I lived for a few years up north of Kincardine. Friends invited us to visit, and as we drove up, we saw they had a lovely house. It was a typical 1.5 storey brick farmhouse, much like the one we lived in, and like the ones that one could see anywhere in the area. It looked very well-kept – almost too well-kept. As one stepped into the house, one saw why – it was actually brand new, just built in the line of the old houses that lined the backroads of rural Ontario.
It had new plumbing, and wonder of wonders, the electrical was up to code. The floors were level. The windows were air-tight. It was properly insulated! It was like a New Model, looked the same on the outside, but updated on the inside!
DOES THE CHURCH NEED A NEW MODEL?
There are those in the Church who may feel the Body of Christ needs a Re-do. We have tried to ‘fit in’ with the world around us – but this has simply diminished the Jesus we serve into someone harmless and tamed.
Christianity isn’t simply about a particular way of being religious.
It isn’t about a particular system for ‘how to be saved’ here or hereafter.
It isn’t simply a different way of holiness.
Christianity is about Jesus Christ…
N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters
(Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 150
Paul records in our epistle today one of the Churches earliest hymns about Jesus, and it is a good one! It is a poem, and could have looked like this, to our modern eyes:
In praise of Jesus Christ… Colossians 1.15-20
He is the image of God, the invisible one,
the firstborn of all creation.
For in him all things were created,
in the heavens and here on the earth.
Things we can see and things we cannot,
-- thrones and lordships and rulers and powers –
All were created both through him and for him.
And he is ahead, prior to all else
and in him all things hold together;
And he himself is supreme, the head
over all the body, the church.
He is the start of it all,
firstborn from realms of the dead;
so in all things he might be the chief.
For in him all the Fullness was glad to dwell
and through him to reconcile all to himself
making peace through the blood of his cross,
Through him – yes, thing on earth,
and also the things in the heavens.
N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters
(Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 148.
NOT JUST ‘CANCEL THE RUIN’!
Christ did not just ‘cancel the ruin’ brought about by sin, but He introduced a new divine element into the world, to bring about the fulfillment of the eternal purpose of God, AS WELL AS undoing the painful result of sin. [wording from The Interpreter’s Bible, vol 11, 169.]
The uncreated has come to enter into the created world. The ‘living soul’ that was imparted to man at creation is supplemented by the ‘life-giving Spirit’ of the Redeemer –
1 Corinthians 15.45, 49
45 Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. …
49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. NRSV
WE ARE MORE THAN WE WERE!
If I were to reimagine myself, I’d like the body – and mind – I had 30 years ago! But that is only going BACK to what once was, when God gives us this option to become something far greater, far better, than we could ask or imagine.
The old creation was subject to decay and death, but Christ in His resurrection, makes the beginning of a New Creation, something ‘other’ than what was.
Jesus was not simply ‘reanimated’ when he left that tomb; He was raised to something different than what you and I know; He was raised to a life where death has no dominion over him (Rom 6.9), a new humanity not subject to the same forces as the old humanity. But not only humanity was renewed – all of creation was changed irrevocably!
WHAT WE ARE NOT!
To a world looking on, the Church of God could easily misunderstand who and what we are. I think sometimes even WE misunderstand who and what we are!
David Ng wrote a book in 1984 called, Youth in the Community of Disciples. I couldn’t find out much about Professor Ng, but his points are relevant almost 40 years after they were published.
1. The Church is NOT a place we come to be entertained. We are not a Broadway show for the purpose of keeping ourselves from being bored on a Sunday morning.
2. The Church is NOT a theological theme-park, were we spout out our latest fad of who Jesus is and what we are.
3. The Church is NOT a place of maintenance, to be a safe place until Jesus comes again, or we go meet Him. We are not to keep the status quo and stay comfortable in our routines and holding pattern – we are merely surviving if we are this.
4. We are NOT just a place of fellowship, focusing on social relationships. That is important for a Church, but it is NOT the central purpose! We are not here to just serve our own members, although that IS important.
5. Nor is the Church to be a hidey hole of protection, where newcomers must swear allegiance to a long list of criteria before we will even allow them into our midst. That is not at all true here, I will say!
No. If we are none of those things, what are we?
… the real purpose of the church is clear—to be the community of disciples of Jesus Christ and as such, to proclaim Christ.
Nishioka, R. Y. (2010). Pastoral Perspective on Colossians 1:15–28. In D. L. Bartlett & B. B. Taylor (Eds.), Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C
(Vol. 3, p. 260). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. Underline mine
HE is the Head of the Church. HE is the preeminent one. The cosmic salvation has come to mediate the transformation of the Christ into the lives of the Church.
This is no idle speculation, no dreamer’s dream. It is going on in the here-and-now. It is the call of God for us today. In us. Here at St John’s.
We look to the Person of the Christ, the One who lived with all the limitations we do, who confronted evil and broke its power, who draws “wrong wills to right ways.” The Interpreter’s Bible, vol 11, 174.
WE ARE THE NEW MODEL!
But it is not automatic!
V 23 “provided that you continue…”: This Great Reconciliation is to be played out in the experience of humanity, of men and women of God. We, the Church, are a new people, IF …
We who call ourselves Christians have this responsibility. We have been given a gift of a new way of living, different from the way of those around us, and we have to follow through, and live it out!
God promises, yes, but there is also our own responsibility!
Phil 2.12b-13
Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. NLT
We must also do our part to remain steadfast, stable, built upon a firm foundation, and consistently remaining in that way.
We are a community of disciples of Jesus Christ, and in our living as the people of God, we proclaim Christ to the world around us. The ‘Church’ is not the building we worship in; the ‘Church’ is the people of God who worship, and in worshipping, we proclaim who and what we are. The Church is you and I together, living in such a way that we give testimony to our Lord.
It may not be in words, shouted from the streetcorner. For some, coming on a Sunday morning is the encouragement to the rest that is your part in helping us show Christ. For others, it is preparing the grab ‘n go lunches free to those who ask. For others, gentle acts of service to the Body supports the work of Christ.
There are countless ways that the faith community of St John DOES proclaim that there is another way of being that is directly attributable to the effect of the life of God within us!
We ARE the New Model, the updated version, wrought in the death and resurrection of the Christ!
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, we pray for new vision, to see ourselves as Your people. Give us the heart, we pray, to understand that how we live, and how we live as a community of faith, is itself a testimony to the world of the work of Christ in us. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.