The Hope of the Gospel—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 5C/Proper 10 (Colossians 1)

 

Tree of Hope - Julie Leuthold

Colossians 1:1-14 New Revised Standard Version UpdatedEdition

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

² To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

³ In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, ⁵ because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel ⁶ that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. ⁷ This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, ⁸ and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰ so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. ¹¹ May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, 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.

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                With this passage, we begin a four-week engagement with the letter to the Colossians. This letter offers a rich exploration of Jesus’ cosmic role and identity. In the reading that we will pick up a week from now, we will encounter the declaration that Christ “is the image of the invisible God, the first born of creation; for in him all things were created, things visible and invisible . . .” (Col. 1:15-16). This is a powerful and revealing confession that invites us to envision Jesus being more than just an ordinary human being. The question that confronts contemporary Christians, especially those of us tasked with preaching and teaching the Bible is whether this high Christology reflects Paul’s views or those of later believers? The questions that are posed in this letter are also posed to Ephesians. As for me, I tend to take a more agnostic position on authorship. At least for now, I’m going to set aside the authorship question and focus on the message of the passage before us.

                Whether Paul wrote this letter or not, the author addresses a congregation in the city of Colossae, which lay inland from the coast of Asia Minor in the region known as Phrygia. According to the salutation, Paul writes to the churches in Colossae along with his partner, Timothy. In this opening passage, Paul (I’ll assume Pauline authorship for the remainder of this reflection) takes note of a “beloved fellow servant” named Epaphras, who is “a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf.” Apparently, Epaphras has brought greetings to Paul and Timothy from the congregation. As a result of this communication, Paul tells the community that they had not ceased praying for them, asking that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, “so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord” (Col. 1:9-10).

                What is interesting about the opening of the letter is that it seems as if Paul doesn’t have a close relationship with the congregation. This is not one of his congregations, so he speaks of hearing about their faith in God who is the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Because of what he/they have heard about their faith, they’ve been praying for this community. What is important to hear is that Paul commends them for their faith in Jesus and love for the saints. He speaks of a hope rooted in heaven, that came due to the word of truth. That is the gospel that had come to them. As a result of this heavenly hope rooted in the gospel, they have been bearing fruit. They learned this truth from Epaphras.  

                The question that is raised by the letter concerns the reason why Paul sent this letter to the congregation. What is the occasion? So far, we don’t have much information to go on. Obviously, he has heard about the congregation and has connections to it. There are both theological and lifestyle questions raised in the letter. The latter includes the household codes, which as with Ephesians, are problematic and one reason why Pauline authorship is questioned (do they reflect Paul’s more egalitarian perspectives found in Galatians are 1 Corinthians?). So, while Paul is not the founder of the congregation and doesn’t have quite the same investment, he has either been invited to address the church or feels the necessity to do so as the apostle to the Gentiles. However, there is a lighter touch here than in Galatians or the two Corinthian letters. In fact, Paul and Timothy write a rather positive message to the congregation, encouraging them to stay the course as they live out their faith in a context that might be challenging.

                So, in whatever capacity Paul writes to them, it is with a word of encouragement, asking them to remain strong in the “strength that comes from [God’s] glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience” (vs. 11). Here Paul seems to encourage them to stand firm and persevere through whatever trials they’re facing. He wants them to remain faithful to the message taught to them by Epaphras.  Then they’ll be prepared to “joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light” (vs. 12). In a word that could reflect a Johannine message, Paul speaks of their “rescue from the power of darkness.” There is a light/dark contrast here. Now they live in the light, having been rescued from darkness. The light is the hope of the Gospel, while the darkness would be their former Gentile existence. As with the Johannine literature, this letter lacks the eschatological component found in the Corinthians letters. Here Paul is concerned with life in the here and now.

                While sometimes we need to hear a more pointed eschatological message that raises the temperature of the conversation, at other times we simply need to hear a word of encouragement to stay the course. Stay faithful to the God who rescued you from darkness. Yes, give thanks joyfully for the inheritance you’ve received as one of the saints. These are trying times for the church. It’s being battered by forces that make us wonder about the future. We’re tempted to abandon the message we first embraced, the message of Jesus. Standing firm in the faith doesn’t mean resisting change. We don’t need to live as if this is the 1950s, but there is a message that endures. That message is centered on the God we meet in Jesus, who is “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). It is a message that counters the cultural captivity of the church, especially in North America where Christian nationalism is in play. Our ultimate allegiance is not to nation, but the God we know in Jesus, the God we address prayerfully in the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. So, as John Buchanan writes: “The writer also wants believers to know that faithful discipleship is never a choice between correct theological beliefs or living a faithful, loving life with one’s neighbors in the world. Both matter. Theology matters” [Connections, p. 155]. It was a reality that theologians such as Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer understood as they resisted the Nazi infiltration of the German churches.

Good theology is the foundation for the Christian life. It helps us discern what is true and what is not, including how we should live in this world. Colossians offers us a cosmic Christ who reveals to us the invisible God. Understanding who Jesus is will help us determine how we might live out our faith in daily life. It also helps us truly engage in conversations with those both within the Christian community and those outside. This is especially true when we engage, as I seek to do, in interfaith relationships. Truly effective conversation requires us to be able to articulate effectively what we believe about God and why. Our conversation partners will expect that of us, for they too hold fast to their beliefs. To honor their commitment to their beliefs in no way undermines our own beliefs. So, the word hear from Paul is to stand firm in the gospel that was shared with us, joyfully and thankfully finding our hope revealed in the gospel of Jesus.  

Image Attribution: Leuthold, Julie. Tree of Hope, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57033 [retrieved July 2, 2022]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/julieleuthold/7521645058 - Julie.