In the flesh: the crazy idea of Christian truth ~ Colossians 2:6-15

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 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. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; 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. 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, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. ~ Colossians 2:6-15

Colossians is a book about truth and knowledge. Paul is preoccupied with these things in the church. He says that he has a desire to extol the “word of truth” vs. 1:6; that he desires and prays that they would be “filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,” vs. 1:9. He dismisses “plausible arguments” that deceive, vs. 2:4, and deceptive philosophies that take people captive, vs. 2:8.

But the most startling claim is the pronouncement in chapter two, verses two and three, that the “knowledge of God’s mystery . . . is Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” In Christ, he declares, “all the fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Truth, the Apostle declares, is a person.

So this isn’t some claim of 2+2=4 or the capital of Texas is Austin. It’s truth understood as intimacy and relationship with the One who created “all things visible and invisible” (1:16).  How do we know this God? Story of Dr. Ray Anderson and the first day of theology class. 

The object to be known determines the method of knowing. How do you get to know a person or a way of life? How do we come to know this One in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, who is truth? What method do we use? What is the quality of this relationship of truth?

          1.      Truth is carried by a community that has received Christ.

Paul begins our section with the claim that the church in Colossae has “received Christ Jesus”– Today many evangelicals use this phrase to mean “to become a Christian.” Believers receive Christ by accepting him into their hearts. That’s a nice sentiment. I am not suggesting, either, that it’s entirely wrong but that that’s not what the Apostle Paul is saying. He’s not talking about some fuzzy warm feeling about Jesus but the verb here in 2:6 “receive”, is a technical term taken over from Judaism which refers to the transmission of teaching from one person or generation to another. This connects directly to vs. 7 where we have the clause “as you were taught.” It is about learning the gospel story, understanding what Jesus has done, who Jesus is, and what Jesus taught, so that we are rooted, built up, established, and abounding in thanksgiving – the ongoing response to a life changing gift. It’s about learning about Jesus from others – from those who saw and heard him on the dusty roads of first century Palestine and from those who carry that story into the present.

Paul believed that the historical traditions about Jesus – that he himself received, c.f. 1 Cor. 15:3, what Jesus said and did, provided the foundation and the guidelines for the Colossians’ life as they must continue to do for us. He is the truth. It means to be rooted in the knowledge of a story that happened in time and space - that can be investigated, that welcomes all the tools of historical inquiry. It also means that the story of God is a historical vision that counters and challenges other stories, other philosophies. It means that what we know isn’t simply entrusted to experience but vigorous historical study and that knowledge isn’t simply about pastors but the whole church passing it on. For Paul, Jesus is the center of Christian doctrine and the Christian life. When we consider the wide variety of doctrinal issues and convictions, our beliefs and understandings must begin and take their shape from the life and teachings of Jesus as well as his death, burial and resurrection. It is no accident that in creeds, like the Apostles’ creed, the sections dealing with Christ are always the longest parts. Our beliefs and vision of Jesus provide meaning and content to all the other doctrines. He is, the whole NT declares, the self-disclosure of God in whom all the fullness of the God-head dwelled (Col. 1:19). All the doctrines of the Christian faith are related to Christ as spokes to the hub of a wheel. Paul makes the radical claim that we simply cannot talk about who God is, how we know God, what God is like, and what God wants with us without talking about God’s self-disclosure in Jesus Christ. So he doesn’t just show us the truth. He is the truth. How do I know who God is, what God thinks of me, what God wants from – I look at and listen to Jesus – this one talked about and shared by others.

It means bringing and knowing your Bible is an act of devotion not simply an acquisition of knowledge. It means that we need to unite together to teach our youth about Jesus because our faith is always something that we receive.

