June 1, 2025 • 31 mins
What does the universe have to do with your daily life?
In this opening message of our new series on Colossians, we explore the mystery and depth of Paul’s poetic vision—anchored in a Christ who holds all things together.
Join us as we unpack:
🖋 Authorship & Literary Context – Why is Colossians such an anomaly? What do scholars say about who wrote it?
📜 Ancient Christian Hymns – Is Paul quoting early worship songs to shape his theology?
🌌 Cosmic Gospel Foundations – What does it mean for Jesus to be the image of the invisible God?
🏠 Everyday Implications – How does Paul’s sweeping theology meet us at the kitchen table?
Through humour, deep reflection, and personal storytelling, Pastor Jeremy Duncan shows how Paul’s message about Jesus is not just big—it’s intimately present in our homes, habits, and hopes.
📖 Featured Text: Colossians 1:1–23
🎙 Series Theme: “Jesus at the Centre”
🕊 Key Idea: The most cosmic convictions must root themselves in our ordinary rhythms.
—
🔔 Subscribe to stay connected as we journey through Colossians over the next five weeks!
📲 Follow @commonschurch for weekly updates, podcasts, and more.
📌 Keywords: Colossians, Paul’s Letters, Authorship of Colossians, Cosmic Christ, Early Christian Hymns, Pauline Theology, Jesus at the Centre, Gospel and Daily Life, Commons Church Sermon, Jeremy Duncan
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jeremy Duncan (00:00):
God is big, and God is beyond us. And in some
sense, we will never, as humanbeings, be able to make sense of
the divine. We have to makepeace with that. But everything
we need to know about God,everything God wanted to say to
us, All of that is present inthe way that Jesus moved through
the world. Last week, we wrappedup a strange new world.
(00:27):
Today, we begin cosmic thoughtsfor daily life. We'll get there
in a moment. However, before weget to our new series, let's
look back at where we've justbeen together. Because
immediately coming out ofEaster, we stepped into a series
called strange new world. Andthat series was a set of
conversations all about lookingat our lives, looking at our
(00:48):
experience of church really inthe light of resurrection.
On Easter Sunday, I stood hereand I said that against all
odds, Easter shows us thatresurrection is the natural
state of the cosmos. And if thatis true, which I believe it to
be, the implications for thatstatement are, I mean, really
transformational. They changeeverything about how we look and
(01:09):
how we think, how we experienceabsolutely everything. And so in
our strange new world series, weexplored the landscape of church
really in the light ofresurrection. We looked at how
we experienced the Eucharist andmission and baptism and marriage
and last week even death.
But in all of theseconversations, we used a very
(01:31):
specific term a lot over thelast five weeks, sacrament. It's
a beautiful word, an old word, avery religious sounding word,
and how it's defined oftenvaries from tradition to
tradition. But for me, the coreidea of sacrament is this
conviction that holds all ofthese five conversations
(01:52):
together in mind. It's simplythis, the grace of God is
communicated not only in ideas,but also maybe even primarily
through our experiences as humanbeings. Sacrament is the
conviction that mundane,ordinary, everyday objects,
things we might interact with athousand times throughout the
(02:13):
week and never blink an eye, canalso be conduits for grace.
And in that sense for me,sacraments are an extension of
one of our core convictions asChristians. God was present in
the life of Jesus. God can bepresent in bread and grape and
water and community because thisis what we call incarnation. The
(02:39):
idea that God is not just anidea. The divine is present with
us, around us, surrounding us inways that we can touch and taste
and smell and hold all the timeif we reach out.
Which is why reaching all theway back to Easter morning,
resurrection is so important tothe Christian story. Faith
(02:59):
doesn't live just in someethereal intellectual simulation
of reality. Faith exists in whatyou can touch and taste, what
you can hold on to, how we cancare for each other. Because God
inhabits this world preciselybecause God loves this world.
That means God loves you, lovesyour neighbor, loves your body,
(03:23):
loves the food that you feed it,and the earth that it grows
from, loves all the ways that wecan learn to embrace and care
for all of it.
Because incarnation shows usthat to be human can even still
somehow be divine. And thesacraments remind us that the
very stuff of our lives arewhere we encounter God's self.
(03:46):
And if we can even begin to liveas if that is true, then perhaps
we could find ourselves in acompletely new, almost foreign,
strange new world even rightwhere we are. Now, today, we
start a new series. And the planis again to start big, as big as
the cosmos in fact, and then toend small.
(04:09):
As small as your family perhapsbecause that is exactly the arc
that Paul takes us on throughthe book of Colossians. First
though, let's pray. God whoseeyes are on the universe, from
the furthest star to thesmallest mouse, who loves every
part of your creation withinfinite welcome, whose grace is
(04:33):
never exhausted no matter howoften we think we need to claw a
piece of it for ourselves.Right? We slowly come to believe
that the magnitude of such lovecan be found in bread and grape,
in a meal with friends, in akind word that reminds us of who
we truly are.
(04:53):
It can be found in living waterand emerging toward the surface
and being surrounded bycommunities that affirm and
experience our faith alongsideus can be found in life and in
death, in purpose, and outmaking the world a better place,
and trusting that tomorrow canbe good news and filled with
(05:15):
surprise because you will bethere too. And in all of these
ways, may there be small momentsof grace teaching us of an
inexhaustible love thatstretches all the way out to the
cosmos and then all the way backto us. In the strong name of the
risen Christ, we pray. Amen.Cosmic thoughts for daily life.
(05:42):
Today, we will cover authorship,poetry, introductions, and
foundations. But first, let'sstart here. This is bit of a
silly name for a series. Right?We can be honest about that.
A little opaque if you're tryingto discern what we're actually
going to be talking about. Butthis title comes from sitting
with Paul's letter to theColossians for a time. Because
(06:04):
Colossians has always been a bitof an anomaly for me. Paul
begins his letter, as he oftendoes, somewhat formally. A very
by the books greeting actually,introducing himself, saying hi
to everyone, but then almostimmediately launching into one
of his absolute best monologues.
