“Bless you” from Colossians 1.1-14
Preached by Karen Hill
Sunday, July 11, 2010
I don’t know if this is historically accurate, but it seems to me that as soon as there was an alphabet, people began to communicate by writing letters. Letters are important.
Consider the letters you have received – letters with the power to change your life. Have you ever received a letter of acceptance, to the college of your choice? Or a letter of rejection? How about a love letter or a “dear John” letter? Maybe a letter from the IRS, or perhaps a letter notifying you of an inheritance? What about a letter from an old friend? Letters have great power.
As a child, I watched my mother write every week to her parents in Texas; in return she received weekly letters from her mother. I can’t remember the last time I received a hand-written letter, how about you? Obviously, times have changed. We live in an electronic age, when it’s easier to send an email, and even easier to delete it. Still, there are some emails that are so important that I save them, just as I’ve saved some letters. So, maybe letter writing will not entirely fade away.
A letter, any type of letter, can be a blessing or a curse – perhaps you’ve received some of each. As we read our text this morning, try to bring to mind an important letter, a letter that has changed your life, positively or negatively.
Our text this morning is from the book of Colossians – this is a letter sent to the church in Colossae some 2,000 years ago. Listen carefully, for the writer’s blessing to this early Christian church and to us. This is Colossians 1.1-14.
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to (God), as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.
May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from (God’s) glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.
(God) has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of (God’s) beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray
Dear God, Father and Mother of us all, we give you thanks for the ways you have blessed us and taught us and helped us to learn and to grow spiritually. Help us to share those blessings with others, and help us to live out this gospel message. Amen.
Most of the New Testament is composed of letters, of course. These are the epistles, sent to the early churches, many of them attributed to the Apostle Paul. On his missionary journeys, Paul started many churches. After leaving them, he kept in touch through letters.
Colossians is not one of Paul’s churches; it’s apparent from the letter itself that Paul had never been there and didn’t know the community personally. Paul probably did not write the letter to the Colossians, even though his name is on it; we have no idea who wrote this letter. At that time it was common for admirers or followers of a famous person to write in that person’s style and to use their name. That is probably what happened here in the letter to the Colossians.
All of this is background info; it helps us understand scripture a little better, but the authorship of Colossians does not affect the contents at all. That’s what we’re most concerned with today.
So, here’s this letter to the church at Colossae with this beautiful introduction. The author begins with thanksgiving for the church. “In our prayers we always thank God for you….we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” Faith, hope and love. Does that sound familiar?
What a beautiful way to start a letter to this church. Colossae (colosee) was a young church, a growing church. The letter, as we see later in the book, is in response to a potential problem in the community. Some folks are confused about their faith. They are not sure who they are anymore. Some of them are worshipping angels; some of them are judging one another by the old cleanliness laws. They don’t know what to believe and how to act.
The writer is reminding them who they are and whose they are. They are followers of Jesus Christ; they belong to God. This is the gospel message.
This is what they need to hang on to no matter what else comes along; no matter how much easier it would be to go back to their old ways. The writer wants them to hold tight to the gospel, hold tight to relationship with Jesus. So, the writer encourages them, instructs them and blesses them.
I wonder, have you ever received a blessing? Who has blessed you and how did they bless you?
I used dictionary.com to check the meaning of “to bless.” I know what I think it means, but I wanted to see a more formal definition. I was surprised to find that to bless someone is a specifically religious activity. To bless is “to consecrate or sanctify by a religious rite. To make or pronounce holy. To request of God the bestowal of divine favor. To bestow good of any kind.” That’s what it means to bless. It sort of makes you think of how easily and quickly we say, “Bless you” when someone sneezes. It is a powerful thing to bless someone, not something to be taken lightly.
I learned a little bit about this blessing business at Ghost Ranch this summer during Youth Week. In our group, we had two newly graduated high school seniors – Freddy Martinez and Benjamin Ahern-Wild.
On our last night at camp, I thought it was important to recognize that these two boys had graduated and would not be returning to Ghost Ranch as high school students again. I thought it would be nice to offer them our blessings. It would be our way of sending them off into the world outside of youth group.
Then I realized that we had also spent the week with four middle school girls from other churches. We might not be in a group with them ever again, so I thought I better expand this. From there it grew to offering a blessing to each person in the group. Let’s bless everyone.
I really had no idea where this was going, and clearly I had no idea that we were treading on such holy ground – it was before I looked at dictionary.com.
