CHRIST AT THE CENTER

Scripture: Colossians 1:15-29

INTRODUCTION

It’s Rally Day and there is excitement in the air – there’s expectation in the eyes of our children, curiosity in the minds of our teenagers, the sound of animated conversation in our hallways, a feeling of increased momentum among our officers and staff, and I sense that there is hope deep down in our hearts as we begin another new church year together. And so it should be, for God has great things in store for us here at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree Streets!

Our Session has chosen the theme “Christ at the Center: In the Heart of the City, in the Hands of God,” which will help to set the direction for the months ahead. And our Long Range Planning Committee is focused on that same theme, as we envision the future in the years to come.

So let us begin our journey as we look forward with anticipation and look upward as a congregation at the Rose Window above, where we see “Christ at the Center,” reflecting His grace and His love and reminding us, as the apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians, that He is the head of the body, the church…and in Him, all things hold together (Colossians 1:17-18).

The church to which Paul sent his letter was comprised of Gentile and Jewish Christians, located in the heart of the ancient city of Colossae. Many good things were happening among them, but they were surrounded by a pagan culture that worshipped many different gods and they were also facing some internal controversies, including heresies that questioned both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, the purpose of Paul’s epistle was to offer those first century Christians the theological guidance they needed, and to encourage them to draw closer together with Christ at the center of their church. Paul wrote:

He, Jesus Christ, is the image of the invisible God…In Him, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…He is the head of the body, the church…And in Him, all things hold together…And you who were once estranged and hostile…He has now reconciled in His body of flesh, by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless before God…

(Colossians 1:15-22)

Almost 2000 years later, those profound words still speak to us today. Last June, at the General Assembly meeting of the Presbyterian Church (USA), we reaffirmed our faith in God’s salvation of the world through Jesus Christ. And in the midst of the controversies which have beleaguered us for so many years, there was a clear recognition that the spirit of hope and reconciliation has begun to move once again across our Denomination. And our newly elected Moderator, Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel, who belongs to this church family, has committed himself to proclaim that hope and reconciliation in all that he says and wherever he goes.

My friends: that is what can happen, that is what does happen when Christians let go of those things that divide us and let God’s Holy Spirit unite us through faith in Jesus Christ.

And if we truly believe what the Bible says, that the church is His body on earth, just as unique and diverse as a human body with many different parts – eyes and ears, legs and feet, hands and hearts – then we ought to affirm and accept the gift of our diversity with which God has blessed us, and not expect every Christian to look alike or act alike or think alike.

A preacher I know went back to the community where he was born and raised and visited the small church where he had been brought up in the faith. As he walked into the sanctuary, he noticed that the stained glass windows were new and appeared to be quite expensive. He began to read the names, the dedications on the plaques in those windows, and didn’t recognize a single one of them.

So he asked a friend, “Are these new people who have come in? I don’t know any of their names.”

The friend said, “No, a church in St. Louis ordered these windows from Italy, and when they arrived, they didn’t fit. So they advertised in a church magazine…and when we saw the advertisement, the price was right, so we bought them.”

The preacher replied, “They sure are beautiful, but what are you going to do with the plaques with all of those strange names?”

He said, “Well, the Board discussed that, and we decided to leave those names right where they are. It’s good for our small church to realize that there are some other Christians out there besides us.” (From “Craddock Stories” by Dr. Fred B. Craddock, Chalice Press, St. Louis, Missouri, 2001, page 138).

Today there are more than two billion Christians on this planet, more than two million Presbyterians in our Denomination and more than two thousand, eight hundred members of this congregation. Which means that there is probably at least one believer out there or in here who has a different opinion than yours or mine about the interpretation of scripture, about church doctrines and creeds and about the theories of creation and evolution going back to the beginning of time.

That’s the way it was when Paul wrote to the Colossians, so it is today, and more than likely, that is how it will be for future generations. The Christian Church, the body of Christ on earth, is a community of many different kinds of people who will not always agree on everything. But of one thing we can be absolutely certain, and it is reflected in the Rose Window above: if this church is centered in the grace and peace and forgiveness and love of Jesus Christ, then He will bless our diversity, He will bind us together in unity and He will empower us in our mission and ministry to reach out to those in need across this city, nation and world as we proclaim His name, which is above every other name, on earth and in heaven (Philippians 2:10).

II.

