Sunday, July 21, 2019

July 21, 2019 - Proper 11C



In the name of God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
            Earlier this month, while on vacation in Atlanta we went to watch a Marlins’ baseball game. Now, I’m a huge baseball fan, and so though this was the first Major League game that our children had been to, they’ve seen baseball on television at home plenty of times. After a few innings, Ellie mentioned how neat it was to be able to see the entire field of play, not just one little part of it that the television camera captures. And she’s right, part of the beauty of going to a baseball game is that you can watch the fielders position themselves prior to the pitch, you can look to see which fan caught the foul ball, and you can watch both the runner rounding first and the outfielder preparing to throw the ball to second. When you’re at the baseball game, you can see the entire landscape of the game and not just one slice of it as you would on tv; and this vantage point allows us to see connections and appreciate the beauty of the game in a fuller way.

            Today’s passage from Colossians does a similar sort of thing for us in terms of our faith. St. Paul has zoomed all the way out so that what lies before us is the whole sweep of Creation. The first five verses that we read today from Colossians are widely considered to be an ancient poem or hymn that dates back to the earliest days of Christianity. It’s a poem about the Cosmic Christ, where we can see the entire field of play: Creation, Incarnation, salvation, and culmination.
            When it comes to the term “Christ,” we are so often used to viewing it as we would a baseball game on television – we see glimpses of it, but we don’t often see the whole field at once, and so sometimes we miss the connections. The first thing to say about Christ is that it’s not Jesus’ last name. A simple point I know, but for many Christians, “Christ” has simply become a nickname for Jesus of Nazareth, which is something like going to a baseball game and staying in the parking lot. Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew term for the Messiah. Both terms, both Christ and Messiah have to deal with being anointed with oil – a sign of divine appointment. Christ is an incredibly loaded word, but when we just tack it onto Jesus’ name as we would a last name, it loses all of that meaning. In fact, there’s a recent translation of the New Testament that always renders “Jesus Christ” as “the Anointed One Jesus” to try to remind us what Christ is all about.
            The way that the poem that Paul quotes from portrays the Christ is as something bigger than just Jesus. This isn’t to say that Jesus is not the Christ, but rather that the fullness of Christ is larger than 30 year ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. As the poem tells us, the Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, is the image of the invisible God, and in him all things were created and have their being. The Christ is the source of all things, the being of all things, and the destination of all things. In other words, nothing exists outside of Christ. In a recent book, the Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr, writes that “Christ” is “another name for everything.”And so when we use that title Christ in regards to Jesus, it is a claim that the way of Jesus is the way of the universe.
            Now, as we grow in our knowledge and trust of this universal and all-encompassing nature of Christ, then it really changes everything. I know that over the past few months I’ve been quoting a lot from CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, but I just read the whole series with our daughter and I’ve been profoundly impacted by some of the images with which Lewis portrays the Christian faith allegorically. Towards the end of the book at the beginning of the series, The Magician’s Nephew, two English children find themselves watching the Creation of Narnia. The way Lewis depicts Creation is that Christ figure in the series, the lion Aslan, begins singing a song that is beyond beauty and beyond comparison. In response to the music, stars, mountains, trees, rivers, and animals come into being.
            Now, I realize that The Chronicles of Narnia are not Scripture, but this account of Creation is illuminating, especially in light of the hymn that we have today from Colossians. It’s no surprise that when the earliest Christians wanted to speak about the universal aspect of Christ, they turned to poetry and music. What I found to be so powerful and moving about this depiction of Creation is that sense of beauty and purpose out of which Creation sprang. In the same way that being at a baseball game helps us to see the entire game instead of just a part of it, both of these songs, the one in Colossians and the one that Aslan uses to sing Creation into being, remind us of the full landscape of reality. What this image of the Cosmic Christ does is to remind us of the fact that Creation exists in Christ, that is, Creation is a part of the beauty, goodness, and truth of God.
            Sure, there are many things that we might rightfully complain about. That beautiful song that ungirds all of Creation sometimes gets distorted and we get out of harmony with it. Sometimes we can’t find the right pitch or tempo. But that doesn’t change the fact that the song of Christ is where the notes of our lives are played, it is where we find holy rhythm, it is where we will find ultimate harmony. The Cosmic Christ reminds us that the truest thing is the love of God in Christ.
This hymn to Christ in Colossians is all about the sovereignty of Christ, as it says that “he is the head of the body.” At the most basic level, recognizing and responding to this reality is what it’s all about. I know that sometimes the Church tends to overcomplicate things, we come up with lots of rules, we end up confusing people, we end up forgetting the song. But the Gospel of Christ really is simple – all things, every atom, every galaxy, and everything in between exist in the grandeur of Christ. Christ is the head of everything, holding all things together, and reconciling all things together.
If Christ is this divine hymn that holds all things together, then Jesus teaches us the lyrics. The eternal Christ took on flesh and lived a particular life in Jesus of Nazareth. So there can be no confusion about what it means to be in harmony with God. Jesus taught us about loving our enemies, about forgiving those who harm us, about living generously, about finding greatness in humility, and about being rooted in God’s eternal and abiding love for us. So when we are selfish, we know that we are out of tune. When we speak a word of hate, we know that we’re singing the wrong part. When we are paralyzed by fear, we know that we’re not listening for the song.
Yes, you can march the beat of your own drum if you’d like. You can ignore the fact that all things have their being in Christ. You can fold your arms and refuse to make music. That doesn’t stop God’s hymn of love. That doesn’t mean you can’t join in later. That doesn’t mean you won’t find your ultimate rest in that song. What happens though when we strive to join the song of love is that we encounter the abundant life that Jesus the Christ came to give us. As the Christ, he is the author of the hymn of life and as the Incarnate Jesus, he is the instrument by which we hear it and are invited to join in.
What I can offer you are some time-tested instruments that have been found useful in helping us to hear this song and add our own voice to it. There is prayer – in which we listen for the pitch of God and attempt to have it resonate in our lives. There is generosity – in which though giving of our time, attention, mercy, and money, we join the rhythm of love. There is reading Scripture – in which we read about how the faithful have heard and responded to the song in their own day. There is worship – in which we gather in a chorus to celebrate and praise Christ, who is the head of all and in whom we find our meaning and purpose.
In this grand hymn, St. Paul shows us the cosmic field of play and reminds us that all things are in Christ Jesus. By his grace, we have been redeemed and reconciled so that we are no longer estranged, but are welcomed into the divine song of love. At its best, the Church is here to listen for that song and help others to hear it. If you hear the song of love, sing along. If you don’t, get closer to those who do. But above all, know that all things, including you, have been created in and through the loving, liberating, and life-giving Christ.