Holding It Together
Rev. Cynthia Anderson, November 25, 2007 Have you ever had one of those days when you felt like it was all you could do just to hold things together? Perhaps it’s a day when you’ve received some difficult or painful news, or maybe it’s just one more discouragement added to an already disappointing relationship or situation. Perhaps it’s one of those days when if feels like a million little things are going wrong and you feel like no matter how hard you try, you just can’t get your act together. Perhaps it’s a periodic realization that despite all the outward signs of success, inside you feel scattered and adrift – more like you’re treading water than swimming toward a goal with purposeful strokes. Or perhaps it’s a day in which the news coming from all corners of the world seems full of unending despair and you just can’t seem to find a way to feel hopeful or confident about the future. If I asked each of you, you could probably come up with your own list. The reality is that we live in a world that increasingly seems to have trouble holding itself together. And we ourselves live lives that often seem chaotic and fragmented. It may not be much initial comfort, but you know, we aren’t the only ones. It’s a problem that has resounded through the ages. And it’s a problem to which Christians have made a specific answer that resounds with hope. We hear that promise in Paul’s letter to the Colossians – in Christ, all things hold together. Now the words of this letter are dense and not the easiest in the world to understand. It’s high-flying language – in fact some scholars argue that this is part of an ancient hymn. But if we stay with Paul’s words and unpack them a bit – they yield immense treasure for us as we look for a way to hold things together. To begin, some background is helpful. Paul is writing this letter to the churches of Colossia in response to both persecution they face and some false teachings that are leading members of the church astray. That false teaching has told the Colossians that God would never have any direct dealings with mere human beings. Rather, the way to a relationship with God was through a series of intermediaries, or through a secret kind of knowledge that only a privileged few could access. Now, that strikes right at the heart of the gospel, which proclaims that God not only deals directly with us, God actually became one of us – God took on full humanity in Jesus. It was really and completely God, and God, in Jesus Christ, became really and completely human, lived and taught in Galilee and Judea, was crucified and died on a cross and raised from the dead, and now makes possible new and eternal life for all who follow him. Paul is here reminding the Colossians of what they have been taught – God does deal directly with us and God’s saving act in Christ is available to all. It’s critical that the Colossians realize that, if they are to have confidence in the redemption and renewal they have in Christ and if they are to hold it together in the face of hardships and false teachings. Paul goes on to remind them that they can indeed face the present and future with confidence because of who Christ is. Christ is the image of the invisible God – look Paul says, when you see Jesus, when you hear his teachings and actions, when you see him on the cross, when you experience his resurrection power – you’re hearing, seeing and experiencing God. Because Christ is indeed God, we can have confidence in what he has done for us. In fact, we were created for Christ from the very beginning of time – the whole world has been created through him and for him. Creation has a secure anchor in the love of God – we are not floating on a random, little blue ball spinning aimlessly in space, moving toward no purpose or future. No! Paul reminds us that God has created us – the whole world – through Christ and we are ordered toward a future with him. Yes, as humans we have disobeyed God, we have sinned and we have royally messed things up. But God has never forsaken us. Rather, God has intervened through Christ, restored us to a right relationship and given us the power to be new creatures – with lives that are securely held together in God’s love. Now I know that’s just really complicated and lofty language. But the key message is this: Christ is the center of all things. We were created through him and our lives are ordered toward him. And Christ himself secures that future for us. Through his death and resurrection, we have become part of God’s family, of God’s very life as a pure gift. Our past, present and future are all held securely together in the love and life of Jesus Christ. The world’s past, present and future all hold together in Christ. I want us to think about that promise this morning. It is truly awesome. No matter how much things seem to be falling apart, no matter how meaningless and random some acts in our world seem to be, no matter how hopeless things look – the world is moving toward the purposes of God in Christ. No matter how discouraged we feel, no matter how chaotic things seem, Jesus has a loving purpose for our lives and is working to bring about that purpose. You see, here’s the key, no matter how impersonal and vast the cosmos may seem, no matter how lost or alone we might feel, the Creator of the universe and of us bears a human face – a face that looks upon us with the greatest love and mercy we can image, a face that shines with resurrection light after the death of a cross, a face that invites us to be embraced by that unending love and held securely in the arms of God. The God who created all that is, is a personal, loving God who, in Jesus, calls us by name, who knows the number of hairs on our heads. Jesus never abandons us, and through him we can have confidence that God has a purpose for our lives -- for the world -- and is loving and resolutely moving things in that direction. Now you may be sitting there saying to yourself – well that sure does sound nice, but what on earth does that really have to do with me? How does knowing this really help me? If you’re looking for three easy things you can do this week to be happier and more successful, the next few moments probably aren’t going to be much help. But you see, the problem with so much of our world and our lives isn’t about knowing what short-term steps to take to bring immediate relief to a situation. In fact, we’re pretty good at short-term, quick fixes that offer some immediate relief or take some of the pressure off. But we’re not so good at slow, patient efforts that produce long-term solutions. We’re not so good at looking at the big picture, waiting patiently, or actually looking for the signs of God’s work in the world. What we so often lack these days is a long-term view and some hopeful imagination – not the kind of hope grounded in wishful thinking, but the hope that is grounded in a confidence that God has and is acting through Jesus Christ – in our lives and in the world. Here’s what Paul’s words have to do with us. His words invite us to step back from our frantic striving, our breathless pursuit of the next quick-fix or short-term solution to a problem we think we have to solve or control on our own. That kind of breathless feeling of having to hold it together should register with us as a kind of big, red warning flag. When we find ourselves feeling like it’s all up to us to hold things together, we’ve lost sight of the big picture. We’ve lost sight of Christ standing at the center of our lives and of the world, holding all things together. If we hear Paul, then we can let go a bit. We can loosen our grasp, ease up on our clutching of people and things for fear things will get out of control if we don’t hold on until our knuckles turn white. And when we pick up the newspapers and it seems that the world is caught in an unending spiral of despair, Paul’s words invite us to take a step back – to see the bigger picture, to hold on to the promise that God in Christ holds all things together and moves them toward a loving purpose. We can move into the future with a real sense of hope and confidence that somehow – even when we can’t see it, perhaps especially when we can’t see it – God is at work. I want to use a visual aid to help us see this. For those of you who do needle work, this will come as no surprise, but I hope it can serve as a visual reminder to us all as we think about our lives and our world in light of this promise of God to hold all things together in Christ. When you look at the back of a tapestry, all you see is this – a jumbled pattern of colors and threads, knots and crisscrosses. You can sometimes make out shapes and faint patterns but it just doesn’t look like much of a pattern or a purpose. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, reminds us that this is how we see on this side of the resurrection – as though through a glass darkly. But we have God’s own promise that some day, we will see this side of the pattern, the true pattern – as we come face-to-face with the love of Jesus himself. And today, we can live in the confidence that even though we see this somewhat jumbled side of things, the other side of the pattern is there – it is truly there and in the hands of a master weaver. Christ holds it together. Christ holds us together, now and through eternity. Thanks be to God. Amen. |
