Sung Eucharist, Christchurch Priory, 7 February 2021. Video pre-recorded.
Proverbs 8.1,22-31
Colossians 1.15-20
John 1.1-14
Hi everybody!
Who is Jesus Christ? It’s the fundamental question. And our readings this morning present us with some of striking answers.
Now, I’m going to focus on the passage we’ve just heard from Paul’s letter to the Christians in Collosae because I think doing so will help lift up our eyes to the broader horizon and give us some much-needed and well-founded hope.
So, what does Paul say in this passage about who Christ is?
Well he starts off by reminding us that Christ is the image of the invisible God. If we want to know what God is like, we look to Christ. Jesus reveals who God is. We could stop right there and spend hours on that but today I want to press on and draw your attention to what follows because it’s there that we find the key theme which keeps appearing in the passage. Paul goes on, ‘He [Jesus, the Christ] is the firstborn of all creation.’
Now, we could come a little unstuck here. And think, hang on, does that mean that Jesus is part of creation? No, that’s not what’s going on. First born here is to do with status, position, priority, authority. In the culture at the time the first born would have had pre-eminence. And as the passage proceeds, it’s clear that Christ is not part of creation but is the means by which everything was created. Paul writes, ‘in him all things in heaven and on earth were created’. And not just that but that all things were created though him and, this is quite staggering, for him. Christ is both the context, the means and the goal of all creation both in heaven and on earth, everything is created through him and for him.
Think about that for a moment. Think of the most beautiful place you’ve ever been to. Now that place is part of creation. And Paul is saying that it’s made in Christ, through Christ and for Christ. And you and I part of that creation too. Which means that you and I are created in Christ, through Christ and for Christ.
And not only that! Paul continues. In him all things hold together. Everything coheres in Christ. Everything ultimately makes sense when understood in relation to Jesus. And there’s never been a moment when Christ has not been. As Jesus says in the gospel according to St John, ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’
And that’s amazing enough but Paul doesn’t stop there! He goes on to say that Jesus’ pre-eminence, his number one position, is not just for this creation but for the new creation, too. He has first place in everything. So the new creation which has begun with His resurrection is shaped and has its coherence in Him. In him, in Jesus Christ, all things hold together. Both in this creation and in the new creation.
Paul finishes up by making the point that through Christ, God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself (all things in heaven and on earth). Because as we know, not everything in creation is as it should be, ourselves included. And this act of reconciliation wasn’t done in some abstract ethereal realm, detached from our material world. No, this was done, Paul says, though the blood of his cross. So the turning point of reconciliation between us and God, between creation and our creator, is the cross of Christ, the one in whom all things in heaven and on earth were created and in whom all things hold together, both in this creation and the next. The one in whom creation is enters that creation to heal it from within.
It all makes you feel a bit dizzy, doesn’t it! But Paul is stressing these points because he recognises that even when we understand Christ to be glorious and truly awesome, it is nonetheless remarkably easy for our minds, our hearts, our imaginations to be captured by something else, for something else to become pre-eminent and take first place in our lives.
Now, that normally happens slowly, almost without our knowing it. It kind of creeps up on us.
Take for example, what’s been happening over these last 12 months. If you’re anything like me, what was something at the periphery this time last year slowly became the dominant thing over February and March until come April the virus was preoccupying our waking days and our waking nights. For many of us, it soon took first place in our minds. All the news reports. The press conferences. The statistics. Within a matter of a couple of months, it was no 1. Blotting out everything else.
And when that happens, Christ is no longer pre-eminent. Now, on the one hand you could say that Christ is always who Christ is, whether or not we recognise him to be first and foremost. But functionally, in our day to day lives, for many of us, myself included, Christ was no longer in first place. It was the virus and the lockdown that were first and foremost in our minds, shaping our thinking, our imaginations and the fears of our hearts.
Now, in due course, nearly a year on the vaccine roll out is continuing, the daily death rate thankfully looks as if it’s starting to fall and slowly but surely, some semblance of normality looks like it will return. But we all know that when that happens, just as has been the case during the last 12 months, things will still happen. People will still get diagnosed with cancer or diabetes or dementia. People will still lose jobs or have accidents. There’ll still be fractured relationships and bust-ups in families. Life with all its challenges will continue to happen.
So in some sense, the pandemic and the lockdowns are an opportunity to practise deliberately giving Christ first place in our lives. Because this is the practice which will stand us in good stead both now and for whatever comes next in our lives and, crucially, for what comes in the new creation. Because Christ is pre-eminent in both this creation and the new. In other words we’re cultivating a habit of the heart and mind that is always going to be key.
So what are the things we can do? Well, the obvious kind of thing is what we’re doing now. Worshipping together. It may be online but our worship is in Christ—remember, in him all things hold together—including YouTube and Zoom! Reading our Bibles, fantastic. Praying. Absolutely. All totally essential things.
But if you’re like me, you’ll still find yourself sinking into the mire when watching the news conferences and the daily briefings, doom scrolling on social media or on one of the newspaper websites. In those moments, the virus is back centre stage and everything else is pushed to the side.
So here are a couple of additional suggestions that may help. Firstly, if you watch all this stuff on the TV, why not take your remote control and stick a little drawing of a cross on it. That way, every time you pick up the remote to watch the news, before you do, you’ll see that cross and it’ll remind you that no matter what you’re about to watch and hear, Christ, the image of the invisible God, who is first and foremost in this creation and the next, has reconciled us to God through his blood on the cross. Fundamentally, no matter what, we’re ok. We don’t need to fear. Even death has been transformed by Christ’s death into the gateway into our new life with Him in the new creation.
Likewise, if you use an iPhone or iPad, you could change the wallpaper on the phone—you know, that background image—so that instead of the default one it comes with, it’s an image of Christ. Think of all the wonderful paintings of Christ down the centuries. Google them, choose one, save it to your device and set it as the new wallpaper. That way, every time you pick up your device, you’ll see Christ, the image of the invisible God. And then whatever you see or hear next, the frame that you’ll be viewing it through, will be the one where you’ve reminded yourself that it’s fundamentally OK because Christ is before all things and in him all things hold together.
If we do this kind of thing, once this period has passed, as in time it will, we’ll have cultivated just that little bit more this very necessary habit of the heart and mind. Our imagination will be slowly shaped by these repeated actions that remind us — in between our acts of worship, Bible reading and prayer — who Jesus Christ is and that whatever we face, whatever this day has in store for us, Christ, the image of the invisible God, who has reconciled us to God through his blood on the cross, is the one who is first and foremost, before all things, in both this creation and the next, and is the one by whom all things are created, for whom all things are created and in whom all things hold together.
Who is Jesus Christ? He’s all this. And so much more!
Amen.