Sermon: Deepening Your Roots

Date Preached: Sunday July 29th 2007

Bible Reference: Colossians Chapter 2, verses 6-15

As we live out our purpose in this world, we quickly realize that Christian growth is a process. We can become Christians in an instant when we receive Jesus Christ into our lives as our Saviour and Lord, but it takes a lifetime to work out what it means to live out our faith. So our focus should not just be on ‘knowing’ but on ‘growing’. The Bible always links information with a change of life - ­ we’re to become what we’ve begun. So the truth of the gospel isn’t just a conceptual thing - belief always needs to lead to action – and changed conduct – which is why Jesus railed at the religious leaders of his time because there wasn’t much evidence of the grace and love of God we’ve been talking about these past weeks in stories like the Good Samaritan. What seemed more important to the religious folks of the time was how they appeared to others (they call it impression management these days) – and how they safeguarded their own standing in other people’s eyes, rather than becoming like Jesus. Faith that doesn’t have any impact on one’s behaviour then isn’t really true faith at all. The book of James says it clearly in chapter 2:17 “…Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

In our epistle reading from Colossians Paul mixes several metaphors in order to describe the process of spiritual growth: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as 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.”

Many commentators believe that this is the theme or the hinge point of this letter to the Colossian Christians who lived in a culture very much like our own in some ways.

When they were asked to pick a religious affiliation on the last Census something like 72% of people ticked the Christian box. If you were to ask them what that meant – which is what some researchers have done – they’d have said that Jesus was a really important bloke – and they would have probably included others that they would have held in equally high esteem – like Buddha, Mohammed, Moses – even some philosophers like Socrates, it’s just that CofE or Church in Wales was the more familiar. For lots of people Jesus is important, but not central; his prestige is considerable, but he isn’t pre-eminent – he doesn’t hold the most important position.

In a recent survey of primary school children when they were asked what was the most important thing they were aiming for, it was all about getting rich or being a celebrity (no surprise there given what the media are full of). Mind you things were more positive when the kids were asked ‘who is the most important person’? Because God came out on top – that was the good news – but the bad news was that running God a close second was? (can you guess?) – yep - Wayne Rooney!

The Christians in the town of Colossae – at least some of them – seem to have been taking this line about Jesus amongst all sorts of others. For them cosmic forces of one sort or another were getting equal billing with Jesus – and Paul is writing to them in an attempt to restore Jesus, the Messiah, to the centre of their lives. The Colossian believers had received Jesus as Lord and had been taught the basic doctrines of Christian belief. But on the practical side, they needed to continue to live it out – to become strengthened in their faith and their ability to be thankful, rather than destructive.

The verb he uses indicates of living it out is about continuous action:  we are to continue to live our lives in in him. So any past event of receiving Christ or experiencing his presence in our lives should be a present reality (& not dependent on who might have been around at the time as a Christian leader – or vicar)

As new Christians, the Colossians had not merely received the doctrines of Christ – ideas about him – they’d received Christ Himself. The title Paul gives him, “Christ Jesus the Lord” is unique, apparently, occurring only here in all of Paul’s letters.

As Christ, he is identified as the Messiah, or “anointed one,” promised all the way back to Adam, Abraham, and Moses and prophesied about by the likes of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah.

Jesus was his human name given at his birth and means Saviour.

Lord indicates that he is supreme and sovereign; that he has no rivals and must have the central place – the pre-eminence – the right to reign in our lives.

So Paul then uses some word pictures to get across what spiritual progress should be like for those who are progressing and growing. And he really mixes his metaphors. See if you can pick them up as I read these verses again
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as 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.
For a start he implies that those kinds of people should be something like trees.
 
Just as a tree is “rooted,” we are to be earthed - or grounded as they’d say in the States - in the soil of God’s Word. The tense of the Greek word means, “once and for all having been rooted.” Those who have received Christ are rooted in Him. A tree puts down deep roots in order to find nutrition and to provide stability. In the same way our roots need to go deeply with Christ in order to find the sustenance we need to flourish, and to withstand the tough times when they come.
There’s a beautiful picture in Jeremiah 17:8 of being  “like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It doesn’t fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

So growing in Christ is like being a TREE. And then Paul likens it to a BUILDING

The next image we get from Paul is from construction - to show that as our foundation is built on Christ, we must continue to add things on so that we’re “being built up in him – and established in the faith.” In Ephesians we’re told a similar thing: that in becoming Christians we were “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.” It’s a great picture: a cornerstone was a big stone placed at the intersecting angle, where two walls of a building came together. In ancient civilizations buildings were often made of cut rock. So by uniting two intersecting walls, a cornerstone helped align the whole structure – keep it straight - and tie it together strongly.

In the same way, Jesus holds everything together and provides alignment to our lives.

And then just one more: we can be like a tree; like a solid building – and (I like this one after 11 years of university  teaching) like being a STUDENT

Being “established or strengthened in the faith, just as you were taught.” We’re to be students in God’s postgraduate school so that our faith can be strengthened, or established. As students, we need to be taught the Word of God in order to grow in our faith (– and – bit of a footnote here - we need to read and discover it for ourselves – we always used to emphasize the need for students to take some responsibility for their learning through independent research, rather than being spoon-fed.) But that’s not easy to do and we do need help. That’s why we need to think seriously about being plugged into smaller groups. Since a disciple – as apprentice - must always be learning, we all need to putting ourselves in an environment where we can study and be strengthened on a regular basis; where others can pray for us and guide us. Where we can ask questions and discover that we’re all together in this learning – and that noone’s really got it cracked.

So this lovely passage encourages us to grow in the Christian life so that we can live it out. And that growth is in different directions if you think about it.

We grow downwards by being “ rooted”

We grow upwards by being “built up”

We grow inwards by being strong and established and strong in our faith”

And we grow outwards as we “overflow with thankfulness” – and by gum do people take note of that one in a world where people are so dissatisfied

And if we’re feeding and growing we’re less likely to be led astray – or duped by false ideas. Because there are a lot of them around. It still astounds me that there are some folks who’ve been going to church faithfully for years – and then when something like the Da Vinci Code comes around – entertaining, but errant nonsense (I was watching the film for the first time last night)  – they say ‘but I didn’t realize Jesus had been married’. (Eyes lift to heaven) Let’s get serious about our faith shall we. And if there are questions that have been hanging around for you, or you’d appreciate someone to pray with you - come and ask. Let’s commit ourselves to grow together this next year. Like the Colossians, this stuff is too important to be developing false ideas. Paul has an unswerving confidence in his conviction that it is Jesus the Christ who occupied the centre of creation and salvation and is without equals – but he argues this not from the arrogance of his intellect, but from a rooted humility – a heart that is warmly and wonderfully kind. Just as our Lord and God is so wonderfully patient with us – and wants us to grow strong in him Let’s pray.