Colossians 1:1-8 (NRSV) Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. 3 In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7 This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
In checking back over the past few years, I have generally been following the church year for the newsletter articles (December through November) and I have concentrated on a letter or letters from Paul and Peter. I really believe that we profit from hearing a whole letter. It helps me to focus on the messages that the Holy Spirit caused to be written to congregations that were likely not even a decade old.
Colossae was in western Turkey. Paul seems not to have known them personally. He fashions a beautiful letter to describe the majestic work of Christ, the nature of the body of believers as gathering and worshiping and functioning in Christ’s love, and the challenges from a world that seems to offer something better and more pertinent to solve the meaning of life. Such a letter can give us a “checklist,” as individuals in our personal Christian life and as a congregation. Do the items that Paul highlights as central to the Christian life describe your life? These are not things to live up to but things that are either apparent or not. Pretend that this is Saint Paul’s letter to the Emmausites.
Paul has been sent by the Lord Jesus and by God’s will to establish and strengthen Christian congregations. He has heard about these folks. The hope of eternal life rearranges their priorities so that their faith in Christ’s salvation and their love for all the saints are visible to all. No miscommunication or personal hurt or troubling teaching has shut down their faith, hope and love. They are bearing fruit that comes from being fed in Christ, looking outward into their world that is caught in sin and in the moment. They truly “got” what it means to be alive by the grace and forgiveness of God and were gathering to thank and praise the Lord and looking for ways to expand the circle of those they could love. They were not too busy with their own life. Pastor Epaphras had “bragged” about them to Paul.
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There are lots of lies in the world, lies about what one can call success and lies about what to be proud of. We are equipped to be proud of what Christ has made us to be. As we start this new church year, let us remember that we are on a mission of praising our God for salvation and being hungry to give witness to that love to our families and friends and to those who know Him not but whom He loves. He has built that into us. Such a life will give us peace.
Pastor Tom Trapp, Mission Pastor
Walking the Emmaus Road with the Risen Lord
(Originally published in Emmaus Footprints, Vol. XVI, Number 5, December 2014)