Colossians 1:11-20 (NRSV)

Colossians 1:11-20 (NRSV)

¹¹May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled^* you^* to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.^*

The Supremacy of Christ

 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; ¹⁶for 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. ¹⁷He himself is before all things, and in^* him all things hold together. ¹⁸He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

My text this morning is written in Colossians 1:15: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation ...”

How are people to live in such a way that they get the most out of life? In his letter to the Colossians, Paul suggests that we need to be made strong because life sometimes requires us to endure difficult things and we need to be able to see them through to the end, especially if we are going to face injustices and wrongs. This is not all: Paul adds that we need to add joy to the process. Hunter comments: “The temper called for is no grey and close-lipped Stoicism which can only grin and bear it, but true Christian serenity which, born in suffering, meets the world with cheerfulness and abounds in thanksgiving.”

We see then that Paul adds to strength and joy the need to always be thankful – a central theme of all his writings. This thankfulness ought to be part of our lives because of God’s inestimable love shown to us in our redemption. Paul explains from verse 13:

“¹³He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.^*”

This is not something we have earned and it is not something we deserve, God has qualified us for this by His grace.

To live in such a way that we see meaning and purpose in our lives and how we can live with a sense of fulfilment therefore implies that our lives need to be in a state of constant transformation; a process that is dynamic and continuous. We need to do those things that enable us to gain strength. We need spiritual nourishment that comes from a regular study of Scripture, regular participation in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and daily to be found at the source of strength, in a time of quite reflection and prayer. In order to be made strong we need to be in the presence of God who can make us strong; in order to be able to endure and even find joy in all times of our lives, especially the difficult times, we need to be found in the presence of God, because we need to be rescued from the power of darkness and, to use Paul’s lovely image, we need to be transferred into the kingdom of light. Since the 1960s people have been told that you can be a Christian and never attend church. I would challenge this for unless we are found with God’s people, being nourished by the Word and Sacraments, we are in danger of dying spiritually, or only just surviving because we are trying to live on starvation rations.

Our salvation is not merely a future hope; it is a present blessing – we have been rescued from the power of darkness. I pause here because this is something that seems foreign to many modern people in the UK and Europe. For Paul, this kingdom of darkness was a realm full of sinister, superhuman forces menacing people’s lives, and Paul identified them with the Devil and his minions. But, as A M Hunter points out, we hardly use this sort of language anymore and we talk rather of people being in the grip of economic forces, things that can more easily be explained. But this does not make what Paul is saying an outmoded myth. Hunter continues: “We have begun again to talk of the ‘demonic’ in our world, as well they might who have seen with their own eyes the depths of devilry to which great nations can descend and the savage bestiality of men to their fellow men.” Is this not sadly most vivid at this time when we have remembered the horrors of war in our Remembrance Services? Is it not also true that the word ‘evil’ is being used more in law courts (and elsewhere) to describe some of the terrible things people are doing to others?

But Paul has stressed that we are no longer at the mercy of this kingdom of darkness because we have been transferred to the ‘kingdom of his beloved Son.’ This means that our sins have been forgiven; the chains that once bound us have been broken and we have been set free from our guilt. This is especially foreign in the minds of most in our society because, while they might have a renewed understanding of the notions of ‘evil’ and the ‘realms of darkness’ there is little awareness of personal sin.

A reason for this is that modern people tend to see sin as being only about “doing”. While it is true that there are actions that cause hurt and suffering to others and from which we need to repent, but it is more; sin is about “being”; it is because of who we are that we fail in our love for God and others. It is the selfishness that makes people think that we live in a vacuum, and that we do not need to care about the plight of others, that plunges one into darkness. I believe we in the west need to repent of our arrogance in thinking that we are so superior to others in the world; I think our bankers and their obscene bonuses are just an extreme example of the sickness that prevails. I have even heard those who vehemently condemn these bankers say that they would think differently if they were in receipt of such wealth.

Some people think life is all about getting, when it is meant to be all about giving. How many children are encouraged to be acquisitive because of the way we have allowed Christmas to lose its real focus of sacrifice and care and become something that plunges poor families into even greater debt because they do not want their children to feel left out? Even our economy is based on debt and spending and selfishness because at the core of capitalism is the notion that if you are looking after yourself first and foremost, you will indirectly be looking after others. I believe that too many still think that our current economic plight is the fault of others – like the bankers – “doing” and not the system itself – “being”.

