Bloomsbury
Central Baptist Church
Easter
Day, 20th April 2014, 11.00am
Colossians
3:1-4 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek
the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of
God. 2 Set your minds on
things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life
is hidden with Christ in God. 4
When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with
him in glory.
Daniel
7:9-14
As
I watched,
thrones were set in place,
and an Ancient One took his throne,
his
clothing was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his
throne was fiery flames,
and its wheels were burning fire.
[10] A stream of fire issued
and flowed out from his presence.
A
thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him.
The
court sat in judgment,
and the books were opened.
[13]
As I watched in the night visions,
I
saw one like a human being
coming with the clouds of heaven.
And
he came to the Ancient One
and was presented before him.
[14] To him was given dominion
and glory and kingship,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him.
His
dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not pass away,
and
his kingship is one
that shall never be destroyed.
Historians will tell us
that
in order to understand the present
we
have to have an understanding
of
the past,
and that this is why it’ so important
to
study history.
because, they will say,
it’s only through
the study of where we have come from
that
we will truly understand where we are now
And despite those who might echo Henry Ford’s
assertion
that
‘History is Bunk,
nevertheless, I think that there is some
truth in this…
after
all, none of us live in a vacuum,
isolated
from all that has gone before.
Rather, we are, each of us, the sum of our
past,
and
the way we understand ourselves
is
informed by where we have come from.
Of course, this doesn’t mean
that we are
necessarily condemned by our past
into certain courses of action
or certain ways of living.
Each of us has some choice as to what life we
will construct
with
the building blocks of our history
as
they have been handed to us
But the raw materials of who we are
come
from the past,
and to properly understand who we are today
we
need a proper understanding of our history.
For example, there are too many of us
who spend our adult
lives
weighed down with
low self esteem,
seeming
utterly unable to shed
our feelings of
poor self-worth.
But it may well be that such a person,
if helped to
journey back into their memories of their past,
might
discover events which have contributed to
their ongoing
experience of crippling self-doubt.
Of course, an understanding of our history
doesn’t
automatically solve the problems of our present.
However, it can at least provide us with some
insight
with
which to work as we try to re-build our lives differently.
Sometimes people will speak of their
experience of therapy
as
analogous to a rearranging of the pieces
of
the jigsaw that makes up the picture of their history.
Taking the events of the past and fitting
them together in new ways,
to
see if greater sense can be made of their experience of the present.
And so I could go on, giving other examples
of
how it’s important to understand the past
in
order to properly understand the present,
not only at a personal level,
but
also at a communal level,
as
we seek to understand the communities of which we are a part,
whether
they be churches, families, or even nations.
And it seems that Paul, in his letter to the
Colossian church,
written
nearly 2000 years ago
had
a similar insight.
In this letter, Paul starts off by seeking to
remind the Colossians
where
they have come from,
in order that they can better understand
their present.
In our reading today, from the beginning of
chapter three,
we’re
joining Paul about half-way through the letter,
and we’re skipping over the bit where he reminds
them
that
they used to be people
who lived lives directed and
controlled
by earthly desires and passions.
In the opening two chapters,
he
reminds his readers
that
they used to be people
who
were weighed down by their actions
and
distant from God
And, above these things,
Paul
also reminds them
that
through their faith in Jesus Christ
they
have died to this old way of life.
Just listen to these few verses from Chapter
2
God set all your sin aside, nailing it to the cross
(v.14)
Therefore do not let anyone condemn you… (v.16)
do not let
anyone disqualify you… (v.18)
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the
universe,
why do you
live as if you still belonged to the world? (v.20)
Do you see what Paul is doing here?
he’s
trying to help the Colossians understand where they have come from
so
that they can better understand their present situation.
He’s trying to show them that they were once a people
who
lived by the world’s rules
But that since turning to Jesus they have died to that way of living
and
that therefore in the present
they should not be living as people
who
are ruled by the things of this world,
but
rather as people who live in obedience to the things of Christ.
Through the second chapter,
Paul has been trying to free his readers
from
the legalistic religion and damaging philosophies
that
they had inherited,
by reminding them of the truth of the gospel
they have received,
and
of the effect that the good news about Jesus
has
already brought about in their lives.
But just in case they haven’t got the point,
Paul
tries a different tack in the short passage
that
the lectionary takes us to this morning:.
In the first four verses of chapter three,
Paul
doesn’t point them to the past
to help them live properly in the
present.
Rather, he turns it around
and
says that his friends can only truly understand where they are now
if
they have an understanding of where they’re going.
Listen again to how he puts it…
Col. 3:1-4 NRSV
So
if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where
Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things that
are above, not on things that are on earth, [3] for you have died, and your
life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ who is your life is
revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
Up until this point in the letter, Paul has
been concentrating on the negative…
he
has been saying, in essence,
that
the Colossian Christians should try and get a handle
on
the fact that they have died to their old selves,
and
that this means that they have also died
to
certain ways of behaviour
which are no longer
acceptable
in
the light of the change that Christ
has
brought about in their lives.
