Sermon from 19th June 2006
... And Paul's purpose?
One of our Lay Readers, Adrian Parkhouse, continues our study of Paul's message to the people of Colosse - our key reading is Colossians 1: 24 – 2:5
“So naturally we proclaim Christ! We warn everyone we meet, and we teach everyone we can, all that we know about him, so that if possible we may bring every man up to his full maturity in Christ Jesus” Col 1: 28 (Phillips)1.
One side of a conversation: Another glass of champagne? Thank you - most kind. A very good party./ I don’t think we have met? I am Adrian ..and you are?/ Saul did you say?/ Paul. I am so sorry. No, no, of course it matters, very remiss of me It is so noisy/ Pardon – what was that about playing poohsticks?/ Oh, the acoustics… absolutely, as soon as you get over 5 people in here you can’t here a thing./ Where are you from?/ Tarsus? Can’t say I know it. But do you live in Rome now?/ Is it a nice apartment?/ “House arrest”? Golly that must be inconvenient. And what exactly do you do? Freeze the action.There is a leading question to ask the apostle Paul: what exactly do you do? It’s the question Paul answers in the passage we read today in our studies from Colossians. What did he do?We are going to look at his answer – but the purpose of the little device at the start of this talk was to emphasise that I want us to look at from the outside, as the listener, as the other party to the conversation. We are the person at the party. And I want to identify how we respond, how we react to what Paul writes. And the experiment, the game if you like, doesn’t depend on whether we are church-going regulars, or come here only occasionally or even never before today. Your response, your reaction is equally important as any other – in the game it counts the same.So let’s play.2. First: how do you feel about knowing a secret? If somebody tells you that they are about to tell you a secret, does your heart race with excitement or with dread? Do you look forward to acquiring the status of a confidante, someone trusted with special knowledge; or are you fearful that you can not bear the responsibility – that any moment you are bound to blurt it out?Or how do you feel about being party to solving a mystery. Can you see yourself in a deer-stalker as Sherlock Holmes or with the coiffered moustache of Hercule Poiret. Or does this sound like too much hard work, using too much brain-power? Would you prefer things to presented to you on a plate?[Take a show of hands: secret-likers; mystery-likers]Paul describes his job as if it the task of the detective in the final scene – where with the people gathered in the room he is able to explain what has been happening all along: so that the mystery is unfolded and the secret disclosed.What is the mystery? What is the secret (our translations use either word – and the word “hidden” - interchangeably)? It is something which has been hidden for “ages and generations”; it is something which is “rich and glorious”..[How are you feeling now?]. It is Christ (2:2): it is Christ in you (1:27); it is Christ the hope[/sharer] of God’s glory (1:27); it is Christ in whom are found all treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge (2:3).3. How do you feel about that then – as the other person at the party? Go on you can be honest here? The secret been disclosed, the mystery is now out in the open: the secret is Jesus. How do you respond?I learned this week that this word “mystery is used quite a lot in the New Testament. The Greek word is “musterion” and it means a special sort of secret, a special mystery. It is a secret waiting to be discovered and told; it is a mystery waiting to be explained. It is temporarily a mystery; it has a solution. It is not closed off, not just for those who are members of the secret clan: it is available to be explored by everyone who wants to stop and explore. Do you remember Jesus explained to his disciples why he had to teach in parables? It was because the people, unlike the disciples, did not “have the secret of the Kingdom of God” (Mk 4:11) and were not ready to have the mystery explained to them?So Paul’s job was to present this mystery to the world. Last week we heard part of that mystery, how Jesus had turned us from being God’s enemies to being God’s friends – but now Paul takes us further: the mystery is now “Christ in you”! What’s that all about then? Does it bring back to you mind Jesus’ own words before his death: words like the promise of the Spirit of truth: “[Then] you will realise that I am in my Father, that you are in me and I am in you.” Jn 14:20.How do you respond to that? The secret is that Christ is in us! How we react may depend how often we have heard it? If never before, then quite fairly, because I am not Paul, you may say, what on earth are you talking about? At the other end of the scale some of us have heard it so often that we are “over-familiar” with it – and we take it for granted as we move on to something else. OK but pause a moment here with this mystery: take on board that the friendship with God won for us by Jesus was not intended to be picked up, explored, discovered and then discarded, leaving us as unchanged as if it had been a story from a novel or a moving film; rather Paul was teaching that it was just the start of the exploration. It allows us to experience God in our very lives; it allows us to open ourselves to be changed by God; it empowers us to live the lives we know He wants us to live. In the chapters that follow, we are going to see what that involves, what kind of behaviour, what kind of emotion, what kind of response God wants. And