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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Can it even be love without compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience? Not as far as Paul is concerned. For Paul, love binds together the community in Colossae like Christ binds together the cosmos. What even is Trinity Sunday? Well, unlike other feast days in the church year that celebrate a point in the life of Jesus, Trinity Sunday celebrates the work of doctrine and that might seem a bit bland but it's not.
Speaker 1:You could say Trinity Sunday is this culmination of three great feasts. Christmas where creator initiates a new story for humanity, Easter where Jesus initiates a new story of life over death, and Pentecost where spirit initiates the story of the church. So on Trinity Sunday, we bow to the mystery of divine relationship. We name that union father, son, holy spirit, or creator, redeemer, sustainer. And a third phrasing I discovered just this week is earth maker, pain bearer, life giver.
Speaker 1:I mean, how about that? From the New Zealand prayer book. So good. So the point of Trinity Sunday is to never stop thinking about what God might be like. Here's a verse from a nineteenth century hymn about trinity.
Speaker 1:When heaven and earth were yet unmade and time was yet unknown, thou in thy bliss and majesty didst live and love alone. You're welcome that I did not sing that to you. But another way to say it is that trinity has always known completeness and divine relationship stretches as far back and as far forward as we can imagine. So in a moment we'll pray a prayer for trinity Sunday but first let's tie this cosmic contemplation into our work in Colossians. If you have been tracking in your journal we've spent two weeks on the letter so far.
Speaker 1:While there is some debate about authorship, we've settled into this trust that it very well could be Paul writing possibly through Timothy, and the audience is the church in Colossae. And right out of the gate, following his greeting, Paul reaches high. He employs a poetic hymn about the cosmic Christ. He's saying Christ is the image of the invisible God. All things in heaven and earth have been created and are held together in Christ.
Speaker 1:Christ is the head of the church and the firstborn of the dead. Paul says that in Christ, the fullness of God is pleased to dwell. All things are reconciled to God in Christ and in that reconciling, we're included. So Paul really cooks in Colossians. And I love that Jeremy paused on this word fullness over the last two weeks encouraging us to consider fullness as a name for God in our thoughts and in our prayers.
Speaker 1:Oh, great fullness. Actually, that kinda sounds like gratefulness, so a bit of word play there. I will take that too. Now Paul is doing some sneaky pastoral work in Colossians. What always seems to happen when good news almost seems like too good to be true is that we have a tendency to mess around and make it a little bit worse.
Speaker 1:Then Paul is saying, come on now. You don't need a special asceticism. You don't need a super complicated prayer life to be in Christ. Anytime someone puts up mythic barriers between you and God or makes the path of God a scavenger hunt to holiness, Paul says, cool it. Everything God needed to do to be near to you, God has already done in Christ.
Speaker 1:Now, live your life like you know that's true. So today, we are going to take a turn toward practical with these cosmic thoughts. We'll be in Colossians chapter three, but first let us pray a Trinity Sunday themed prayer. Join me. Loving God.
Speaker 1:We begin by centering our thoughts on you as maker and creator, life force of all that is. God as parent, coach, shepherd, mother hen, benevolent king. And we draw divine contemplation closer in the person of Jesus, the one who brings God near to us so that we can be near to God. Jesus, your self giving love defeats every death dealing force. Help us to trust in you.
Speaker 1:Finally, we draw our contemplation kind of outwards towards spirit, initiator for the church, the presence that both corrects and comforts, guides and disturbs, hovers over and swirls within. And now we take three deep breaths to consider what divine friendship might mean to the worries we hold, the pain we bear, and the uncertainty we feel. We breathe in and out. We breathe in and out. We breathe in and out.
Speaker 1:Amen. Hope you didn't fall asleep. We are in Colossians three one to 17 today in our series, Cosmic Thoughts on Daily Life, and we'll talk about desire, how not to, b for beloved, and shalom or bust. So here's my question for you at the jump. If I were to ask you, are your desires rightly ordered?
