Text: Colossians 1:11-20

Today we celebrate what is known in liturgical tradition as Christ the King Sunday or, to be more politically correct, Reign of Christ Sunday. For those of us who were raised non-liturgical Baptists, this has not been one of the high holy days of the year, if it has been acknowledged at all. In fact, it was only established in the 1920s, partly out of a concern for what was seen as growing secularism in the world. It is likely to fall on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, typically a “low Sunday” in terms of attendance and energy after all the celebrations of the holiday. However, it is also the Sunday that marks the end of the church year liturgically. So, in spite of its questionable history and timing, there is a kind of logic in moving from Advent, the beginning of a new church year, to this culminating acclamation of the majesty of the risen Christ.

It is also interesting to consider how the lectionary texts the past couple of weeks, with their emphasis on God – the One who makes all things new – and Jesus, the Christ, parallel the topics in the Adult Forum’s study of Marcus Borg’s Heart of Christianity. Two weeks ago Jo Ford led us to consider “God: the Heart of Reality” and last week Kathy Gillam focused our attention on “Jesus: the Heart of God.” Today’s text asks us to consider the culmination of Jesus’ life and ministry in his everlasting, intimate and regal relationship to God, as well as to look to Jesus, the Christ, as the fulfillment of God’s loving intention for all creation.

At the end of last’s Sunday’s forum, Kathy left us with Jesus’ crucial question for his first disciples, that question each of us comes to ask ourselves at least occasionally and perhaps over and over again though a lifetime of discipleship, “Who do you say that I am?” The first folk so confronted had speculated that maybe he was John, the Baptist or Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the other great prophets returned to earth. Clearly, Jesus was hoping for a different answer when he raised this question with his disciples. It is Peter, who, according to the story, first confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:13-16.)

This is both familiar and esoteric language for us. That is, we have heard it many times and yet what does it mean? What is a “Christ”? Popular opinion notwithstanding, it is not Jesus’ last name. It is the Greek word for the Jewish title, Messiah. But what is a “Messiah"? That’s another term we have heard many times, which is not part of our vernacular. As familiar as they may seem to our ears, these are highly specialized religious terms with complex definitions. For Peter, calling Jesus the Messiah or the Christ, would have come directly from his cultural reality. Messiah, Christ, the Chosen One, who was to save God’s people and restore Israel’s glory, would have been common language for him.

The liturgical calendar adds another layer of complexity to this discussion by asking us to consider Christ, the King. In a way, this phrase does use Christ as a proper name for Jesus, though it also asks the listener to see and understand the kingly dimensions of being the Christ or Messiah. We do know a lot more about kings than we do Christs or Messiahs. We have plays and novels, myths and movies to show us what kings are all about, but how many of us have ever met one? When we considered this passage in Bible study, we had to confess that none of us had ever lived as the subjects of a king, though I do realize that some of our members and friends have lived in countries with monarchies. Still, king is a kind of romantic image for most of us; not very grounded in any real experience. As a freedom-loving, red-blooded American boy, I can testify to my abhorrence of the notion of being ruled by a king or queen, though I guess I have to confess that there have been occasions when I dreamed of being one! Of course, I would be a benevolent dictator, but I digress…

It is a curious thing to think about what we are really saying when we sing “Crown Him with Many Crowns” or “O Worship the King” or “Rejoice! the Lord is King” or even “Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn king.” We may sing with delight and gusto, but what does it mean to you or me? And while we are on the subject, what about calling Jesus “Lord?” For an old literalist like me, Lord has always conjured images of lords and ladies, of chivalry and knightly valor, of courtesans and dangerous liaisons, yet how much of our God and Jesus talk is filled with this term? “Lord, I Want to Be a Christian,” “Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service,” “Lord of the Dance,” “Lord, I’m Coming Home” we sing and who is that we are addressing?

My intention is really not to be a pain this morning, but wrestling with this text and what to say on this day led me down this path of thinking. The church at Colossae was wrestling with something similar, in that some of them were not so certain about the role of Jesus in their lives and faith. It is not uncommon for any of us to get caught up with the latest thing, to become fascinated with the newest gadget, to throw ourselves into exploring a new idea or way of doing something. Though they had had a solid grounding in the Jesus movement, some members of the Colossian faith community had become fascinated by the latest Gnostic notions, had been influenced by some sort of Jewish or pagan mystical and apocalyptic cult that had come to their city. It seems they were persuaded that by engaging in certain mysterious rites, one could ascend into higher levels of consciousness and spiritual enlightenment. Apparently Jesus, the Christ, was nonessential to such ascendancy.