we can not do it on the back of a half-remembered, echo of an experience, when we learned a secret, briefly, for a moment, a long tome ago. We can do it only with Christ, the Holy Spirit, in us. It is a living thing.4. What about this bit of Paul’s job: “we proclaim/preach him, admonishing /warning and teaching everyone…that we may present everyone perfect in Christ”. Presenting everyone perfect! How do you respond to that? What a responsibility for a teacher to take.Think for a minute of someone who has taught you something important. Perhaps having just repeated Paul’s explanation of his method of proclaiming, admonishing and teaching, my thoughts go back to two saints from my early days here: to Dora Billington who was reknowned for proclaiming God’s love to everyone she met, as much on the 68 bus as here; and to Raphael’s great grand-mother Raphealita, whose kitchen was filled with children and grandchildren and friends and acquaintances of every hue and every background. Quite a bit admonishing went on; a lot of loving and, for me a lot of learning. These people had Christ in them; these people were people who committed to presenting me and those they served perfect in Christ (bringing us to “full maturity”).5. Can I grab a visual aid here? [A baby] Here is a little learning machine – programmed to learn, every day something new. When does it stop being like that? When is it that we “know everything we need to”? Even if we not so arrogant to sat it like that, why is it that we take new things and bend them to fit our approach, to make least resistance to the flow of life styles. When and why might we lose the desire to learn? When and why might Paul’s promises of the taste of glory, of understanding and wisdom and knowledge, not cause us to want more of Christ in us? How and why might we not want to be brought to perfection?6. Big questions that I won’t answer here. I will note that in the context of our theme of mission this year, this passage offers a strong model of the “discipling” value: that our job is not just to convince and convert but to bring to perfection and to full maturity. Like the guy at the party, the surrounding noise may distract, the alternatives available may attract – that is our call. On the other hand this talk of Christ in us, this talk of the hope of glory, these words of the treasures of treasures of wisdom and knowledge, this invitation to maturity, may cut through the room and find our hearts. Maybe we recognised the truth of it in others – in those old teachers or in those around us now – maybe in ourselves. If so, if we want to take it further, you know where Cameron is, you know where I and Trevor are, you know the other folk who lead house groups in the Church – or if you don’t, ask. Let the conversation carry on outside the party.
One of our Lay Readers, Adrian Parkhouse, continues our study of Paul's message to the people of Colosse - our key reading is Colossians 1: 24 – 2:5
“So naturally we proclaim Christ! We warn everyone we meet, and we teach everyone we can, all that we know about him, so that if possible we may bring every man up to his full maturity in Christ Jesus” Col 1: 28 (Phillips)1.
One side of a conversation: Another glass of champagne? Thank you - most kind. A very good party./ I don’t think we have met? I am Adrian ..and you are?/ Saul did you say?/ Paul. I am so sorry. No, no, of course it matters, very remiss of me It is so noisy/ Pardon – what was that about playing poohsticks?/ Oh, the acoustics… absolutely, as soon as you get over 5 people in here you can’t here a thing./ Where are you from?/ Tarsus? Can’t say I know it. But do you live in Rome now?/ Is it a nice apartment?/ “House arrest”? Golly that must be inconvenient. And what exactly do you do? Freeze the action.There is a leading question to ask the apostle Paul: what exactly do you do? It’s the question Paul answers in the passage we read today in our studies from Colossians. What did he do?We are going to look at his answer – but the purpose of the little device at the start of this talk was to emphasise that I want us to look at from the outside, as the listener, as the other party to the conversation. We are the person at the party. And I want to identify how we respond, how we react to what Paul writes. And the experiment, the game if you like, doesn’t depend on whether we are church-going regulars, or come here only occasionally or even never before today. Your response, your reaction is equally important as any other – in the game it counts the same.So let’s play.2. First: how do you feel about knowing a secret? If somebody tells you that they are about to tell you a secret, does your heart race with excitement or with dread? Do you look forward to acquiring the status of a confidante, someone trusted with special knowledge; or are you fearful that you can not bear the responsibility – that any moment you are bound to blurt it out?Or how do you feel about being party to solving a mystery. Can you see yourself in a deer-stalker as Sherlock Holmes or with the coiffered moustache of Hercule Poiret. Or does this sound like too much hard work, using too much brain-power? Would you prefer things to presented to you on a plate?[Take a show of hands: secret-likers; mystery-likers]Paul describes his job as if it the task of the detective in the final scene – where with the people gathered in the room he is able to explain what has been happening all along: so that the mystery is unfolded and the secret disclosed.What is the mystery? What is the secret (our translations use either word – and the word “hidden” - interchangeably)? It is something which has been hidden for “ages and generations”; it is something which is “rich and glorious”..