Colossians 2:6-15 Sermon

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

“Finding Your Fulfillment in Christ” Series: Continuing in Christ

Colossians 2:6-15

6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Being that we’re near the end of July and past the half-way point of the year, it might be a good time to check: how are those resolutions coming that you made back in December/January?  Have you lost the weight?  Worked out more?  Been more productive?  Spent less money on things and more time with people?  If you bothered to make any resolutions, chances are, you at least got started on them, and statistically, if you bothered to put your resolutions down in writing, you are even more likely to have kept them.  However, many of us might have to acknowledge that while we had the best of intentions, and perhaps even started out strong, we failed to follow through with at least some of our resolutions.  We started strong, but we didn’t continue.

Struggling to continue what we’ve started is something we’re all accustomed to, isn’t it?  It’s why we might reconsider referring to that shelf that holds countless unfinished projects as a “workbench,” since very little “work” actually seems to happen there, and it is more of a holding space for uncompleted projects that represent good intentions.  Websites like Pinterest don’t help, which serves as the virtual holding space for myriad projects that sounded good, but will never be carried out and continued on to completion.  We get excited about the idea of certain changes or crafts or projects.  We may even be ambitious enough to start them…  but we struggle to continue in them.

Might that be where you’re lacking fulfillment in your walk with Jesus?  He got the ball rolling.  He didn’t leave our salvation unfinished and sitting on his workbench, but brought it to completion.  The Holy Spirit then stepped in, tools in hand, and used his Word and Sacrament to do his work of building the faith in our hearts to believe all that Jesus did for us.  All those things happened to bring you into God’s family.  And God wants to continue blessing the work he began in your life when he first made you his.  He desires to maintain that relationship with you for eternity.  That’s why Paul gives us this encouragement: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (v.6,7).  God saw bringing you to faith as just the beginning.  He wants that faith to be deeply rooted in your heart.  He wants your life to be built up on and in him.  Just as cement needs to become hardened, to cure, so also God wants your faith to constantly be strengthened in him. 

And if we’re not feeling much fulfillment in Christ, might that very well be the problem?  Have we overlooked that it isn’t just about the beginning and the end, but it is also about what happens in between?  After all, if we aren’t continuing in him, then what’s really happening is that our faith is slowly dying.  Oh, it may be ever-so-slow, like a tiny pin prick-size hole causing a slow leak in a tire, but our faith is dying if we aren’t continuing in Christ.  Should we be concerned?  You tell me. A quick look around might provide us with an answer.

Look around and you might observe a disturbing trend that others have pointed out as they look around on any given Sunday morning.  You may notice that a significant number of those who fall in the 18-25 year old range, those who not too long ago sat in the desks of our school, regularly attended church with their parents, and professed their faith at confirmation, seem to be well, gone.  Now it’s not some new trend that young people in that age range can tend to drift away from church, and certainly worship attendance isn’t the only fruit of faith that indicates a person is continuing in Christ, but the absence of any brother or sister in Christ certainly ought to alarm us if there is no legitimate reason behind it.  This noticeable exodus amongst young people may also say something about the perception we have of confirmation, that too often we treat confirmation as if it’s reaching the mountain peak, when instead we should view it as merely setting up base camp and preparing for the life-long trek ahead of continuing in Christ.

