Colossians 1:9-20 “Jesus,
Name Above All Names”
Names are important.
If any of you have been to
visit family this weekend,
you may already know that the
names we’ve grown up with often don’t fit us as we get older.
Ask anyone who has ever been
a Tommy or a Susie or a Junior.
That name may have worked
when the child was 8, by it doesn’t work as well at 38.
We outgrow some of our
names. Other names fit us at different
times of our lives.
These names tell something
about who we are.
But when it comes to names,
no one name can tell us everything about anyone.
Sylvia Brill, music director,
doesn’t tell her whole story.
Will Perdue, landscaper,
doesn’t give us the whole picture.
If this is true for us, it’s
even more true of Jesus.
We can never know Jesus by
just one name.
Even when we use names like
Lord or Christ, there are layers and layers of meaning to these names.
In our Call to Worship today,
we named a dozen or so of these names for Jesus.
But there are hundreds in the
scriptures. Each by itself, is not a
complete name for Jesus.
Even taken all together,
these names would not be enough to tell us everything there is to know about
Jesus.
That is because all language
is a human construct. At best, it can
only give us a glimpse of who Jesus is.
Some of these names are
metaphors -- Shepherd, Light of the World, King.
Any one of these names for
Jesus deserves an entire sermon on its own.
But today we are going to
focus on several of the names for Jesus that appear in today’s scripture
reading, while at the same time, remembering that there is no one name for
Jesus that can say it all.
But we’ll get to the names in
a minute.
First I need to give you a
little background on today’s reading.
This is the near the very
beginning of the letter to the Colossians,
probably written by a
follower of Paul after his death.
This letter was written to
the church in
Although scholars are not
certain about what these were, the letter is full of clues.
More than likely, it was a
smorgasbord of religious ideas pieced together from the 1st century
culture,
which is not so far off from
what is happening in the 21st century.
The point is that it wasn’t
centered in Christ and in God’s grace.
And although it was written
nearly 2000 years ago,
the message is more relevant
now than ever.
That’s because being Christian, then and now, is
counter to the culture we live in.
What we heard in today’s
scripture was an excerpt from this letter.
It starts with a prayer
report in v. 9-12, and ends with an ancient hymn in v. 15-20.
This reading is specifically
selected for today because this Sunday is what is known in the church,
especially in the more liturgical traditions, as Christ the King Day or the
Reign of Christ day.
In glorious language this reading reminds us that
Jesus Christ is Lord - reigning supreme over all.
Not only that, but we who claim Jesus as Lord
demonstrate his lordship in our lives by the way we live.
In the prayer report, in v. 9-12, the writer is
offering
words of encouragement to these early followers of
Christ and to us.
You’ve been in our prayers,
the writer reports.
But these prayers are not any
ordinary prayers.
These are prayers that the
church might know God’s will.
Prayers to be filled with
spiritual wisdom. Prayers that those in
the church might lead lives worthy of the Lord,
lives that bear fruit. And
the writer also has prayed for strength for this church,
not ordinary human strength,
but strength that only comes from the power of God,
the kind of strength that
creates endurance, leads to patience, and results in joy.
These are big and beautiful prayers for God’s
people.
These are prayers that every church needs.
In the hymn portion of the
reading, which begins with v. 15, we hear incredibly beautiful and mysterious
language, fitting for a hymn. We can almost
imagine singing the words “Image of the invisible God.
Firstborn of all creation,
yet in him, all things were created. In
him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body,
the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.”
All of this is the language
of poetry and praise. And in this poetry we find names for Jesus
that challenge us to think
beyond simple metaphors.
Image of the invisible God -
This Jesus shows us what God is like. When we look at Jesus we see God revealed.
Firstborn of all creation -
This Jesus has been with God from the beginning, and
continues with him still.
In him all things hold
together -
This Jesus is the power that holds our lives
together.
He is the head of the body
-
This Jesus rules supreme over his body, the church.
He is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead -
This Jesus is the resurrected Christ, who reigns even
over death.
These ideas of who Jesus is
form the very core of what we mean when we assert “Jesus is King” or “Jesus is
Lord.”
Because Jesus is our Lord, we
share in this inheritance with all Christians.
Because Jesus is our Lord, we
are called to live as followers of Christ.
Because Jesus is our King, we
are given the power to live out this kingdom life.
How do we modern Christians
live into and up to this name that is above all other names? It’s not easy in the 21st
century. But it wasn’t easy in the
first century either. To be a Christian is always counter-cultural.
To claim Jesus is Lord of our
lives means we have to set aside
the other powers and
principalities that tempt us into prioritizing
something or someone other
than Jesus.
In a word, our culture values the power of success,
self, and stuff.
To claim Jesus as King is to
affirm a different kind of power.
To claim Jesus as Lord is to re-orient our lives
around Christ,
where power comes from a life yielded to God, a life
grounded in self-giving love.
To understand the power of Christ
leads us to the great paradox and mystery of our faith.
This Jesus, who is the name
above all names, this Jesus who is King and Lord,
this Jesus who is Savior of
the world -- this is the Jesus who has
shown us who God is by entering human history as a man, and suffering and
dying on a cross in order to reconcile us to God.
This self-giving, saving, sacrificing Jesus shows us how much God really is with us.
We who have been rescued from
the power of darkness,
have been led into the
We are heirs of the kingdom,
living out this kingdom reality in the here and now.
There is an old story told
about a small monastery tucked away in the mountains.
At one time, it was a place
of inspiration for all, alive with the power of God.
People came from all over to
discover God in this place.
But then the monastery began
to change. The brothers were overly
focused on their stuff,
the winery and the chocolates
that they made and sold.
They took credit for their
success. And then they became
self-centered.
They began to turn to God
less and to their own ways more.
So began their decline. Fewer and fewer pilgrims came.
Even fewer monks joined their
ranks. The brothers became more and more
rigid. They were selfish.
They were spiritually and
physically dying. They were fearful
about the future.
In another generation all the
monks would be dead, and the monastery would die with them.
One day a scraggly stranger
came to the door, asking for a place to rest for the night.
Reluctantly, he was invited
in. However, the monks found themselves
thoroughly enjoying this visitor at dinner, and sensed a spiritual depth to
him.
After spending the night, as
he was leaving the next morning, the stranger thanked the abbot.
Then, taking the abbot’s
hand, he leaned forward and softly whispered.
“I need to tell you a secret,
one that God has given me for you.
Christ is here in your
midst. The Messiah is here among you, in
disguise as one of your brothers.”
The abbot was shocked. “The Messiah? Here? In this place? No – it isn’t possible.” And the stranger left.
The abbot told the other brothers what the stranger had said. They
couldn't believe it. Then they began to think:
As they
thought about each monk, they wondered. So
they started to pay more attention to each other,
and treat one another as
though each was possibly the Christ, just in case. As they did, the monastery
changed.
Worship was no longer
routine, because they found themselves looking for Christ among them as they
prayed, sang their hymns, and shared in holy communion. Their study of the scriptures became deeper,
for if Christ was among them, they didn’t want to miss something
important. Their acts of service became
more genuine,
for what if that strange
brother they were helping was Christ himself?
And do you know what happened?
Gradually, there came to be something
attractive, even compelling about these monks and the monastery.
People started to come again, to learn
their spiritual secrets. But it was no secret.
Their lives had moved away from self,
success, and stuff, and been re-oriented around Christ.[1]
And in doing so, they had discovered
that Christ really was present to and through them.
And there, held together by Christ, the
[1]
Standish, N. Graham, Becoming a Blessed Church:
Forming a