I moved into my new house last December and (Don’t judge me for this) – I am still unpacking boxes – including some that never got unpacked from the previous move ten years ago…
And while I was going through some boxes this week, I came across this – It’s a letter to me from my granddad written to me when I was twelve years old just a year before he died. He lived in New Zealand – so I have very few memories of him, so finding this little letter was really precious. Its written on one of those old fashioned air letter forms and the rest of it must have been to my mum and brother – but this was his special bit to me.
Letters can be really special – I think I am perhaps the only person left who still writes postcards – because I remember it is to receive a letter that’s personal – that isn’t just junk mail.
So this morning N read to us the beginning of Paul’s letters - Colossians Chapter 1 v1-14.
At first sight it might not look that interesting – but this passage is both typical of the way St Paul starts his letters – and also deeply rich and full of depth.
“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.” (col 1:1-2)
I want you to imagine back in ancient Roman times – a Roman letter is on a scroll [mime unrolling it]
You can’t unroll it all the way to the end to find out who it is from [mime unrolling a really huge letter]
So just like an envelope on a modern letter, it begins by saying who it is from, who it s too, and then like we begin our letters with “Dear Miss Acheampong” “Dear Mrs Patel” “Dear Mr Jones” – it begins with a formal greeting.
So far so good. Every letter is written like that.
So who is it from, who is it to, and what is the greeting?
Who is it from?
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
Paul the apostle – we have heard that SO MANY times that we don’t even notice it. But hang on
"In these days jhe Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, khe called his disciples land mchose from them twelve, whom he named napostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and pAndrew his brother, and pJames and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and qMatthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called rthe Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor".[Luke 6:12-16 see also Matthew 10:1-4 and Mark 3:13-18]
Paul’s name isn’t in that list. I know in Acts 1:12-26 after what Judas did they replace him – but the one Judas is replaced with is …. Matthias
And yet here Paul describes himself as an Apostle -as one sent by Jesus. It’s a big claim. He’s not the only Apostle mentioned outside the twelve – there are one or two others – including even one woman Junia (Romans 16:7) – but it is still a big claim
Paul’s authority comes not from human beings – but from the fact God chose him. On the road to Damascus the risen Jesus appeared to perhaps unlikely candidate of all – Saul the persecutor – and turned him into Paul the apostle.
Sometimes we may have to stand up to people and challenge them like Paul – like during the second world war – when the German Lutheran priest Bonhoeffer stood up to the Nazis over their treatment of the Jews – or when Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980 stood up to the dictatorship in El Savador for their treatment of the poor and their suppression of freedom – and was gunned down at the altar. Or like Christians today in Iran – who risk their lives committing the “crime” of telling people about Jesus. I am currently re-reading “I dared to call him Father” an account of a Muslim woman in Pakistan who became a Christian and the opposition she faced - we may have to stand up to people. But we need to remember with what authority we do that – Paul an apostle of Christ by the will of God…. “by the will of God”
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, AND Timothy our brother,
Lets see if anyone can remember my sermon from last week – yes I am repeating myself – but the so does the bible. When Jesus sent out the Seventy in Luke chapter 10 – he sent them out in…. [take the answer – pairs]
Christianity is a team sport – [get them to repeat – Christianity is a team sport]
Whereever Paul goes we see him working with other people – be it Barnabas or John Mark or Timothy. The way for St Jo’s to grow is for us to act as a team working together – just like St Paul and Timothy did.
“To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae”
Saints is an interesting word. We can think of “saints” as special sports of Christians – super Christians – like St Joseph or St Paul or St Francis of Assisi. They are saints and we are not…
Except that is NOT what the bible says.
In the bible ALL Christians are saints. In the bible “saint” means someone who has been made holy by God – and that is what has happened to all of us through the blood of Christ on the cross (amen!)
Sometimes saints refers to Christians in heaven – eg in 1 Thessalonians 3:13 “at the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ with his saints” – otherwise like here it refers to Christians who are very much alive here on earth.
