"He is the Head of the Body, the Church"
Colossians 1:11-20
Christ the King
Proper 29C, November 25, 2007
A Sermon by Paul McLain
‘He is the head of the body, the Church.’ In the name of One God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Three weeks ago on a Saturday morning, we began a time of visioning as a church and entered into a conversation in which we asked: What is the future of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church? But as we explored that question, we were led to a more fundamental question: What does it mean to be Good Shepherd? And since that morning, I think we’ve been led to an even more fundamental question: What does it mean to be The Church?
Today’s epistle lesson from Colossians gives us some points of reference as we begin to explore this deeper question together as a community. One writer describes the church at Colossae in terms that sound a lot like Good Shepherd today: ‘[It] was in process of defining itself, of developing its own self-understanding and drawing its boundaries.’[i] Like Good Shepherd, the church at Colossae had strengths and weaknesses.
When we enter a time of visioning, we too often immediately look at weaknesses. We ask – what are the problems here? And now, how are we going to solve them? But when we begin visioning that way, we define ourselves in terms of the problems which are often temporary abnormal conditions that don’t convey the essence of who we are at our core. I’m glad we are not approaching visioning like that.
Colossians also takes a different approach. The letter starts by reminding the community of the strengths that are at the very core of what it means to be the church at Colossae. The letter begins doing this in verse 4, ‘we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints. Then in verse 6, ‘Just as the gospel 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.’ Verses 7 & 8 commend the leadership given to the church through the strong preaching and teaching of Epaphras.
Then, from today’s passage in verse 11, the source of all these core strengths is revealed: ‘May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from God’s glorious power.’ The strengths of the Church all come from God. And the ultimate strength of the Church is the glorious power of God! The letter then reminds the Colossians that they regularly tap into this strength through two of their strengths – they, and we, are a people who confess our faith out loud. And they, and we, are a people who sing hymns. For, most scholars now believe that Verses 15 through 20 recite a hymn that was often sung by the early church. Paul had done this before in earlier letters. He often quoted the statements of confession and hymns of praise the people spoke and sung each week. Why did he do this?
A couple of months ago, a woman in her forties was in a tragic car accident. She was unconscious, but made it to a hospital bed. Now she only had moments to live. Her family gathered around her bed. Her sister wiped away a tear, then reached over and held her hand. With her other hand, the sister reached for her mother’s hand. The rest of the family spontaneously joined hands in a circle around the bed. The sister then said two words, ‘Our Father.’ At that moment, the family, the nurses, we all joined in,
‘who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen.’
Where do we cling to when we feel there is nothing left? We cling to the truth that we know and that we remember and that we can say and sing out loud together. We say the Lord’s Prayer and we sing familiar hymns. Long after, we have all forgotten this sermon, we will remember the Lord’s Prayer because we say and sing it each and every week. We have said it so much and know it so well that it is now part of us – a core truth deep inside us. That’s why the author recites this hymn in Colossians. He is reminding this church of the core truths that are deep inside them and at the heart of why they first gathered as church.
Notice how the cosmic and the earthly are intertwined in the Colossians hymn – ‘Heaven’ and ‘earth,’ ‘visible’ and ‘invisible,’ ‘Thrones or dominions,’ ‘rulers or powers.’ The same thing is happening with ‘body’ and ‘church.’ When we think of ‘the body’ in Christian terms, we immediately think of the fleshly body of Jesus crucified for us on the cross. Or we think of ‘the body of Christ’ that is the church, as it is called in First Corinthians and Romans, both of which are very true. But this hymn invites us to think of body in another way. In ancient Greek thought, the body was also thought to be the entire cosmos, the universe. To proclaim Jesus as head of the body is to proclaim him as ‘ruler of the cosmos.’[ii]
So, in this sense, what does it mean to intertwine body and church? One writer answers, ‘The way is opened up to the idea of the church as the church universal, identified with the cosmic body of which Christ is head. To assert that Christ is head of the church does not narrow his role as mediator of the cosmos, rather it expands the significance of the claims made for the church. The embodiment of Christ, which was more impersonal in the cosmos, was succeeded by His embodiment in the particularity of human flesh, to be succeeded in turn by His embodiment in the universal church, but now characterized by His personality known in and as Jesus Christ. The means by which the world encounters and interacts with Christ is primarily through His body, the Church. The privilege, but also the obligation, of the church so conceived is staggering. The vision is vast. The claim is mind-blowing. It implies a vision of the church as the focus and means toward cosmic reconciliation – the community in which that reconciliation has already taken place or begun to take place and whose responsibility it is to live out and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.’[iii]
Today, we especially celebrate Jesus Christ as King. And, we the Church, have been transferred into and lifted up to His cosmic, universal kingdom.
What does all this mean for us in visioning? It means, Christ’s vision for us is not a narrow one. We, Good Shepherd, are part of Christ’s universal church. We, the Episcopal Church, are part of Christ’s universal church.
While the news media has focused on recent divisions within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion -they have missed two of our recent strengths that reveal the strength and truth at our core. One was entering a remarkable agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America entitled ‘Called to Common Mission’ in 2000. Another was beginning a similar relationship with the United Methodist Church in 2006 by approving a Joint Eucharistic Sharing Agreement.
The hymn in Colossians invites us to deepen these relationships and explore new relationships with other Christian churches. Let’s think cosmically; let’s get beyond our walls. We can start here in Wichita. Let’s pray for our sisters and brothers of other churches. Let’s find out what visions Christ is laying on their hearts. Let’s share what visions Christ is laying on ours. Let’s join together with these churches and then join with other churches around Kansas, across the United States, and throughout world in truly being Jesus’ universal church.
This morning we confess out loud and sing at the top of our lungs the core truth deep inside us that Jesus Christ is our King. It is He who gives us the strength. It is He who gives us the vision. It is He who gathers us as a church and joins us with other churches. And it is He who lifts us all up as one universal church to join Him in ministry, service, proclamation and reconciliation in and for His exalted kingdom of the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
[i] James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1996), 24.
[iii] Dunn, 96, 104, 117.
