Proper 10

Preparation

    Please begin by reading Colossians 1:1-14 in your Bible. If you do not have one at hand, we have provided that text for you at the end of this reflection.

Reflection--Saints

Paul greets the “saints” and the “faithful brothers and sisters in Christ” in a first-century church in a town in Asia-Minor called Colossae.  These are really two different ways of describing the same thing.  That is, the “saints” are those who are “faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.”  Paul often uses the term “saints” as he does here, to describe a faith community in a particular place.

There are other clues to the making of “saints” in Paul’s greeting.  Paul wishes the saints in Colossae grace and peace from God. 

As one commentator on this passage notes, “Saints are ‘holy ones’ who are made holy by God’s own sanctifying work in Jesus Christ.  Thus, designating the Colossians in this manner is a recognition of God’s transformation of their lives, not a title referring to their goodness.” 

That is the “grace” part of it.  God made a way for restoring relationship between God and us through the gift of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  The life and work of Jesus are perfect illustrations of the depth and breadth of God’s love for us¾of the extent to which God was willing to give of God’s self to bring us back home to relationship with God. 

The whole process begins with soaking in the most basic of Christian messages; “Jesus loves me!  This I know!”  With that comes the recognition that God wants to heal our brokenness and forgive our “sins,” those destructive things we have allowed to get in the way of begin the wonderful creation God created us to be.  That healing results in a transformed life and an incredible peace.

Paul offers a mirror that we may hold up to our own Christian community.  What do we find in there?  Do we find a strong faith in Jesus Christ?  Do we find love for the others God has called into our community, a love enabled by the Spirit?  Do we find hope, a hope that no matter what comes our relationship with God is secure? 

 My prayer for all of us is that we may be “saints,” a community living lives transformed by a deep faith, living in love for God and one another, and that we may live out each day with a deep conviction that our hope of an eternal connection with our God is a reality already “laid up in heaven.” 

revclay

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Colossians 1:1-14

 
    Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

    In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

    For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord [Jesus], fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

[NRSV]