That is what God has called us all to believe in this congregation, reflected in the Rose Window above and reaffirmed every Sunday in the middle of our Statement of Purpose printed on the front of the bulletin: That Jesus Christ is Lord and He is the center of all that we say and everything we do here.

And yet, with all of that said, the truth is that nothing can happen through us as a church unless and until it is first happening to us as individual Christians. So the question we need to ask ourselves today is this: Have you, have I, have we opened our hearts and our minds to invite Jesus Christ into the center of our lives?

Paul called it the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to the saints, that is, to all who believe it is true: Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:26-27).

I grew up in an evangelical Christian home, where my father as the preacher and my mother as a Sunday school teacher made it clear to all four of us as their children that the most important thing of all was committing your life to Jesus Christ. So at the age of 8, I went forward at a Billy Graham crusade in Madison Square Garden to dedicate myself to the Lord.

But like the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable, during the twilight zone of my teenage years I wandered off into “the far country” which led me to the University of North Carolina where in 1969, I had a re-conversion experience which took me into seminary and full-time ministry. All these years later, as a preacher of the gospel and an ordained pastor, I can attest that there are still plenty of rough edges and that God isn’t finished with me yet. And the older I get, the more I am aware of both the reality and the mystery of Christ at the center of one’s life.

For some of us, it happened suddenly and dramatically – as was the case for the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. For others, the journey has been more gradual, going all the way back to our childhood days. And there are those who are still searching for that reality, seeking to embrace the mystery of faith in Jesus Christ. Which is why, at the end of almost every worship service, we invite people to come forward if they are considering making that kind of commitment to Him.

I have told you before how it happened to one man, a husband and father, who heard Christ knocking at the door of his life and decided to invite Him in. His conversion brought about some changes in the family, and the youngest child was somewhat bewildered by it all.

One night at dinner, the little boy was asked to wash his hands before coming to the table. He protested that his hands were already clean. But the father insisted, saying, “Go upstairs and wash your hands again, because there are germs on them.” Reluctantly, the boy obeyed, but as he left the table, he muttered to himself, “Germs and Jesus. Germs and Jesus. That’s all you ever hear about in this house, and you can’t see either one of them!”

I like that story, not only because it makes us smile, but more importantly because it reminds us of both the profound reality and the deep mystery of Christ at the center of our lives. Paul wrote to the Colossians that some things have been hidden while other things have been revealed. But the one thing we Christians believe above everything else is that Jesus Christ, who was crucified, dead and buried, was raised from the grave on Easter Day. And ever since that moment, His presence, His peace, His power through the Holy Spirit have been alive and at work in this world and in us. Christ in you said Paul, the hope and the glory.

If we open our eyes, we can still see Him today in the faces of our children, full of joy, laughing with sheer delight, and looking back at us with love through the eyes of a family member or Christian friend. If we open our ears, we can hear Him speaking to us in moments of personal meditation and prayer, or right here in this sanctuary, through reading the Bible and as we listen to the sermons and anthems and participate in the liturgy. If we open our hearts, we can feel the release of His forgiveness, the strength of His love, helping us to heal and giving us courage to go on instead of giving up. And if we open our hands, His care and compassion can flow through each of us, as we reach out to the lost and the lonely, the homeless and the poor with the warmth of His touch.

That is what we can and will experience when Christ is the center of our lives. And as we open ourselves to let Him come in, we will soon discover that He has always been there, waiting for us.

CONCLUSION

Della Toby made that discovery when she was 8 years old, living in a small town in Missouri during the late 1950’s. A few black families had been welcomed into a mostly white church and Della, who had a lovely voice, sang in the Sunday school programs.

No one intentionally put the sanctuary out-of-bounds for those children, but that’s the way it was. Now and then on Sunday mornings, the Sunday school superintendent would find Della standing by the door, listening to the organist practicing for the worship service. And then one Sabbath Day, he found her just inside the door, gazing up at a beautiful window that pictured Christ in the center, with His arms open wide.

The little girl was startled, and said to the superintendent, “Maybe I shouldn’t be here, but when I looked up and saw that picture, I thought I heard Him say, ‘Come on in, Della, come on in.’” (From “The Parables” by Dr. Gerald Kennedy, Harper and Row Publishers, 1960, page 16).

God knows, we still have a long way to go in the church and in our journey of faith as Christians. But with Christ at the Center, in whom all things hold together, if we listen ever so carefully, we can still hear Him say to you and to me and to all of God’s children today: “Come on in. Come on in!”

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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