’.

This language marks another significant shift in Paul’s message to the Colossians about Jesus’ identity, as well as their own and with that, all that God is doing in the world.

This is key to understanding more about what we have in front of us.

Just as creation depends on Jesus for its existence and order, we explored that in some detail last week while studying vs15 to 17

Paul also wants the Colossians to see, that the redemption of all things depends entirely on Jesus too.

And Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, is our starting point.

His resurrection is the ‘beginning’ of the end, the (Are-heee) I mentioned earlier, it is the first ‘bit’ of God’s new creation, like the tip of an iceberg or a blueprint for what a building will look like when it’s complete.

Or to change the analogy again, Jesus’ Resurrection is like the lid of a jigsaw that shows us what it’s going to look like when all the pieces come together at the end.

The focus of our attention as we start putting the pieces together now.

Paul’s point being: Look to Jesus and see what’s going to happen at the End, then you’ll know how to live in the present.

People who go to the end of a book first to see what happens, before reading it all the way through, will really like this about the Christ Hymn.

We have a few people in our house that do that, don’t we…girls.

It’s shocking and shameful, it’s no way to read a novel.

But this is exactly what Paul is encouraging the Colossians to do here.

The resurrectiondoesn’t just tell them something about Jesus’ identity, it shows them something about their own identity too.

They are a body with a head yes, but they are also a body with a newfound purpose.

This idea really helps us to engage what we see coming to the surface throughout the rest of the stanza and I want us to turn our attention to two words in particular as I wrap up.

The Greek word Paul uses for ‘Fullness’ in v19, ‘Plee-romah’means a ‘full measure’ or ‘completeness’.

The central idea again being that the Colossians are being encouraged that they now share in the ‘fullness’ of God that lives in Jesus (the head of the body), but as a result they are co-heirs and co-labourers with him.

Paul wants the Colossians to know that as ambassadors of Christ, his (So-mah), his body in the world, that they are called to be part of Jesus’ ‘Apo-kato-lasso’, his ministry of reconciliation.

The Colossian community is called to collaboratewith God in bringing every part of creation back into right relationship with him.

The author Paul Williams puts it this way:

Somehow, in the mystery and grace of God, the church as the body of Christ gets to participate(there’s that word again) in Christ’s headship and glory, we are to become the ‘fullness’ of him who fills everything, in every way.

The purpose of any local church, wherever it is, whether that’s in 55AD Colossae or in 21st century Dublin, is to join God in the renewal of all things.

What matters isn’t what we do, but that we do everything out of participation with God.

Step by step & year by year. Challenge by challenge, risk after risk.

These are incredibly insightful words for us as a church family too.

They touch on our longing to give ourselves to the same kind of redemptive participation Paul is talking to the Colossians about and to join in with all God is doing here on these streets, as well as in the lives of the people, we know and love, scattered all across the city this morning.

And so we find ourselves, just like the Colossians facing some pretty challenging and far reaching questions.

What does it mean for us to live in light of Jesus’ resurrection?

What does it look like to join God in what he is already doing?

How do we know where, when and how to participate?

I often hear friends talking romantically about the early church, saying things like, ‘Oh we just need to get back to the simplicity & purity of it all’.

But out of the fifteen churches named in the new testament, none are held out to us as ‘perfect examples’.

The overwhelming evidence from what we see here in Colossians and elsewhere is that they were simple ‘disciples in making’, living under all kinds of threat, while learning to live a new way that was as miraculous as the birth of their saviour.

In his book ‘Practicing Resurrection’ Eugene Peterson puts it like this:

God gave the miracle of congregation in the same way he gave us the miracle of Jesus, by the descent of the Dove.

The same Holy spirit that descended into the womb of Mary, is the same Spirit that fell on the collective spiritual womb of a group of friends gathered in the upper room at Pentecost. The first conception gave us Jesus, the second gave us church.

Paul’s account of the early church is totally devoid of glamor, celebrity and influence. He wrote these words to the church in Corinth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God’ (1 Cor. 1:26–9).

He still does.

The very same Spirit is here now today, to empower us to live the way set out for us here in the Christ hymn.

We are joined to Jesus, our head.

We are participants in holy mystery, wrapped up in the fullness of all God is doing in the world through Jesus.

We are a people of purpose, called to collaborate with him in his ministry of peace and reconciliation and the renewal of all things.

We are chosen, loved and filled with the Spirit to live as his people in the world.

And that’s where I’d like us to close.

By making ourselves available afresh, to be filled with the Spirit.

And given the discernment we need to live simply and honestly in a way that cause others to wonder.

Let’s stand.