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Eighth Sunday After Pentecost
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt, July 10, 2016


So Where Do We Go from Here?

Text: Colossians 1:1–14

Last week as we gathered together to worship, we joined with thousands of other churches of various denominations and backgrounds to focus on praying to our God and King for forgiveness of our sins as individuals, churches and for our nation. We came together to acknowledge that across the nation we as Christians have neglected to stand up and proclaim the truth of the Word of God and reveal the healing power of the Holy Spirit to a severely broken people. For the most part Christians have merely gathered together to discuss the awful things happening in our world but have been remiss in praying for and challenging those things by getting involved in bringing the good news of the gospel message. As we have observed, all that is going on around our nation and the world, has clearly shown that we are in a time of crisis and the only hope for us is to turn back to God in repentance and faith but couple that with returning to lives of obedient service to God.

I found our time together in worship and prayers of repentance a time of refreshment and I felt the strong presence of the Holy Spirit all around us. Once again, I was reminded that our God is merciful and delights in restoring his people to right relationship with him. I love the words of assurance found in this morning’s Old Testament passage from Deuteronomy 30:

“The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Last Sunday afternoon I begin to pray that God would reveal to us how we should move forward as individuals and as a church. Certainly it is a wonderful thing to come to God by faith repenting for sin but how do we not repeat the same sins. The Bible is clear that repentance is not merely saying that we’re sorry but requires that we not repeat the same sins and this always requires a change of direction.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” The word that Paul uses here for repentance is metanoia and it means to change your mind. The repentance that Paul is speaking about here is not simply the initial repentance that must accompany true, saving faith but a continual turning from sin in the life of the believer. This should be a characteristic of every Christian, that he/she deals with the temptations and weaknesses that are a part of our human nature. There are times where our sin causes us grief but Paul is pointing us to the joy of turning away from sin and pursuing godly living that “leads to salvation without regret” as opposed to the world who also experiences grief over their sins but because they refuse to turn to Christ in repentance they only find eternal death.

So the question for us this morning is, how do we as individuals and as a local body of Christ live our lives to reveal the change and the hope that the gospel has brought into our lives? The events of the past few months show us that the battle is escalating and it has never been more important that those who are Christ followers become involved in the proclamation of the gospel in word and deed. People are afraid and many have lost hope, so what is our word to them? Do we really believe that Jesus is the answer to the problems of America and our world?

With this idea in mind I want us to briefly consider the Epistle reading from Colossians and the example given us in our gospel reading.

We just finished a series from the Book of Galatians and perhaps you will remember that Paul begins that book by re-establishing his apostolic authority. Even though the Galatians knew Paul because he was the one who had established the churches in the province of Galatia, his reputation had come under attack by the Judaizers who had come from Jerusalem.

In the Book of Colossians he begins with similar words, “Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God” to establish his apostolic authority over the church in Colossae. In this case his reasons are somewhat different because Paul had never visited the Colossian church; it was established and built by Epaphras, himself a Colossian, who had come to faith through the ministry of Paul while he was in Ephesus. Luke had noted in Acts 19:10 that Paul had debated daily with those in Ephesus in the Hall of Tyrannus,

“This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.”

Paul is letting them know that even though they have never met, it was through his labors in the power of God that they had come to hear the gospel message that he had brought to the Gentile nations. He is well aware that because they don’t know him personally they may be unwilling to listen to him and so he mentions that Timothy also is with him. Timothy may have been better known to the Gentile churches and the Colossians than was Paul, so he is trying to establish that Timothy was also supportive of the content of Paul’s letter to them.

I believe that this is an important point for us to consider as well. The issue of credibility is as important for us today as it was in Paul’s time. People listen to those that they feel they can trust and if we want to be able to speak into the lives of those around us then we must be able to let them know that we can be trusted. To do that we must be in the community and involved in the everyday affairs of it. We must be thinking and talking about ways to meet and build relationships with those who we would not normally have much contact with. In order to be able to speak the hope of Christ in their lives we often have to earn the right to speak to them. Paul is going to need to address some very serious issues with the church in Colossae and he knows that he must begin by establishing his authority as well as his love and pastoral concern. He had been able to write a strong letter of rebuke to the church in Galatia because he had a strong and fatherly relationship with them that he could build on but that wasn’t the case in Colossae.

After his introduction he begins with a warm and pastoral greeting,

“To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”

Paul begins his greeting by addressing those who have demonstrated that they have committed themselves to the message of the gospel and are faithful to the building up of the church in Colossae. Each of Paul’s letters begins with a reference to these two blessings from God. “Grace” means an undeserved act of kindness. Paul used this word more than any other New Testament writer and gave it tremendous theological significance. It refers to all that God has given us in Christ, none of which we have earned or can repay. “Peace” refers to the relationship that Christ’s death and resurrection have established between God and those who by faith believe the gospel. He is letting them know that he is assuming that they will be willing to honor his authority that Christ has given him because ultimately he and the church want the same things- the glory of Christ being revealed and salvation preached to the people.

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth..”

Paul is writing to the church in Colossae from his first imprisonment in Rome and Ephaphras is also under house arrest with Paul and shares with him the nature of the false teachings that threatened the Colossian church. In part this influence taught that the Colossian Christians should submit themselves to teachings about a variety of spiritual forces that needed to be placated through veneration (reverencing those forces), asceticism (denying oneself, like fasting) and the observance of special holy days. Paul is writing to assure them that God had already accepted them by virtue of their union with Jesus Christ. Just like the church in Galatia, the church in Colossae needed to know that salvation was solely to be found by faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. There is much discussion on the nature of the heresies that were plaguing the church and it has been suggested that the primary culprits were not outsiders coming in but more from pressure to conform to the beliefs and practices of their pagan and Jewish neighbors. They were being encouraged by outside sources to include other religious practices that would enhance their worship but Paul knew that these things would detract from their focus on God in Christ as the object of their worship.

