On Being Christian

Sermon Proper 12C Colossians 2:6-19

Paul starts today’s lesson with an incredible assumption: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord.” He assumes that all of those to whom his words are addressed are Christians; that they have “renounced the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the sinful desires of the flesh, so that they will not follow, nor be led by them.” He assumes that they “believe in Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that they have accepted him, and desire to follow Him as Saviour and Lord.” He begins with the understanding that his readers “Believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith , as contained in the Apostles’ Creed,” that they have “been baptized in this Faith,” and that they have purposed by God’s help to “obediently keep God’s holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of their lives.” It is a significant assumption, but it defines who we are expected to be, and how we are expected to live our lives.
Having established the identity of his readers, Saint Paul proceeds to encourage and admonish the believers at Colossae:
1. “Continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him“- Happy is that man or that woman whose foundation is Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith“. Bishop Berkley taught that if Christ ever stopped thinking of us, ever stopped loving us, ever stopped interceding for us for even a moment, we would cease to exist. This is the idea beyond his famous ontological proof of the existence of God, which has confused and frustrated undergraduates for centuries. Saint Paul must have had in mind those older teachings of the prophets which spoke of the day when all of the followers of God would be grafted into the tree of Jesse, that ancient ancestral stock of Israel from which was to spring forth a Messiah, who would redeem his people from their sins. Imagine the comfort God offers us by cutting us away from those roots of bitterness and addiction and pain and prejudice which have led to so much unhappiness throughout our lives, and grafting us into the pure, undefiled rootstock of grace and love which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. The prophets spoke of a day when the old hearts of stone would be taken out of us, and new hearts, tender hearts of love and purity would be put in their places and the law of God would be written on our hearts. In that day, no one of us would serve God or our neighbor because we had to, but rather we would do so because we wanted to. Our motives would be perfected, and we would find the true joy of living lives of love and compassion. That day is upon us as we draw our motivations and attitudes from Him, and we are built up into that Kingdom of our God in the here and now; and they will know we are Christians by our love.
2. The Apostle continues that we ought to be “established in the faith, just as you were taught.” But what is the faith that we have received? What is that common core of truth which has been believed by all Christians, at all places, and in all times? The skeptic might say, Surely there has never been such unity of belief. Certainly there has always been variety of practice and liberty in non-essentials, but where is there evidence of essential unity in the Early Christian community? And yet a careful study of the New testament, and of early church history shows that there is that core of faith which Bishop Lancelot Andrews said was characterized by “one Scripture, Two testaments, three Creeds, Four Ecumenical Councils, and five centuries.” There is a basic statement of our faith which we deny to the peril of our souls. We may never completely understand it, we may never fully appreciate it, but it is there, contained in the creed we repeat every Sunday and lived out in the Sacramental community of which we are a part. You see, God has revealed Himself to us in the books of nature and scripture. In nature, we see the benevolence of a loving creator who makes a world characterized by order and purpose, and says at the end of the day “behold, it is good.” The book of Scripture is the God inspired and God superintended record of the coming of the Christ into the world. In it we see clearly our need established, and God’s loving and merciful provision to meet all of our needs in Jesus Christ. Often, we are tempted to jettison the historic understanding of the people of God about how God shows his mercy to each of us, and to all of us. We imagine in our pride that our understandings and our judgments are wiser and better than those which have been shared by God’s covenant community of faith for the past 3,400 years. Such prideful arrogance is a heady liqueur which has led many to deny the faith received, imagining themselves to be some sort of new Solon or New Solomon. It is a deadly thing to do, to overthrow or ignore the wisdom of the ages, revealed in the books of Natural Science and the Revelation of Christ, and to imagine ourselves wiser than God Himself. It is the idolatry of our age, and of every age.
3. St. Paul’s next admonition perhaps provides the experiential basis for applying what we have learned today to every aspect of our lives. “abounding in thanksgiving.” Is a spirit of thankfulness evident in your life? Is you demeanor such that you are able to see God’s everyday mercies, and the evidences of his love in the midst of life’s vicissitudes and disappointments? Is your experience of God deep enough and regular enough that you sense his love in your family, your employment, and the laughter of friends? Are you able to find a sense of meaning, of purpose in your current situation and in the situations of those around you? Or are you so caught up in the negative events and attitudes of life that thanksgiving, and its companion- joy, has fled from your experience? God offers us that peace which passes all understanding. It is not the giddy false happiness of denial, but rather an abiding confidence that we are loved, and that even in the midst of a sinful and sometimes dangerous world, God is working through the bad as well as the good to perfect our character, and to make us more humane, more self-controlled, more responsible, and more heavenly. In short- he is getting us ready for heaven, and so building our character that others may know the reality of his presence among us. It is this holiness of life and outlook , this set apartness by God and for God which enables us to be thankful in the darkness as well as in the light. At its very heart is that faith which is the “substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.” It is that confidence that in all things God loves us, and that he is working out his purposes for all mankind in spite of our bad decisions, and through the agency of our good decisions. And for all of these things we can be thankful.
And so we who are signed with the cross, we who are marked as Christ’s own forever, are admonished to look to Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith, the developer of our motives, and the motivator of our deeds. We are called to embrace and practice the faith we have received, not thinking more of ourselves than we ought, and not imagining ourselves to be wiser than the community of faith through the ages. And finally, we are reminded to give thanks in all things, ever remembering that the God who made us and called us loves us as his very own. Through Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord. AMEN