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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
Did you know that the ability to focus and concentrate on something actually has to be trained? It doesn’t come naturally. Distraction on the other hand is everywhere around us, always at hand. This is what my wife and I are experiencing at the moment in view of our daughter. She is already quite good at concentrating on things, but she gets distracted far easier. We as parents are, however, not much better. Just take me ‘doing groceries without a list’ as an example: How often does it end in a disaster, even though I only have three things to remember. But without a list, I sometimes forget even two of the three things. And I am pretty sure that I am not the only one, looking at the numerous men using a mobile in a supermarket. And my wife: A couple of weeks ago she complained about how often she gets distracted in doing her housework, giving me the following example: She actually wanted to iron the washing, which she usually does in the living room. However realising that the living room needed to be cleaned up, she first did this. But while she cleaned up she found a toy of our daughter and brought it back into the children’s room. Noticing the mess in the children’s room, she then started to tidy up there, instead of finishing the living room or starting with ironing; and so on. At the end of the day – what a surprise – she had the feeling of having accomplished nothing.
When she told me this story, I remembered a management training I had to absolve, where one of the speeches was about this topic, namely focusing on one’s goals in every day’s chaos; and how to set reachable goals, in order to manage them rather than to lose them out of sight.
And it is nothing else, which Paul tries to achieve in view of the Colossians by means of today’s word for the sermon: He wants them to focus. He writes there in the 3rd chapter of his letter:
“Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Before we look at, how Paul tries to get the Colossians focused again, let's ask how they did get distracted? Colossae itself was a commercial town in Asia Minor, today’s Turkey, and thus abuzz with many different cultures, religions, philosophies and traditions; and the Christian congregation, merely some 10 years old, was a reflexion of this picture. It is therefore no wonder that things like the observance of food regulations, which were quite common in those days, or various different philosophies entered into the practise and belief of the Colossian congregation; very much to the distress of its leaders, who asked for Paul’s help. But how does Paul proceed, in order to get the Colossians focused again? Paul reminds the Colossians with his words of what they are, and thus of what they can be thankful for, through Jesus Christ: “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, … be thankful!” In Thursday’s Vesper, one of the Seminarians very impressively pointed out in his sermon about the beginning of the letter to the Colossians, how Paul literally fractures everything down to Jesus Christ. For Paul describes Jesus at the beginning of his letter to the Colossians as the visible image of the invisible God. Thus Paul explains what St. John elsewhere describes by saying that Jesus is God’s powerful and creating word; namely that Jesus, as the expression of God’s life loving and creative power, was not only involved in the creation of the world at the very beginning. Being God’s powerful creative word, he sustains all creation until this very day. And by becoming flesh: visible, touchable, this word made flesh died and rose again from the dead, in order to become the firstborn from the dead and thus the head of the church and the new creation. So everything we are, and every good thing we have, was given unto us and is sustained by and through Jesus Christ. First of all our existence, the fact that we got the chance to live here on this earth; with everything that belongs to this life: food, clothing, companionship etc. And then also the honour to live in eternity: God made you and me to be his sons and daughters, evoking faith and trust in us; and all this through and by Jesus Christ. It is for this reason that Paul encourages the Christians to be thankful by mandating everything they do, to Christ. And in order to achieve this, Paul invites the Colossians – and also us – to firstly orientate over and again towards Jesus’ word; but not only by reading or listening to it. No, Pauls wants Christians to teach each other also by singing God’s word in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Like someone, who repeats a written shopping list over and over again, in order to remember every little item on it; at some stage this reciting changes into a kind of chanting. Secondly Paul wants Christians to follow Jesus’ example by putting on “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgive [-ness] and love” in order to remember and to focus on what we are, through God’s word. Because: To iterate what shouldn’t be forgotten, helps not only with groceries or housework, it also helps in faith.
Therefore it makes absolute sense that we on this day listen to these words. Not so much, because our congregation is in a very similar situation like the Colossian congregation: Very young, and located in a modern political and commercial metropolis with hundreds of different cultures, traditions, philosophies and religions. It is important for every single Christian to remain focused, no matter where he or she comes from, for it makes a difference, if we approach things in our everyday life with a Christian supposition.
One of my teachers at the theological seminary in Germany, who once preached about this text in a daily devotion, pointed this out, by showing us how simple, yet effective it is to really do this: It makes a difference to start your car, to go for a run, or to prepare for an important business meeting by saying: Let’s go in Jesus name. Because: You do not only commit your safety into God’s hands by saying this; you also headline your actions: your driving, your arguing etc. by remembering Jesus’ compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgive [-ness] and love. And what could be better for you, me and the people around us, than to experience the effects of God’s powerful and creative word, and the life of his new creation in our words and deeds.
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