A sweeping cosmic presentationof gospel that stretches from
(06:28):
the formation of the universeall the way back to its
reunification with the divine.After which, Paul then switches
gears to dive all the way downinto things like household
codes, talking about wives andhusbands and children and slaves
and how to order a home in theRoman dialect. At first glance,
it's all very disorienting. Andyet, part of what we want to
(06:53):
argue over the next five weekstogether by taking our time to
work through and understandPaul's logic here is that
actually our biggest, mostcosmic, most fantastic
convictions about the universeare never really as disconnected
from our daily lives as we thinkthey are. In fact, it's
precisely our daily life thathas to be rooted in some kind of
(07:17):
cosmic conviction.
Now all that said, I thinkperhaps part of the reason that
I love this letter is because Ihave found myself able to take
this corner with Paul because Ifind myself switching gears,
randomly changing directions inalmost all of my interactions
these days, at least at home. Ilive with an 11 year old and a
five year old, and for slightlydifferent developmental reasons,
(07:41):
none of my conversations everseemed to unfold in anything
like a straight line. This week,in the span of honestly less
than two minutes sitting aroundthe dinner table, we went from a
conversation about how much mykids hate eating pizza. No idea
where that came from becausethey love it. To the life cycle
of the caterpillars that we aregrowing on our kitchen table.
(08:02):
And, yeah, that's real. We'redoing that. My daughter loves
butterflies, so we're gonna makeour own. But we went from a
conversation about hating pizzato whether God watches us grow
the way that we watch ourcaterpillars grow, all the way
back to the fact that my kidsactually love pizza, and it's
their favorite dinner ever. Thedinner table at the Duncan
household makes Paul's moodswings seem like a country
(08:25):
stroll, and maybe that's why Ilove this letter.
And so perhaps for that reasonalone, Colossians remains
fascinating to me, holds areally special place in how I
approach understanding Paul'slogic. But as we start this
series, we need a little contexthere Because there are a total
of 13 letters that are ascribedto Paul in our New Testament,
(08:48):
seven of which are what we callthe undisputed letters. Those
are Romans, first and secondCorinthians, Galatians,
Philippians, firstThessalonians, and Philemon.
Generally, scholars think thesewere all written by the
historical person Paul. They aregenerally considered three more
that we call pseudo epigraphal.
(09:08):
We think that means that theymay have been written by another
writer, writing in the style ofa spirit of Paul sometime in the
late first century. These aresometimes called the pastoral
epistles. They are first andsecond Timothy and Titus. And
part of the reason that scholarsthink they came from late in the
first century is after Paul'sdeath is that they tend to have
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a more developed structure andpolitic within the church than
Paul's other letters do. It justseems later, more developed.
This, of course, is very highlydebated. No one really knows for
sure. But it is important tonote that the word pseudo
epigraphal, this type ofwriting, was not necessarily
something that would have beendone for nefarious reasons or to
deceive someone. This was acommon practice in the ancient
(09:53):
world. This would have been adisciple of Paul, a student of
Paul writing to address certainsituations or gaps in Paul's
writing as faithfully as theycould understand Paul.
Still, that still leaves threeletters, who we sometimes call
the disputed or theDeuteropaline books of
(10:13):
Ephesians, Colossians, andsecond Thessalonians. Now
personal cards on the tablehere. I'm open to, though not
entirely convinced of the pseudoepigraphal arguments surrounding
the pastoral epistles. I am farmore skeptical though of the
arguments denying Paulineauthorship of particularly
Ephesians and Colossians. Andthe whole reason I bring this up
(10:37):
as a start today is because thecosmic opening of Colossians.
Chapters one verses 15 to 23,the very section we want to
focus on today and ground ourseries in is precisely, largely
the argument that is leveledagainst Pauline authorship of
this letter. It's too cosmic,they say, too bombastic. The
(10:59):
language is too poetic, and thevocabulary too developed to be
Paul, it's been argued. In fact,that is also part of the
argument that's levied atEphesians, and spoiler here,
we'll make our way back toEphesians next year. But for me,
that entire argument misses theobvious.
What if Paul didn't write thoseverses? What if Paul is reciting
(11:24):
for us the hymns, the poems ofthe Christian community as a
foundation for the beliefs andthe theology he wants to teach?
See, we actually did a series onthis a few years back. It was
called the old songs. It's inour archives.
But we worked through some ofthe sections in our New
Testament where as scholars, wetend to think that the writers
(11:46):
might be quoting hymns or songs,psalms that were circulating
within the early Jesuscommunity. So for example,
Ephesians two, for he himself isour peace who has made the two
groups one and destroyed thebarrier between. He came and
preached peace to you who arefar and peace to those who were
(12:07):
near For through him, we allhave access by God to one
spirit. Or maybe Philippianstwo, Christ Jesus who being in
very nature God did not considerdivine equality something to be
used. Therefore, God exaltedChrist to the highest place,
gave him the name that is aboveevery other.
(12:28):
So that at the name of Jesus,every knee should bow in heaven
or on earth or under. Andperhaps even the opening lines
of the book of Hebrews. In thepast, God spoke at many times in
various ways, but in these dayshe has spoken through a son whom
he appointed heir of all thingsand through whom was made the
(12:50):
universe. The sun is theradiance of God's glory, the
exact representation of hisbeing sustaining all things.
Each of these passages has ascope that feels bigger than the
letter they exist within.
And they have vocabulary thatfeels more grand than the text
(13:11):
surrounding them. They have anorientation that seems to want
to reach up out into the heavenseven as it's being used to
ground our feet in the worldthat surrounds us. And so for
this reason, we generallyunderstand that these passages
were either written as poetrythemselves or were perhaps being
(13:32):
recited, quoted as Christianpsalms that were already
circulating in the early Jesuscommunity. Because this is how
we use language. Right?