In the Church of England (like in the Roman Catholic Church) – we do celebrate Big Name saints – like St Joseph – after all we have called our church after him! Its great to celebrate these heroes of the faith – because they are an inspiration to.
But we differ from our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers – because even though we celebrate the big heroes, we believe all Christians are saints. In the Roman Church – if God does two miracles through you get named a saint. If its one miracle you get named a blessed and the rest of us Christians are riding along in the third class carriage. Oh and the Saints get to get to heaven quicker than the rest of us.
Now – as you’ll know – I am a huge fan of the Roman Catholic Church – but on this matter as on a few others I think they are mistaken.
Now what of the controversial question of asking saints to pray for us. You’ll notice that in St Jo’s we end our intercessions by asking Mary and all the saints to pray for us as we say “Hail Mary full of Grace”
Roman Catholics definitely ask saints to pray for them.
Protestants definitely do not.
And we anglo-catholics (along with the Greek Orthodox) sit somewhere in between.
Well for starters what does the bible say?
It never says you should NOT ask Christians in heaven to pray for you. =
It DOES say that it is good to ask other Christians for you.
Its not just about me and God because Christianity is a …[team sport] – so the more people we have praying for us the better. And it DOES tell us that those who died in Christ are alive in heaven “God is not God of the dead but of the living” {Mark 12:27] Moses and Elijah are seen talking with Jesus at the transfiguration. In reveleation the saints are pictured praying in heaven.
[Matthew 17:1–8, Mark 9:2–13, Luke 9:28–36]
So what did the earliest Christians after the bible do?
There are early graves of Christians in the Roman Catacombs dating back to the second and third century AD – the closest Christians we can get to the time of the bible
On some of these graves we see the words “Rest in Peace, rise in Glory” – but on others of them we see the words “pray for us”. They knew their departed loved ones were with Jesus – so they asked them to pray for those who were left behind “remember your family before the throne of Jesus”.
This is where we differ from the Roman Catholic position – According to the Roman Catholics God has to have done two miracles through someone for them to be a saint – and you can only ask those people to pray for you.
But the early Christians asked ALL departed Christians to pray for them – because as we see in this letter all Christians are saints. So In our intercessions we don’t just ask Our Lady and St Jospeh to pray for us – we ask ALL the former members of St Jos who are now in heaven to pray with us – perhaps you want to picture some of them as you say the words of the Hail Mary later. We join our prayers with all the Christians in heaven knowing we don’t have to do everything on our own – because Christianity is a….[Team sport]
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
Grace to you is a Pauline Pun – Greeks would begin their letters ?a??e [chaire]- “glad tidings” Paul changes just a couple of letters to make it ????? [charis] – hold that thought – but point one to remember is this basically how a Greek begins.
While if you have ever been to Israel you will know that Jews will greet you with “shalom” – Peace. If any of you have Muslim friends you will know they greet each other with basically the same word Salaam …alekum, Salaam – Shallom - Peace
St Paul is mixing and matching the Greek “Greetings” [wave as I say] with the Hebrew “Hi” [wave as I say] – so that right back in the first line of his letters he emphasises that this is for everyone – Jews and Gentiles.
As he says in Galatians 3:28 "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
Whether you own five properties or you are in social housing, whether your ancestors come from West Africa, Eastern Europe or the English Midland, whether you are in your 90s or whether you are 29, whether you are married to someone of the same sex or straight and desperately trying to find Mr Right, whether you are female or male – “Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”
The Greek “Greetings” [wave as I say] with the Hebrew “Hi” [wave as I say] tells you that WHOEVER you are – Jesus welcomes you.
“Grace” to you – because from the beginning of Paul’s letter he wants to ram home the point that it is all about Grace. [show slide image] GRACE – Gods Riches at Christ’s Expense.
