God's Dwelling Place

It occurred to me this week that many of you who read this blog did not know whether or not the church addition passed but it did and we hope that construction can start within the next month or two.  It is a very exciting time at Fairview and I look forward to what the future holds.  The sermon I wrote for this morning is different than most in the sense that it tackles some theology and how we understand our individual faith.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 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.  21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.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— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.  24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

As I prepared for this morning’s scripture, I read contemporary commentaries, a commentary from the 1950’s, older commentaries, and other web pages about this scripture and none of them said the same thing.  The newer commentaries said that this letter was most likely not written by Paul because our understanding of Paul’s writings has evolved over the years and this letter does not seem to fit the mold and the older commentaries were written like there was no doubt that Paul wrote this letter.  Many conservative Christian thinkers say that our life experiences should not influence our faith while many liberal Christian thinkers say that our experience is one of the most important aspects of our faith.  It is really no wonder why our faith is difficult to maintain, it is no wonder why so many people struggle to even have faith.  To me, it does not matter whether or not it was actually the hand of Paul that wrote this letter.  God created us as individuals which means we are all unique and to try to fit all that we believe into one point-of-view is very difficult, if not impossible.  Those of you here today represent only a microcosm of the totality of Christianity and the views we represent are possibly very different from one another.  But as the writer of this letter says in verse 17, “[Jesus] is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”  It is Jesus that unites us, it is Jesus that brings us together.

When I say that this letter to the Colossians was written in response to the Gnostic movement, for most of us this does not tell us much about what is written in this letter.  The Gnostics were an intellectual group that thought that the saving mercy of God was only for a select few that could understand this movement.  I am not going to go into the theology of the Gnostics but it is important for us to know that the author of this letter was combating this movement because the author, whether it was Paul or a disciple of his, knew that Christianity was for all, that Jesus’ death on the cross meant salvation for all.  

Ok, so where does this leave us?  How do we as unique individuals understand our own faith?  First and foremost, we have to quit being so concerned with the faith of others.  We cannot base the success or failure of our faith on someone else’s faith.  We cannot get so caught up in how others worship, pray and live out their faith that we do not concentrate on our own faith.  There was a scripture passage from Galatians 6 that I preached on a couple weeks ago that said we should not judge our work, in other words, we should not judge our faith, on the faith of others.  We should not compare our faith to others because it will only deceive us.  Each of us must carry our own load.  Second, it is ok to base some of what we believe on our experiences of this life because it is through these experiences that we experience God and better understand Him.  My faith is much different than that of a someone who lives in a part of the world where Christians are strongly persecuted.  My faith is much different compared to my own faith of only a few years ago.  One of my instructors once said that the Bible is not the “word of God” but the “word of God” can be found in the Bible.  At first I was confused, then once I realized what he had said, I was mad.  Maybe you are sitting there in the same boat but let me explain.  God’s own hand did not write the Bible, it was written by human hands, which means that their understanding of God, their experience of God, and their circumstances of life have all had an impact of what they wrote.  Even if they were as objective as their possibly could be, their writings were still influenced by their experiences.  I have no doubt that God helped the authors of the Bible just as He helps me write this sermon but the Bible is not word-for-word as God intended it to be.  It is the best instruction manual we have but we must understand that the Bible is not the end-all be-all.  You may be wondering where this theological sermon came from but I had a conversation last night at a wedding reception that dealt with this topic and the person I was talking to was having difficulty understanding some aspects found in the Bible; more precisely, the Biblical understanding of the roles that women play in the church.  I told this person that Bible was written in a much different time and the roles that women play in today’s  world is much different than it used to be and that this progress was quite alright and most likely in accordance to God’s will.  It is perfectly ok to use the experiences of this life to better understand God and the Bible should also supplement that.  You cannot have one without the other.  To base our faith on only one of these aspects means that we totally shutting out a very important aspect to our faith.

Yesterday I was blessed enough to do a wedding for a couple whom I did not know before January of this year.  Through their counseling sessions I got to know them and over the weekend I got to meet much of their family and after it was all said and done, I felt very much apart of their family.  The pastoral role that all of you and God has blessed me with is just that, a true blessing.  I would not be very good at what I do if I based what I preached strictly on my experiences or if I read strictly from the Bible without adding my life experiences to what I say.  The two work hand in hand and I think that is how God has intended it.  The two serve as a check and balance for each other.  If our experiences stray away from what is in the Bible then we need to examine how we are living our lives and the opposite is also true.  That is why it so important for us to involved in Biblical study as well as living our faith each and every day.  Every experience should be checked by what we read in the Bible and the Bible must be held accountable by our experiences.  

The truth is that God dwells in each of us just as God dwells in the Bible; but you nor I are God just as the Bible is not strictly “God’s word.”  God is the giver of life, He is the only way that the greatest experiences of this life manifest themselves into blessings.  The birth of your children, your wedding day, even waking up every day are such blessings but they are only truly understood if we use God as the lens through which we view these miracles.  We often view the life of Christ as something we can only dream to attain but it is my honest belief that each of us are capable of living a life just as Christ did.  It is also my belief that God has this same goal for us as well.  God made us in His image and we must strive to be as Godly and Christ-like as we possibly can.  God has commissioned us just as He commissioned Christ by calling us to present the word of God to the world.  It is important for us to know and understand that people watch us and for many of them, the only way they get to experience God is through us and this is a responsibility we must not take lightly.  

Whether it was the Bible or the experiences of this life or both that have led you here today searching for God’s mercy, then you have found it.  In a couple minutes we sing our next hymn and I encourage you to take a moment to remember those times in your life where God’s love has been undeniable.  Use your experiences and Biblical knowledge to better help you understand your own faith.  God loves you, He even sent His son to die for your sins so in all that you do, be thankful for those experiences that had led you here today.  Amen

God Bless,

Clinton

Fairview Christian Church