"Holding Together: Refugees in the Kin-dom of God"

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The First United Presbyterian Church of Loveland

“Holding Together: Refugees in the Kin-dom of God”

Rev. Amy Morgan

February 7, 2021

Colossians 1:11-20

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

 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,

 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;

 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-- all things have been created through him and for him.

 17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

It seems like we used to have things that held us together. At least, that’s what George, a retired Air Force fighter pilot told me. Everyone used to believe in God and Country. Kids joined the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. We had vibrant civil institutions and people cared about their civic duty. You went to church on Sunday and the football game on Friday. “Whatever happened to that?” George wondered. Why don’t those things hold us together anymore?

One reason, I would guess, is that most of those things that held us together also drove us apart. Church on Sunday was, and still is, the most segregated time of the week in our nation. Football fandom involves people rooting for different teams, winners and losers, and fans have taken on such identity with their favorite teams that true enmity grows between competing fan bases. Love of country is divided into competing political expressions of conservative and progressive, Democrat versus Republican. Loyalty to a particular region of the country, or state, or even city overrides any unified expression of national concern. 

The divisiveness of those things that seemed to hold us together only becomes more apparent as our society diversifies. Instead of holding us together, our commitments to God divide us – not just black churches and white churches and varying Christian denominations, but ever-increasing numbers of other religious populations and those who don’t adhere to any particular belief system. We’ve started describing the political affiliations of some regions as purple, a mixture of blue and red. It’s hard to hold on to our loyalties to places when we move around so much. And I’ve never attended a Super Bowl party where everyone was rooting for the same team. 

And then there’s the exposure of many of our institutions and authorities as being morally bankrupt. Religious and political leaders who’ve abused their power for personal gain, or who’ve been embroiled in scandal and corruption. Institutions that failed to protect vulnerable people from powerful predators. The power of wealthy institutions to exploit the poor. The racism and sexism and homophobia embedded in all those things we thought were holding us together. 

And so most of us have turned to the only authority we think we can really trust: ourselves. The only one who can tell us what to think, what to believe, what to feel – is us. The only one who knows the truth, who won’t let us down – is us. Whatever our religion or political persuasion, whichever team we’re rooting for in the Superbowl – the only authority we will bow to is our personal experience. 

But we still long for a sense of connection, for understanding of one another, mutual compassion, strength in numbers, love and peace and reconciliation. We long to be held together, but we have no idea how to do that in a kingdom ruled by the authority of the Individual. 

One of the most remarkable things about the letter to the Colossian church is the number of times it uses the Greek word “pas,” – all. It is found 8 times in this segment of text we read today and 22 times in the brief 4 chapters of this letter. The scope of the gospel proclaimed here is universal, Christ’s authority, power, and redemption – unlimited. The comprehensiveness of reconciliation in Jesus Christ speaks to a community that was having a tough time holding together. 

The Colossians had lost many of the things they thought held them together. The Phrygian language was beginning to decline as Greek and Latin gained prominence. The trade route that had once connected them to both profitability and other people had been re-directed to bypass their city. And though the evangelist Epaphras had done his best to establish and guide the flock of new converts to Christianity, the practices and beliefs of the Colossian congregation were…eclectic. Scholars speculate that some Christians were worshipping the stars as deities and others may have been influenced by Gnosticism or other Eastern faith traditions. Many were likely still strongly influenced by long-held beliefs in various Hellenistic gods and local deities. In short, people more or less believed whatever they wanted. 

Which may sound to us like a good thing. We’re a think-for-yourself society, and authority, especially as applied to institutions like the church and church doctrine, has become a vulgar idea. We encourage critical thinking and doubt and freedom of belief. I’ve often heard, and sometimes myself believed, in the “all roads lead to the same God,” notion. It feels inclusive.  We want our children to know about other religious traditions so they can choose for themselves what they want to believe. With the authority of our personal experience, we accept the teachings we already agree with – like, “God is love” – and reject the ones we’re troubled by – for instance, “love your enemy.” In other words, we more or less believe whatever we want. 

Which is all well and good…unless you need to hold together through challenging times. When even those who profess the same faith have trouble reciting the same creed, how can we hold together? When even those professing the same faith can’t agree on how we should be governed, how can we hold together? When even those professing the same faith can’t root for the same team, how can we hold together?

And that is where the cosmic “all” of Colossians can help us. 

First, it says we are blessed with “all” strength to endure “all” things. But it is not our strength, or the strength of our government or institutions, the strength of our traditions or our football team. It is the strength that comes from Christ’s glorious power. 

This power has the authority to transfer us from the realm of darkness to the kingdom of God. The Colossians would have been very familiar with the process of one kingdom conquering another and transferring its inhabitants to another kingdom. This was how the authority of the new ruler was established and the conquered citizens integrated into the kingdom. Not a compassionate process, perhaps. But a familiar one, nonetheless. And it spoke to the reality that the kingdom of God may feel like a foreign land, and we may feel like refugees in it. But we are brought to that kingdom to learn its language and customs, to be knit into the fabric of a new society. 

And this image also begins to establish God’s intentions to conquer all the darkness that rules over us. The hymn that is incorporated into this letter, with important alterations, emphasizes Christ’s cosmic power and authority. Christ is the firstborn of all creation; in him, all things in heaven and on earth were created and all things have been created through him and for him; he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 

All things hold together. All nations and religions. All political perspectives and football fans. All our personal, individual experiences, beliefs, practices. All things hold together. Not because of doctrine or institutional authority. But because the one who created all other authorities – thrones, dominions, rulers, powers, nations, religions, political parties, and football teams – that cosmic authority holds all things together. 

This is an authority unlike any other. It is so comprehensive that there is no possibility for division under this authority. It just keeps expanding, creating, making more room. To say “all roads lead to this God” is to say that all roads are somehow not already located in this kingdom. And I guess we can all believe whatever we want, but if what we want is to hold together, we’ve got to recognize that we are all under the same authority, refugees in the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. That might feel uncomfortable or even foreign. But it isn’t a choice we make. It’s a reality we accept. A strength we are given. A peace we receive. 

Perhaps the things we thought held us together never really did. For George, it may have felt that way, because most of the world he knew lived and believed the way he did at one time, or so he thought. But George, and all of us, have been transferred to a different kingdom. We are refugees trying to learn the customs of love, trying to speak the language of expansive grace, trying to understand the practice of forgiveness and reconciliation, trying to comprehend an authority that is both endless and particular. 

Holding together isn’t work we do, it isn’t a power we exercise. Holding together is simply an acknowledgement that all things are already held together, much as we may be trying to drive them apart. May we be blessed with all we need to live in this reality. 

To God be all glory, forever and ever. Amen.