          2.      Truth is about a community that embodies the fullness of God

Knowing Jesus, then, is not simply a solitary, objective, dispassionate, investigation into the life of a Jewish man living in first century Palestine. It is interesting that Paul suggests that such truth is understood not so much by “plausible arguments” (2:4) but by a community of love, read vs. 2:2 – the community is “united in love so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself”. Truth, ingh the Christian sense, ties intimately to our commitment of fidelity to one another and our knowledge of Jesus ties not so much to personal devotion per se but to the commitment we have toward living it together. That’s why it’s important to remember that the “you” in our passage is not you singular but “you” plural referring to the church. Truth comes from the old English word troth – which finds its way in our word betrothal. That’s a vision of the kind of truth Paul is talking about. Parker Palmer puts it this way: “To know something or someone in truth is to enter troth with the known . . . to become betrothed, to engage the known with one’s whole self, an engagement one enters with attentiveness, care, and good will toward others. Christian truth, therefore, is both received and expressed corporately. It is incarnate in "his body" the church.

Greg Whitesides question – “Prove to me that God exists.” I told him that the claim of Christianity was far crazier than that and that the reality of God demanded a different way of knowing – “come to church with me,” I said. Paul makes the startling claim that not only is Jesus the fullness of God but that the church has also come to fullness in him. Moreover, he says, God made you alive. The truth of Jesus Christ – the fullness of God should be incarnated into a community which acts out the knowledge it has received toward one another and all of creation. It’sabout a people who are freed from the powers that seek to rule our lives, who act out the reality of what Jesus has done on their behalf.

Let’s be honest. Why do people leave the faith? They tend to abandon not because of intellectual problems with the Bible but because faith seems so irrelevant, judgmental, lacking in compassion or community. Because the community fails to reflect the startling claim that it has come to fullness in him, who is the head. What matters is not so much the “do nots” of religion, the power we might hold over society, but the astounding reality that God has made us alive together with him. 

Conclusion: truth is a community for Onesimus 

Paul has been arguing that the truth has been made known in Jesus Christ. He is the TRUTH – unapologetically, in its totality, and that he fills the church that faithfully roots itself in him. The truth, that is Christ, then incarnates, enfleshes in new relationships and exciting possibilities of forgiveness, love, acceptance, even challenge to the prevailing social order. It is the community that functions as God’s witness to the truth. And this truth challenges other philosophies, religious traditions even social and cultural practices. Nothing makes this more clear than Paul’s greeting and closing instructions. Go to 4:9: Onesimus, a runaway slave, has the honor of bringing Paul’s letter to the church and is commended as a “faithful and beloved brother.” The slave is now your brother. If Jesus forgives us, if the creator came into a world and dwelt among us, and died for our sins, then the slave is your brother. Paul writing to Onesimus’ former master writes in the book Philemon:

For this is perhaps why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. (Phil. 1:16). Let the word of Christ be “in the flesh” in your life today. Amen.

Missing Jesus: What Following Jesus is Not ~ Luke 9:51-62

New Revised Standard (NRSV)

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him;

53 but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

54 When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"

55 But he turned and rebuked them.

56 Then they went on to another village.

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

58 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."

59 To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

60 But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

61 Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home."

