Colossians: Making The Journey Series

It was a dinky little town, and we had lost our way. We were touring a village in England, by the name of Bampton, it’s major claim to fame today is it was the home of the library, rectory and church used in the filming of Downton Abbey.

In the TV series, the church was St. Michael and All Angels Church. You know it was the church where Mary and her cousin Matthew were married. It seemed to be a fairly shallow gene pool

And after Matthew died, she married Henry Talbot in the same church. Yeah, that was kind of my reaction as well.

In real life, it is, The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, and it was kind of cool in the fact that it had been built almost a thousand years ago, I would suspect that they had to raise funds for a roofing project or two through the years.

After touring the church, we had some time to wander by ourselves, and it was when we were on our own that we got turned around and we had lost our way.

Our coach, a little learning experience here, the difference between a bus and a coach is a coach has a toilet. The coach was parked some distance away, because it was unable to navigate the narrow streets. And we couldn’t figure out where it was parked. The time was coming for the group to leave and we were getting a little panicky.

All the houses looked alike and because we have followed a tour guide to get to Saint Mary’s church, we really hadn’t been paying attention to directions for finding our way back.

I had google maps on my phone, so I knew where we were, I just didn’t know where we were supposed to be. Finally, after some collaborations, Angela and I took a guess and got back to the coach. Just before it was scheduled to leave.

Interesting sidebar here. There was another Canadian couple on the coach, who were younger than us. The lady kept looking over at us, and finally she looked at Angela and said, “Are you Angela Kelly?”

It turns out she attended Hillside Wesleyan church, in Dartmouth, with her family when she was a kid and Angela was a teenager. And she recognized Angela.

People recognize me all the time, but it’s because they think I’m somebody else. One lady actually apologized and said, “I’m sorry, I thought you were somebody important.” Which has nothing to do with the message.

It was a dinky little town, and they were losing their way. The town’s name was Colosse, and it was situated in what we now think of as Turkey.

They were kind of the middle child, and if you are a middle child then you know exactly what I mean. If you’re not a middle child, you’ve probably never even realized there were middle children.

They were situated in the Lycus valley between the more prosperous communities of Laodicea and Hierapolis.

It was Bishop J. B. Lightfoot who wrote, “Colossae was the most unimportant town to which Paul ever wrote a letter!” Ouch. It is indicative the ruins of the other two cities are still visible, while nothing remains of Colosse except ancient memories. And if it wasn’t for the fact that it is the 12th book of the New Testament, then nobody would remember it all.

Who the letter was written by and who the letter was written to is spelled out in the scripture that was read for us earlier.

Colossians 1:1–2 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy. We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace.

So, in this case, we discover that it was written by Paul and his friend and protégée, Timothy. Scholars tell us it was probably written around 62 AD, and if that was the case then Paul was under house arrest in Rome, waiting for his trial in front of Nero.

And then we are told that it was written to God’s holy people, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. In the NKJV it reads this way, Colossians 1:2 NKJV To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Wesleyan Study Bible tells us, “Saints expresses their relationship with God. Faithful brethren shows their relationship with other Christians.”

So, understand, we are in effect, reading someone else’s mail. There are things in this letter that directly apply to the people who are reading it. However, the fact that is has been preserved for two thousand years, means there is a message in the letter for us as well.