october 14, 2007 [pm]
"Making a Mockery"
Colossians 2:6–15
(To read the Scripture, click here.)
My apologies for missing last Sunday, something came up. Or more accurately, somebody came out. Thanks to all for your prayers and support during our sweet daughter Violet’s arrival into the world. Dawn and I are deeply appreciative to so many who prayed and visited and cooked meals and gave us darling little violet-colored dresses. Many have asked, “Why Violet?” I don’t know, we just liked the name. Others have asked, “What does Violet mean?” Purple flower? I know, it’s not in the Bible, but Dawn did select a commemorative Bible verse for Violet’s birth. It comes from Song of Solomon: “A flower appears on the earth, the time of singing has come.” Though so far any singing has mostly been screaming—last night until 3 AM. The girl does have a good set of lungs. Though I’m thinking last night might have had something to do with the Red Sox game. It’s the first time in Violet’s life that the Red Sox lost.
Violet’s birth was somewhat of an epic—and very painful for Dawn as natural childbirth tends to be. However as you may remember from two weeks back, it is this pain followed by joy that makes childbirth such an apt analogy for the Christian life. Pain is a part of it; but that’s OK, because the outcome trumps the pain every time. Paul viewed earthly suffering as part of our participation in the sufferings of Christ as the body of Christ. As Jesus suffered and died, so would his church. But because we’re talking Jesus here, we’re also talking resurrection. The outcome trumps the pain every time.
Coincidentally, as I was preaching this stuff last time, Dawn’s contractions commenced. Some 30 hours of labor later and our own little bundle of joy was born. I’d like to say that it’s been pure joy ever since; but as I’ve already alluded, that’d be a lie. Pure exhaustion maybe. Dawn’s mom has come to lend us a much appreciated hand, but still, it’s impressive how an 8-pound infant can so completely wear down three grown adults. All I can say is that it’s a good thing God makes babies so adorable. It really draws out the love. I need reminders of that love to offset Violet’s screaming at three in the morning. Yet there’s an analogy for the Christian life here too. Paul writes in our passage for tonight: “just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him.” We all know how quickly the gusto of becoming a Christian can give way to the grind of being a Christian. As I need reminders of my love for Violet to fuel my endurance, likewise we need reminders of God’s love and grace to propel us through the hardship that is part of carrying our crosses for Jesus.
Paul loads on the reminders here. He uses verbs like forgiven and filled, rooted, built up and strengthened, triumphed and resurrected. He mixes metaphors from agriculture, construction, law and warfare to stress the all-encompassing effects of God’s redemption. The verbs are notably past tense and passive, meaning that all these realities have already been done by God for us through Christ. And thus our response of grateful service and obedience, while sometimes hard, is never heavy. God has done all the serious lifting so that by his grace, we can finally do all that he calls us to do as his redeemed people on earth.
Still, this passage is one of the more perplexing passages in Scripture. In addition to mixing metaphors, Paul coins a number of puzzling phrases. There’s the hollow and deceptive philosophy based on human tradition in verse 8. What exactly is he talking about here? Is he talking about Judaism? Gnosticism? Postmodernism? And what exactly are the basic principles of this world? Is Paul coming down on particle physics too? Other translations render basic principles as elemental principles or elemental spirits which according to commentators could mean anything from local pagan deities to daily horoscopes. Then there are the “powers and authorities” in verse 15, translated elsewhere as “principalities and powers.” Are these demonic forces or human forces or some amalgamation of the two? And how are they stripped off? What about the canceled written code and its regulations in verse 14? Is that the Torah or something else? And finally, what does Paul mean by the circumcision of Christ? Does he mean Jesus’ own circumcision as a Jewish infant? Or is he talking about Jesus doing the circumcising? When did Jesus ever circumcise anybody?
I did get to cut Violet’s umbilical cord after she was born. That was cool. Of course had Violet been a Vincent, we may have been cutting something else. They give parents the option of circumcision for newborn sons here in the US, mainly for cosmetic or possible health benefits. Of course had Vincent been a Vaschel there would have been no option. Circumcision is required by Judaism for every male. The mention of circumcision in verse 11 squarely seats Paul’s line of logic within Judaism, which naturally makes perfect sense since Paul, Jesus, the disciples and most all of the first Christians were Jewish. The oldest of Jewish rites, circumcision’s origin is clear. The Lord spoke to Abraham, saying, “You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant relationship between me and you.” However, while the origin is clear, the rationale is not. Why circumcision instead of, say, a tattoo or an ID card? Contemporary rabbis teach that the purpose of circumcision was so you could tell a Jew from a Gentile. But if that’s the case, why not go with something you could display in polite company?
God’s covenant relationship with Abraham did include making Abraham into the “father of many nations.” That’s what Abraham means. This emphasis on progeny may explain why circumcision—especially once it became important in Israel that chosen people not mix or intermarry with unchosen people. But the reasons for the prohibition against intermingling had to do with religious purity not racial purity. God-fearing Gentiles were always free to join the covenant. God saves by faith, not according to gene pool. In fact, by the time we get to the New Testament, it’s clear that the whole thrust of the Abrahamic covenant had always been total Gentile inclusion. So biological progeny is probably not the main why.
Around here we teach that circumcision served as a covenant oath sign. Common to the covenant ratification practices of the ancient Near East, the practice of cutting was employed as a seal of agreement between two parties, much like the oaths you sealed in blood as a kid (that is, if your parents let you play with knives). The intention was to portend in part the curse that would befall in total should a covenant be broken. Shed a little blood as a promise that you’ll shed all your blood if you break the promise. Similarly circumcision meant “If you break covenant then you get “severed off” completely from your ancestry and from your inheritance.” You’d get kicked out of the family.