62 Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."~ Luke 9:51-62 It’s a series of fast paced vignettes about “following Jesus.” - biblical sound bites that whisk us from one drama to the next so fast that we’re left a bit breathless. When I read it through the first time my brain was doing a sort of, “But Jesus . . . can you just . . .  I don’t un . . . buh . . . if you would just wait . . . my legs are feeling a bit . . .” Yet Jesus races on, barely looking back. Luke’s vision of Jesus is one on the move toward Jerusalem – nothing will deter him, detain him, or stop him. Of course, we know it’s his death that motivates him. It’s in that movement toward the cross that our teaching happens. It’s important to remember that Jesus taught theology with death – his death – in view, vs. 51 tells us that he “set his face to go to Jerusalem”. Luke is borrowing from Isaiah who says that the One who would redeem Israel would “set his face like flint” (Isaiah 50:7). In another ancient translation of our text it says that Jesus “strengthened his face.” To do that is to remember what every athlete and dancer knows – that your body follows where you eyes go and that a focal point keeps you balanced and center when you are spinning. Sometimes, however, such hardening is more serious. When you realize the ship is going down – it’s neither kind nor helpful to have a tea party or sing kumbaya but simply to issue one sentence commands mindful that the time is short. These are words given while we race to the boarding gate or commands given by ER doctors for the wounded. Our text today reminds us that some of the most important theology is taught on the run, in the trenches, on the way, beside the road, on the lips of the one who knows his time is short. So grab your neighbors hand and hold on tight. There are some things we need to learn on the run about following Jesus.           1.      When it comes to following Jesus, rejection does not always mean wrath. The first vignette, vss. 52-56, is about the disciples. A Samaritan village rejects a request from Jesus for hospitality because the villagers did not want to to help him go to Jerusalem reflecting a dispute over which temple-city was the right one.  They had their own temple on Mount Gerizim and claimed that it was the original sanctuary. So they refuse to welcome Jesus and James and John are mad and ask to call judgment and fire down upon them. And Jesus rebukes them. The disciples, Jesus’ inner circle, are the first ones to miss “following” him. They believed their own self-righteousness allowed them to judge others, to act on Jesus’ behalf. They were wrong and that’s important for us. Can you remember that? Can you remember in your zeal and your love for Jesus – which I know is very sincere and apparent –that you will be and are a fallen follower? And when you reject Jesus – refuse to follow his way or fail to follow his teaching – be grateful that your rejection doesn’t have the final word. Can you remember that Jesus is not a dog that we can sic on people? Sic’em, Jesus! (and by the way, you’re not his dog either) which thankfully means that he won’t listen to others’ negative commands toward you.  It’s worth asking why Jesus is not upset by the Samaritans’ rejection. I believe it’s because we simply can’t know the fate of the rejecter and because Jesus always loves them – one of the biggest rejecters and prosecutors of the church wrote more of our Bible than any other writer – the Apostle Paul. And Samaria – Jesus will later command his followers to be witnesses in “Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” and in Acts ch. 8 – we learn that the early church’s evangelism was successful and that an enormous revival broke out among the very people who initially refused Jesus. But while you can’t know the fate of the rejecter you can know the fate of the follower who messes up – Jesus will turn, vs. 55. Do you get the power of that? This one who will not be thwarted, who raced to Jerusalem, who strengthened his face, will turn to look at you. He pays attention. And what will he do? He will “rebuke.” This word is used for the work of Scripture and the voice of God in the OT which accomplished God’s will. It was believed by many Jews that only God can “rebuke” – it is his prerogative bound with his condemnation of sin and offer of forgiveness. It is an act, in other words, of God’s loving faithfulness in the face of sinners. When we fail to follow, God still follows through!           2.      When it comes to following Jesus, romanticism and eagerness are not necessarily faithfulness. The second vignette, vss. 57-58, is about a willing volunteer. Here and in vs. 61 are the only places in the Gospel where someone volunteers to follow Jesus with no action taken on Jesus’ part (healing, exorcism, summons, etc.). Maybe he’s catching Jesus on the way to Jerusalem while he passes through a summer camp – there’s good music, inspirational talks, lots of fun and a feeling of community. He’s excited but Jesus senses something else - romance, an easy life. It’s still a fairly easy thing in the church to imagine Jesus’ life – the godly life – as a romantic life in which if we follow really well then life will go really well – we’ll be happy, fulfilled, liked, with a successful job, good marriage, excellent