Sermon: “Rooted and Built Up in Christ”

Text: Colossians 2:6-19

17^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

July 24, 2010

Scripture introduction.  This week’s second reading is from the second chapter of Colossians.  Last week I touched lightly on the question of who wrote Colossians.  Following about 60-65% of modern scholars, I offered my view that the letter was not written by the apostle Paul, but rather by one of his younger associates.  The images and arguments used in the letter are clearly related to the other letters of Paul, but they are different enough—often carrying further a point that Paul made elsewhere—to suggest that someone besides Paul wrote the letter.  In this introduction to today’s reading I want to ask and answer very briefly the question whether we should be troubled if someone else wrote Colossians.

If we are biblical literalists, we might indeed be troubled because several times in Colossians,[1] the author is said to be Paul.  In ancient times, however, and even in some modern cultures, it was quite acceptable to write something in the name of a person who was greatly admired.  For example, students who sought to preserve for their own time the memory and thought of their beloved teacher might write something in the name of their teacher.  It was a way of honoring the teacher, preserving the teachings, and even extending the teachings by applying them to current problems.  In many cases the readers would have known that the named teacher could not have written the work.  Because it was culturally accepted, they would not have been troubled in the least that someone was writing in the name of the teacher.  Because the letter to the Colossians is so clearly rooted in Paul’s original teachings and because its message to Christians is both comforting, challenging, and true to the Gospel, we should not be surprised that the letter was preserved by the early church and eventually was judged to be an indispensable part of the New Testament.

In this discussion it’s very important to affirm that Paul really existed.  There is no serious dispute about this.  Much of his story is told in the New Testament book of Acts.  Of the thirteen letters said to be by Paul, there is broad agreement that he wrote at least seven of them.  They are Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, First Thessalonians, and Philemon.  Beyond these seven, scholars debate whether he was the actual author.  About 50% of scholars believe that Second Thessalonians was written by Paul.  About 40% believe he wrote Colossians.  Ephesians, 20%.  Only about 5-10% of scholars think Paul wrote the so-called Pastoral Epistles—First and Second Timothy, and Titus.  There are a few very capable scholars who believe Paul wrote all thirteen; but they are in a very, very small minority.[2]

Yet all these books—all thirteen—are a part of the Bible.  They are there because the church—through the centuries—has recognized that they contain the Gospel message and that they are uniquely useful for the building up of the church in faith.  Who wrote them is not the issue; for indeed, all were inspired by the same author—the Holy Spirit.  If you are troubled by this discussion, please, let’s talk it over.

Sermon.  You all have seen those motivational posters in the offices of coaches, executives, and pastors.  These posters generally have a black background and on it is a beautiful photograph of a mountain peak or a huge wave or the like.  Just underneath the photograph will be a motivational thought—something like, “Aspire to Climb as High as You Can Dream.”  Recently I was browsing and came across a website called www.despair.com.  They offer what they call “de-motivational” posters.  The website provides the rationale:  “At Despair, Inc., we believe motivational products create unrealistic expectations, raising hopes only to dash them. That’s why we created our soul-crushingly depressing Demotivators® designs, so you can skip the delusions that motivational products induce and head straight for the disappointments that follow!”  The posters have the same black background and dramatic photographs, but the text is strictly de-motivational.  For example, the one entitled “Ambition” has a photograph of a threatening Grizzly bear poised over the path; the caption reads, “The journey of a thousand miles sometimes ends very, very badly.”  Another one has a picture of an archery target with two arrows in it, one splitting the other.  However, the arrows are in the outer ring, far from the bull’s-eye.  The text reads, “Consistency—It’s only a virtue if you’re not a screwup.”  There are over a hundred to choose from, and you can order them on a poster, a mousepad, or a coffee cup.  I couldn’t stop laughing.

As is so often the case, however, a good joke touches a deep anxiety.  There is a lot of despair in our world, and perhaps some of you would say that there is good reason for despair.  We are slowly, or quickly, depending on your perspective, killing the earth that gives us life.  The difference between rich and poor in our world and in our country is growing, not shrinking.  Diseases that we thought we had eradicated have returned in more pestilent forms.  Our economy is still sputtering, and job openings are scarce.  Six weeks ago the current war in Afghanistan became the longest war in United States history, and it shows no signs of winding down.  It seems harder each year to sustain cultural institutions like symphony orchestras.  The percentage of Americans who identify themselves as churchgoers is dropping each year.  Our budget for education is falling at a time when it needs to be increasing.  Hunger remains a problem in our country, which is one of the largest, if not the largest, food producers in the world.  And our major political parties can’t seem to cooperate meaningfully on any issue.