We speak in different ways fordifferent purposes. I spoke
differently in the prayer that Iwrote and recited to start this
sermon than I am right now. Ispeak differently when I quote
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someone that I admire tobuttress my arguments. I speak
differently when I'm trying todraw out our emotions to point
us somewhere. We generally lookup before we look out.
And in fact, would argue that isprecisely when religion is at
its best. When our highestideals about the nature of the
(14:17):
universe come crashing down intohow we treat our neighbor beside
us. That's the scope that ourfaith affords us. Now to be
fair, that is not the onlyargument against Pauline
authorship. One of the otherprimary arguments is based on
the specific vocabulary that'sused in Colossians.
(14:41):
See, the text of this letter iscomposed of 30% unique words
that are not found anywhere elsein any of other Paul's letters.
Maybe, the argument goes, thatindicates it's a different
person writing. Now, that couldsimply be a quirk of dictation.
We know that Paul used anamanuensis. That means
(15:01):
essentially he would dictate hisletters out loud and have
someone transcribe them as hetalked.
Thing is, you can't handwrite aletter as quickly as someone can
speak it, and so any amanuensiswould necessarily be
paraphrasing things to someextent as they went along. In
this case, it's possibly evenTimothy who's physically writing
(15:22):
out the letter for Paul andmaybe introducing some of his
own vocabulary as he does. Atthe same time though, a topic is
always going to dictatevocabulary to some extent. And
for interest sake, I went backand I looked at my last few
sermons. I actually did alexical analysis of my own words
this week.
And what I found is that in thissermon today, I have used 22%
(15:45):
unique words from all of mysermons in our last series. And
that is even in a sermon where Ispent my introduction recapping
that previous series. If I takethat section out and I analyze
just the portion from when Istarted to talk about
Colossians, it rises to 26% ofmy words that are unique today.
And that's in an analysis of15,000 words of writing. Now for
(16:09):
the record, Colossians, entirebook is just over 1,500 words,
which actually makes the impactof unique words even greater
because of the lower samplesize.
It might also say somethingabout my writing, considering
Paul could get all of this outin 1,500 words, and here I am
struggling to edit down mymanuscript every week. But I
digress, and I make the pointworse as I do that anyway.
(16:31):
Bottom line is, I just don'tfind arguments against Pauline
authorship particularlycompelling in this case of
Colossians. And I do think thetheology that we're going to
encounter here is actuallyremarkably consistent with
everything else we read fromPaul with granted a different
larger more cosmic focus. And sowith all that as background,
(16:56):
let's start at Colossians verseone.
Paul, an apostle of ChristJesus, by the will of God, and
Timothy our brother. To God'sholy people in Colossae, the
faithful brothers and sisters inChrist, grace and peace to you
from God our father. Colossi,that's the name of the city
wherein the Colossians live.Fairly significant but smaller
(17:17):
city between two larger centers,Laodicea and Hierapolis. It was,
for the most part, wiped out byan earthquake that happened in
about sixty four CE, which isright around the time that we
think Paul would have beenexecuted in Rome.
So that means the letter waswritten in the late fifties,
early sixties. But he continueshere. We always thank God, the
(17:39):
father of our Lord Jesus Christ,when we pray for you because
we've heard of your faith andall the love that you have for
all of God's people. Jumpingahead a bit to verse seven here,
we read, you learned all thisfrom Epaphras, our dear fellow
servant who is a faithfulminister of Christ on our behalf
and who also told us of yourlove in the spirit. So a pretty
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standard opening for Paul.
We got some formal greetings,introducing himself and his
companions, even name droppingsomeone who's known to the
community, which Paul oftenlikes to do. All of that before
he moves on to his agenda. But Ido wanna pause here quickly
because Epaphras, who ismentioned here, that's actually
a short form of a familiar namein the first century,
(18:23):
Epaphroditus. Now I'm sure youknow this, but a new pope was
recently elected. And before heselected his papal title, his
name was Robert Prevost.
You may have also seen this inthe news. There was a quote from
one of the cardinals who votedon the new pope saying that he
was praying for Bob in his newposition. Pope Bob. Now I
(18:49):
mentioned that first for a cheaplaugh, but also because Epaphras
is Bob. Like Paul knows thisperson.
He refers to him by a familiarname, a short form. He knows
this community and the peoplewho live here. And he might be
about to go into poet mode toset the stage for what he wants
to teach later, but before thatPaul is writing as their, at the
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very least, one step removedfriend. And I think that's
important because, yes, Paulwants to impress, and he wants
his words to stick, and he wantsto craft his argument in a way
that pierces through anyindifference it might encounter.
But that is second on the agendato establishing a real human
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connection in colossi.
And, again, we all use differentlanguage at different times for
different purposes. Right? Weemploy different strategies when
necessary. We even try ondifferent personas from time to
time. But those people who can'tcut through it all and won't
settle down to have a realconversation with a real person
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face to face I have to at leastwonder about the value of their
fanciest words.
And so even as someone whospends a lot of time with words,
I appreciate that Paul can justtalk with friends before he
starts to preach. Now that said,when he does preach, it's
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something. So this is verse 15,the hymn that will ground us in
the stars for the next fiveweeks. The sun is the image of
the invisible God, the firstbornover all creation. For in him
all things were created, thingsin heaven and on earth visible
and invisible.
(20:40):
Whether thrones or powers orrulers or authorities, all
things have been created throughhim and for him. He is before
all things and in him all thingshold together. He is the head of
the body, the church. He is thebeginning and the firstborn from
among the dead so that ineverything he might have the
supremacy. For God was pleasedto have all his fullness dwell
(21:04):
in him and through him toreconcile to himself all things,
whether things on earth or inheaven by making peace through
his blood shed on the cross.
Now again, this is beautifullanguage. It's expansive in its
scope. It is fantastic andpoetic theology. Fun. Even as I
(21:28):
put it on the screen, one verseat a time, you'd notice anything
as we read this.