So, I offered the first blessing to one of our girls, and we went around the circle, so that everyone else could bless her, too. Quickly, very quickly it became clear how much, more powerful this was than I expected.
That very first girl began to cry, as I blessed her, and then she cried some more as her peers offered their blessings. Then they all cried, and then I cried. Not just the girls, either. Boys and girls cried as they were being blest, and they cried again as they blessed their friends.
It was awful and beautiful all at the same time. We were crying and laughing and trying to speak from our hearts the truth about the good we saw in one another, and the ways we hoped that God would bless each one of us. Later I thought about how counter-cultural this whole blessing ritual was. It is so much easier for teenagers, in particular, but also for adults to use put-downs with one another. We respond sarcastically to just about everything that happens, and we are cynical a whole lot of the time.
What happens when we leave the put-downs, the sarcasm and the cynicism aside, and we decide to bless one another? What happens when we decide to “consecrate/sanctify someone,” or that we are going to bestow good upon them? What happens to us and to them?
Well, at the end of our ritual, the kids blessed me. I really didn’t expect that or really even want it, because I’d already cried for an hour, and I had a headache. But they did it, anyway. It was powerful – I want to be that person those young people see; I want to live up to that vision, that blessing. So, all of us there at Ghost Ranch in June have been blessed just as the church at Colossae was blessed.
Here’s the blessing to the Colossians, verses 9-12. Imagine that the founder of First Presbyterian Church, Sheldon Jackson, blessing us with these words.
“We have not stopped praying for you (First Presbyterian) and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you (the members of First Presbyterian Church) may live lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to (God), as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you (First Presbyterian Church) be made strong with the strength that comes from God’s glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to God.”
Now, that’s a blessing. You’ll notice that Sheldon Jackson, I mean, the writer of Colossians, does not say to them, “You are perfect just as you are. Don’t you go changing.” No, no, no. A blessing has to change you, strengthen you, and send you out to do God’s will in the world, or it doesn’t mean anything.
The writer wanted the Colossians to know God and to grow in spiritual wisdom and knowledge, so that they could bear that fruit in their own lives, and then take that fruit out into the world.
Each one of us has been blessed. I know that it does not always look or feel that way. There are some circumstances that are not blessings to us. Our blessing is relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That’s the blessing.
Life can hit us with anything and everything, and it often does. Yet, we are still in relationship with God.
Who are you, and whose are you? You are a follower of Jesus Christ, and you belong to God. That’s the blessing.
I heard this story by Scott Simon on National Public Radio yesterday morning, and it took my breath away. I want to share it with you.
“Thor Soderberg and Mazen Istanbouli were the cop and the prof. Mr. Istanbouli, a professor of political science at DePaul University, is blind. He is also a tri-athlete, who has been guided when he runs, swims and cycles by Thor Soderberg, another tri-athlete and a Chicago police officer.
Officer Soderberg was matched up with Professor Istanbouli through the ‘C Different Foundation’, a group that assists blind athletes. They became a team, sharing challenge, fatigue and exhilaration as they trained and competed in triathlons.
"Swimming in the lake, riding bikes along the lakefront, running — we spent hours together," Mazen Istanbouli said. "We talked about everything. The more I knew Thor, the more I realized what a great human being he was. He always said, 'I want you to get a medal.' He always thought of others before himself."
This week, Officer Thor Soderberg was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Chicago police academy…, where he was an instructor. A 24-year-old man with a history of drugs, crime and mental derangement has been charged with his murder...The alleged assailant was wounded…by officers, and is recovering in a hospital.
Thor Soderberg was 43. His wife, Jennifer Loudon, is a social worker in the Chicago public schools. She has released a statement urging people who say they want to memorialize her husband to do so by doing something for others, like her husband.”
That’s the end of Scott Simon’s story. Here is Thor Soderberg’s wife, Jennifer Loudon’s statement.
“I am terribly devastated. I know many of you want to help. Here is what you can do. If you have the opportunity to do something and change someone's life for the better, do it. Start by taking care of every child. Thor and I knew that each young person needs five important adults and one strong adult to provide a positive influence in their lives. In his honor, please use a kind word, a smile - as much as you can give to help someone in need. Every one of us can do a tremendous amount of good to impact a child, even one that isn't ours. It was critically important to Thor and (me) that we were 'that' person for other children….” End quote.
Clearly, Thor Soderberg was a blessed man, who was a blessing to those who knew him. We have also been blessed; let’s be a blessing in return.
Amen.
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