Let us pray.
Lord God, heavenly Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father by the adoption of faith, grant that we may look to you in faith, grasping the riches of your love for us in Christ Jesus, through our same Lord, God the Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Everyone loves a mystery, right? All right, some of us aren't big fans of mystery books, but when's the last time you enjoyed a story that you already knew from beginning to end and understood completely? How about those birthday presents that you already knew about? What about the surprise party that you had to plan and schedule for yourself? Or the movie that left absolutely nothing to the imagination? No, we do like mysteries. I'd like to talk today about three mysteries that we see in our passage from Colossians.
Mystery #1 - our alienation from God
This is a mystery to our modern culture, sad to say. We live in a world that's full of contradictory messages. At the same time we say that people are good and wise, but that people are a necessarily bad influence on the world. We are supposed to protect endangered species even if it harms us. We are able to choose to be cruel, but when a wild animal kills and eats a person that is simply part of that animal's nature. Likewise, we seem to think that people are good by nature. Look at the generosity that people show to the poor. Did anyone leave the car doors unlocked in the parking lot? Is there any reason why we should expect that the flowers should still be in the pots on the porch when we get home? Yet we do see some goodness around us. In fact, there's a good deal of decency in most everyone in our society. Yet we have prisons full of people who have committed violent crimes. We live in a world that is torn by wars. We live in a world where people are routinely kidnapped, enslaved, and sold to the highest bidder. We live with both the idea that people are really pretty good and the idea that people are really pretty bad.
What our society seems to live without is the idea that God is real and that he cares what people do. We are perplexed by the concept we see in verse 21 of Colossians 1. Alienated? Hostile in mind? Evil deeds? Wait a minute! I thought I was pretty good. I'm not like one of those real criminals. Or am I? Whose world is it, anyway? Is it mine or is it God's? Who gets to be the judge of what is right and wrong? Is it me, a part of the creation? Or is it the God I confess created and sustains all things?
Let's make no mistake about it. Christians confess that the very same God who created heaven and earth and all things, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, rules the world according to His plan, according to His wisdom, according to His principles. He has given us his Word, both the written Scripture and the living Word of God, God the Son, to reveal Himself to us. My judgments about what is right and wrong are only good in so far as they agree with what our Lord has told us. That's what Christians confess.
Do we live that way? Probably not. Not like we should. What kind of criminals are we, anyway? As a dear friend of mine who has engaged in prison ministry for some years tells people, there's not a whole lot of difference between him and the inmates. It's just that the sins he commits aren't usually recognized as sins by the State of West Virginia. He's without excuse too, you see. Does the shoe fit us too? Do we mistrust our Lord? Do we wonder if he really meant what he said? Do we wonder if sin is really sin? Do we try to brush it away with some sort of blithe excuse? If we're honest, ultimately, we can't look at the Scripture for very long before we see that we sin quite regularly. We end up hostile to God. We are subject to alienation. Outside of some divine miracle we are not at all like God. We've taken that image of God that exists in us from the creation and we have twisted it almost beyond recognition. Yes, Christians do confess that we are evil and that in ourselves we are alienated from God. I know that flies in the face of what a large part of our culture thinks. But that's the biblical view. We seem to be incurably criminal.
Mystery #2 - Christ's ability to take away our alienation
This brings us to our second mystery. We SEEM to be incurably criminal. What does that mean? I thought Christians were different. Aren't Christians the good people? Aren't Christians the people who obey God's laws? Aren't God's laws even more strict than the laws of the State of West Virginia? Well, yes and no. Let's get the "no" out of the way first, then we can concentrate on the "yes."
Christians confess we are sinners. We open the divine service with confession and absolution. It isn't just because someone else once did it or because it is printed on the page in front of us. It's because Christians have historically confessed we are sinners and in need of forgiveness. So we aren't the good people. We don't obey God's laws. Because our Lord has given us a desire to do the things he likes we often try to obey God's laws, but we ultimately fail. That was the whole idea of mystery #1, in case you didn't notice.
