Introduction
While I served as pastor at First Lutheran Church, Potter, and Grace Lutheran Church, Gurley, in western Nebraska from 1989 to 1991, I worked with several others to organize several gatherings of clergy and lay leaders from the congregations of the Nebraska Synod’s Trails West Cluster. The aspiration was to bring the congregations together to pray and to plan for ways to serve faithfully while taking into serious account the demographic and societal changes moving across the face of that rural environment. From this hope, the High Plains Project was born. I preached this sermon at the opening worship of a retreat for those leaders at the House of Transfiguration, Bayard, Neb., on Nov. 13, 1990.
Reading
The reading was Colossians 1:15-20.
Homily
Christ…the cross, the new creation…Jesus the Jewish rabbi, the Roman instrument of capital punishment, and the kingdom of God.
What a strange faith we hold, what an odd God we worship, what a round-about way we travel!
For some reason, wonderful and mysterious to us, our Lord God chooses to bring all things, from quarks to galaxies, from people to ants, under his reign, not by force and might, not by decree and and coercion, but by weakness and surrender, by suffering and death.
God gathers all creatures into his kingdom, he makes all things part of his creation, through the cross, through the execution of his Son, through his own sacrifice for our sake.
Christ’s death on the cross was a death for us and for the whole world. His death was the beginning of the end of all death and decay, of all decline and despair. His death was not an end, but the beginning of life, the dawning of a new day, the birth of a new creation.
So in spite of appearances, in the face of a seeming downward slide, no matter that we appear worse off now than last year, we live in the dawning light of God’s new creation. and not in the twilight of his day of hope.
We can see his new creation coming in the bright colored squares of handmade quilts, lovingly stitched from remnants, rainbowed like Joseph’s coat, folded with care, boxed and sent around the world, to be reborn as a roof or walls in someone’s house, a shack really, somewhere in Africa or Asia.
We can see God’s new creation coming in the beeming upturned faces of our children as they reach out their hands, trembling a little from Joy and fear. making a bed, a cradle, a nest, a throne for the piece of bread, the wafer, the body of Christ, the Presence of God for them and for us.
We can see the heavenly kingdom. God’s reign, coming to us in our outspread arms and open hands, extended to our new members, welcoming them to share with us the promise of life in Christ, the path of discipleship, the proclamation of his Gospel, the preparation for his new creation.
We can hear the sound of the new creation in our own congregation’s voices, talking and conversing, as we ask, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” as we struggle with the gift of Grace, the burden of Sin, the life of Faith, the call to worship in Word and Sacrament, the life we share in Family and Community, the path of Stewardship, and the promise of Creation.
We can see the tracks of the new creation making marks on paper, looking for all the world like budgets and pledges, like resolutions and commitments, but being signs and plans for mission and ministry, outlines of our hopes and dreams, maps for our journey together in faith.
We can witness the hope of God’s new creation in the urge and expectation we carry in us as we gather here at the House of Transfiguration to be transfigured ourselves, to be remade and to be reshaped, as we work together on the High Plains Project, learning to look with eyes that see the new creation, to hear with ears that hear its footsteps, to feel with hearts attuned to its message.
We can hear the Good News of the new creation in the words of Scripture, in the message of Colossians, the text for this time of meditation:
[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things. and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning. the firstborn from the dead. so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20, NRSV)
So do not fear; it is not the end we face; but the beginning we embrace.
Don’t worry; it is not a final death that comes, but a death with the hope of resurrection.
Do not give up hope; it is not our power that shapes our future. but the weakness of the love that made peace by the bloody cross, which will give birth to our future.
Strength in weakness, power in surrender, love for those who hate…. Resurrection after death, hope in spite of fear, birth and beginning in the arms of the end.
What a round-about way we travel, what an odd God we worship, what a strange faith we hold!
The kingdom of God, the Roman instrument of capital punishment, Jesus the Jewish rabbi… the new creation, the cross… Christ.