I don't usually
write my sermons out in full but having written a summary of last week’s sermon
for a friend who was hospitalised, I have written a version of my sermon for 4 February 2018, based on Colossians 1:15-20.
Proverbs
8.1,22-31
Psalm
104.26-37
Colossians
1.15-20
John 1.1-14
“Why is there something rather than nothing?”
“What’s it all about?”
“How should we live?”
Today’s readings invite us to think about the big questions.
Do we find ourselves acting on impulse, taking one decision at the time without
letting those decisions flow from our understanding of what life is about? Thus
we might act as if “looking after number 1” is the most important thing in life
even though few of us really believe that it is, as becomes clear when we do take
a step back and look at a life as a whole.
I have never heard anyone say at a funeral or thanksgiving
service, “That guy really knew what life is about; he always looked after his
own best interests. Of course, he helped others as well, that’s part and parcel
of getting on in life, but at the end of the day he always knew that the most
important thing is to do what you like and to pay as little as possible for it.
What a man!”
What I have heard more than once is admiration for people
for whom nothing was to much. “He would do anything for anybody, without
complaining.” Or: “Our mum lived for us; she worked tirelessly to give us a
good life.” Do we hear an echo of the self-giving love of God here? Of course a
life lived for others is not unproblematic. Sometimes “living for number 1” has
merely shifted from an individual to one’s close family and so lacks openness
to the wider world. Sometimes those who are known to be there for everyone and
anyone end up so much reacting to others that the self (identity) that is doing
the giving is little discernible. Does then what many of us recognise as life
at its best, namely the love that finds expression in self-giving, by way of
balance need a bit of “looking after number 1” as an act of self-preservation?
In the Scriptures we read that true wisdom is found not in
such a balancing act but somewhere else. Not “looking after number 1” but
looking for/towards number 1 and the number 1 is identified in Paul’s letter to
the Colossians as Christ. It is he who is “to have first place in everything”
(v18b).
Why should Christ be the number 1 in everything? For starters (literally), he is “the firstborn of all
creation” – this doesn’t just refer to
temporal priority: Christ got every thing going: “in him all things...were
created” (v16). He is “the firstborn” in the way Jacob’s firstborn Reuben was
the beginning of a people, outstanding in dignity, outstanding in power
(Genesis 49:3). More than that, “all things have been created through him and
for him” – material things and spiritual powers (v16). Christ is not only the agent
of creation but also its purpose, not only the one who got it going but
also the end of everything. He is firstborn in the sense also of being the legitimate
heir of creation.
“He himself is before all things [in time and status] and in
him all things hold together.” (v17) Just as all that is physical is, in a
sense, held together by the four fundamental forces (gravity; electromagnetism;
weak and strong nuclear forces), so the whole universe, visible and invisible,
material and immaterial, is held together by the force and person that is
Christ. But many of those powers are in rebellion against the one
who is their Lord by right and therefore have become oppressive, enslaving and
tyrannising – which brings us to the next point.
Reading about Christ as “the head of the body, the church”
(v18) after all that was said about his central role for the universe may at
first seem a bit of an anti-climax. But it is not. Christ is also “the head of
the body, the church” as the founder of a new people, a resurrection people. He
is the head because all life in the new creation depends on him. Being “the firstborn from the dead” (v18) is
just as important as being “the firstborn of all creation” (v15). It tells us
that Christ is the first not only of the old creation but also of the new.
It is hard to imagine an event of greater significance for
the universe than the Big Bang, the very first event. There have been other important
events but without this first event there would be no universe. Maybe there is
only one event in the history of the universe that is fully equal in significance
to the Big Bang: the death of Christ on a cross and his resurrection. It is
shocking to think that what was, sadly, a fairly ordinary event at a particular
time in a half-forgotten corner of the Roman empire, not noticed by
contemporary chroniclers, should be seen of such great significance. But the
blood shed on the cross was the Big Bang of the new creation.
The church is not just a motley crew in pews, it is the new
humanity that belongs to the new creation. It consists of people who have been
reconciled to God, liberated from the rebellious forces that had enslaved us
(cf. 2:13-15). Humanity was designed to play a key role in ordering God’s
world. The reconciliation of humanity to God is therefore critical for the
restoration of all creation, for the establishment of complete harmony. We have
come under the spell of deadly powers and it is in Christ that all persons and
powers will make their peace with God, one way or another, either being
joyfully reconciled to their Creator or being disarmed and rendered harmless.
In Christ the rebellion will be overcome and the church is the place where the
reconciliation starts to work its way through every nook and cranny of the
universe.
How could Christ do it? Let us finally observe that Jesus is
not just made in the image of God like Adam; he is the image. We
sometimes speak of a divine spark in human lives; in Christ it’s not just a
spark, in him the fullness of God dwells – and God is delighted for that to be
the case. Christ reflects perfectly the character of God. The invisible God is
revealed to us in the person we know as Jesus of Nazareth. This is why he is
the one who must be first in old and new creation.
Why is there something rather than nothing? Because God wanted to express himself in a created
world. So what’s it all about? Reflecting God’s glorious goodness in God’s
world. How should we live then? With wisdom, centred on Christ, the perfect
image of God.
If Christ is the hub of the wheel of life, for both the old
and the renewed creation, as Scripture testifies, he deserves our full
allegiance – and not just ours but the allegiance of everyone. And he does not
only deserve it, allegiance to him is what will make us more truly human, one
decision at a time.