And I don’t know if it’s fair to place the blame squarely on our young people.  Let’s quit pretending, and admit that our teachers frankly leave a lot to be desired.  Our teachers aren’t getting the job done.  And no, I’m not referring to the teachers in our elementary school, but the ones in our homes.  Parents, like it or not, God has placed you as the primary educators in your child’s life.  If our children aren’t continuing in Christ, we have to at the very least be willing to evaluate our job performance and see if we don’t shoulder some of the blame.  If our mouths are bothering to tell our children that nothing in this life will ever surpass Christ in importance, but our actions and behavior are a far cry from backing that up, guess which message your kid is getting?  Your child is already drawing the conclusion that one’s relationship with Jesus is more about saying the right things than it is about actually continuing in Christ.  If I have sent the message to my child that I’ll miss church before I’ll miss a game, there’s a problem.  If my child is still under my roof and sleeping soundly under the covers in bed while I’m at church, and I’m OK with that, there’s a problem.  If we fail to insist that our young people worship each week simply because we want to avoid being too pushy or ruffling feathers or keep them from turning sour on religion, then it might be time for a wake-up call.  Think about it.  If they’re not in church, there’s already a big problem, and the solution to the problem is not avoiding the confrontation because we’re afraid it’ll only turn them off – they’re already turned off, and the only thing that will bring about the needed change is for them to get their bodies back in the pews and their faces back in the Book!

How much longer can we really afford to put off addressing whatever changes need to be made to continue in Christ?  Several weeks, months, or years?  The longer we put it off, the more vulnerable we become to the danger that was threatening the Colossians.  Paul knew the importance of continuing in Christ because he wanted them and us to “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ” (v.8).  If we’re not getting continuing in Christ right now, then why should we be surprised that inevitably we’ll end up continuing in something else later on?  If we’ve never bothered to deepen the roots of our faith or build up our lives in Christ, then it’s as if we’re leaving a brightly lit “vacancy” sign right here in our hearts.  When that happens, eventually the next hollow and deceptive philosophy will make itself right at home and promptly flip the switch on that sign so that it reads “no vacancy.”  Then we’ll spend who knows how long trying to backtrack with law and gospel to undo what should never have happened in the first place if we had only continued in Christ.

Now Paul’s point is not to terrify the Colossians into continuing in Christ.  Neither is that my point or intent.  Nevertheless, if we don’t truly recognize the warning signs and see how dangerous it is for us not to continue in Christ, then we run the risk of casually overlooking or disregarding our Savior Jesus and what he did for us.  We run the risk of forgetting that in this world if we do not keep moving through the quicksand of complacency and continue in Christ, we may end up getting sucked into worldly ways and teachings.  Yet while the law does threaten and terrify, Paul knew as well as anyone that the only message that gets the job done in convincing God’s people to continue in Christ is that very message of Christ and what he’s done for us.  Reassuring us that Christ is in fact completely and fully God in every sense, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (v.9), Paul recounts exactly what Christ accomplished for us.  “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.  And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (v.13-15).

Do you remember the story Jesus told at the Pharisee’s house after his host frowned on his behavior for allowing the sinful woman to anoint his feet (cf. Luke 7)?  He told Simon, his host, about two men, both of whom owed money to a lender.  The debt of one was substantial, while the debt of the other was much less, but it didn’t really matter, because neither had the resources to pay off the debt.  What did the lender do?  He cancelled both debts.

Did you know that when Jesus told that story, he was talking about you and me?  You and I stand before Jesus, who is holding the ledger that keeps a record of every single sin we’ve ever committed, and all the stipulations we’ve never met.  Long or short, that ledger is a list of the debt of sin we can never pay off.  What did Jesus decide to do?  As Paul explained, “He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (v.13b,14).  Your life, my life, is not dictated by a debt that cannot ever be paid.  No, Jesus took that ledger and pounded it permanently to the cross, where it was paid for in full with his life.  Jesus alone has earned the right to forgive the debt of your sin, and the cross serves as his signature to make that forgiveness official.

From eternity God had an idea.  But unlike so many of our ideas, God took action with his idea.  He continued with it and saw it through to the end, assuring us that his idea, debt cancellation for all people through his Son, would be a reality.  Let us now continue in Christ, for “in Christ you have been brought to fullness” (v.10).  We’ve been buried with him in baptism.  We have been raised with him through faith.  We’ve been made alive.  We’ve been forgiven.  In him we have victory, for he has triumphed over every enemy.  In him we have all the fulfillment we could possibly ever need.  Let us continue in Christ. Amen.

                                                              

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)