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Our scripture reading this morning is from Colossians 1, 15-20.
This is from Paul's letter to the Colossians.
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
or their thrones or powers or rulers or authorities.
All things have been created through Him and for Him.
He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.
And He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead,
so that in everything He might have the supremacy.
For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him.
And through Him to reconcile to Himself all things,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Well, Jonathan said my name is Paul.
I am really delighted to be here.
I served as a pastor in Palo Alto for 19 years.
Lived down in Mountain View.
My wife and I have been married for 26 years.
We have five kids that are all out of the house.
So we have this great season of emptiness.
One of my sons is here with us this morning.
He lives not far from here in Berkeley.
And my wife is a pastor in Redwood City.
So, oh, I forgot I had a picture.
I was like, what are they looking at?
Okay.
Yeah.
So that's our family.
That's me and my wife and our five kids.
Yeah.
It's a fun season of seeing what God is doing in new ways for us
as we enjoy this empty nest season.
It's really fun to be here at Christ Church with you.
I've known Bart Garrett for a long time.
I've known Jonathan for a few years now.
Denise and I, as Jonathan mentioned, have worked together for a couple of years.
And so what a privilege it is to be here.
I feel like I'm already a part of the family.
Gail was giving me a back rub up here in the front row.
I've met some of the young kids.
So this is just wonderful.
What a gift to be here.
And I love beginning a sermon by reading the scripture
because I know that I've said something profound.
If everything else is garbage, at least you've heard the word of God read.
So you can rest easy in that.
When I was in college, I went to a school on the other side of the bay
that is of no importance in this city.
But I went to a school and I took a class, 101 Psychology.
And it was taught by a relatively well-known psychology professor
by the name of Philip Zimbardo,
who had established some notoriety for some dodgy things he had done
early in his career.
And this particular class was all about him.
So he gave the lectures.
We watched videos as part of the class featuring Philip Zimbardo.
We read a textbook written by Philip Zimbardo.
And we did exercises designed by Philip Zimbardo.
So you could not have taken part in this class
without understanding who he was and his opinions
and how he fit into everything.
And it was a little bit awkward
because he was a kind of complicated person.
But what we're talking about this morning,
this passage that we're looking at this morning,
is in the same vein, but it's not about Philip Zimbardo.
It's about Jesus Christ.
And I figured this was a safe passage to preach at Christ Church
because this is all about how Christ is literally in everything.
Now, this should come as no surprise to you.
I hope I'm not coming preaching something that is radically new
or radically different.
You're probably not going to walk away from here this morning
with some big new ideas.
But what I hope we're going to see
is how embedded and present and powerful
the person of Christ is in every moment of our lives.
Because if you've been a follower of Jesus for some time,
you believe in Jesus, you worship Christ,
you understand who he is.
But I think a lot of us just don't really
experience the constant awareness
of how present Jesus is.
I think that matters in two big ways.
First, because as we walk around as individuals,
as we try to live our lives and figure out what to do
and make decisions and deal with our emotions
and do all these things that the world requires of us,
we're not always aware of Christ's role
in that detail of life.
And then secondly, as we come together as a church
and we worship and we try to get to know people
and we have studies and we eat fellowship lunches
and all these kinds of things,
sometimes we're not even aware of the role
that Christ plays here among us as a community.
And so what's beautiful about this passage
is it really lays out both of those things.
It talks about how Christ is prominent in creation
and in everything, but also how Christ features
in the church.
We're gonna walk through this passage in two big chunks
and look at some of what the Apostle Paul says
about who Christ is.
Now, I noticed I just learned
that there's some third graders in the room
for the first time sitting through service.
So I hope you brought a pillow.
So here's a little cue.
Sometimes I do this when we have kids in the room.
I want you to listen for two stories I'm gonna tell.
I'm gonna tell a story about Legos
and I'm gonna tell a story about football.
So you young kids, the old people, you're fine.
The younger kids, listen for those stories
as a way of making sure that you're paying attention,
all right?
Okay, we're gonna start then with Colossians 1, 15 to 17.
And I think I'm gonna have the passage up here.
We're gonna just jump through this
and highlight some really significant phrases
that the Apostle Paul gives.
The first one is this phrase,
the image of the invisible God.
See if that gets highlighted.
There we go, perfect.