Paul's writes a warm and gracious greeting of his readers as those he has heard from Epaphras are being transformed in Christ but he also intends to draw them together into a community for Christian witness. It’s vital that we see the importance of the parallel that Paul is showing between in Christ and "in Colosse” those who are faithful believers in Christ are also responsible citizens in Colosse, and the two worlds must never be separated. Their public witness to Christ in the town of Colosse must always reflect their participation with him in the power of God's salvation. In drawing this parallel, Paul has the Colossian conflict in mind, for this congregation of saints is struggling to fully understand their life in Christ and how this impacts their life in Colosse. In fact, their religious observance tends toward moral asceticism and spiritual mysticism, which actually becomes more of an individual religious experience and tends to disconnect them from the world around them and rather than revealing Jesus to the citizens, they had begun to practice a religion that was largely irrelevant to unbelievers in Colosse. Paul is calling them to remember how wonderful it had been to hear from Epaphras of the hope that was found in Jesus Christ.

We must be careful that our commitment to denominational affiliation and practice does not ostracize us from even the rest of the Christian community. I love our Anglican traditions and way of coming to worship but we must be careful because too often denominational affiliations become a dividing influence between Christians. We think in terms of “I’m Baptist or Methodist or Presbyterian or I’m Anglican. Paul knew that the growth of the church in Colossae depended on the focus being on revealing the gospel to all within the community without regard for any other affiliations.

He is exhorting the Colossian believers to not forget the truth that had been taught them because it was this truth that was “indeed in the whole world bearing fruit and increasing”. There could not be a more important word for us today as we face a divided world, country and even world-wide church. As we prayed together last week, we did so with the knowledge that we were joining with thousands of other churches all across denominational lines and backgrounds. Our approach was that we needed to join together as the people of God, an army of faith comprised of warriors who were armed with the weapons of prayer and the Spirit of God not with theological purity and dogmatism.

There are just some things that are essential to the Christian faith and we remind ourselves of these things weekly in the reciting of the Nicene or the Apostles Creeds. There are many areas where we may differ with other Christians but we must not allow them to separate us if they are not essential to the Christian faith. We must join together in the unity of the Holy Spirit because I think most of us realize that our world is imploding due to the power of the forces of evil that are moving unrestrained across our lands. So what do we do? Do we throw up our hands in despair and give in to depression and fear? May God forbid?

Last week we started with prayer and repentance and we will continue to do so fervently. For 6 months we have been meeting every Wednesday at 11 am here at the church to pray for God to move in our midst and do whatever he wants in a through us. We usually have between 14–20 weekly and I am very grateful for that It is a powerful time and I think everyone agrees that it is growing in intensity. I know there are some of you that can’t make it on Wednesday morning and I understand that, so beginning this week we will also be meeting on Wednesday nights at 7pm to again invite God to raise us up and use us for his glory.

I believe that prayer is where we should always begin but there is also the call to service and evangelism. This morning’s gospel reading from Luke 10:25–37, The Parable of the Good Samaritan, is a perfect example that Jesus gave of how we live before those in the community. We live to reveal the love of Christ by sacrificially giving of our time and resources to meet the need of those around us.

Let’s briefly look again at a portion of the parable:

“And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.”

This is a very well-known parable and I don’t need to spend a lot of time on it this morning, although it is very rich when you break it down. I just want to point out a few things as they apply to our discussion this morning.

In answering the lawyers question on how to inherit eternal life Jesus points him to the written word of God. The man understood that all the law and the prophets could be summed up in two commandments, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus’ response was that if he could do this correctly he would live. Basically, if you can perfectly love God and your neighbor you’ll live but who can pull this off?

The man still wanted to find a way to show that he was righteous and so he wanted further clarification as to who qualifies as “my neighbor”. In the parable I think that the lawyer and the crowd would have expected a priest and a Levite to be followed by a layman of Israel, kind of an anti-clerical story to embarrass the lawyer and the religious leaders standing around. The inclusion of a Samaritan, who were hated by Jews, and one who showed such kindness and consideration would have been totally unexpected. In the story Jesus has the Samaritan carefully clean and sanitize the wounds of the wounded Jewish traveler and then he takes him on his own animal to an Inn and cares for him that night. The next day he gives the innkeeper 2 denarii which would have provided lodging for approximately two months, plus he guarantees that if any other expenses are involved he would take care of them when he returned. In this parable Jesus shows his heart for even those who considered him their enemy.

In essence he is telling the lawyer, everyone is your neighbor and if you really want to keep the law, then you will live your life for the glory of God and the benefit of your neighbor. The Samaritan met every need that the man had and allowed himself to be inconvenienced and possibly taken advantage of and Jesus gave him as our example of loving our neighbor.

Our Colossian passage this morning closes out with this prayer of Paul for the Colossians and I want to end with this as our motivation to.

“so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Paul wants the Colossian church to live into what has been given to them in Christ and not to try and add religious practices that will distract them. Those things would not pour into them the power of the Holy Spirit and give them the joy and patience that they were going to need to build God’s kingdom. They should rather seek to know more and more knowledge of who Jesus really is and work diligently to serve faithfully the God who had brought them out of darkness into the light of Christ. By living like this they not only were forgiven of their sins but they would inherit the kingdom of God and all its power and blessings!

My prayer for myself and for you is that we would catch the same vision as Paul was casting to the Colossians and turn and ask God to make us into a congregation that loves the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loves their neighbor as ourselves. If God answers that prayer in us, I wonder what could happen here and all around us? I really want to find out.

©2016 Rev. Mike Moffitt

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