Colossians

1:15-28 Building Bridges for the Gospel July 21, 2013 Preaching from Paul is not always easy for many reasons. First, unlike the other parts the New Testament, all of Paul's epistles were written to specific churches at specific times regarding specific issues. They were never intended for general circulation like the Gospels or the Epistles to Hebrews or James were. So before we can understand what Paul is actually saying we need to understand what the situation was at the specific church he was writing to. Usually there are many clues in the text of the letter itself, which helps us to understand that. One of the first things we should notice about this epistle is that it is very different in style and content from what we have read during the last two weeks. The story of Namaan and the servant girl, the story of Amos and the plumb line and the parable of the Good Samaritan were all narratives, or stories. They were about life events. They are grounded in our daily experience. That is typical of the way the Hebrews taught about God and our relation to God. They started with story, and then asked us to put ourselves back into that story to take spiritual insight from it. We are asked to have the faith of the serving girl, the wisdom to listen to Amos, and the compassion of the Good Samaritan. Today we enter into a very different world. It is one that the apostle Paul is uniquely able to enter. Paul was a Jew, well grounded in the Hebrew Scriptures, a Pharisee held in high regard by the Jewish community. He understood how the Jews looked at the world and God, and what their expectations for a Messiah were. But Paul truly had a foot in two worlds. He is often called Paul or Saul of Tarsus, his hometown. Tarsus was a Greek city in what is now the western part of Turkey. Historically, western Turkey was always a part of Greece. Paul had also been educated in the Greek schools of philosophy. So he understood not just how the Jewish world thinks, but he also understands how the Greek-speaking world thinks. They are not the same. And he is writing in the epistle to a church in Colossae, not that far from Tarsus, which had very few Jewish members. Therefore, we should not be surprised that the subject and the tone is very different from Amos or the Good Samaritan. Jesus personally called Paul on the road to Damascus to be a witness to the Gentile world. Paul had skills for doing this that the other 11 apostles did not. Paul knew how to explain the Gospel in ways that made sense to a Greek with a philosophical background. He does not give them a different Gospel, he just explains the Gospel in ways that will be receptive to their way of thinking.

Colossians 1:15-28 Building Bridges for the Gospel July 21, 2013 Paul often says that he is willing to become anybody or anything to further the Good News of Jesus Christ. He says he is willing to be a Jew to explain Christ to the Jews and to be a Greek to explain Christ to the Greeks. This willingness to reach across cultural lines is essential if you were going to do mission, and Paul was fantastic at it. In our day, the extraordinary growth of the Christian Church in Africa, Asia and parts of Latin America is occurring in part because the Gospel is no longer wrapped up inside of Western culture, but is freely explained in the culture and language of the local people. For example, when I was at training school back in May, we looked at a YouTube video from a black street rapper called Propaganda. Propaganda explained the Gospel using the same mannerisms, dress and musical style of the inner city streets, but it was the Gospel. I hope sometime soon we can have a screen and a projector up in worship so I can share this with you. Its the Gospel but with a hard edge that talks about the problems of life on the street, like crime, shootings, dysfunctional families, drugs etc. --and then he says Jesus is the answer to all of this. I also have a wonderful Christmas song from an Indian church, and if you listen to the music it sounds like Ravi Shankar. Occasionally you heard the words Jesus and Bethlehem which is the only way we as non-Hindi speakers would know that this song is specifically Christian. But it speaks to the people of India because it is their music, language, their culture and expresses what they need to take first steps to Christ. About 20 years ago before I first visited East Africa I read a book on the history of Christianity in Kenya and Tanzania. The first missionary to the interior of Tanzania was a German Lutheran called Johan Rebman, and he came in 1834. Rebman did all the correct things a missionary should do. He came to the people bringing gifts that would improve their agricultural productivity. He learned their language and tried to live among them and gain their trust. After a few months he spoke through the tribal chief at a council one night about Jesus. Being a good Lutheran, he explained how Jesus came and died to take away their sins and to set them right with God. When he finished the elders spoke among themselves and asked what is a sin? The concept of sin had no meaning in their culture. A few weeks later Rebman tried again. This time he said, God is good God who created everything, and God wants us as his children to be happy and to enjoy a relationship with him. Yes the elders said, we agree. That is why God created banana wine and when we come together as a tribe and drink banana wine we feel close to God. Clearly, this was not quite what Rebman was looking for. But about two months later a catastrophe struck the village. They were attacked by neighboring tribe and in the attack numerous men were killed and some women and children were dragged away into captivity. A few days later Rebman sat down with the chief and talked to him about the attack. We must attack them back in the