All right, so this is kind of a interesting phrase
because image is something you see,
but an invisible God is something that can't be seen.
And so it's a conflict even in the language
that Jesus makes visible
what otherwise would be invisible.
The Greek word there is the Greek word for icon.
It's what we use,
what the church has used for a long time
to represent truth.
Your iPhone has lots of icons on them.
That represent something deeper.
That's what Jesus is.
He is the representation,
the physical manifestation.
He makes tangible God
whom otherwise is hard to see.
The image of the invisible God.
He's also the firstborn of all creation.
Now this is interesting
because particularly in the ancient world,
and it's still true in a lot of cultures today,
being the firstborn was very important.
The firstborn had certain privileges,
had certain responsibilities.
The firstborn was kind of the leader of the family.
Now what's important here,
this Greek word firstborn is prototokos.
Proto is the first and tokos is the word for born.
The prototokos,
what's important here is not so much
that he was the firstborn
because he wasn't really born,
but that he is the inheritor
of what God has designed.
That he is a unique representation
of who God is.
He is first of all the world
in terms of his importance.
And we're going to see that come back again later
as in the second part of this passage
when we talk about Christ having the supremacy
over all things.
Third phrase here is
that he is over things in heaven
and things on earth.
Now when we read that phrase,
we think about the heavens
and to us,
because we're kind of in this religious setting,
we think heaven in a religious sense,
but what Paul probably meant by heavens
was more the sky,
the space.
So I want you to imagine,
some of you maybe have been in settings like this
where you are,
where you're somewhere that's very, very dark
and you're there at night.
Maybe you're on a camping trip
or you're out on the ocean somewhere.
And if you imagine in your mind
what the heavens look like
when you're not in a city
and you see the stars,
you can see the stripe of the Milky Way.
And the Apostle Paul is describing that image
to people in the first century
that Jesus is creator of all of those things.
And so we can imagine it from their perspective,
but we could also imagine it from our perspective
because we see those stars
and we know a little bit more about what they are.
We know that each of those stars are suns
with planets in their own galaxies,
in a size of space
that is completely unfathomable.
And Jesus created all of that.
That's what we're told.
The Jesus that we worship here today,
the Jesus whose body and blood
we'll celebrate today,
the Jesus who died to save us,
created all of that.
Things in heaven
and things on earth.
Then we get this phrase
that he is over all powers,
whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities.
And these words signify
different kinds of authorities
in the ancient world.
There were political authorities,
there were religious authorities,
there were civic authorities,
there were local authorities.
And the point that Paul is trying to make here
is that Jesus' authority is over all of those.
For us then, we could imagine,
and I want to invite you just to think in your head
about what kinds of people
have authority over you.
For kids, maybe it's your parents.
For students, your teachers.
If you have a job, then your employer.
If you started a company, then it's your investors.
There's local authorities.
There's whoever runs Berkeley or the city you live in.
There's statewide authorities.
There's layers and layers of people
for all of us
who have some level of authority over our lives.
Some of that we're grateful for.
A lot of it, we are less than grateful for.
And we don't like it
when people have authority over us sometimes.
But Jesus rides above all of those layers.
Not only is Christ above them,
but he instituted them.
It says, in him all things were created.
He created all of those levels of authority.
Everything with authority over you
is under the authority of Jesus.
And hopefully, that makes it easier
to live under the authority of the people
whom Jesus has established over us.
This next phrase is really cool.
It's just so comprehensive.
We hear that Christ is,
everything was created in him,
everything is created through him,
and everything is created for him.
Each of those phrases is uniquely important.
Everything is created in him.
And we don't,
this phrase occurs all throughout the New Testament
where we have this idea of being in Christ.
Christ, as if Christ were a sphere.
The image that comes to mind for me is one of those.
Anybody have hamsters?
Or kids have hamsters?
You know those hamster balls?
It's like Jesus is a hamster ball,
and everything in the universe
exists inside that hamster ball.
Everything that happens,
all the stars,
all the everything,
all of our lives,
everything is created in him.
Jesus somehow contains all of us.
But it also says everything was created through him.
And so everything that is,
everything that exists,
was created through Jesus as the mechanism.
He was the way that things came into being.
You might think of Genesis 1,
where God speaks things into existence,
and then we find out later that Jesus is the word of God.