Well, if you happen to thinkback to studying poetry in grade
12, you may have noticed we havesix verses here, and they all
seem to be structured ascouplets. It's short verse, long
verse, statement verse,implication verse, introductory
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explanatory verse. All of thisthree times over again. And
that's convenient because ithelps us to understand the
structure of this poem. We'vegot three presuppositions that
form Paul's cosmic understandingof history.
Each of them followed by apoetic expansion. The sun is the
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image of the invisible God.Jesus is before all things and
in him all things hold together.God was pleased to have divine
fullness dwell in Christ. That'sPaul's theology.
And for us at Commons, thatshould sound familiar. Because
for eleven years now, we've beensaying Jesus at the center.
(22:35):
Jesus at the center. Jesus isthe lens through which we
understand God. We evenarticulate that conviction on
the first page of the journaleach year by saying that the
scriptures lead us to therealization that Jesus is the
only exact representation of thedivine and that God has always
looked like Jesus even when wedidn't see that clearly.
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So God is big, and God is beyondus. And in some sense, we will
never, as human beings, be ableto make sense of the divine. We
have to make peace with that.But everything we need to know
about God, everything God wantedto say to us, all of that is
(23:19):
present in the way that Jesusmoved through the world.
Colossians is Paul setting thattable for us.
And so as we set the stage tomove through this letter
together, there are three thingsthat we need to hold in our
minds at the height of ourimagination. That's what it
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means to keep Jesus at thecenter. First, Jesus is the
image of the invisible God,which Paul goes on to explain by
saying that in him all things,earth and stones and blood and
sweat and humans and suns andstars and galaxies, all of it
was somehow created in Christ.What he's doing here is
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connecting Jesus to the very oldidea of divine wisdom. See, in
Hebrew scriptures, wisdom ispersonified as this woman who
participates with God in thecreation of the world.
And so in Proverbs eight, weread, does not wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise hervoice? The highest point along
(24:28):
the way where the paths meet,she takes her stand and now
wisdom begins to speak. Shesays, for I was formed long ages
ago at the very beginning whenthe world came to be. When there
were no watery depths, I wasgiven birth.
Back when there were no springsoverflowing with water. Before
the mountains were settled inplace. Before even the hills, I
(24:49):
was given birth. I was therewhen God set the heavens in
place. When God marked out thehorizon on the face of the deep.
That's a callback to Genesisone. The spirit of God hovers
over the waters of creation. Butnow, wisdom says, my children
listen to me for blessed arethose who keep my ways. For
(25:12):
Paul, Jesus is the wisdom of Godthat both creates and guides us
through the world. John doessomething very similar when he
describes Jesus as the logos orthe word of God in the opening
poem of his gospel.
But together, what they'resaying is that Jesus is not just
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someone who shares with us thewisdom of God or through whom
God speaks to us. Jesus is thevery conversation that God is
having with humanity. The SophiaLogos, the creative word behind
the world. And another way tosay that is that to follow the
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way of Jesus is not just to makea series of good choices in your
life. It is to align your lifewith the love that sits at the
founding of the universe.
That's what it means to keepJesus at the center, Which then
leads Paul to his second pointthat Jesus in him all things
(26:16):
hold together. And it's kind ofneat to watch what he does here.
Right? Because in Christ allthings are created, but now in
Christ the end of all things isundone. So Jesus is the
firstborn of creation, but nowthe firstborn from the dead.
So what he's saying is thatJesus is the start of our story.
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Jesus is also the turning pintof our story, which means that
Jesus is ultimately thedestination of all stories. Why?
Because God was pleased to havethe fullness dwell in him. Now
in English, in our bibles, we'lloften end up translating this,
the fullness of God or thefullness of deity.
(26:58):
It helps with the grammar. Butactually fullness here is
probably being used by Paul as adivine name. And honestly, that
alone is probably worth theprice of admissions into
Colossians, the fullness. I lovethat. And what does that mean?
Well, it means that all things,all of those same things in fact
(27:20):
that were created in Christ inthe beginning will eventually
somehow be reconciled back totheir creator in the end. And we
can be honest here, at least ina systematic approach. This is a
difficult line to make sense of.And what does Paul mean that all
things all things in heaven onearth will be reconciled to God?
(27:45):
I mean, there are certainlymoments in Paul's writings where
he seems far less optimisticthan that.
And yet, is what we callapokatostases, when Paul reaches
up and out and into his mostfantastic imagination of the
divine And goes out of his wayto argue that everything,
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explicitly all of the thingscreated in Christ, which is
precisely everything, will oneday find their way back into
divine embrace. Now how doesthat work exactly? Well, he
kinda leaves us hanging here.There is no systematic
explanation for the hope thatPaul grounds his theology in,
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which means that we, as thechurch, have effectively been
wrestling with the implicationsof these verses for, well, two
thousand years now. I amcertainly not going to settle
any of that debate today, butperhaps the best I can offer is
this, that absolutely everythingcreated in Christ will one day
find its way home becauseprecisely nothing that points in
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any direction but Christ couldever be more than fleeting.
And if that's true, then thathas to shape everything about
the path that I will choose inmy life. Because I wanna be on
the path that is ahead of thecurve on its way home to where
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I'm heading. For God was pleasedto have fullness dwell in Christ
and through him to reconcile allthings to God's self. Let's
pray. God, are times that thescope of good news feels too
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big, too good, too impossible tobe true.
And, should we trust that thelove that sits at the founding
of the universe is calling eachof us, all of us, everything you
have created home. And even ifwe struggle to believe it, we
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trust that by your spirit youare guiding us toward that path.
So, the steps that we take inour world, in our relationships,
in the way that we move alongyour path will ultimately shape
us into the people you imagineus to become. Might we trust
that everything that points in adirection away from you will one
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day find its end. And so, God,might we shape our hearts and
our actions and our feet towardyou even this day.