Speaker 1:How would you answer? Another way to ask that is, does what you long for pull you toward God and toward a full and flourishing life? What does your gut tell you? Are your desires rightly ordered? As Colossians three gets underway, we find four verses that bridge what has gone before to what comes next.
Speaker 1:And there's the acknowledgment of cosmic thoughts and then something we could call praxis, meaning where the rubber meets the road coming out of our theology. And since then, you have been raised with Christ, Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Speaker 1:And I like this living in two realities thing that Paul does. You have been raised with Christ. That is a fact, not just a hope. But you also have to catch up to your resurrected self with your heart and your mind by going where Christ is. And the image of where Christ is comes from Psalm one ten, which reads, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
Speaker 1:And the New Testament writers, they love Psalm one ten. You'll find bits of it in Mark, Acts, Corinthians, Ephesians, and Hebrews. They love this Psalm so much because it helped them conceptualize where Jesus went in his ascension. Remember the church's earliest theology is worked out in these letters, passed between mentors and colleagues and communities and empire rebels and linguistic creatives. So the writers of these texts that we read as sacred bend imagery to fit their purposes.
Speaker 1:In Hebrew understanding, Psalm one ten meant God gave authority to Israel's king. Now they use it to say Jesus is the one at God's right hand. Jesus has all God's power and authority. Now for some of you, man, your soul just sings at that. Jesus as this authority figure is so deeply reassuring to you.
Speaker 1:But the truth is that in our time and place, we've become increasingly cynical of authority figures. Can you think of one leader who dominates the news cycle and truly engenders your trust because of the good that they do or the love that they show in a way that isn't wrapped up in greed or notoriety. But then again, maybe your cynicism is even more personal for you. You've had trouble trusting in the God that you read about in the bible because those metaphors are like a little too close to bad teachers, bad fathers, bad leaders who caused you or someone you love harm. An overemphasis on authority and sovereignty is to miss the desire God has to be close to you.
Speaker 1:Three times in these first verses, Paul uses the language with Christ. This Greek preposition soon denotes union, togetherness, companionship. In other words, Jesus is where God is so you can be there too in divine relationship. So when Paul says we're hidden there with Christ, all he means is that this is the safest place you could ever be. But lest you think this is all cozy vibes, Paul drops down to earth with talk about how not to live.
Speaker 1:Now Paul's got a pattern and for the Colossians he's first shaping doctrine cosmically. Remember Paul says in Christ is where the fullness of God dwells. And then he moves from cosmic to consequence. And Paul starts this ethical challenge with boundaries for bodies. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
Speaker 1:Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived. And this is the first of two viceless in chapter three. It begins by literally saying, put to death any part of the body on the earth. Now Paul is not rejecting our interconnectedness, our love of science and nature, or a deeply grounded and embodied life.
Speaker 1:Rather, he's using a metaphor for downward focused practices of bodies in relationships. Now what passed as exemplary sexual behavior in the ancient world isn't what passes for exemplary sexual behavior in our world. The big concern in first century sexual conduct was really the chastity of women. It mattered because honor is how the community represented in the home was preserved, and it was a man's job to defend it. And the point is not to go back to the honor and shame framework in the ancient world.
Speaker 1:In that world, the vulnerable, women, children, outsiders, slaves were marginalized and scapegoating. We're not, I repeat, we are not going back to that. But what does it mean to go forward? To live ethically one body to another? To have desires rightly ordered?
Speaker 1:I would argue that the bible doesn't hand 2025 you a clear cut sexual ethic. It insists instead that you work out a sexual ethic in your story, in your relationships, in your time and place. Paul says intimacy is such serious business that if you don't think about how to love and respect another person, the wrath of God is coming for your greed and for the urge in you that thinks you're entitled to the body of another. So pornography is the desire to take from a dark corner of anonymity. And secrecy from a spouse is the desire to possess without accountability.
Speaker 1:And there is an attempt at intimacy that consumes another person as if they are a product. Pleasure is not the problem here. Unchecked greed. The taking and taking and taking is. So Colossians warns us, put some thought, enact some boundaries around your precious bodies.