The kingdom of darkness seems attractive because it does not appear to be darkness at all. It is like Plato’s allegory of the cave: because this is all people know, they seem quite contented with it and when one wants to show them the light, they rebel and reject it. But we have a duty of love to reveal the nature of the darkness and to show the world the kingdom of God’s son, not by dumbing things down, and trying to give people what they think they want, but by honestly speaking in a language that people understand and which reveals the world without Christ as it really is.

The joy of it all comes from knowing that the status quo is not what it has to be. It is also not that we are left to guess or experiment to try to find the secret, or achieve enlightenment or nirvana. The truth of God, humanity and human existence has been revealed to the world in Jesus Christ and is explained in our reading this morning. God has been made known to the world in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Verses 15-20 must rank as some of the most profound truths ever expressed and I never tire of reading them here and as they are expressed elsewhere, most notably Hebrews 1:3 which reads:

^“He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains^* all things by his powerful word.”

The NEB does really capture the essence of this truth in the most wonderful way, translating this verse as:

“… the Son who is the effulgence of God’s splendour and the stamp of God’s very being, and sustains the universe by his word of power …”

“Effulgence” refers to “shining brightly” and therefore more than a mere reflection, but more a highlighting of the nature of God. Jesus, the Son, is the perfect representation of God, the perfect revelation of who God really is – he is the visible likeness of the invisible God as the TEV translates it.

I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the nature and existence of God. As a teacher of philosophy, we explore the various arguments and ponder the imponderable. We define God and struggle to get our heads around “… that, than which nothing can be conceived or thought or even imagined …”

But God is not understood because this is impossible; it is impossible for our finite minds ever to understand the infinity of God – the truth of God is revealed. The infinite God, who is beyond our comprehension, became one of us and made Himself known to us – revealed Himself to the world - in the person of Jesus of Nazareth – the Messiah of God. This does not mean that that we do not have to grapple with this because we do; we do not turn our minds off as we enter Church and suspend our intellect – we leave it all on in fact we amplify all our senses. We know that we are not mere bodies and minds; we are souls and spirits as well, and in order to know truth we need to approach it with all that we are, and not mere compartments. The world seems to have lost sight that we are much more than mere rational minds alone.

As Barclay reminds us, salvation is not found through intellectual knowledge; it is rather redemption and the forgiveness of sins. We know through reason but we also know through faith; the one is not better than the other, they are just different, and both are vital. I believe that there are certain things that we will never understand using reason, no matter how human knowledge develops, simply because being human, our knowledge is going to be finite and flawed and imperfect; and ultimate truth is infinite and beyond our reach. Paul, in this passage acknowledges the mystery of God. Simply expressed: “To see what God is like, you must look at Jesus …”

This is most explicitly explained in claiming that it was Jesus who created the world and it is for Him that it is created and that He was before all things and in Him all things hold together.

Everything else is contingent –  which means it does not have to exist – but the only thing that has necessary existence is that which brought all contingent things into being – Jesus! Jesus ‘… holds all things together …’ because what we know as the laws of science which make sense of the universe are in fact an expression of the thought of God and are therefore divine laws.

I believe the essence of what it means to live is, to quote C S Lewis, ‘… to love and be loved …’ God is love – and this is always going to be non-cognitive and beyond rational explanation. What can be known has therefore been given a practical demonstration in the life teaching and ministry of Jesus. To make life full and meaningful, we need to be reconciled to God and to others. Paul puts everything into a nutshell in the last two verses of this passage where we read:

“¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

Many modern people really struggle with the last phrase: “… making peace through the blood of the cross …” To the modern reader the whole idea of Jesus’ death being a sacrifice seems bizarre. Why should that be necessary? Here again, Barclay provides some useful insight. He writes:

“In the death of Jesus, God is saying to us, ‘I love you like that. I love you enough to see my Son suffer and die for you. I love you enough to bear the Cross on my heart, if only it will win you to myself.’ … the Cross is the final proof of the love of God … If the Cross will not waken love and wonder in men’s hearts, nothing will.”

Now, as always, perhaps more than for many years, the world needs to hear the truth of salvation in Jesus, but not in language that they cannot identify with or understand, language that confronts head on the reality of modern existence and with it the challenge that it can be different, it can be better, it can be transformed, we can move from darkness into the light, because God has revealed the way in Jesus Christ our Lord for he is “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation ...”

Amen.