So it was through the word of God
that things came to be.
All things are created through him.
Now all things are also created for him.
So they're in him,
they're through him,
but they're also for his benefit.
And so Jesus is the one who receives
the goodness of all of creation.
Here's the Lego story.
You guys ready?
So imagine kids building Legos.
And you can imagine a kid building this,
this intricate Lego design,
and then wanting to,
to show their parents,
and say,
look what I've done.
Look what I've built.
It's almost as if God built the world,
and then said to his son Jesus,
this is for you.
All things are created for you.
For you to enjoy and celebrate,
have the benefit of.
In him,
through him,
for him,
all of these things.
And we're just piling layer upon layer
of how Jesus is really in literally everything
until finally we come to this last phrase
where it says that
in him all things hold together.
And this is where our minds are really blown.
That in Jesus,
all things hold together.
I want to invite you,
maybe you're wearing a shirt or a blouse or pants,
just feel the fabric that you're wearing.
Just feel it.
So this fabric
would otherwise
burst into atoms
flying around the universe
except for one thing.
Jesus.
You probably didn't think about that
when you put on your clothes this morning.
You probably didn't say,
thank you Jesus
for keeping the atoms of my clothes
melded together
so that I can wear this outfit.
But we just read
that all things
hold together
in Jesus.
There's maybe some scientists in the room
and I'm going to very quickly reveal
the limits of my knowledge of physics.
But my understanding of physics
is that there is some understanding
that there is a
kind of a universal force
that holds things together.
And then we read in the scripture
that Christ
holds all things together.
And we realize that
Christ is literally
everywhere.
That the reason I'm able to stand
on this floor
is because the molecules
support me
through Christ.
Now, this is a lot bigger,
a lot vaster,
a lot kind of more comprehensive
than how a lot of us
are taught to think about Jesus.
This is so much
more cosmic
than Jesus was a
God who became man
who died on your sins
so you could go to heaven.
And he lived 2,000 years ago
and now we have church
to sing about him.
That's kind of the frame
a lot of us have
and yet this says
that Jesus literally
holds the universe together.
Important thing about that for us,
there's many important things,
but one of the real
encouragements
is that
that Jesus
Jesus
is with
us
as individuals.
And so as
as unfathomable
as it is
that Jesus
is this
cosmic
deity
that holds
the universe together,
it's
in the same breath
we know that Jesus
walks with us.
He's present with us.
He knows
you.
He knows
in a very real sense
what you are experiencing.
I went through a season
in my life
several years ago
of a lot of anxiety
and insomnia,
some depression
and
it was a really
kind of a pruning season
for me
where I was trying to
figure out how to deal
with some emotions
that were happening
and
there was an image
that was really helpful
for me
in that season
and continues to be
of just
I would sometimes
imagine
when I'm walking
into
situations
that cause me
anxiety
I would just
imagine
holding Jesus'
hand.
And I would
imagine it
but it wasn't
an imaginary
thing
because Jesus
was there
with me.
It was
it wasn't me
pretending
it was me
acknowledging
the presence
of Jesus
with me
wherever I went.
And what this
passage says
is that
the one who
holds all
things together
is also there
to hold our
hands.
And that's
that changes
everything.
Changes everything
about every
situation you
encounter
about every
challenge you
face
about every
mistake you've
made
that he's
forgiven
and embraced
you for
about every
calling he's
given you
that he's
invited you
into
he is there
with you
the one
who literally
holds your
shirt together
also walks
with you
into this
world.
Christ
holds all
things together
and he
holds us
as we
follow him.
That's the
first thing
it's the first
part of this
passage and
it's um
it would be
enough if
that were all
Christ did
that is
that that's
enough to
just occupy
us for
for at least
a lifetime
to reflect on
that.
But then Paul
goes on
and he
talks about
not just
Christ
holding all
things together
individually
but then he
moves on to
talk about
the church
and this is
where it gets
really practical
for a group
of people
sitting together
in a room
on a Sunday
morning.
He starts
by saying
that Christ
is the head
of the body
the church
and this is
a image
that the
Apostle Paul
uses in
various ways
throughout the
New Testament
the image
of a body
and the
image of
the distinction
between a
head and
the body
of the
human.
