First Preached 22 July, 2001 Trinity 6
Colossians 1.15-28
Hands up all the Gemini’s …..
The point is that we all know about these things. (I hope you understand that they are total rubbish) Nonetheless, they are part of our popular culture.
In the same way I was siting in a Tea Shop in Colchester and I saw this notice ’Working with your Guardian Angel. Angels are having a boom time and in most cases this is not at all a Christian thing.
It might seem a long way from Colchester to the riots in Genoa, [At the time of this sermon the Meeting of the G8 leaders at Genoa had seen particularly violent demonstrations] but there is a similar belief at work there. That the World is in the grip of unseen forces. In this case a demon by the name of ‘Globalisation’ who has possessed the leaders of the World and who must be cast out.
On one level Paul would not have quarrelled to much with that attitude. He believed in the reality of Spiritual forces. What would cause him to get upset was if these forces began to loom so large in peoples minds that they began to obscure God.
This was what was happening at Colossae. As far as one can judge those causing the trouble are proponents of what scholars now term Gnosticism. It is a vague term. Something like ‘New Age’ in our day – More a tendency than a unified movement but with certain defining characteristics.
The chief of these tendencies was to detach God from the World. Not simply in the Christian way, of making him glorious, transcendent and majestic, but by putting between him and the world a whole order of beings. God cannot touch the World, because the world and all matter is intrinsically evil. It exists not as God’s good creation, but as a misbegotten blob the property of malign Spirits.
What you have to do then to be saved is to know your way past these beastly beings. This is the knowledge (Gnosis) which Christ came to bring and to which they of course have access, while the rest of you poor plebes do not, so Yah boo sucks.
This teaching Paul refutes, not simply by saying, “What a load of old cobblers” but by firmly re-establishing certain basic Christian beliefs. Re-establishing them but making them more clear cut and brilliant.
He says of Christ in effect what John says at the start of his Gospel
2 He was with God in the beginning.3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made John 1.2f
What Paul actually says is.
“15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Far from being detached from the world Christ came and dwelt in it. Not only dwelt here but died here, to save us not simply from a lack of esoteric knowledge but from the much more serious defect -Sin!
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 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.
And again:
22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.
Far from it taking a special knowledge to beat the system it requires only one simple trick. The humility to let yourself be forgiven.
Far from being distant absent and detached, the Christian God loves this world. Loved it into being as creator. Died to save it as redeemer.
So let me give you your Christian Horoscope. Virgo, Gemini, Leo and all other signs. The Earth is going round the Sun so the indications are that this week you will sin: Probably on Monday Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Saturday and on Sunday driving to Church. However the Son has moved into the house of his Father so for everyone breathing this week there will be grace mercy and free forgiveness; just remember to confess your sins with humility and faith.
You are not a victim of blind fate you are a beloved child of your heavenly Father. Just remember the stars are a long way away, but Jesus Christ is closer to you than breathing
Filed under:Tags: Collossians 1:15, Gnosticism, Horoscope, Trinity 6