“A COLLOSAL BLESSING”

COLOSSIANS 1:11-20

11  May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully

12  giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

13  He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,

14  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;

16  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.

17  He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

18  He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

19  For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

20  and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

People who know me, will tell you that I’m a list person.  The first thing I do every Monday morning when I get to the office is make a list of the things that I need to get done that week.  I make a list of the people I need to visit, the meetings that I need to attend and the errands that I need to run.  So, as we get ready for Thanksgiving it made sense to sit down and make a list of all my blessings.  How about you?  What would you include on your list?  What are some of your blessings?  What are some of the things that fill your heart with gratitude and gladness?

I think it’s safe to say that most lists wouldn’t be complete if they didn’t include things like family and friends, the roof over your head, the food on your table, the clothes on your back and hopefully good health.  Sometimes you’re thankful not only for particular people in your life but also for the things they can do.  That seemed to be the case for a six-year-old boy who was asked a question by a friend one day.  On their way home from Sunday School the friend asked, “Is your family going to say a prayer before you eat your Thanksgiving dinner?”  “No,” the little boy said.  “I don’t think so. Besides, why should we?  My mom’s a good cook.”

In his Letter to the Colossians the Apostle Paul makes it clear that there’s something else that you need to have on your list, if you want your list to be complete. It’s not a material blessing though.  Instead it’s a spiritual blessing.  In his Letter to the Colossians Paul talks about giving thanks for everything God has done for us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Paul wanted the Colossians to know that this was without a doubt a colossal blessing.

Now Paul goes out of his way to explain to the Colossians exactly who Jesus was and what he was all about.  Paul did that because the Colossians were being victimized by some false teachers.  They were being led astray by a few self-serving opportunists.  These questionable teachers and preachers had some really strange weird ideas when it came to Jesus.  The thing that troubled Paul the most was their belief that Jesus was just a ghost and really didn’t have a body.

So, Paul used an ancient hymn to explain to the Colossians who Jesus was and what he was all about.  It was a hymn that was probably sung when people were baptized.  The hymn begins by praising Christ’s “glorious power” which can help you endure all of life’s challenges. The hymn then goes on to praise Jesus as the image of the invisible God and the first born of all creation.  Then it ends by declaring that God has reconciled all things and all people to himself through the blood of his cross.

It’s a very poetic passage.  When you boil all that theology down though you end up with a two-fold blessing.  It’s a blessing that you receive when you follow Jesus.

The first part of the blessing is the wisdom and the will to persevere in this crazy mixed up world.  Now that can be a really big blessing when you look at some of the things that are going on these days.  There’s so much going on it can easily leave you feeling a little fearful and fretful. The economy keeps going up and down.  It makes you wonder if you’re still going to have a job next week..  Then you have all those corporate scandals and shenanigans.  It makes you wonder if your pension is still going to be there when you retire. A shortage of the flu vaccine means some people are going to get seriously sick this winter.  Then there’s that color code for potential terrorist attacks.  It keeps going from yellow to orange and back to yellow again.  Pick the newspaper up and you read about children being abducted from their bedrooms. You read about drug companies selling pills that can cure you of your aches and pains but kill you with a heart attack in the process.

All of this simmering angst and anxiety is what motivated an Idaho Falls student to conduct a rather eye opening experiment a few years ago.  In his experiment 14-year-old Nathan Zohner urged people to sign a petition calling for a ban on a chemical called dihyrogen monoxide.  According to the petition the chemical is a major component in acid rain and can cause excessive sweating and vomiting.  Not only that but in its gaseous state it can cause severe burns.  The list of dangers doesn’t end there either. It’s found in the tumors of terminal cancer patients. It also contributes significantly to the erosion of our natural environment and if you inhale it accidentally, it can kill you.  Well, after hearing all of these terrible things 43 people were so alarmed that they signed Nathan’s petition.  Six said they still weren’t sure if the chemical should be banned and only one person knew that dihydrogen monoxide is actually water.

Fear is big these days because the world we live in is, in many ways, all mixed up, messed up and muddled up.  If you follow Jesus though you will always have a moral compass that can help you navigate you way through all of life’s difficult decisions and dilemmas. If you follow Jesus you will always have a love that can help you patiently endure all of life’s problems and predicaments.

That’s the first part of the blessing. It has to do with this life.  The second part of the blessing has to do with the life to come.  Listen again to the ending of the hymn that Paul used in his Letter to the Colossians.  “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

The Statement of Faith of our United Church of Christ puts it this way.  In Jesus Christ, “the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Lord” we have “forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace….and eternal life in (God’s) kingdom which has no end.”

You know it’s bad enough that we live in a crazy and chaotic world that can leave your head spinning.  We also live in a world though where the pressure is always on.  You always have to prove yourself.  Have I worked hard enough to earn that promotion?  Have I studied hard enough to get an A on that test?  Did I make a good enough first impression for that person to like me?

You know I suspect that a lot of us feel the same way Nicole Jones did when she took out a very unusual insurance policy.  It seems the 26-year-old British woman took out a $150,000 to insure her face because she was afraid of getting ugly.  Now it wasn’t vanity that motivated her.  She did it because her husband was constantly teasing her.  He kept telling her that he’d “trade her in for a new model,” if she ever let herself go.  The insurance policy costs Nicole $300  a year, but it also pays for plastic surgery if she ends up getting scarred in an accident.

Unfortunately, there is a feeling these days that no matter who you are or what you’ve done with you’re life, it isn’t quite good enough.  That gnawing feeling is something that can fill your life with a lot of stress and distress.  It can fill your life with a lot of fatigue and feelings of failure. Do you ever feel that way yourself?  Do you ever scold yourself for not being smarter or more successful or because you need to loose a little weight or because you did something that made a mess of things?

Now that maybe the way it works in the so called real world.  That’s not the way it works though when it comes to God’s kingdom.  In his Letter to the Colossian Paul makes it very clear.  Because of Christ’s death the gates to everlasting life are already open for you.  Because of Christ’s resurrection there’s already a seat waiting for you at the table of that heavenly banquet.   All you have to do is let go of your guilt.  All you have to do is let go of your shame and accept the invitation. Because of this spiritual blessing there isn’t anything on earth or in heaven that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Many years ago a missionary went to a part of India where many people suffered from a strange illness.  The illness caused them to go blind as they got older.  This missionary was a doctor though and after a great deal of research he came up with a surgical procedure that kept them from going blind. The people who benefited from this surgical procedure though never said thank you. They didn’t say thank you because that word wasn’t in their vocabulary.  Instead they said a word that in English means “I will tell your name.” And that’s what they did.

That’s the way it works when you realize everything that God has done for us. The best blessing of all, of course, is that two-fold spiritual blessing the we receive when we follow Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Lord.  It really is a colossal blessing that makes you want to tell God’s name wherever you go.   Amen..

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes                           November 21, 2004 – Thanksgiving Sunday