Speaker 1:Do that in your marriages. Help your kids care about other people's bodies, please. And if you're single, you might just do the kind of work that helps the rest of us find our way back to ourselves. We need to listen to what intimacy and community and loneliness is like for you. Okay.
Speaker 1:Breathe. After this Paul stretches a sexual ethic into an ethic of relationality getting into a second vice list about anger, malice, slander, abusive language, and lying. And he says in verse 11 that all of your differences and the ways that you rank status are covered over with the cloak that is Christ. You're still you, but you're so much more in Christ. So listen.
Speaker 1:Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. Now this part of the letter, it soars and we'll talk about some of it in a moment.
Speaker 1:But first I have a little story about a necklace. So I'm pretty minimal when it comes to adornment. I have been wearing the same earrings since I put them in on my wedding day, like almost ten years ago. I only wear two rings, an engagement slash wedding ring, one in the same, and the wedding band that belonged to my grandma Sockold. But for a few years, I've been thinking some wild and crazy thoughts that I might like to also wear a necklace.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine it? They look nice on other people and I thought, you know, I might like one too. But I did nothing with that desire. But eventually, after a good friend heard me mention it more than once, she got me a thoughtful gift card to a Canadian owned woman founded jewelry store here in Calgary. And still, I did nothing but carry that gift card around for over a year until an idea came to me.
Speaker 1:I think I was just waiting for the necklace to take on some kind of extra meaning. And I did crack the code on that when I envisioned a b pendant on a simple gold chain. After all, I have three bees in my first name, Bobby, like what kind of name is that? I married into the Bateman family and I love them with my whole heart and there is even a b in my good friend who gave me the gift card's name. So bam.
Speaker 1:So much meaning in the letter b. So I got the necklace and I think it looks nice, but there was thank you. Thank you. But I know how you can see that, but it's great. It's tiny.
Speaker 1:So I got this necklace and again, I think it looks pretty good, but there was even more meaning for me in the letter b spiritually. Under all of these wonderful names and all of this consideration came just a whisper. Bobby, b is for beloved. Beloved. Beloved.
Speaker 1:This is not only true of how God sees me, it is so true of how God sees you. I know this because I have pastored for twenty five years now and everyone I come across, names as beloved to. So really, I kinda wear this for you. Henry Nouwen wrote, becoming beloved means letting the truth of our belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say, and do. And that is a pretty good summary of Colossians three.
Speaker 1:And it shoots us all the way back to Paul's five virtues or graces in verse 12. Now in the Greek world, you could actually be the beloved of the gods, but for Paul, he's pointing to ancient Israel's chosenness. He tells the Colossians, they continue the story of being beloved with their baptismal identity and therefore they should actively, intentionally, purposefully put on like clothing or a necklace these things. First, heartfelt compassion. And we've got one word in our English bibles here, but in Greek there are actually two and they mean the kind of mercy that you feel in your gut.
Speaker 1:It's a motive. Put on like clothing kindness. And kindness is a word used 10 times across the epistles, and it should guide your relationships with others. Put on like clothing humility. Now in Greek culture, humility was associated with lowly service.
Speaker 1:But for Paul, it's more about what we see of God in Jesus' self giving love. Put on like clothing gentleness. Gentleness is evident when your criticism can be heard as an offer to help, not an attack. Lastly, put on like clothing patience. Then patience is what it takes to endure evil.
Speaker 1:It is fortitude and a steely kind of suffering for a cause that you believe in. And as if that weren't enough, in verse 14 Paul pulls out his favorite grace of all, agape, love. Now if we think of love as the final layer, the coat to go over it all, honestly, the metaphor breaks down a bit as in it's just too piping hot. Love is more than a covering. Love is the result of these virtues.
Speaker 1:It can't help but spring up when they're practiced. After all, can it even be love without compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience? Not as far as Paul is concerned. For Paul, love binds together the community in Colossae like Christ binds together the cosmos. These virtues that shape and guide your family, friendships, the relationships here at Commons on volunteer teams and small groups and for us on the staff, these virtues, they matter.