Colossians 1:15-28 Building Bridges for the Gospel July 21, 2013 next few days he said. Rebman noticed that his voice was not filled with anger but with fatigue and resignation. Why is this so? Rebman asked? Well, the chief replied the Odinga and we have been enemies since the days of the ancestors. They will attack us, and then we will attack them and kill some of their men and take some of their children and women and then they will come and do the same to us and so on. Where does it end? asked Rebman. It doesnt said the chief, this is how it is been since the days of the ancestors. Finally Rebman had the opening he was looking for. He taught them about a God who cared so much about the reconciliation between God and people and between people of different backgrounds that he sent his own son and his own son died so that those people could be reconciled. Then Rebman told the chief that same reconciliation and love is open to you and the Odinga. The following day Rebman and the chief walked unarmed into the Odinga Village and Rebman told their chief the story of Jesus Christ reconciling the world. The two tribes agreed to stop fighting and Rebman had his first Christian converts in Tanzania. We need to meet people where they are and with the pain and needs they have. If they are seeking, we need to explain Christ in a way that relates to their needs, not ours. That is what Paul is doing in the first part of the passage from Colossians. You see, the Greeks were looking for wisdom and sense in the universe, an overarching intelligence that guided the cosmos, but which also guided people. They called this the logos or the wisdom of God. The Greeks also believed that the spirit world was filled with angels and spirit beings that controlled our fates. If you remember those Greek tragedies we had to read in high school or college, people were always getting done in by the fates, or the gods, or gods messengers. People were pawns in the power plays of the spirit world. Paul does not insist the Greeks have to accept a Jewish understanding of the world first, before they can accept the Gospel. He meets them where they are and preaches Christ as the fulfillment of those spiritual and philosophical longings. Paul writes about Jesus in verses 15-17: He 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 powersall things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. This made perfect sense to an educated Greek. This is not the style or type of content of Jesus parables or the story of Amos, this is sweeping grand religious poetry that we can feel even in an English translation 2000 years later. Paul starts by telling them this wisdom, this order to the universe, this logos exists because Christ was with God in creation. Christ was not created, he pre-existed with God the Creator, and God the Creator accomplished creation through Christ. It is Christ who holds the world together, and he is above and

Colossians 1:15-28 Building Bridges for the Gospel July 21, 2013 beyond all those spirit beings, messengers, rulers on their thrones, etc. This person you seek in your philosophical schools in Jesus the Christ, God. After the Christ Hymn, as this passage is generally called, Paul brings it down to earth in daily life. He leaves Greek philosophy behind, now that he has made the link, and gets down to the points he really wants to make. Paul says in verses 21-23: And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel. Paul says, in plainer words, Christ reconciled you to God through his death and his resurrection, so understand that demands a new way of living on your part. Its time to put aside the way you lived before, and live a holy life, and hold strong to the faith without being blown around by all these Greek philosophies. Its the Gospel of Christ which brings you hope, not philosophical speculation. Did that philosophy ever really give answers? Didnt it just get you off track? Instead, remain firm in the faith that I, Paul, taught you. After all, for all my philosophical learning, I, Paul, serve the Gospel of Christ because thats the only place that lifes true answers can really be found. Paul in these verses moves from thought to experience. The Gospel has to be experienced to become real. The head knowledge can be a good beginning, but its the heart knowledge that changes us. And change in our lives is what Christ does, so live your lives as new people, as reflections of the new life you have in Christ. The Colossians were failing to do this, and thats the point Paul needs to make. Paul, the missionary, the cultural bridge builder, knows where to build links between himself and the Greeks, just like Propaganda does to urban black youth and Johan Rebman did to the people of East Africa. They begin by finding the common themes that address the needs the people have, by talking about what troubles them and how Christ, and Christs Church (which is us, by the way, we are part of this great adventure) can help. But once they establish the links, these Christian bridge builders then tell the age-old Gospel story, about a God who sent the most precious thing he had to lead people like you and me back to Himself. How his son came, died, and rose to life again so that we can rise to new life. That new life can bring us peace with our enemies, a hopeful future in a city filled with evil, or answers to the ultimate questions about life. This is just as important for us, here at Christ, today as if has ever been. When I was interviewed I was told you wanted to grow the Church, and as we look around we see a lot of empty spaces where people used to sit. But we need to ask why we want

Colossians 1:15-28 Building Bridges for the Gospel July 21, 2013 those seats filled? Because if it is so we can still have a church to minster to us, we are missing the point of todays three examples. Paul endured shipwreck, stonings and finally execution not because he had a quota to fill, but because he was so powerfully touched by his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus he could not keep it to himself. He was alive and on fire with the excitement of his encounter with Jesus. And you can bet Johan Rebman didnt leave the comfort of a pastors life in Germany because he thought the world needed more Lutherans. And as for Propaganda, well, he comes from a middle class black family where Mom and Dad are both professionals, and he has a university and a seminary degree. But he still goes into the streets of South Central LA because God is calling him to share something with kids there and he cant let it go. Somewhere each of us has had our own version of the road to Damascus experience, maybe not as dramatic as Paul, but something that made us say, I want to follow Jesus. Or maybe we are looking to have that experience in our lives. And when we have that we want to share it with others. We want new people to share that experience with and we want to join with them to then share it with others. We reach out to new members wherever they are, with whatever is their great need in life. And that leads to sharing our own experience of the risen Lord in our lives, like Paul did. Its always been that way. Blessed are the bridge builders, for they shall carry the Gospel to new people and new lands. Amen