Christmas Sunday 1
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Song: All Creatures of Our God and King
Scripture: Colossians 3: 12-17
Good News: Christmas Is Over (?)
Song: I Am the Light of the World
In Context: Reading Colossians 3
The Obvious
The first thing we notice upon reading Colossians 3 is the contradiction between the first seventeen verses and last eight—the last eight leaving a foul taste in our mouths. The end of the chapter is a justification and license for bigotry, sexism, domestic violence, greed, and slavery. In his book, Jesus and the Disinherited, Howard Thurman reflects on his grandmother, once enslaved. She was illiterate and often asked young Howard to read the Bible to her. But she forbade any reading of Colossians, along with most of Paul’s other letters. She couldn’t believe that anyone who believe in Jesus Christ could possibly write that slaves should view their masters as a substitute for God. That slaves should accept their inferiority and patiently wait until after they die to get their reward.
Furthermore, Colossians 3 not only offends the enslaved, it also offends many wives. “Wives, be subject to your husbands.” While husbands are admonished to love their wives, the term love has just enough vagueness and hidden feelings associated with it that husbands can easily get off the hook by claiming that they DO love their lives, with a feeling hidden in their hearts. On the other hand “be subject” is a command that traps wives in concrete. This is because in real life, “subjection” is always defined by the ruler, not the one being ruled.
We wonder how these last verses could possibly be written by the same person who wrote the ethical treatise that precedes them. It is obvious that we have a major argument occurring right here within a single chapter of the Bible. Right after serve 11 soars with the rhetoric that “In renewal there is no longer…slave and free, but Christ is all in all,” we have the beating down of everyone who is enslaved. Colossians 3 is having an argument with itself!
The first part of the chapters asserts two dominant thoughts. First, there is a way to get connected with Jesus that transforms each of us into a new person, with a new attitude, a new code of conduct, and a new inner spirit. Second, this new “self” is thoroughly ethical—in comparison with the old self.
The old self is governed by anger, abusive language, greed, shallow sexual pursuits, and telling lies to other people. The kind of behavior that fits in with husbands who want their wives to be submissive, or masters who want their slaves to grovel.
The new self, on the other hand, is characterized by compassion, and humility—and above all, love. This is hardly the kind of person who could expect a wife to be submissive—or slavery to even exist!
The Less Obvious
- Colossians 3 is part of a longer letter and should not be taken out of context. The letter to the Colossians was likely written prior to A.D. 60, by the Apostle Paul—or perhaps one of his ghost writers. Because we do not have the original copy of the letter, it may have been altered in places, particularly in the early centuries as it was copied by hand and carried to various churches around the world. We just don’t know for sure. In the letter as a whole, Paul is primarily concerned with making sure that “Jesus Christ” is the sole criterion for understanding Christian teaching and living the Christian life. In his day, the life and teachings of Jesus were already being crowded out by fascination with angels, culture wars, the idolatry of money, foolishness and lack of logical reasoning, pride, protecting the norms that enforced privileged status for some, and alienation between different demographic groups.
Paul’s answer to the problems of his time was to submit everything about ourselves to Christ—to see treat ourselves and others in the same way Christ sees and treats all people—with forgiveness, without regard to category or status, with compassion and generosity. Colossians 3: 18-4:1 makes no sense in the light of the whole document.
- The historical context of Colossians is not pretty. There were plenty of bad actors running about. Many of them would feel quite at home in today’s news headlines. The predominant ethos was one of “justified domination” and “righteous violence.” The prevailing thought was that people should be segregated into superior and inferior classifications: men were superior, women inferior; fathers superior, everyone else in the family inferior; masters superior, slaves inferior; the rich superior, the poor inferior; citizens superior, non-citizens inferior; those with weapons superior, those without inferior, people with the ‘right religion’ superior, all others inferior. “Justified domination” is the theory that superior groups of people must dominate and subjugate those inferior to them or the whole society will come undone. “Righteous violence” is the belief that the superior classes not only have the privilege to use violence to enforce subjugation, but also the duty.
Colossians was written at a time when justified domination and righteous violence were so ingrained in people’s thinking, that it was almost impossible to get people to think any other way. Even the subjected classes bought into the ethos.
And yet—this way of thinking was clearly opposite of what Jesus taught and what he did—how he related to people. “The first shall be last, the last first.” “The one who would be the leader of all must be the slave of all.” As Paul wrote his letters, he was caught between the different ways of Jesus—which he clearly comprehended—and the ways of the culture around him—which clearly disturbed him. HE comprehended the ways of Jesus—because he had had a life-changing encounter with him. But how to get OTHERS to comprehend the new life he wanted them to have? As a wise person once said, “You have to build a nest before you lay that egg.” Should Paul just cough up the raw truth of Jesus’ life and teachings? He knew no one would just spoon it up and swallow it. Should he teach people the truth about Jesus incrementally—a bit at a time? Should he trick others into swallowing it?
As we read Paul’s writings, he seems to be arguing with himself—particularly in Colossians 3. We know that his fundamental belief in in the radical notion that “in Christ, all are one.” He is unique in advocating that in Christ there is no Greek or Jew, no slave or master, no male or female. In Christ, we are all simply “human,” deeply connected with each other through our all being loved and rescued and wanted by Jesus. So is 3: 18-4:1 the writing of a later hand, trying to subvert the radical truth of Paul’s message? Is it some inner conflict within Paul’s own thinking that he can’t quite work out? Is this Paul’s writing—being sarcastic, ridiculing “justified domination,” mimicking those who think like this—hoping we will see the clear difference between what HE thinks and what is prevailing in the culture? Is it an invitation to incrementalism—allowing systems to continue operating as they have—with confidence that the other passages in Colossians will someday subvert and overwhelm this license given to husbands, fathers, and slaves? It helps to be curious.
- The easiest verses to overlook in chapter 3 are perhaps the most important keys to understanding and interpreting it. Our immediate attention is drawn to the sins: fornication, evil desire, greed, anger, abusive language, lying to each other. Our immediate attention is also drawn to the list of things that constitute goodbehavior: compassion, kindness, humility, patience, forgiveness, living with others in harmony. And of course, when we get to the end of Colossians 3, our attention is immediately hijacked by permissions given to husbands, fathers, and slave owners.
With all these matters blaring out at us, what then might we have overlooked? Verses 1-4 encourage us to set our minds on those things that are “above.” And then “above” is defined as those actions and attitudes demonstrated by Jesus himself. The opposite of setting our minds on what is “above” is to focus on our own self-centered desires—the devices and desires of our OWN hearts and minds. The more deeply we find ways to connect with Jesus and submit ourselves to being transformed and guided by HIS heart and mind, the more we will die to the old self. We will be transformed from individuals who use others into individuals who serve others, who have so much humility that we no longer notice the expectations and insults they use to try and keep us in our place.
In Christ we are made anew. And when we follow up that first pivotal transformation with letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, acknowledging that we are one body with all other human beings, making sure our thanksgivings are equal to our complaints, letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, and singing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs—then we will pay no attention to the privileges of husbands, fathers, and slave owners—no matter the reason for their mention in Holy Scripture.
Repertoire 