Many religions talk about what you can do achieve a better result after death. In Hinduism if you do good things you will earn Karma and be reincarnated as a higher caste richer person in your next life. In Islam there are two invisible angels one sitting on each shoulder counting all your good deeds – and on the day of judgement they will weigh it up on a scale and if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds you get to go to Paradise and if they don’t …[shakes head]
But in Christianity we don’t have to strive and strive to earn our way to heaven. It’s a gift. A really costly gift. God in the person of Jesus on the cross paid all the consequences of our sin – so that we can go to heaven – with the most expensive entrance ticket in the universe paid for us by Christ.
Paul knew this very well. He was a murderer – someone who killed as possible of people who disagreed with him religiously – but Jesus appeared to this undeserving Jihadist on the road to Damascus – loved him and gave him a fresh start free from all his sins.
Paul’s over riding message over and over again in all his letters is – if it could happen to me it can happen to you. Forget trying to buy God’s favour – just accept this beautiful costly gift he is giving to you – GRACE
… and Peace –
Any one feeling stressed?
we will share the sign of the Peace later in the service. Shallom – it means more than just peace – wholeness, healing – We share the “peace that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:7) that Jesus puts in our hearts – that peace we need SO much – especially if you are feeling stressed – the peace we need – but also the peace we are called to live with each other.
Grace and Peace – every one welcome. It’s a free gift (well free to us- paid for by him) – bringing calmness and destress in this life and the next. Grace and Peace.
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“ 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” [Colossians 1:3-4]
In his letters Paul doesn’t beat about the bush. He can be quite hard hitting. Now when my grandad wrote this aerogram it wasn’t that expensive - you could go and buy these pre-paid air mail forms to send through the post. But when Paul wrote it was a difficult expensive business. First you had to go and buy a scroll – and that was not cheap. The paper to write the letter to the Colossians on would have set Paul back the equivalent of £30 today – that’s just the paper. [1] Then you might have to hire a scribe to write it for you. Then you had to go down to the docks, find a ship that was travelling to the town you wanted – and pay them to deliver to the person you wanted to deliver it to.
So Paul doesn’t write letters for the fun of it – he writes them because he perceives there is a crisis in the church – usually about GRACE [ show slide again] when people are saying that the new gentile converts have to be circumcised and only eat Kosher food or God won’t love them – and he says [pointing at screen] – “No – it is a gift. You don’t have to earn it. It’s a gift. Christ as paid for it. God’s riches at Christ’s Expense”
Given how much effort and money Paul has to go to to send these letters he doesn’t beat around the bush – he is hard hitting.
BUT
Before he says any of this he always begins by giving thanks for the people he is writing to. Inwardly he may be thinking “those stupid nitwits!!” – but before he lays into them he begins by making himself be thankful for their good points.
“ 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”
Which is not only good politics – but good for us.
I have a friend who has done the twelve steps through Alcoholics Anonymous. And he tells me that one of those steps in gratitude journaling – thinking of the things in our lives to give thanks . Because if we don’t have an attititude of gratitude we can get sucked into gloom and a downward spiral.
For my friend a lack of gratitude could mean a relapse.
For St Paul a lack of gratitude for the people he is writing to could mean he ceases to love them enough to change them.
For us – a lack of gratitude could mean we take God and each other for granted. Churches are very human communities – as Pope Francis put it hospitals for the broken – and if we don’t focus on what we are giving thanks for in the people around us – we can easily end up at logger heads.
When I found this letter from my grandad this week –At first it felt unintelligible. it took me ages to decipher the handwriting word by word – but it felt so worth it when I did.
When you heard N read the reading from Colossians – perhaps at first it felt unintelligible – formulaic – But now we have taken the time to decipher it word by word – I am hoping it feels so worth it when we did. Amen
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/fvfty3/self_how_much_did_scrolls_cost_in_ancient_rome/#:~:text=For%20a%20cheap%2C%20barebones%20scroll,Upvote%202%20Downvote%20Reply
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