And so
it's an image
he applies
to the church
he applies
it to marriage
in different
ways he applies
it a couple
different times
and what's
significant
about this
metaphor
is the
inseparable
nature
of the head
and the body.
So
you know
this would be
a tragedy
but if I
were in an
accident
and I lost
my left
hand
I would
be a
person
without a
left hand
right?
If I
were in an
accident
and I lost
my right
leg
I would
be a
person
without
a right
leg.
If I
were in
an accident
and my
body
and my
head
became
separated
I would
not be
a person
anymore.
My life
would end.
So
the fact
that Jesus
is the
head
and we
are the
body
one of
the
purposes
of that
metaphor
is to
say that
there is
such an
intricate
unity
between
Christ
and the
rest of
the church
that if
they are
to become
separated
they cease
existing
as such.
Christ
so if
by some
tragedy
Christ
church
were to
lose
Christ
its
connection
to
Christ
it would
cease
to be
a church
because the
head and
the body
are
inseparable.
Jesus is
the head
of the
church.
Then we
have this
phrase that
he became
in all
things himself
first.
This is a
really
unique
phrase.
He says
he is the
head of
the body
he is the
beginning
and the
firstborn
so that
in everything
he might
have the
supremacy.
Now this
is a
really
weirdly
translated
phrase.
The
literal
Greek
there is
in order
that he
may
become
in all
things
himself
first.
In order
that he
may become
in all
things
himself
first.
You can
see why
they translated
it this
way because
that other
way doesn't
really make
sense.
But the
idea is
that Jesus
is the
one for
the church
that goes
before.
It's not
supremacy in
terms of all
the power
and authority.
It's
supremacy as
the one who
charts the
way.
Okay, you
ready for the
football story?
Okay, here's
the football
story.
We went to
a football
game several
years ago.
Actually, my
son was with
me and it
was the
San Francisco
49ers, which
maybe aren't
popular here,
in the
Oakland Raiders
in a
preseason
game.
So if you're
familiar at
all with the
sport of
football, these
are two
teams that
really love
each other.
It's just
like a
shared
brotherhood and
affection
between these
two teams.
That's a joke.
They do not
like each other
at all.
And so this
particular game,
there was a
lot of
emotion as
we're walking
into the
stadium.
And for
some reason,
it was a
preseason game
that hadn't
figured out all
the systems yet.
So it was
like one
entry point.
And there was
this crowd of
people that
were pressing
against this
one entry
point.
And I
had, I
think, two
of my kids
there, maybe
three.
But it was
kind of chaos.
And there was
fighting over
there and there
were screaming
over there and
people had been
drinking over
here.
And so I
had my young
kids with me.
And I
remember I
grabbed their
hands and I
just used my
body as like a
tip of the
spear and I
just pushed my
way, like
literally dragging
them through this
crowd, trying to
get through the
gate.
And finally we
made it through
and everything
was fine.
So that's a
little bit about
what this passage
means by saying
Christ is in
himself first.
That he is the
one that drags
us, that grabs
our hands and
pulls us.
He is the one
that goes first
and drags us
along into his
purposes.
Jesus.
He is the one
that absorbs the
impact, that
takes the
risks, that
has the
vulnerability so
that we can
be who as a
church God
created us to
be.
The passage
continues to
say that all
of God's
fullness dwelt
in Jesus.
And so this
unifier of the
church, the
head of the
church, is
God himself
dwelling in
him for our
sakes.
And then we
read that
through him,
through Jesus,
God reconciled
to himself
all things.
And so now
we have these
double images
of Christ is
the creator
of all things,
but he's also
the reconciler
of all things.
All things
came into
existence
because of
Christ.
And the
brokenness of
the world also
is restored
because of
Christ.
Because Christ
literally drew
all things to
himself and
reconciled them
in him to
the Father.
You can imagine
Jesus just like,
remember when my
kids were very
little and they'd
be having some
conflict and you
just like wrap
wrap them both
in a hug.
It's like,
until they stop
hitting each
other.
You know,
it's kind of
what Jesus
does.
Just,
I'm going to
reconcile all
of you to
myself.
For the purpose
of this,
making peace
through his
blood shed
on the cross.
peace.
Now, we
often read this
and we think
about peace
with God,
which is true.
Jesus makes
peace with
God so that
we can be
reconciled to
the Father.
But this
word peace,
we read peace
and we think
kind of like
zen.