In the strong name of the risenChrist we pray. Amen. Hey,
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Jeremy here, and thanks forlistening to our podcast. If
you're intrigued by the workthat we're doing here at
Commons, you can head to ourwebsite, commons.church, for
more information. You can findus on all of the socials
commonschurch.
You can subscribe to our YouTubechannel where we are posting
content regularly for thecommunity. You can also join our
Discord server. Head tocommons.churchdiscord for the
(31:01):
invite, and there you will findthe community having all kinds
of conversations about how wecan encourage each other to
follow the way of Jesus. Wewould love to hear from you.
Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
Have a great week. We'll talk toyou soon.
God is big, and God is beyond us. And in some
sense, we will never, as humanbeings, be able to make sense of
the divine. We have to makepeace with that. But everything
we need to know about God,everything God wanted to say to
us, All of that is present inthe way that Jesus moved through
the world. Last week, we wrappedup a strange new world.
(00:27):
Today, we begin cosmic thoughtsfor daily life. We'll get there
in a moment. However, before weget to our new series, let's
look back at where we've justbeen together. Because
immediately coming out ofEaster, we stepped into a series
called strange new world. Andthat series was a set of
conversations all about lookingat our lives, looking at our
(00:48):
experience of church really inthe light of resurrection.
On Easter Sunday, I stood hereand I said that against all
odds, Easter shows us thatresurrection is the natural
state of the cosmos. And if thatis true, which I believe it to
be, the implications for thatstatement are, I mean, really
transformational. They changeeverything about how we look and
(01:09):
how we think, how we experienceabsolutely everything. And so in
our strange new world series, weexplored the landscape of church
really in the light ofresurrection. We looked at how
we experienced the Eucharist andmission and baptism and marriage
and last week even death.
But in all of theseconversations, we used a very
(01:31):
specific term a lot over thelast five weeks, sacrament. It's
a beautiful word, an old word, avery religious sounding word,
and how it's defined oftenvaries from tradition to
tradition. But for me, the coreidea of sacrament is this
conviction that holds all ofthese five conversations
(01:52):
together in mind. It's simplythis, the grace of God is
communicated not only in ideas,but also maybe even primarily
through our experiences as humanbeings. Sacrament is the
conviction that mundane,ordinary, everyday objects,
things we might interact with athousand times throughout the
(02:13):
week and never blink an eye, canalso be conduits for grace.
And in that sense for me,sacraments are an extension of
one of our core convictions asChristians. God was present in
the life of Jesus. God can bepresent in bread and grape and
water and community because thisis what we call incarnation. The
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idea that God is not just anidea. The divine is present with
us, around us, surrounding us inways that we can touch and taste
and smell and hold all the timeif we reach out.
Which is why reaching all theway back to Easter morning,
resurrection is so important tothe Christian story. Faith
(02:59):
doesn't live just in someethereal intellectual simulation
of reality. Faith exists in whatyou can touch and taste, what
you can hold on to, how we cancare for each other. Because God
inhabits this world preciselybecause God loves this world.
That means God loves you, lovesyour neighbor, loves your body,
(03:23):
loves the food that you feed it,and the earth that it grows
from, loves all the ways that wecan learn to embrace and care
for all of it.
Because incarnation shows usthat to be human can even still
somehow be divine. And thesacraments remind us that the
very stuff of our lives arewhere we encounter God's self.
(03:46):
And if we can even begin to liveas if that is true, then perhaps
we could find ourselves in acompletely new, almost foreign,
strange new world even rightwhere we are. Now, today, we
start a new series. And the planis again to start big, as big as
the cosmos in fact, and then toend small.
(04:09):
As small as your family perhapsbecause that is exactly the arc
that Paul takes us on throughthe book of Colossians. First
though, let's pray. God whoseeyes are on the universe, from
the furthest star to thesmallest mouse, who loves every
part of your creation withinfinite welcome, whose grace is
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never exhausted no matter howoften we think we need to claw a
piece of it for ourselves.Right? We slowly come to believe
that the magnitude of such lovecan be found in bread and grape,
in a meal with friends, in akind word that reminds us of who
we truly are.
(04:53):
It can be found in living waterand emerging toward the surface
and being surrounded bycommunities that affirm and
experience our faith alongsideus can be found in life and in
death, in purpose, and outmaking the world a better place,
and trusting that tomorrow canbe good news and filled with
(05:15):
surprise because you will bethere too. And in all of these
ways, may there be small momentsof grace teaching us of an
inexhaustible love thatstretches all the way out to the
cosmos and then all the way backto us. In the strong name of the
risen Christ, we pray. Amen.Cosmic thoughts for daily life.
(05:42):
Today, we will cover authorship,poetry, introductions, and
foundations. But first, let'sstart here. This is bit of a
silly name for a series. Right?We can be honest about that.
A little opaque if you're tryingto discern what we're actually
going to be talking about. Butthis title comes from sitting
with Paul's letter to theColossians for a time. Because
(06:04):
Colossians has always been a bitof an anomaly for me. Paul
begins his letter, as he oftendoes, somewhat formally. A very
by the books greeting actually,introducing himself, saying hi
to everyone, but then almostimmediately launching into one
of his absolute best monologues.
A sweeping cosmic presentationof gospel that stretches from
(06:28):
the formation of the universeall the way back to its
reunification with the divine.After which, Paul then switches
gears to dive all the way downinto things like household
codes, talking about wives andhusbands and children and slaves
and how to order a home in theRoman dialect. At first glance,
it's all very disorienting. Andyet, part of what we want to
(06:53):
argue over the next five weekstogether by taking our time to
work through and understandPaul's logic here is that
actually our biggest, mostcosmic, most fantastic
convictions about the universeare never really as disconnected
from our daily lives as we thinkthey are. In fact, it's
precisely our daily life thathas to be rooted in some kind of
(07:17):
cosmic conviction.
