Yesterday, our pastor completed a lovely sermon series on creation, including artistic additions to the sanctuary like a large globe, origami birds, stalks of corn, and other evocative additions. On the last sermon, she preached on the remarkable Colossians 1:15-20.
Even today, many people perceive Jesus as primarily a great moral teacher, or as a living person “back then” who, because he returned to heaven, is not as real to us today as during the days of his earthly life. The Colossians author, though, gives us a tremendous picture of Christ.
Christ is the foundation of all creation, the basis of the cosmos, which the Greeks understood as the Logos, the Word of God in which all things gain substance and coherence (verse 15-7). Christ is fully God and fully a part of God’s creative work. If you spend time in nature, you can think of nature as reflecting Christ.
Several years ago I wrote in an Abingon Press lesson about this passage: “Jesus is also the key to our future. In his resurrection he has brought eternal life and reconciliation (verse 18). Barriers among persons are no longer necessary, for he has done away with them through his blood (verse 20). No more must people struggle to find meaning and die in their sins. He is our peace and our head (verses 18, 20).”
It is wonderful to think of Christ not only in the “spiritual” aspects of saving us from sin and death, but also in the glories of the earth and of the universe. I dream of an attitude toward science where, instead of people foolishly complaining about and disdaining science, they could appreciate the pursuit of scientific knowledge as (from their own faith perspective) bringing glory to Christ.
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