Sermon from July 18

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 18, 2010
Colossians 1:21-29
…Which is Christ in you…

In the name of Jesus, amen. Paul’s portion of his letter to the Colossians will be our sermon text and it puts before our eyes a couple of matters. First of all, reading Paul can be a tricky endeavor. Paul needs a grammarian to help him. But that is not the important thing. The important matter is the issue of reconciliation. Reconciliation is a giant mountain in the lives of people. Non-Christians can find reconciliation just as Christians can.

Non-Christians can be reconciled to one another, but that reconciliation is often built upon a flimsy foundation, a foundation that is built upon winning and losing, upon grudges and power. That is reconciliation, that is fraud. It is pretending to be set at peace with one another while the reality remains that division still exists. This fraudulent reconciliation is cemented in the acknowledgment that peace only comes when someone is declared the winner and someone is declared the loser. Reconciliation is not about winning and losing. Reconciliation is about the Redeemer and what we have been redeemed from. We have been redeemed from our sins. We have been redeemed to new life, to a new start, to new opportunities to share the riches of the glory of God, which is Christ in you.

Reconciliation is too often, and sadly, something that we do indeed play at. But reconciliation is not a game. It is not the latest toy that offers us amusement for a brief time, or a computer game that diverts us from our work or gives us momentary pleasure. Reconciliation is serious. Joyfully serious. Blessedly serious. It is something that is urgently needed. And it is something that has already been accomplished!

Yes, my beloved, reconciliation is already completed. Not by us. Not by those wicked sinners who have hurt us so grievously. Not by anyone but Jesus Christ. We are reconciled in his body by his death so that we may be presented holy and blameless and above reproach to him, that is, to our loving God and Father.

Our children that came to VBS this past week didn’t know it, but they were learning about the reconciliation that already exists in Jesus Christ. They learned about the great fish symbol, the picture that speaks five words, the picture that speaks the eternal truth of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our Savior.

Jesus came to earth at the direction of God the Father for the purpose of restoration, of reconstruction, of reconciliation. And without the marvelous mercy of Jesus, none of the restoration and reconciliation that we need could ever take place.

We are too human. We do not have it in us to forgive. We do not have it in us to take the lesser place and give the spot of honor to someone else. We do not have it in us to humble ourselves and lovingly wash the feet of another brother or sister. We do not have it in us to put down the grudge and pick up the love that endures, the love that is patient, the love that is kind, gentle, meek, and long-suffering. We simply do not have that kind of love in us, for we are too human.

Now we are good at loving. We are good at loving ourselves. We are good at loving others when that means we will benefit. We are good at loving others so that at a later date we’ll get something that we want. We’re good at extending the right hand of peace and gentleness while we extend our left hand to stab in the back with the sharp knife of spite and hostility. We’re too human.

We were conceived in sin and born in sin. It doesn’t take too long to realize that kids are sinners. And children very quickly reach the truth that grownups and parents are sinners too.

This morning we considered our unworthiness and confessed before God and each other that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed. We admitted the truth that we cannot free ourselves from our sinful condition. Because of that dreadful truth, we celebrate the reality of March 25 and the reality of December 25. We celebrate the birth of redemption as Jesus took on human flesh and lived as one of us, experiencing everything that the children of God experience. Yet Jesus remained sinless.

Jesus remained sinless not to set an example for us, to show us how to be sinless but so that Jesus might take into that sinless body all of our sins. On the cross Jesus became the greatest thief in all of criminal history. Jesus took my sin. Jesus took your sin. And Jesus claimed those sins as his own. He became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus worked reconciliation on the cross. And in being reconciled to God the Father, we are restored and reconstructed.

We are too human, full of sin, frailty, and weakness. But in the midst of our sinfulness, Christ dwells within us, strengthening us and transforming us to be agents of grace, ministers of mercy. We are empowered to make known among the Gentiles the riches of the glory of God. In this day Gentiles are all the people around us who have no connection to Christ. That includes your unbelieving neighbor, your Muslim or Buddhist coworker, all the people who are in need of the reconstructing redemption of Jesus Christ.

Since we are too human, it is imperative, yes imperative, to remember that Christ is the content. Christ is the content of our living. Christ is the content of our proclamation. It is the work of Christ that brings our forgiveness. It is the word of Christ that we hear and believe. It is the body and blood of Christ, broken and shed for you, that you will receive in blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Christ is the content.

And thus Christ is the content of all the reconciliation that takes place. Reconciliation is evidence of Christ in you. As was mentioned earlier, our sin holds on to the grudge. Our salvation helps us release the hatred, let go of the hurt, and pick up the fresh start, pick up the joy of being reconciled one to another.

By Christ’s death in the flesh and his resurrection, reconciliation exists. God is reconciled to us and we are reconciled to our loving Father. And this is a complete reconciliation, nothing halfway, nothing that is fake or phony. It is complete and thus Paul rejoices to declare that Christ is in the holy daughters and sons of God.

Christ is in you. Christ is in you to love you and comfort you. Christ is in you to challenge you and confront you. Christ is in you to embrace you. Christ is in you to bring you through all of your days until we are presented mature, complete in Christ to our merciful heavenly Father. Rejoice in your reconciliation. Rejoice in reconstruction, for this is Christ in you. SDG