Speaker 1:Because I'm increasingly convinced that we access the love of God through each other. So do yourself a favor. Do us all a favor. Spend more time with these virtues this summer. Maybe even take a week just meditating on each one of them.
Speaker 1:Put the word on a sticky note on your bathroom mirror. Don't even tell your family why. And then change it up every week. Week one, compassion. Look everywhere for it.
Speaker 1:Who around you feels mercy in their guts? Learn from them. Week two, kindness. How can you turn the dial up on your kind o meter? Just nudge it.
Speaker 1:A little kindness goes a long way. Week three, humility. Can gratitude drop you into your life so all you're really left with is wow. Thank you. Week four, gentleness.
Speaker 1:Some of us need to start with our own self talk, maybe even repeating a lovely little b word. This one, beloved. Week five, patience. What if we could just slow down enough to see that after brokenness or failure, we actually have a chance to try again? Spend more time with these virtues this summer, and I promise you, love will grow.
Speaker 1:So we end with these words as benediction today. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body, you were called to peace and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly. Now the classical Greek word for peace here, erenae, describes the kind of peace that shows up when hostilities cease and that's fine, only when Paul writes that the peace of Christ rules in our hearts, he uses the Hebrew idea of Shalom to get at something deeper. What's so important about Shalom is that it exists whether the world is at war or at peace.
Speaker 1:It's more like a horizon that we move toward. It's understood as a state of being that lacks nothing and has no fear of being troubled in its tranquility. In other words, it's Christ shaped confidence. Peace that the pain bearer gives us. And with both languages, we are called to both kinds of peace.
Speaker 1:Working toward external peace absolutely and waking up to peace internal. Now there is a unique phrase in verse 16 that's easy to miss. Verse 16 is the only place in the New Testament you'll find the phrase word or logos of Christ. The NIV translates it message of Christ. Everywhere else in the scriptures you'll find the phrase the word of God or the word of the Lord but here we get a switch to Christ.
Speaker 1:And we're not too sure why Paul uses it here. Does he mean the teaching of Jesus as it was circulated in the early communities? Does he mean the death and resurrection of Jesus like he sings about in chapter one reconciling all things? Perhaps yes to both. I mean, this letter is so cosmic it can't help but get personal.
Speaker 1:What good or lofty thoughts that don't find their way back down to earth in the word of Christ? Which brings us to peace, something we are all craving as smoke fills up another summer. G seven communicates, plural, are crafted an hour away from us. Then power brokers everywhere tip scales in their favor leaving so many bloodied and behind. I wonder if it's time for us to risk a little bit more for peace.
Speaker 1:Like it's shalom or bust to make peace our goal. No matter how many times we fail to achieve it, no matter how awkward it gets when we uphold the standard of peace so that no one gets left out or left behind, No matter that when we give ourselves to one another, we might get hurt along the way and still we're healed that very same way. Risk something for peace. You have the best starting place, the peace of Christ already in your heart. And the word of Christ, even right now transforming the cosmos and your daily life into something bright and beautiful and new.
Speaker 1:Let us pray. Loving God, it's amazing the way these letters tucked into these last pages of our bible swing through time to us. The specificity that they offered the people who they were written to still holds so much guidance and wisdom for us today. So help us to be careful stewards of the scriptures as we engage them as people who struggle and who find faith for our time and our place. For those who need courage in their own path for transformation, who long to see and to feel God near to them, we pray for help and comfort and clarity.
Speaker 1:Spirit of the living God, present with us now. Enter the places of our desire and our longing and our loneliness and heal us of all that harms us, that we can be peacemakers in a world that you love. Amen.
Speaker 2:Hey. Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at Commons, you can head to our website, commons.church, for more information. You can find us on all of the socials commonschurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel, where we are posting content regularly for the community.
Speaker 2:You can also join our Discord server. Head to commons.churchdiscord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Thanks for tuning in, have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.