[How are you feeling now?]. It is Christ (2:2): it is Christ in you (1:27); it is Christ the hope[/sharer] of God’s glory (1:27); it is Christ in whom are found all treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge (2:3).3. How do you feel about that then – as the other person at the party? Go on you can be honest here? The secret been disclosed, the mystery is now out in the open: the secret is Jesus. How do you respond?I learned this week that this word “mystery is used quite a lot in the New Testament. The Greek word is “musterion” and it means a special sort of secret, a special mystery. It is a secret waiting to be discovered and told; it is a mystery waiting to be explained. It is temporarily a mystery; it has a solution. It is not closed off, not just for those who are members of the secret clan: it is available to be explored by everyone who wants to stop and explore. Do you remember Jesus explained to his disciples why he had to teach in parables? It was because the people, unlike the disciples, did not “have the secret of the Kingdom of God” (Mk 4:11) and were not ready to have the mystery explained to them?So Paul’s job was to present this mystery to the world. Last week we heard part of that mystery, how Jesus had turned us from being God’s enemies to being God’s friends – but now Paul takes us further: the mystery is now “Christ in you”! What’s that all about then? Does it bring back to you mind Jesus’ own words before his death: words like the promise of the Spirit of truth: “[Then] you will realise that I am in my Father, that you are in me and I am in you.” Jn 14:20.How do you respond to that? The secret is that Christ is in us! How we react may depend how often we have heard it? If never before, then quite fairly, because I am not Paul, you may say, what on earth are you talking about? At the other end of the scale some of us have heard it so often that we are “over-familiar” with it – and we take it for granted as we move on to something else. OK but pause a moment here with this mystery: take on board that the friendship with God won for us by Jesus was not intended to be picked up, explored, discovered and then discarded, leaving us as unchanged as if it had been a story from a novel or a moving film; rather Paul was teaching that it was just the start of the exploration. It allows us to experience God in our very lives; it allows us to open ourselves to be changed by God; it empowers us to live the lives we know He wants us to live. In the chapters that follow, we are going to see what that involves, what kind of behaviour, what kind of emotion, what kind of response God wants. And we can not do it on the back of a half-remembered, echo of an experience, when we learned a secret, briefly, for a moment, a long tome ago. We can do it only with Christ, the Holy Spirit, in us. It is a living thing.4. What about this bit of Paul’s job: “we proclaim/preach him, admonishing /warning and teaching everyone…that we may present everyone perfect in Christ”. Presenting everyone perfect! How do you respond to that? What a responsibility for a teacher to take.Think for a minute of someone who has taught you something important. Perhaps having just repeated Paul’s explanation of his method of proclaiming, admonishing and teaching, my thoughts go back to two saints from my early days here: to Dora Billington who was reknowned for proclaiming God’s love to everyone she met, as much on the 68 bus as here; and to Raphael’s great grand-mother Raphealita, whose kitchen was filled with children and grandchildren and friends and acquaintances of every hue and every background. Quite a bit admonishing went on; a lot of loving and, for me a lot of learning. These people had Christ in them; these people were people who committed to presenting me and those they served perfect in Christ (bringing us to “full maturity”).5. Can I grab a visual aid here? [A baby] Here is a little learning machine – programmed to learn, every day something new. When does it stop being like that? When is it that we “know everything we need to”? Even if we not so arrogant to sat it like that, why is it that we take new things and bend them to fit our approach, to make least resistance to the flow of life styles. When and why might we lose the desire to learn? When and why might Paul’s promises of the taste of glory, of understanding and wisdom and knowledge, not cause us to want more of Christ in us? How and why might we not want to be brought to perfection?6. Big questions that I won’t answer here. I will note that in the context of our theme of mission this year, this passage offers a strong model of the “discipling” value: that our job is not just to convince and convert but to bring to perfection and to full maturity. Like the guy at the party, the surrounding noise may distract, the alternatives available may attract – that is our call. On the other hand this talk of Christ in us, this talk of the hope of glory, these words of the treasures of treasures of wisdom and knowledge, this invitation to maturity, may cut through the room and find our hearts. Maybe we recognised the truth of it in others – in those old teachers or in those around us now – maybe in ourselves. If so, if we want to take it further, you know where Cameron is, you know where I and Trevor are, you know the other folk who lead house groups in the Church – or if you don’t, ask. Let the conversation carry on outside the party.
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