Sermon - 26th October 2008

Scripture - Colossians 3:1-17

John Foulds

Today we are concluding our series of sermons on the letters of St Paul, his epistles to the early church. The reading we have just heard is an extract from his letter to the Colossians, or rather to the members of the young Christian church in Colossae, which is in modern day Turkey.

Paul didn’t know the members of the church in that town and had never visited. However, they were having problems which he was called upon to address. So he wrote them a letter. The letter was so full of insight for their particular situation and has much to say to us as well as readers of the New Testament.

The situation in the Colossian church was that elitism was creeping in. The people were being encouraged to engage in complex spiritual exercises that would give them certain spiritual experiences, which it was said, could not be enjoyed by any other means. Paul was unhappy about this because the emphasis seemed to be on getting a spiritual ‘high’ and then looking down on anyone who had not mastered the exercise and had the same experience.

Basically, it was more about feeling superior than anything else. Paul wanted the emphasis to be brought back to Jesus and to the blessings He gives which are freely available to everyone. The spiritual exercises were very exclusive and had no place in a church that was to be inclusive of all people.

Often, however,  when we are reading Paul’s letters, we come across verses which we struggle with. So we must always remember that although the letters, the epistles, are included in the Bible and therefore intended to be read by everyone, they are also frequently dealing with specific problems which Paul had been made aware of and needed to make a response to. He wasn’t always at liberty to travel and in any case, travel was long and hard in those days. There was no Turkish Airlines jet waiting to whisk him off to Colossae or to any other of the Middle Eastern locations of the early church! He had to write a letter and then entrust it to a companion who would attempt the journey. He would have chosen his words very carefully and been mindful of the amount of time and effort involved in communicating with these scattered, often vulnerable, Christian communities.

You probably get plenty of mail every day and probably lots of phone calls, e-mails and texts too. But, of course these weren’t around in the days of the early church and so the arrival of a letter from Paul would have been an event of the highest significance. Great attention would have been paid to its contents which would have been eagerly read and shared with the whole community of the followers of Jesus.

Imagine, for a moment, what it was like to live in a time before we all suffered from ‘information overload’. Letters were special. Words were carefully chosen and were read with interest. In Paul’s day you couldn’t fire off an e-mail or text people and then delete the response at the touch of a button! You couldn’t even ‘flip’ through a magazine or the Sunday papers. No. The written word was special. It was to be savoured and read out to the whole community. Just as the reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians has been read out to us today.

So, how did you listen to Paul’s words in the extract from his letter to the Colossians today? Did you savour them? Did you half-listen? Did you let them wash over you? Did you switch off altogether? Were you distracted, maybe even disinterested? Perhaps you liked some verses more than others!

Well, however you reacted to the reading, Paul’s earnest and heartfelt desire would have been for all those who encountered his words,( whether in 1st Century Colossae or 21st Century Manchester), to deepen their faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

So, to close our sermon series on Paul, we really should give him the final word. I am going to read to you again the last part of today’s reading, which comes from Colossians Chapter 3 verses 12 to 17, only this time I want you to imagine, to really imagine, that, like those Colossians, these words are the only letter you have had for months and that it will be an equally long time before you hear another word of encouragement again:

‘As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint
against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect
harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and
admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’

(John Foulds)

This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.