Now all that said, I thinkperhaps part of the reason that
I love this letter is because Ihave found myself able to take
this corner with Paul because Ifind myself switching gears,
randomly changing directions inalmost all of my interactions
these days, at least at home. Ilive with an 11 year old and a
five year old, and for slightlydifferent developmental reasons,
(07:41):
none of my conversations everseemed to unfold in anything
like a straight line. This week,in the span of honestly less
than two minutes sitting aroundthe dinner table, we went from a
conversation about how much mykids hate eating pizza. No idea
where that came from becausethey love it. To the life cycle
of the caterpillars that we aregrowing on our kitchen table.
(08:02):
And, yeah, that's real. We'redoing that. My daughter loves
butterflies, so we're gonna makeour own. But we went from a
conversation about hating pizzato whether God watches us grow
the way that we watch ourcaterpillars grow, all the way
back to the fact that my kidsactually love pizza, and it's
their favorite dinner ever. Thedinner table at the Duncan
household makes Paul's moodswings seem like a country
(08:25):
stroll, and maybe that's why Ilove this letter.
And so perhaps for that reasonalone, Colossians remains
fascinating to me, holds areally special place in how I
approach understanding Paul'slogic. But as we start this
series, we need a little contexthere Because there are a total
of 13 letters that are ascribedto Paul in our New Testament,
(08:48):
seven of which are what we callthe undisputed letters. Those
are Romans, first and secondCorinthians, Galatians,
Philippians, firstThessalonians, and Philemon.
Generally, scholars think thesewere all written by the
historical person Paul. They aregenerally considered three more
that we call pseudo epigraphal.
(09:08):
We think that means that theymay have been written by another
writer, writing in the style ofa spirit of Paul sometime in the
late first century. These aresometimes called the pastoral
epistles. They are first andsecond Timothy and Titus. And
part of the reason that scholarsthink they came from late in the
first century is after Paul'sdeath is that they tend to have
(09:29):
a more developed structure andpolitic within the church than
Paul's other letters do. It justseems later, more developed.
This, of course, is very highlydebated. No one really knows for
sure. But it is important tonote that the word pseudo
epigraphal, this type ofwriting, was not necessarily
something that would have beendone for nefarious reasons or to
deceive someone. This was acommon practice in the ancient
(09:53):
world. This would have been adisciple of Paul, a student of
Paul writing to address certainsituations or gaps in Paul's
writing as faithfully as theycould understand Paul.
Still, that still leaves threeletters, who we sometimes call
the disputed or theDeuteropaline books of
(10:13):
Ephesians, Colossians, andsecond Thessalonians. Now
personal cards on the tablehere. I'm open to, though not
entirely convinced of the pseudoepigraphal arguments surrounding
the pastoral epistles. I am farmore skeptical though of the
arguments denying Paulineauthorship of particularly
Ephesians and Colossians. Andthe whole reason I bring this up
(10:37):
as a start today is because thecosmic opening of Colossians.
Chapters one verses 15 to 23,the very section we want to
focus on today and ground ourseries in is precisely, largely
the argument that is leveledagainst Pauline authorship of
this letter. It's too cosmic,they say, too bombastic. The
(10:59):
language is too poetic, and thevocabulary too developed to be
Paul, it's been argued. In fact,that is also part of the
argument that's levied atEphesians, and spoiler here,
we'll make our way back toEphesians next year. But for me,
that entire argument misses theobvious.
What if Paul didn't write thoseverses? What if Paul is reciting
(11:24):
for us the hymns, the poems ofthe Christian community as a
foundation for the beliefs andthe theology he wants to teach?
See, we actually did a series onthis a few years back. It was
called the old songs. It's inour archives.
But we worked through some ofthe sections in our New
Testament where as scholars, wetend to think that the writers
(11:46):
might be quoting hymns or songs,psalms that were circulating
within the early Jesuscommunity. So for example,
Ephesians two, for he himself isour peace who has made the two
groups one and destroyed thebarrier between. He came and
preached peace to you who arefar and peace to those who were
(12:07):
near For through him, we allhave access by God to one
spirit. Or maybe Philippianstwo, Christ Jesus who being in
very nature God did not considerdivine equality something to be
used. Therefore, God exaltedChrist to the highest place,
gave him the name that is aboveevery other.
(12:28):
So that at the name of Jesus,every knee should bow in heaven
or on earth or under. Andperhaps even the opening lines
of the book of Hebrews. In thepast, God spoke at many times in
various ways, but in these dayshe has spoken through a son whom
he appointed heir of all thingsand through whom was made the
(12:50):
universe. The sun is theradiance of God's glory, the
exact representation of hisbeing sustaining all things.
Each of these passages has ascope that feels bigger than the
letter they exist within.
And they have vocabulary thatfeels more grand than the text
(13:11):
surrounding them. They have anorientation that seems to want
to reach up out into the heavenseven as it's being used to
ground our feet in the worldthat surrounds us. And so for
this reason, we generallyunderstand that these passages
were either written as poetrythemselves or were perhaps being
(13:32):
recited, quoted as Christianpsalms that were already
circulating in the early Jesuscommunity. Because this is how
we use language. Right?
We speak in different ways fordifferent purposes. I spoke
differently in the prayer that Iwrote and recited to start this
sermon than I am right now. Ispeak differently when I quote
(13:55):
someone that I admire tobuttress my arguments. I speak
differently when I'm trying todraw out our emotions to point
us somewhere. We generally lookup before we look out.
And in fact, would argue that isprecisely when religion is at
its best. When our highestideals about the nature of the
(14:17):
universe come crashing down intohow we treat our neighbor beside
us. That's the scope that ourfaith affords us. Now to be
fair, that is not the onlyargument against Pauline
authorship. One of the otherprimary arguments is based on
the specific vocabulary that'sused in Colossians.
(14:41):
See, the text of this letter iscomposed of 30% unique words
that are not found anywhere elsein any of other Paul's letters.
Maybe, the argument goes, thatindicates it's a different
person writing. Now, that couldsimply be a quirk of dictation.