The same idea applies to Christian baptism, circumcision’s successor: a little water portends a deluge of divine judgment if ever you break the relationship. But how is grace grace if it’s contingent on human compliance? This was the big if from a few weeks back. Pail wrote in chapter 1, verse 22: “God has reconciled you in Christ’s fleshly body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if, on the condition that you continue in the faith, established and firm, not moving from the hope of the gospel you heard.” But remember that the adjectives “established and firm” do not describe your own ability to believe. Rather “established and firm” describe the object of your belief; that is, the faith that is in Christ the Lord. To be forgiven, filled, rooted, built up, strengthened, triumphant and resurrected—all these realities have already been done by God for us by faith in Christ. Our response is one of grateful service and obedience, the condition of anyone who has ever really experienced grace.
Our relationship with God has always been based on God’s work and not our own, faith and not heredity. And since Gentiles have always been part of God’s plan, circumcision gave way to baptism in part to open up the pathway to God for Gentiles and women. (One contemporary rabbi I read complains that the reason so many Gentile men became Christians was because Christianity dropped the circumcision requirement). However, the fact is that Christianity did not drop the covenant requirement at all. This is why Paul mentions circumcision here. But what Paul means by circumcision is not the physical elimination of foreskin, but what Deuteronomy, Jeremiah and others referred to as the circumcision of the heart. The “putting off” or the “stripping off” of the old, stubborn self that makes genuine covenant relationship possible.
And only God can do this. “In Christ you were circumcised,” Paul writes in verse 11, “with a circumcision done without human hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ (that is, a circumcision of the heart).” God does this for us through Christ, just as he does all things necessary for our salvation and obedience. It killed him to do it—and it kills us too. In verse 12, Paul links circumcision of the heart and baptism as the burial of our old sinful selves; buried with Christ who took on our sins. Yet again, because we get buried with Christ, and our sins get buried with Christ, we get raised with Christ too. And because God is the one who does the raising, it’s already done. We run a race we’re guaranteed to win. Our life of grateful service and obedience, while sometimes hard, is never heavy. God has done all the serious lifting so that by his grace, with his help, we can finally do all that he calls us to do as his redeemed people on earth.
Dawn’s natural childbirth didn’t go as smoothly as we had hoped it would. What started as an painful yet powerful, intimate bond between husband and wife, turned into a full-blown, crowded medical intervention as we simply ran out of energy and had to rely on the help of others. This was a hard thing, but not a bad thing. Violet had turned around in such a way that the birth was not going to happen without assistance. The same with following Christ. We get turned around too, so much so that we can’t make it without help—help that is readily available through the spirit and the body of Jesus. Just as we received Christ Jesus by grace, so we continue to live in Jesus, by grace.
Grace is necessary because living in Jesus can be a grind sometimes. We fail and we fall, but in Christ even our failures and fallings find redemption. Paul writes that the “the written code and its regulations” are canceled. If the reference is to the will and law of God, what Paul means is that our transgressions against the written code have been cancelled (the word is better translated as a record of debt). God forgives our sins, he doesn’t rescind the rules. Christ died not so we can live as we want, but so that we can live like God wants. And we can do it as long as we depend on God’s help. I think one reason God had infants be circumcised and baptized was to remind us that his grace is never a function of human faith or human power. The only things infants can do on their own is cry, crap and sleep. They cannot survive without the help and the nourishment a mother eagerly and lovingly gives. Nor can we survive without the help and love of God.
As you may have read, on October 7, a 13-year-old boy was walking home from a basketball game in Roxbury. Police said he was killed by an “errant bullet.” Television reports said he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that’s not right. Steven Odom was around the corner from his house, living his life. Another senseless murder in the city. How does a family survive that? Steven Odom’s parents, devoted followers of Jesus, with the help and love of God, chose to sing. The church joined in their worship: “I’m trading my sorrows…” they sang at the funeral, “for the joy of the Lord.” A cousin preached the funeral sermon: “Keeping God’s word is not a pass from suffering,” he said. Is this just a case of faith as a crutch? Absolutely. Faith is the crutch we all need whenever we’re hobbled by such horrors of life. Otherwise we’d never survive them.
This is where the gospel gets real. Paul and the rest of Scripture never teach that God intends to keep his creatures from the tragedies of life on earth. He does intend that we rejoice in them—not that we be glad they happen—but that we realize how none of it marks the end of the story. In verse 15, Paul announces how in the cross, Christ disarmed or stripped off evil principalities and powers and made a mockery of them. Again, the verb is past tense. It’s already done. Who are the principalities and powers? Demonic evil or human evil? When it comes to what happened in Roxbury, the distinction is one without a difference. Evil—call it Satanic or systemic or religious or criminal or personal, yours or mine—this evil stripped Jesus naked and staked him to a tree. This evil made a mockery of Jesus and celebrated its triumph over him.
Yet in one of the most dramatic statements of gospel paradox, Paul declares that in stripping Jesus, evil gets stripped. In nailing Jesus to the cross evil gets nailed. In mocking Jesus, evil gets put to shame. And in defeating Jesus, evil loses because in the end, Christ always rises. What killed Jesus made him stronger. As triumphant Lord and Christ, all things submit to his lordship in time. What killed Jesus made us stronger too. Which is how the Odom family can rejoice amidst their tragedy and how you and me and every person who follows Jesus can follow Jesus. Forgiven and filled, rooted, built up and strengthened, triumphed and resurrected already—all these realities have been done by God for us through Christ. And thus our response of grateful service and obedience, while sometimes hard—really hard—is never heavy. God has done all the serious lifting so that by his grace, we can finally do all that he calls us to do as his redeemed people on earth.
