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.
