The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Sunday, June 10, was a response to Colossians 1.1-14. The sermon was based on the manuscript below.
A joy of summer, if we take it,
can be to take a break.
Many of us travel.
Others like staycations
Some people’s breaks
aren’t from work
but from kids
or spouses they do adore
or just five minutes here and there
to look at Mt. Rainier and breathe.
Another joy of summer, if we take it
is pausing paying most attention
to the gospel lesson.
Yes, we hear all these lessons
every three years.
But the gospel stories
don’t just start to feel old hat
but start to wash over us
so that we miss nuance.
Also, there are four of them,
and there’s a lot of overlap
between a solid three of them.
The lectionary in the summer
gives us the chance to read through
whole books!
And if not whole books,
major stories —
in order! —
from longer books.
So for the four weeks starting with today,
we’re going to spend time
not with the stories Jesus tells
or stories about Jesus’ teaching and life
but how Jesus’ first followers
tried (and failed) to follow him
looking to the Church to strengthen them.
As with most of Paul’s letters,
we only have one side of the conversation.
We don’t exactly know what report he’s received
that makes him write this letter,
a letter that emphasizes
“the person of Jesus Christ
as the answer to human questions about the cosmos
of which we are such an insignificant,
yet unique, part.” [1]
That’s a word of comfort!
How often do we or those we know
look at the sky and feel insignificant
yet the creator of the universe
chose to walk among us
and freely bring redemption to us
and to all those stars and the entirety of the cosmos.
Paul lays the groundwork for the rest of his epistle
when he writes,
“we have not ceased praying for you
and asking that you may be filled
with the knowledge of God’s will
in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord,
fully pleasing to him,
as you bear fruit in every good work
and as you grow in the knowledge of God.”
As we’ll hear later in the letter,
there are teachers in Colossae trying to supplant
the grace made available through Jesus
with the need for special teachings
and secret wisdoms,
shifting understanding away from Jesus
and to intermediary beings like angels.
Paul nips that in the bud!
Paul has been praying for this church
since he first heard that they’d accepted the Good News of Jesus
and keeps praying that they’ll continue to grow.
This letter, like most of Paul’s letters –
and I hope most sermons –
is a call to again reorient gaze toward Jesus
and encouragement for what God has done, is doing, and will do.
When I got to the church this morning,
there were white supremacist stickers
on the three main doors we use for entrance.
My first response,
only response really,
has been fury.
Heartbreak, too, I guess.
The common theme of them
was Great Replacement Theory,
an idea that is rooted in a racist and white supremacist idea
that demands hierarchy and privilege
with white men on top.
There were directions to go watch a film or video,
as so many of these kinds of movements have.
It makes me think about the secret teachings
that Paul is trying to tell the Colossians
they don’t need.
The idea behind these conspiracy theories
is that everyone is lying to us
and the Real Truth is hidden,
and has to be earned or learned
and taught only by special masters of the truth
almost all of whom at some point
blame Jewish people,
as Talia Lavin documents in her book
Culture Warlords.
As we know,
this isn’t limited to racism and white supremacy
but COVID vaccines and COVID reality
the 2020 election, and so much more.
While we may be fascinated by the thought processes,
it’s a little harder when it shows up literally on our doors,
especially as we’ve been working to be repairers of the breach
and are trying to start anti-racist action.
Were we targeted because of that?
Because of the diocese or The Episcopal Church’s advocacy?
Was it random?
How dare these people deface our building
challenging the love we’re trying to show to
God and our neighbor?
Is there more coming?
What, if anything,
do we need to do to respond?
Even as Paul has heard reports
of religious conspiracy theorists
who are moving away from the goodness and grace
that God has made available to us in Jesus
he is praying for the church at Colossae.
“We have not ceased praying for you
and asking that you may be filled
with the knowledge of God’s will
in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord,
fully pleasing to him,
as you bear fruit in every good work
and as you grow in the knowledge of God.
May you be made strong
with all the strength that comes from his glorious power,
and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience,
while joyfully giving thanks to the Father,
who has enabled you to share in the inheritance
of the saints in the light.
He has rescued us from the power of darkness
and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins.”
While the church is gathered in General Convention
determining how we govern ourselves as an organization
and as a group of humans who need to agree
to some common practices and ground rules
we’re not hashing out secret knowledge.
With white supremacists on our door,
we’ve been rescued from the power of shadows
and brought into God’s reign which has come near.
Jesus’ bringing in God’s reign
moves us from strength to strength and keeps us going
for when we need to face the powers and principalities
of this world.
As Ralph Martin says,
“[T]he present experience of redemption
which is no physical change or automatic process,
as Gnostic teachers were to claim,
but a moral transformation
based on the forgiveness of sins.
Being forgiven, in this letter,
commits Christians to take up the same gracious attitude toward others
as God also has done to them.”[2]
A moral transformation
based on the forgiveness of sins.
Being forgiven, in this letter,
commits Christians to take up the same gracious attitude toward others
as God also has done to us.
We don’t need to pat ourselves on the back
for the work we’re doing.
But we keep doing it.
And we keep doing it
in spite of passive aggressive challenges via sticker
because we’ve been forgiven through Jesus the resurrected Christ
and called to love the Lord our God with all our heart,
and with all our soul,
and with all our strength,
and with all our mind;
and our neighbor as ourselves.
Sin is all around us,
and Jesus has overcome it.
Strength for the journey, my friends.
Amen.
[1] Martin, Ralph P.. Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching) (p. 81). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
[2] Martin, Ralph P.. Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching) (p. 104). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.