Well, if in chapters 1 and 2 Paul has been
concentrating on the negative
here
in chapter 3 he begins to show the positive alternative
Rather that saying “Don’t live like that”
Paul
starts to say “Do live like this”
The dominant image which Paul had been working
with
when
he was looking at the past
was
that the Colossians had died with Christ
to
their old way of living
It was, if you like, a very ‘good Friday’ way
of thinking,
focussing
on the significance of the death of
Jesus for the Colossians.
But here in chapter three
where
Paul starts to look to the future,
the
dominant image changes
and
becomes the fact that they have been raised
with Christ
to
a new way of living:
he moves from good Friday and the crucifixion,
to
Easter day and the resurrection.
And so the positive, future orientated way of
living
that
Paul starts to put forwards here
is
one that is rooted in the resurrection of Christ.
Now, of course, you can’t have resurrection
without death
so
it was appropriate for Paul to spend the first couple of chapters of his letter
showing the Colossians
that they are free from their old ways
of living
through their unity with Christ in his
death.
But what it’s important to get hold of here
is
that dying to our old selves
is not the whole of the gospel of
Jesus Christ
-
because it misses out the resurrection.
I worry about some of the attempts to present
the Christian gospel
that
I have heard some people putting a lot of store by
I’m sure you know the kind of thing I mean…
The evangelist starts off by highlighting the
nature of sin
and
showing how it can wreck lives
and
weigh us down with guilt
Then he goes to say that sin also separates
us from a God who loves us
and
that it prevents us having a relationship
with
the perfect God in whom there is nothing sinful.
So, the evangelist asks, is there any way
of crossing this
sin-induced divide
that exists between
us sinful humans and the God of love?
Of course there is!
explains
the preacher…
The bridge is crossed by the sacrificial
death of Jesus on the cross
because
when Jesus, God’s son, the perfect human being
died
unnecessarily on the cross
he
took to the grave with him
all
the burden and consequences
of
all the wrong things we have ever done wrong
and
therefore we can be united with Christ in his death
and
our sins can be lifted from us
and
our relationship with God can be restored
and
we can be free to stop living our old lives
and
start living as the children of God
Which is, of course, all very well and good.
But
it is not, according to Paul, the whole story.
That kind of presentation of the Gospel
is
a gospel based on chapter two of Colossians,
without
going on to include the insights of chapter three.
It is a presentation of the gospel
which
is focussed entirely on the events of the past.
It’s a negative gospel,
based
on what we once were
and
what we are not any more.
It is also a very contractual understanding of the gospel,
based
on who is going to pay for what and how
and
who is going to take whose punishment.
It is, as I said, a very ‘Good Friday’
understanding of the Gospel.
All very logical, all very neat
but,
in and of itself, lacking something.
And what it lacks, and this is why I worry
about it,
is
any mention of the resurrection.
It is a gospel that is stuck at Good Friday
without
moving forwards two days to Easter Sunday.
And any presentation of the gospel
which
is informed entirely by the death of Christ,
but
which doesn’t need to mention the resurrection,
is
only telling half the story.
Because it is only in the re-creative and
disruptive act of the resurrection
that
the way is opened for us to start living the new life in Christ.
The death and resurrection of Jesus
are
two sides of the same coin
and
you can’t have one without the other
The message of the cross, without the
resurrection,
is
not gospel, it is not good news.
It is, at best, a mechanism
for
addressing the consequences of human sinfulness.
And a call to embrace the implications of the
cross,
without
a call to also embrace
the
implications of the resurrection,
is,
frankly, inadequate.
Because the good news of Jesus
isn’t
just about what we have died to,
it’s not just about our old way of
life,
rather,
it is also about what we have been raised
to
it’s about our new way of life.
And, as I said, I worry
that in a desire to appear logical and
easily comprehensible,
some of those who offer an explanation for
the Christian faith
are
actually only telling half of the story.
And so we end up with death-focussed
Christians,
who
remain blind to life-giving power of the resurrection.
I am concerned
that
evangelical Christianity’s obsession
with the substitutionary
death of Jesus
has
crowded out the life-giving gospel of resurrection.
And this worries me profoundly,
because
I do genuinely believe that without resurrection,
we
have no good news to proclaim…
All we have, if we have no resurrection,
is
a deal to explain.
If our understanding of the gospel
is
predicated on the death of Jesus on the cross
then
it’s not good news we’re proclaiming
it’s a legal deal we’re explaining.
Do you get my point?
Christ is
not simply an historical figure
whose
writings we can study
and
whose death we can commemorate
as
we share bread and wine in remembrance of him.