We know that Paul used anamanuensis. That means
(15:01):
essentially he would dictate hisletters out loud and have
someone transcribe them as hetalked.
Thing is, you can't handwrite aletter as quickly as someone can
speak it, and so any amanuensiswould necessarily be
paraphrasing things to someextent as they went along. In
this case, it's possibly evenTimothy who's physically writing
(15:22):
out the letter for Paul andmaybe introducing some of his
own vocabulary as he does. Atthe same time though, a topic is
always going to dictatevocabulary to some extent. And
for interest sake, I went backand I looked at my last few
sermons. I actually did alexical analysis of my own words
this week.
And what I found is that in thissermon today, I have used 22%
(15:45):
unique words from all of mysermons in our last series. And
that is even in a sermon where Ispent my introduction recapping
that previous series. If I takethat section out and I analyze
just the portion from when Istarted to talk about
Colossians, it rises to 26% ofmy words that are unique today.
And that's in an analysis of15,000 words of writing. Now for
(16:09):
the record, Colossians, entirebook is just over 1,500 words,
which actually makes the impactof unique words even greater
because of the lower samplesize.
It might also say somethingabout my writing, considering
Paul could get all of this outin 1,500 words, and here I am
struggling to edit down mymanuscript every week. But I
digress, and I make the pointworse as I do that anyway.
(16:31):
Bottom line is, I just don'tfind arguments against Pauline
authorship particularlycompelling in this case of
Colossians. And I do think thetheology that we're going to
encounter here is actuallyremarkably consistent with
everything else we read fromPaul with granted a different
larger more cosmic focus. And sowith all that as background,
(16:56):
let's start at Colossians verseone.
Paul, an apostle of ChristJesus, by the will of God, and
Timothy our brother. To God'sholy people in Colossae, the
faithful brothers and sisters inChrist, grace and peace to you
from God our father. Colossi,that's the name of the city
wherein the Colossians live.Fairly significant but smaller
(17:17):
city between two larger centers,Laodicea and Hierapolis. It was,
for the most part, wiped out byan earthquake that happened in
about sixty four CE, which isright around the time that we
think Paul would have beenexecuted in Rome.
So that means the letter waswritten in the late fifties,
early sixties. But he continueshere. We always thank God, the
(17:39):
father of our Lord Jesus Christ,when we pray for you because
we've heard of your faith andall the love that you have for
all of God's people. Jumpingahead a bit to verse seven here,
we read, you learned all thisfrom Epaphras, our dear fellow
servant who is a faithfulminister of Christ on our behalf
and who also told us of yourlove in the spirit. So a pretty
(18:01):
standard opening for Paul.
We got some formal greetings,introducing himself and his
companions, even name droppingsomeone who's known to the
community, which Paul oftenlikes to do. All of that before
he moves on to his agenda. But Ido wanna pause here quickly
because Epaphras, who ismentioned here, that's actually
a short form of a familiar namein the first century,
(18:23):
Epaphroditus. Now I'm sure youknow this, but a new pope was
recently elected. And before heselected his papal title, his
name was Robert Prevost.
You may have also seen this inthe news. There was a quote from
one of the cardinals who votedon the new pope saying that he
was praying for Bob in his newposition. Pope Bob. Now I
(18:49):
mentioned that first for a cheaplaugh, but also because Epaphras
is Bob. Like Paul knows thisperson.
He refers to him by a familiarname, a short form. He knows
this community and the peoplewho live here. And he might be
about to go into poet mode toset the stage for what he wants
to teach later, but before thatPaul is writing as their, at the
(19:11):
very least, one step removedfriend. And I think that's
important because, yes, Paulwants to impress, and he wants
his words to stick, and he wantsto craft his argument in a way
that pierces through anyindifference it might encounter.
But that is second on the agendato establishing a real human
(19:34):
connection in colossi.
And, again, we all use differentlanguage at different times for
different purposes. Right? Weemploy different strategies when
necessary. We even try ondifferent personas from time to
time. But those people who can'tcut through it all and won't
settle down to have a realconversation with a real person
(19:57):
face to face I have to at leastwonder about the value of their
fanciest words.
And so even as someone whospends a lot of time with words,
I appreciate that Paul can justtalk with friends before he
starts to preach. Now that said,when he does preach, it's
(20:20):
something. So this is verse 15,the hymn that will ground us in
the stars for the next fiveweeks. The sun is the image of
the invisible God, the firstbornover all creation. For in him
all things were created, thingsin heaven and on earth visible
and invisible.
(20:40):
Whether thrones or powers orrulers or authorities, all
things have been created throughhim and for him. He is before
all things and in him all thingshold together. He is the head of
the body, the church. He is thebeginning and the firstborn from
among the dead so that ineverything he might have the
supremacy. For God was pleasedto have all his fullness dwell
(21:04):
in him and through him toreconcile to himself all things,
whether things on earth or inheaven by making peace through
his blood shed on the cross.
Now again, this is beautifullanguage. It's expansive in its
scope. It is fantastic andpoetic theology. Fun. Even as I
(21:28):
put it on the screen, one verseat a time, you'd notice anything
as we read this.
Well, if you happen to thinkback to studying poetry in grade
12, you may have noticed we havesix verses here, and they all
seem to be structured ascouplets. It's short verse, long
verse, statement verse,implication verse, introductory
(21:48):
explanatory verse. All of thisthree times over again. And
that's convenient because ithelps us to understand the
structure of this poem. We'vegot three presuppositions that
form Paul's cosmic understandingof history.
Each of them followed by apoetic expansion. The sun is the
(22:12):
image of the invisible God.Jesus is before all things and
in him all things hold together.God was pleased to have divine
fullness dwell in Christ. That'sPaul's theology.
And for us at Commons, thatshould sound familiar. Because
for eleven years now, we've beensaying Jesus at the center.