So, the writer is trying to challenge this cultic practice when he writes to the Colossian church. He not only affirms the primacy of Jesus, the Christ, he actually uses some of the cult’s own terminology and way of thinking to make his case. Commentators say that in all the New Testament, the Cosmic Christ of Colossians is the most esoteric and complex. Only the Christ of the gospel of John and of the letter to the Hebrews comes close. The writer begins by praying that the Colossian Christians will indeed “be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,” the very kind of thing the cult promised. But the catch here is that the goal is not just enlightenment; one gets knowledge, spiritual wisdom and understanding “so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in knowledge of God.” In other words, this Christian spiritual wisdom does not lead to asceticism, it leads to a fully lived life. The Christ of Colossians may come off as cosmic, but the Christian is exhorted to live life fully in the world, in the flesh, in the here and now.

The writer uses part of an ancient hymn to describe Jesus, the Christ. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation…in him all things in heaven and 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. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” In other words, he’s telling the Colossians that Jesus, the Christ, is all you need. He precedes creation. He had a vital role in creation. Everything that exists is by him and through him and for him, and not just what is but all that is to be is in his dominion. It is in Christ that everything holds together. It is in Christ that the new heaven and the new earth will come to be. “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven…”

Is any of this literally true or is it, like terms such as Christ and Lord and king, language that was, and still may be, useful metaphorically in helping us gain some insight into the nature of God and of Jesus? Will it help us to “be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,” and bring us into the fullness of God’s will for our lives in our time and place? Borg says that “…we know about God – about God’s character and passion – most decisively through Jesus” (Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith, p.80.) He goes on “…Jesus is what can be seen of God embodied in a human life. He is the revelation, the incarnation, of God’s character and passion – of what God is like and what God is most passionate about. He shows us the heart of God” (Borg, pp. 80-1.)

It seems to me that we have two directions to go with this, and they are not mutually exclusive. One is to look back to the ancient word, to Hebrew and Christian scriptures and to study the writers and thinkers, the artists, poets and musicians of our tradition to seek to understand what they understood and meant when they created something like today’s ancient text. The other is to look to our own experience, because whatever we study, see, hear, touch, taste, smell, is filtered through our very being, bringing us to face again for ourselves the old question, “Who do you say that I am?”

As an example, Borg writes about the many titles for Jesus that characterize Christological language, titles such as king, Messiah, Lord, Son of God, Lamb of God, Light of the World, Bread of Life. He insists that Jesus probably never said any of these things about himself. They are images and metaphors created by the early church to express their experiences of Jesus. Borg says “It is not the language of self proclamation, but the community’s testimony to Jesus’ significance in their lives.” And “As such it is very powerful” (Borg, p. 87.) He says the language is, of course, metaphorical, which means “to see as,” and it is language of confession and commitment. “It would make no sense to say, ‘Jesus is the light of the world’ and then be indifferent to him. To use this language about Jesus is to commit oneself to him” (Borg, p. 88.)

Finally, Borg argues that “… Jesus is, for us Christians, the decisive revelation of what a life full of God looks like. Radically centered in God and filled with the Spirit, he is the decisive disclosure and epiphany of what can be seen of God embodied in a human life. As Word and Wisdom and Spirit of God become flesh, his life incarnates the character of God, indeed, the passion of God” (Borg, p. 88.)

And you and I! Who do we say Jesus is? Old images and metaphors may serve us well, but they may also become stale or distant or meaningless to our daily lives. So we search for language that helps us find our own radical centering in God. We reach out for language that serves us in communicating our own confession and commitment. As this liturgical year comes to an end, may we indeed celebrate the fullness of God’s manifestation of God’s self in the person of Jesus, the Christ. May we lift up the fullness of Jesus’ faithful and living witness to the nature of God. May we speak clearly and passionately of the one we follow, this Jesus, the Christ. May we bear faithful witness so that others may hear and understand and may also “be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding …so that [we all] may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as [we] bear fruit in every good work and…grow in knowledge of God.” Amen.