health, etc. What I love is that Jesus doesn’t tell this one who romantically declares his fidelity that he will have some hard nights, but responds that he himself has hard nights. The chosen One of God, the sinless one, the leader, suffers – he has no roof, he tells us, no bed, no home – he is vulnerable, despised, and homeless. I forget this truth every other day - forget that he talked about the cross in my life not simply his, forget that the spiritual masters always speak of the desert or dark night of the soul, forget that being a disciple places me constantly face-to-face with my own sin and suffering as well as those of others, forget that growing is a painful experience. I forget but on one memorable occasion I was reminded not by a believer, but by an atheist. Greg Whitesides illus. –(to hear the actual story visit www.mcchurch.org, click on the resources tab and then sermons)  Sitting in the computer room for history grad. students at UCSB– “Religion is for the weak,” Greg said – “for people who can’t handle life; who fold or hide when life gets tough.” And as I listened to his strident critique of the weak-willed, simple minded religious folk who use religion to save themselves from harsh realities, I found myself thrown back to some of the early Gospel teaching I heard as a child – “Come to Jesus and your life will be better.” “Jesus will meet every need. Only believe and you will find peace and joy.” And through his tirade and my own memories something shattered within me. The china cabinet of my romanticized Christian belief was tipped over allowing all of its contents to crash to the ground with an almost physical thump in my chest. Before I knew it I was standing over Greg – whose back was to me -  and shouting at him with bits of spit hurling through the air, “You think it’s easy to believe in a God that doesn’t always come when you call? That it’s easy to surrender your life to a God who demands obedience, hounds you at every turn, and yet who seems so silent. That it’s weak to try and love someone who has destroyed your life! You try it!, I screamed. Okay, not my finest moment. But Greg’s gift was to expose in me this terrible flaw that I believed I romantically earned God’s love, that I was a good follower, that God was some divine vending machine dolling out favors for those who had correct change. Do you know what happens when you toss that American, best-selling dime store romantic novel called Christianity: the Good Life for Good People into the fire? You will lose the starry-eyed vision of Christian prosperity but you will truly see the reality of grace.           3.      When it comes to following Jesus, family is not always a Christian virtue. The final two characters are the most difficult. I wish that they weren’t in there. One wants to bury his father, the other to say good-bye to family. These aren’t criminals, jerks, outrageous requests, or difficult tasks. And I told Jesus, ‘I’d take’em.” But he challenges them. It’s tempting to want to fill in something negative about these relationships – to soften their blow by contriving some explanation which will let us off the hook – a dysfunctional family, burial practices that make Jesus’ words less strident. Yet, the radicalness of Jesus’ words lies in his claim to priority over the best, not the worst, of human relationships. It’s interesting that Jesus never made the choice of following him a choice between himself and the devil but a choice between himself and fathers, families, and friends. I also want to recognize that there are plenty of people in this world for whom this is not an abstract dilemma. By following Jesus they have left everything. But now I have a confession to make. I looked back – part of me wants to say, “I didn’t mean to but the truer part says, “Yeah, you did.” What I am trying to say is that. “I am not fit for the kingdom.” I have done or assumed all of these things – these people are me. But these “failed followings” don’t stop Jesus. They don’t stop him from doing what he was sent to do. That’s the overall point of these vignettes. The NT speaks of two ways of following Jesus: imitation and participation. We need both. I imagine that you read this passage in that imitation mode thinking that this was about us doing better, trying harder, following more faithfully. But Luke wants to remind us that we will fail, we are these characters – all of us are not fit for the kingdom. When we talked about this in staff, Sheri Marcantonio rightly asked, “Where’s the love?” The love my friends is that you will fail but he did not. He has accomplished God’s work on our behalf. He followed God faithfully.  We curse our enemies. We want their death like James and John – Jesus blessed enemies on the cross and died for them. We romanticize faith – Jesus was often vilified, ridiculed, and marginalized. He was faithful when life fell in. We say our families are our number one priority – Jesus subordinated his good family to the needs of the kingdom. Friends, I have good news for you today! You are not fit for the kingdom but He is. Following Jesus is not about your performance but about his. Some of you need to confess that you’ve forgotten that. And some of you maybe want to confess for the first time that you need it – someone to act on your behalf.