You know,
like,
Jesus made
peace,
I'm okay.
which is not
totally wrong,
but the word
is really
more about a
lack of
hostility,
about a
lack of
warfare,
about warring
entities that
have come to
a truce.
And so,
yes,
Jesus made
peace with the
Father,
but what's
also in view
here,
especially because
we're in the
context of
talking about
the church,
is that Jesus
made peace
between us.
Jesus stopped
the hostilities
between us.
And,
you know,
maybe Christ's
church is
different than
the other
churches I
know,
but other
churches,
people hurt
each other.
They disappoint
each other.
They make
mistakes that
affect even
generations.
They lie
sometimes.
They betray
trust.
And when that
happens,
what do you
do?
How do you
fix that?
How do you
come together?
How do you
continue to
worship together?
How do you
continue to
serve the
purposes of
God in your
city?
How do you
keep doing
that when
this person
did that
thing and
they're getting
away with
it?
Except that
they're not.
Because Jesus
absorbs that.
He makes
peace.
He absorbs
the hostility.
He creates
justice.
And he draws
us together,
enabling us
to forgive.
And to
move past.
And to
do the
hard work
of
discussing
it,
coming together,
praying through
a reconciliation.
Jesus makes
peace through
his blood
on the cross.
peace.
What all of
this means is
that Christ
doesn't just
hold all
things together,
Christ also
holds the
church together.
Christ is the
one who
inhabits this
community and
keeps it from
splintering, from
going its
separate ways.
peace.
Just like we
heard that
Christ is the
reason why my
clothes don't
split apart into
atoms in the
universe.
Christ is the
reason why a
community of
people who
follow Jesus
stays together
and has a
bond that
allows them to
experience the
person of God,
love.
Love for each
other.
Love for the
world.
That's what
Christ does.
Christ is here,
in this place.
is not just
the God that
we come together
to worship.
He is present.
He is the
sinew that
connects all of
us together,
that helps us
to overcome
hurt and
find forgiveness
and serve his
purposes in the
world.
Christ holds
all of creation
together.
He is there
for me.
And Christ
holds the
church together.
He is there
for us.
So I
opened up by
thinking about
this class
that I took
with Philip
Zimbardo and
this very kind
of Philip
Zimbardo-centric
view of the
universe that I
was forced
to endure for
a semester.
And that
was great.
I learned a
bunch about
this particular
person, but
then it ended.
And yet, what
we've talked
about this
morning is how
the person
of Jesus,
the Christ,
the Son of
God, the
Word of
God, the
Prince of
Peace, all
of those
things, how
Christ is
literally in
everything, how
he walks with
us, how he
holds us
together.
And I think
the big
takeaway for
me, because
if I think
about what
I expect
to do the
job of
holding things
together, it's
often that I
expect that
that's up to
me.
And maybe
you're the
same.
That there's
a lot of
things in
your life
where different
priorities,
different people,
keeping different
people happy, and
you kind of feel
the burden of
like, I have
to hold it
together.
I have to
keep these
things together.
Or I have to
keep the church
together, or I
have to keep my
small group
together, or I
have to manage
this.
And so, this
word is a
word of
freedom, of
release, of
rest, of
grace, that
you don't have
to hold it
together.
That's not our
jobs.
There is one
who does that.
There's a song
I like, and
there's a phrase
in it that,
singing to
Jesus, the
artist says,
I can never
let you down
because I never
held you up.
And that's
beautiful.
We can never
let God down
because it's not
our job to
hold him up.
we don't have
to hold all
things together.
That job is
taken, and he's
doing a great
job at it.
So, let me
pray for us
that we could
receive that,
that we could
live in that,
and that we
could go from
here with
that.
Father, thank
you.
Thank you that
we are
created by
you.
We are
redeemed by
you.
We are
empowered and
sent out by
you.
Thank you
that Christ
is there,
that you are
here with us
in Christ and
through the
Spirit, and
every second of
every day, in
all of our
decisions, in
all of the
creation we
encounter.
I just pray
you'd help us
to see that.
Help us to
develop the
habits of
living in
that, of
appreciating it,
and of
communing with
you more and
more as we
go.
We love you,
Jesus.
we're so
grateful you
love us.
We pray
this in
your name
and by
the Holy
Spirit.
Amen.