Col 1.15-20, John 1.1-14 2 Before LENT 4th Feb 2024 in St Luke’s
Today I am going to preach to you an Awesome sermon. And I know you’re thinking: Aha about time too! When someone says to you later How was your weekend, I want you to say ‘I went to church and I heard and awesome sermon’. When they say ‘Really it was that good?’ Then you get to say ‘it wasn’t a good sermon it was an awesome sermon’.
St Paul in his letter to the Colossians blows our mind our language our categories with this description of Jesus. ‘The Son is the image of the invisible God, in him all things were created, He is before all things and in him all things hold together, For God was pleased to have his fullness dwell in him’.
And in John that wonderful Christmas reading – this is Jesus – the Word – in Him was life and that life was the light of all humanity. This is the one we worship. This is the Light who shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
Awesome
Its good for us to have this moment of Awe as we are in our Christian Calendar, we are in the in between times of Epiphany and Lent.
So we have wrapped up our manger sets and put them back in the loft with the tree and the tinsel and the baubles and the house looks a bit sad.
But as we look back over Epiphany we have seen different moments when the glory of Jesus has been revealed in miracles, the water into wine; in conversion with St Paul, with Andrew and Philip, with Jesus’ own baptism. In those moments we have caught a tiny glimpse of the wonder and glory of God in Jesus.
But now in this Colossians reading we see quite a lot more of the inexpressible, ineffable glory. We had a good turn out over Christmas, good numbers,
but it always worries me that for some people Jesus never grows up, never gets to walk, never gets to walk on water, never gets to stand up and calm the storm. SO That if the only Jesus you ever encounter is the one in the manger then you’re missing out.
There’s a scene in Prince Caspian where the hero Lucy sees the Lion and says ‘Aslan you’re bigger!’ and He says that’s because you are. Every year that you grow you will find that I have grown.’ So the challenge for us as we engage with this Awesome Jesus is to allow our faith, hearts, our understanding of Jesus to grow too.
Here is the one who hands flung stars into space. Through Him all things were made.
And there’s a danger for us who are overly familiar with Jesus. You’ll note that in my preaching I tend to over emphasise the All Matey over the Almighty in how I talk about Jesus.
And we’re going to see this as we move into Lent and we see the vulnerability, the humanity, the temptations and traps that Jesus will go through.
But as we do so, remember this is the One who is the Firstborn over all creation, the one who is the Firstborn from among the dead.
Now add to that awesomeness – an understanding that this is the God who gives not a deity who takes.
John tells us that Jesus, the Word, God, the Son of God, the Light, the True Light – this God – gives light to everyone. Everyone. The God we worship is the God who gives not takes, the God who gives light to everyone.
I love the use of the present tense here. Jesus gives light to everyone. That’s what John says. Jesus gives light to everyone. Not Gave light to, not will get round to giving light, as if this light thing is a package, a delivery. But you me right here right now we are receiving that gift of light from God.
This God gives more – as we recognise and receive this Light, so we are given the right to become Children of God. So in this light is a second gift if we will recognise and receive it – the gift of faith and hope and love, the gift of being born from above, born again, the gift of being reconciled and connected to God through Jesus Christ, through His life and light.
But there’s more.
I told you this is an awesome sermon!
This is the God that in Jesus, Peter and James and John played with, swam with, ate with, walked and talked and got in trouble with
This is the God that we pray to, that we get angry at, cry with and rejoice with.
This is the God, whose hands ‘flung stars into space’ and whose hands ‘to cruel nails surrendered’
So for Paul its not weird to then speak of this God in Jesus dying. God dying. Its really not an easy concept to get your head around. But Paul’s simple summary is that through the death of Jesus, God was making peace. Breaking the cycle of hurt and hate and revenge. Breaking death itself. Paul wrote about Jesus being the firstborn from the dead – Jesus isn’t actually the first person to come back from the dead, Elijah did a miracle like that for a dead boy. No. Jesus didn’t come back from the dead, Jesus went through death, broke death, and came out the other side.
So through His blood on the cross, Jesus is bringing peace and healing, reconciling all things. All things.
Not even just all people. All people would be pretty awesome.
That would mean all people backward in time, forward in time, that would add to our understanding of Jesus descending to hell on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Day.
That would be pretty awesome.
But St Paul says All Things. So that would include all of creation, all of nature.
And that’s extra awesome.
But God doesn’t stop there because there are things in heaven that need reconciling to God.
That makes no sense to me so I will be glad of the theologians here chipping in with their interpretation of that. I’ve a couple of ideas but they’re pretty speculative and possibly heretical.
But the take home point is still God is awesome.
And in God’s awesome-ness we find that God is the God who gives.
And we find that we have a purpose.
God doesn’t just Do these things to us and that’s all folks. Instead we find that Jesus is the head of the Church.
Now when you’re part of a global vast religion like Christianity, to say Jesus is the head of our religion, that’s quite understandable.
But when Paul was writing this letter, there would have been a tiny teeny scattering of Jesus worshippers who don’t have fabulous buildings and don’t connections to political or military power, who are poor.
St Paul says Don’t look at that, look at Jesus.
We are a small teeny tiny Church but the God of Heaven who gives Light to everyone, who through His blood is bringing peace and reconciliation, that’s the head of this little community the Church, of us.
Remember that we are not part of a club or a society. We are not consumers of this product called ‘Sunday morning hour of singing’. We are called to Worship, to Serve God, to help each –
and so
God is calling us into this work of reconciliation – by us being part of His body.
Jesus is the head of this body, so we are the limbs, the fingers and knobbly bits like the knees and all that,
Whilst Jesus is reconciling all things in heaven and on earth, then that too is the work that we’re caught up in.
And this means that there are no No-God zones. Because Jesus is giving light to everyone and the darkness will not overcome it. So there are no No-God zones.
And it means that No One is written off, no one is beyond hope, beyond love – because that light is with them, waiting for them to be recognised and received –
You and I, we are caught up in this plan, this calling to be reconciling all people, all things to God through Jesus Christ.
Don’t worry too much about saying you heard an Awesome sermon, remember instead that we worship an Awesome Jesus.
Amen.