Colossians 1.15-28; Luke 10.38-end
Prayer - Lord Jesus we ask that you help us to know the full significance of who you are. Amen.
Well do you think of what Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Colosse? Do you understand its significance? Some confusion? Let’s unpack it by asking some questions.
Do you believe that Jesus is fully God?
Do you believe that through him all things were created?
Do you believe that he continues to act in the world, holding it all together?
Do you believe that God created us to know him but we are not perfect and through our imperfections we have broken that relationship?
Do you believe that Jesus, God himself, came to earth, and that God is revealed, is manifested through him?
Do you believe that Jesus, God himself, our creator, allowed himself to be killed on a cross and through that death we and all of creation, everything on earth and in heaven is reconciled, made right with God?
Do you believe that Jesus, by the Holy Spirit now lives in each one of us?
Do you believe that this message of salvation is for all people, no one is excluded from this offer from God?
If you answered yes to all of this questions, then you understand the extract from this letter. Job done.
Paul wrote it because many people did not answer yes to all these questions.
So let’s look at some of these in more detail.
How creative are you? Are you good at drawing or painting? Sculpture? Pottery? Carpentry? Needlework? Cooking perhaps? Got green fingers? Or maybe you love music and can play complex pieces with joy and ease. I do not consider myself artistically creative but I do enjoy a little drama especially when leading school worship. It gives me a lift, energises me, makes me feel alive and somehow complete. I wonder if any of you get a similar feeling when you are being creative? God is a creative God, and I believe that when we are being creative we draw closer to God, and become more real, more truly ourselves, with resultant emotions of more peace and more joy. Nurturing and expressing our creativity is an essential part of being human.
We can all be creative in various ways, and in that we are reflecting the creativity of God. But when God creates it is in a different realm to our creativity. We create using the physical resources that God has already placed on the earth. The book of Genesis talks of God creating the universe just by speaking. Our words do have actions, do have results and consequences, especially when done in intercessory prayer. But we cannot create a physical object from our speaking. But God can. I find that awesome. Between them the three persons of God: Father, Son - or the Word as he was known as, - the Holy Spirit, thought up a new creature, or plant, a new star, then spoke them into being. When I imagine this process I am struck by what I perceive as their delight in what they have created. I taught design and technology for 7 years and at home I still have some wooden artefacts which I enjoyed making and I smile when I see them. But explode this creativity into God making the intricate detail of an animal or of us human beings, and the beautiful interconnections of nature and it makes me think that the joy and delight that God has in creating us is beyond our imagination. It must be immense, and not just what we see but also the heavens and all the heavenly beings. He continues to act in and through his creation today. Constantly at work reconciling and redeeming, repairing and making whole.
And Paul wrote that Jesus Christ was part of that initial creative process and is active throughout the world today. See the first verses again:
“He, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers - all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Paul wrote these words to refute a gnostic belief that Jesus was not fully God, that he was not a key player in creating everything, that he is not the unique Son of God. This was hotly argued and Paul wanted to make the supremacy and divinity, the uniqueness of Jesus absolutely clear. We declare this in the Nicene Creed and maybe because the divinity of Jesus is so central to our faith, he warrants more description in the Nicene creed than God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. It is easier to think of a distant and unseen almighty being, even if we call him Father, than this same God becoming a human being. That is the sticking point for Jews and Muslims alike, who cannot fathom God becoming one of his creatures, namely a human being. God is too awesome for that. But in his incarnation Jesus is the perfect manifestation of God and also the manifestation of a perfect human being. He is our model to follow showing us how to connect to God the Father, how to live life to the full. Look at Jesus, become like him, know and receive God’s love for us through him. That is our purpose in life, our reason for being.
Paul goes on to push the point home, declaring that the fullness of God was in Jesus and that through him, God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of the cross. Not only is everything on earth reconciled through Jesus but also everything in heaven. Disobedient angels are reconciled through Jesus’ victory on the cross. Through the cross, we have assurance of forgiveness of sins. Salvation is a key part of our Christian faith. No other faith shares it and it is summed up in the words of Jesus: “ I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14.6. Such an amazing bold statement. We deny it at our peril.
So I return to my initial questions. If there are any questions that you are not sure of, any that you hesitate in saying yes to, then keep searching, keep asking, keep seeking Jesus. And in time you will know for yourself the sovereignty and uniqueness of Jesus, that Jesus was fully God, that he is our Lord and Saviour, and that he is always with us and will sustain us in all things, that he is the only way to the Father.
Amen.