(22:35):
Jesus at the center. Jesus isthe lens through which we
understand God. We evenarticulate that conviction on
the first page of the journaleach year by saying that the
scriptures lead us to therealization that Jesus is the
only exact representation of thedivine and that God has always
looked like Jesus even when wedidn't see that clearly.
(22:59):
So God is big, and God is beyondus. And in some sense, we will
never, as human beings, be ableto make sense of the divine. We
have to make peace with that.But everything we need to know
about God, everything God wantedto say to us, all of that is
(23:19):
present in the way that Jesusmoved through the world.
Colossians is Paul setting thattable for us.
And so as we set the stage tomove through this letter
together, there are three thingsthat we need to hold in our
minds at the height of ourimagination. That's what it
(23:41):
means to keep Jesus at thecenter. First, Jesus is the
image of the invisible God,which Paul goes on to explain by
saying that in him all things,earth and stones and blood and
sweat and humans and suns andstars and galaxies, all of it
was somehow created in Christ.What he's doing here is
(24:04):
connecting Jesus to the very oldidea of divine wisdom. See, in
Hebrew scriptures, wisdom ispersonified as this woman who
participates with God in thecreation of the world.
And so in Proverbs eight, weread, does not wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise hervoice? The highest point along
(24:28):
the way where the paths meet,she takes her stand and now
wisdom begins to speak. Shesays, for I was formed long ages
ago at the very beginning whenthe world came to be. When there
were no watery depths, I wasgiven birth.
Back when there were no springsoverflowing with water. Before
the mountains were settled inplace. Before even the hills, I
(24:49):
was given birth. I was therewhen God set the heavens in
place. When God marked out thehorizon on the face of the deep.
That's a callback to Genesisone. The spirit of God hovers
over the waters of creation. Butnow, wisdom says, my children
listen to me for blessed arethose who keep my ways. For
(25:12):
Paul, Jesus is the wisdom of Godthat both creates and guides us
through the world. John doessomething very similar when he
describes Jesus as the logos orthe word of God in the opening
poem of his gospel.
But together, what they'resaying is that Jesus is not just
(25:33):
someone who shares with us thewisdom of God or through whom
God speaks to us. Jesus is thevery conversation that God is
having with humanity. The SophiaLogos, the creative word behind
the world. And another way tosay that is that to follow the
(25:53):
way of Jesus is not just to makea series of good choices in your
life. It is to align your lifewith the love that sits at the
founding of the universe.
That's what it means to keepJesus at the center, Which then
leads Paul to his second pointthat Jesus in him all things
(26:16):
hold together. And it's kind ofneat to watch what he does here.
Right? Because in Christ allthings are created, but now in
Christ the end of all things isundone. So Jesus is the
firstborn of creation, but nowthe firstborn from the dead.
So what he's saying is thatJesus is the start of our story.
(26:37):
Jesus is also the turning pintof our story, which means that
Jesus is ultimately thedestination of all stories. Why?
Because God was pleased to havethe fullness dwell in him. Now
in English, in our bibles, we'lloften end up translating this,
the fullness of God or thefullness of deity.
(26:58):
It helps with the grammar. Butactually fullness here is
probably being used by Paul as adivine name. And honestly, that
alone is probably worth theprice of admissions into
Colossians, the fullness. I lovethat. And what does that mean?
Well, it means that all things,all of those same things in fact
(27:20):
that were created in Christ inthe beginning will eventually
somehow be reconciled back totheir creator in the end. And we
can be honest here, at least ina systematic approach. This is a
difficult line to make sense of.And what does Paul mean that all
things all things in heaven onearth will be reconciled to God?
(27:45):
I mean, there are certainlymoments in Paul's writings where
he seems far less optimisticthan that.
And yet, is what we callapokatostases, when Paul reaches
up and out and into his mostfantastic imagination of the
divine And goes out of his wayto argue that everything,
(28:06):
explicitly all of the thingscreated in Christ, which is
precisely everything, will oneday find their way back into
divine embrace. Now how doesthat work exactly? Well, he
kinda leaves us hanging here.There is no systematic
explanation for the hope thatPaul grounds his theology in,
(28:26):
which means that we, as thechurch, have effectively been
wrestling with the implicationsof these verses for, well, two
thousand years now. I amcertainly not going to settle
any of that debate today, butperhaps the best I can offer is
this, that absolutely everythingcreated in Christ will one day
find its way home becauseprecisely nothing that points in
(28:50):
any direction but Christ couldever be more than fleeting.
And if that's true, then thathas to shape everything about
the path that I will choose inmy life. Because I wanna be on
the path that is ahead of thecurve on its way home to where
(29:11):
I'm heading. For God was pleasedto have fullness dwell in Christ
and through him to reconcile allthings to God's self. Let's
pray. God, are times that thescope of good news feels too
(29:33):
big, too good, too impossible tobe true.
And, should we trust that thelove that sits at the founding
of the universe is calling eachof us, all of us, everything you
have created home. And even ifwe struggle to believe it, we
(29:54):
trust that by your spirit youare guiding us toward that path.
So, the steps that we take inour world, in our relationships,
in the way that we move alongyour path will ultimately shape
us into the people you imagineus to become. Might we trust
that everything that points in adirection away from you will one
(30:16):
day find its end. And so, God,might we shape our hearts and
our actions and our feet towardyou even this day.
In the strong name of the risenChrist we pray. Amen. Hey,
(30:39):
Jeremy here, and thanks forlistening to our podcast. If
you're intrigued by the workthat we're doing here at
Commons, you can head to ourwebsite, commons.church, for
more information. You can findus on all of the socials
commonschurch.
You can subscribe to our YouTubechannel where we are posting
content regularly for thecommunity. You can also join our
Discord server. Head tocommons.churchdiscord for the
(31:01):
invite, and there you will findthe community having all kinds
of conversations about how wecan encourage each other to
follow the way of Jesus. Wewould love to hear from you.
Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
Have a great week. We'll talk toyou soon.
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