I looked for the quotation but could not find it; but I believe it was the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard who, in the early 1800s at the dawn of the modern age, declared “despair” to be the greatest sin.  Augustine had said it was “pride.”  Calvin said it was “unfaith.”  But Kierkegaard, perhaps sensing ahead of time what the modern age was about to bring upon us, thought it was despair.  Persons who are in the grips of despair are incapable of action.  For them nothing matters, and nothing can change, so why do anything?  Just scrabble along each day looking out for ourselves as best we can, waiting for the inevitable end of our lives, as we exit “not with a bang, but a whimper.”[3]  When human beings have lost their purpose and stop dreaming and working toward those dreams, we have stopped being human.  We are no longer the creatures whom God formed with his hands out of the dust of the earth and gave life with the breath of his spirit.  So long as we are immobilized by despair, evil has won.  No wonder Kierkegaard urged us to take the “leap of faith” and to claim our true humanity before God.

Friends, the Letter to the Colossians is a great antidote to despair.  If you feel that you are in danger of losing your purpose in life, if you worry that you cannot make a difference and that your life has no meaning, you need to take a big dose of Colossians.  Members of that ancient church were in danger of forgetting the basic Christian message.  They were at least dabbling with non-Christian ways of understanding the world.  They still paid attention to what were called the “elemental spirits of the universe.”  This term, having its origin in Stoic philosophy, was intended to suggest that our destinies are controlled not by God but by the material world, the elements of creation—the sun, moon, and stars and the spirits of earth, air, fire, and water.  Of course none of us really believe that now.  Horoscopes, I hope, hold no more sway than a crossword puzzle.  But if we are close to despair, we are dangerously near the conclusion that other things do control our lives.  I like the way that the Discipleship Study Bible[4] explains this term: “[The elemental spirits of the universe” are the forces that cause people to accept as truth or ‘the way things are’ what are in fact merely human social constructions (e.g., homelessness, the disparity between rich and poor, or the necessity of violence and domination to preserve peace and order).  Life in thrall of the elemental spirits means acceptance of fallen creation as normative.”

But the author of Colossians reminds us that we are not controlled by the elemental spirits, by the “way things are.”  For one thing, the fallen world has now been changed.  Jesus Christ, by his death and resurrection, has triumphed over sin and death.  In him the fullness of God dwelled physically in his body.  The governmental powers of the ancient world did their best to put him down, but he disarmed them.  He confronted head-on the systems that sought to control human beings—the rulers and authorities—and he made a public example of them.  They could not overcome him by their worst torture and execution.  He rose and is now loose in the world, continuing to redeem us from their powers.  So the world itself has been changed.  The elemental spirits of the universe no longer hold sway over our lives—not unless we give it to them.

But more than that, we ourselves have been changed.  Because we are alive in Christ, we have undergone a spiritual operation.  The part of us that holds us back from God’s purposes—and from our purpose—has been cut away.  We have been freed from it.  Death can have no hold on us because, through our baptism, we already have died to this world; and we have been raised to new life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  When we were dead in despair, God made us alive with Christ.  Even our own past can no longer hold us captive because whatever debts we had—our spiritual mortgage balance—has been erased, expunged, and forgiven, our legal obligations forever removed from us and nailed to the cross of Christ.

If we accept this reality, the message of Colossians, how can we despair?  Well, pastor, those are nice words; but is it true in the real world?  Can things really change, or are we forever stuck with “the way things are.”  Let me answer you with two examples.  One of them is all around you.  Downtown Terre Haute does not look like the same place that I came to five years ago.  The change happened because some people in downtown Terre Haute had a vision and the energy to make it come true.  They organized the mainstreet organization, Downtown Terre Haute, Inc., and that nonprofit group implemented their plans.  The executive director of that corporation was our own Andrew Conner, whose vision and skill has brought new life to downtown.  Even now, as we look outside our own newly renovated building, we can see the extension of the Arts Corridor coming down Seventh Street.  People in our church are practically “change experts.” 

Here’s another example.  Yesterday Terre Haute Ministries sponsored what we called a “Day of Blessing.”  The member churches—and we at Central are one of the main supporters of this organization—decided that we needed to show the community that we love them and the City of Terre Haute, that God loves them and the City.  We divided up into teams and began to do some cleaning.  Some worked on removing the graffiti.  Others cleaned out street drains.  Our group of four from Central picked up trash along the railroad track that goes down First Street.  Taking care of our world and especially the place where we live is important, and it did look a lot better after we collected four or five bags of trash.  But that’s not the most important thing that happened.  Many times while we were working, people stopped to thank us or to blow their horns in support of what we were doing.  For each one that expressed support, there must have been twenty more who saw our efforts.  We helped them understand the importance of keeping a clean city.  The elemental spirits of the universe, the “way things are” may suggest that cities will always be dirty; and we’d best accept it.  But each person who saw us on the road with our Terre Haute Ministries T-shirts and our trash bags now knows that things don’t have to be “the way they are.” 

As funny as they may be, we don’t need to reduce our expectations with de-motivational posters.  In fact, we don’t need motivational posters, either, because we have Colossians and the other books of scripture that—whoever their authors may be—tell the gospel story of faith, hope, and love.  According to that story, things can change.  We can change.  In Christ, everything has changed.  Do not despair.  Sink your roots deep into Christ’s love, and watch what will grow!