Rather: Christ is risen, he is alive.
and
is exalted to the right hand of God in heaven.
In our reading earlier from the book of
Daniel,
written
a couple of hundred years before the time of Jesus
we heard part of Daniel’s apocalyptic vision
of heaven,
as
he turned his eyes away from the earth
to
catch a glimpse of the heavenly realm.
And what Daniel saw in his vision
was
‘one like a human being’
standing
in heaven before the throne of God.
It’s this image that Paul has in mind,
when
he offers his own vision to the Colossians,
of
Christ, seated at the
right hand of God.
From an
earthly perspective,
it might appear that Christ is in his
tomb,
and the god-emperor of Rome in
enthroned over all.
But the
visionary perspective
is that Christ is raised,
and is enthroned above all earthly
powers and dominions.
The tragedy is that so many of us live most
of our lives
as
if Christ were not raised and exalted
For goodness sakes, we even present the
gospel of Christ
in
ways which don’t require him to be raised and exalted.
And, perhaps worse, when we do turn our attention to the
resurrection
we
can end up in danger of reducing it
to
some kind of divine publicity stunt
whose
purpose is simply to validate
the real work of God
which
is Christ’s death on the cross.
After all, some might say, how would we know
about the cross
if Jesus had not been raised?
Perhaps
this is where the resurrection fits?
Perhaps
it’s God’s way of letting the world know
that the cross was effective?
Is that right?
Not that’s NOT right. It might be compelling.
It
might be easy to understand.
It
might even by logical, after a fashion.
But it’s NOT right.
Paul wants his readers to lift their eyes
from the earth for a moment,
and
to focus above the horizon of heaven
to
catch a glimpse of the raised and exalted Christ.
Paul wants Christian believers to
re-orientate their lives
so
that who they are is not determined
by the events of the past,
but
rather, is determined by the lived reality of resurrection.
Paul says, in effect:
stop
looking backwards,
and start looking forwards.
Stop
looking down,
and start looking up.
And so he presented the Colossian Christians with
two alternatives
Either they could live lives firmly rooted to
the ground
looking
no higher than the satisfaction of their physical appetites
and
the social manipulations of power and influence.
Of they could start living with an eye on
heaven
discovering
a way of living
which
takes it’s starting point from a vision of the risen Christ
exalted
to the right hand of God
And we have the same choice.
Are we going to live our lives, even our
faithful Christian lives,
whilst
never lifting our eyes above the horizon?
Are we going to be forever concerned with the
things of the past?
forever occupied with the battles of
the present?
Are
we going to let the powers that be determine our identity?
Paul encouraged his readers
to
be a people whose spirituality
was
marked not simply by an appreciation of the cross
but by a total devotion to the resurrected Christ
who
is enthroned above all other powers.
In Colossae
taking
hold in the church
There were those who were peddling a
legalistically-based religion
of
“do this” “do that” and “do the other”s!
And these false teachers were trying to
persuade the Christians
that
if they wanted to get close to God
then
they needed to do certain things
to
bring that relationship about
And Paul’s way of countering this
was
to take the believers back to the heart of their faith
He reminded them that they had died with Christ
to
their old way of living,
and that they have been raised with Christ
to
a new way of living.
So therefore they needed no bolt-on extras to
the Gospel
because
the good news of a resurrected Christ
is
complete and sufficient in its own right
It’s only if
we present a half-gospel
of
a crucified Christ,
but with an inadequate understanding
of the resurrection,
that we need the extra’s
that
the modern day equivalents to the Colossian false teachers
will
try to peddle.
And I have to say that these false teachers
are just as prevalent today,
peddling
gospels of quick-fix Christianity
and
feel-good spirituality
selling
gospels of prosperity
and healing for all who believe.
These are the false teachings of our day
and
we are susceptible to them
when
we lose sight of resurrection.
But when we orientate our lives to Christ,
raised
and exalted above all powers,
then we gain the perspective of heaven
on
the way we live our lives from day to day,
in
the world of the everyday.
We still have to live in the real world
but
lives lived in the light of resurrection
are
lives lived out of a hidden resource,
as
we discover our still centre with Christ in God.
And so we find ourselves at the Baptismal
pool,
dying
and rising with Christ,
leaving the old behind,
and
learning to live with our eyes fixed above the horizon,
as
we learn to live out the reality of resurrection in our own lives.
And we find ourselves at the Communion table,
remembering
not just the death of Christ,
but
the resurrection that it prefigured.
And we find ourselves at the empty tomb,
wondering
with the women
at
the disruptive power of Christ
as
he breaks the controlling power of death
over
the lives of human beings.
And we find ourselves lifting our eyes above
the horizon,
to
the one like a son of man,
enthroned
above all powers:
The lord of life calls us to follow him
and
to enter into the promise of new life today, and for all eternity.
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