So what's this mystery? We seem to be incurably criminal. When we try to cure ourselves we find we can't do it. We can't un-alienate ourselves from God. Picture this idea of alienation with me for a moment. Imagine you want to become a citizen of a different country. Let's say you want to become a French citizen. You want to move to France. You want to be subject to their laws. You want to support their government in every way. But you are an alien. Can you change that? Learning the language, developing a fondness for strong coffee, cigarettes, cheese, and red wine, learning to look down your nose at other people, maybe even having nose enhancement surgery, none of this will make you French. You will remain an alien. What if you go to the French Embassy and fill out all the paperwork they require for you to become a French citizen? You still remain an alien. You will be alienated from France until the French government recognizes you as a citizen.
Likewise, we are alienated from God. We can do nothing to remove that alienation. We can read the Bible until we are blue in the face. We can pray until our knees wear holes in the floor. We can sing songs until we are hoarse. We can study theology books until we have a huge library memorized. That will not take away our alienation from God. Nothing we can do will take our alienation away. This sounds pretty bad, right? But before we give up hope, let me remind you what I said a little while ago.
We SEEM incurably criminal.
Did you catch that word, "seem?" I hope you did.
The reason we "seem" incurably criminal is because we cannot cure our criminal nature. No matter how we try, we are ultimately going to do what we do with at least some motive of self-interest. No matter how we try, we are still going to try to trust in ourselves rather than God when everything is said and done. We seem to be incurable. But here's the good news. We are NOT incurable. We simply don't have the cure in ourselves. We are not without hope. The Lord Jesus Christ is our hope. Mystery #2 is that Christ is able to take away our alienation. He is able to adopt us as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. He has reconciled us in his body by his death. Jesus Christ, the one who knew no sin, became sin for us and died in our place, so we could live. It is not we who present ourselves as citizens of heaven. It is Jesus who presents us as citizens of heaven. It is not we who make ourselves blameless. It is Jesus who makes us blameless. Day by day, moment by moment, as we repent of our sins our Lord forgives our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Day by day, moment by moment, as we confess Jesus as Lord of all creation he shows himself to be our Lord. Day by day, moment by moment, as we hear this Gospel of Christ, our Lord makes us steadfast and stable. It is in Jesus that we have life. It is in Jesus that we have hope. This is not of ourselves, it is entirely the work of God. Jesus is the one who takes away our alienation.
Does this make sense? Does it really make sense that one person can give himself for the sins of the whole world? Does it really make sense that Jesus can purchase the pardon for our sins? No, it's a mystery. That's the nature of mysteries. They don't always make complete sense. Yet this is what the Scripture says. This is the confidence we have, that Jesus has taken our sins upon himself. We who believe that no longer bear the weight of sin.
Mystery #3 - Christ in you, walking around every day, the hope of glory
We have one more mystery to talk about today. I can sum up mystery number three very simply. Things are not always as they seem. Of course, we knew that. But how does it apply in this passage? We see that Paul talks about the mystery of Christ in us, the hope of glory. Like I said, things are not always as they seem. Really. Just look around. Look at me. Look at your neighbor. Look at yourself. It doesn't look too hopeful, does it? Then again, we may look at ourselves and confess that what we really need is a miracle.
But what is this miracle the Bible says is going on in us who believe? We see that it is Jesus working in us, bringing his word to us, letting us see his self revelation, bringing that revelation to others through us. I know we don't look special. I know that often we don't act special. But our Lord says that we are special. We are the messengers of our Lord's word. We are part of the way he has revealed himself to our world. We, in fact, are part of what our Lord uses to bring His means of grace to our world. And that's the true mystery. Just like our Lord has hidden himself in the means of grace, behind baptism, communion, and the hearing of words we read from a page of a book, our Lord hides himself behind us. We, in fact, in the midst of our living, working, sinning, repenting, and receiving forgiveness, act as the hands of our Lord, showing what repentance and forgiveness look like. This is a great mystery. Christ is in us, working through us, drawing the world to himself. We show that the majesty and power of God is revealed through humble and frail vessels. We show that our Lord takes what is sinful and makes it righteous. We show that our Lord is able to keep those he has called safe in his hands until his coming. The life that we live is, in fact, the life which belongs to our Lord, who has become our life. This is a mystery indeed.
Are the mysteries resolved? No, some mysteries don't get resolved in this life. But we know the Author and Finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ, who has revealed himself in and through us in these last days. And we look to Him, knowing that he will bring all things to their proper completion in his perfect timing.
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Dave Spotts
blogging at
http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogger.com
