Good as is

Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)

             Sometime when I read a passage it is so rich and filled with truthyness that I feel that the reading of the passage is the only message necessary and that I would only defile it by trying explain it further. Today seemed like one of those days. To my mind, there can be no real preaching on this passage which says it all if read carefully and slowly (as all scripture should be read, really).

             I will offer two passing footnotes. One because I feel so strongly about it in a positive way. The other because I feel so strongly in a somewhat negative way. It is something I struggle with.

             In the very first line of this passage I am reminded how thankful I need to be, how thankful we all need to be. God loves us so much and gives us so much. To think about all the gifts that are showered on us. We are graced with so much. We are gifted with such talents. We are gifted with each other. We are stewards of the earth and of people whom God has placed in our lives - our families, friends. We must always give thanks from our hearts that flow over with joy at such wonderful gifts to a servant that fails to reach the mark in so many ways but yet is loved so deeply and richly. Praise God!

          Second, make sure that no one keeps you captive. Wow. How Did Paul know?  We are held captive so much and so often. Or at least there are attempts to keep us captive. The very rules and powers that Jesus railed against are the same mechanisms, rules and hierarchy that still tempts to keep us captive. Rules made of man, 'positions' based on lies, circular logic and falsity that only serve to contaminate and obscure the true message of love that God wishes us to have and that Jesus died for. Do not let any earthly church keep you captive by rules that do not follow the rules of Jesus as exemplified by his life and message.  Many religions have the message but make sure the message is not obscured by minutiae and laws born of humans. 

         Now I suggest you pull aside from the world, give yourself the gift of a few minutes to read and digest this passage which tells us how worthy and loved we are and to avoid falsity and false shadows of the real church and God's real message of love.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him,

rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.

In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ;

when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,

erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths.

These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,

and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.