Lord, You Have Searched Me - SHEET MUSIC HERE
Welcome/Call to Worship
Good morning! I’m Pastor Ashley. To those here in the sanctuary and those joining us online: we are so glad you’re here!
This morning, we will sing songs of worship, pray together, hear from scripture and one another, as we move toward the pinnacle of our service: the table of our Lord, where we will take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our most Gracious Host, Jesus. The purpose of our time together each Sunday is to bring our hearts closer to the heart of God, so I invite you to participate in as much or as little in our prepared liturgy as your spirit is willing.
We welcome all sounds and smells from the youngest to the oldest among us. The Kids Corner is in the back for anyone who needs to move around and play to worship God this morning. There is also a nursery available. We know that the energy and spirit of children can be different than adults and we consider that reality a gift.
There are information cards in the pew in front of you—if you are a guest, or if you have moved and have not updated your info with the church, please fill it out and drop it in the offering plate when it goes by later in worship.
For those watching online or for those who would like to follow along, our liturgy for every service is posted on our website before the service begins.
We invite you to Sunday School at 10 AM every week. There’s classes that meet in the Seekers room and the Parlor. There is also a combined children and youth class that meets in the MUB. Godly Play meets behind the sanctuary for our younger elementary students.
Food Hub is this Saturday. If you’d like to help pass out groceries to our neighbors in the community, come to the church at 8:30. You can learn more about Food Hub by visiting our website.
And mark your calendars for our final Gospels and Groceries of the year on Wednesday, September 28. We’ll bring food for the Little Free Pantry and have a hymn sing.
To keep up with all the life we live together here at Azle Christian Church, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Make sure you’re downloaded the Realm app to stay up to date!
We continue our back-to-school worship series this morning: Study Hall: A Series on the Letter to the Colossians.
Let’s pray to turn our hearts toward God for this hour.
Spirit of truth, open to us the scriptures, speaking your holy word through song, through the bread and cup, and through offering ourselves, and meet us here today in the living Christ. Amen.
All Who Hunger, Gather Gladly - 419
Litany of Faith
One: Sing to the LORD a new song, for the LORD has done marvelous things.
All: The right hand and the holy arm of the LORD have secured the victory.
One: The LORD has made known this victory and has openly shown righteousness in the sight of the nations.
All: The LORD remembers mercy and faithfulness to the house of Israel, and all the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.
One: Shout with joy to the LORD, all you lands;
All: Lift up your voice, rejoice, and sing.
(Psalm 98:1-5)
Pastoral Prayer
The Lord be with you.
Join me in prayer.
(From author and spiritual director, Emily P. Freeman)
Most Holy One,
You go ahead of ahead of us, unbound by time or place or gravity.
You walk toward us with love in your eyes.
You stand beside us when we find ourselves in unsure places.
You sit next to us in silence and in joy.
You watch behind us to protect our minds from regret.
You live within us and lead from a quiet place.
So when you speak with gentleness, we won’t ignore you.
When you direct with nudges, we move with ease.
When you declare your love for us, we refuse to squirm away.
When you offer good gifts, we receive them with gratitude.
When you delay the answers, we wait with hope.
We resist the urge to sprint ahead in a hurry or lag behind in fear.
Let us keep company with you at a walking pace, moving forward together one step at a time.
Help us to know the difference between being pushed by fear and led by love.
So we pray the prayer together that Jesus, our brother and redeemer, gave us to hold onto:
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
More Love to Thee, O Christ - 527 (v 1 & 2)
God’s Great Dream - ACC Children's Choir
Sermon
Colossians 3:1-24
Some preliminary remarks before we begin today’s reading. Near the end of the passage is what is known as household codes. They are Greco-Roman, hierarchal instructions for the paterfamilia, the familial structure deemed acceptable in the Roman world that upheld imperial power.
These codes, found in Colossians and other Pauline texts, have been used throughout history to enact violence on the lives of women, children, queer folks, and particularly black people in the U.S. during the reign of chattel slavery, all in the name of Jesus. So consider this a content warning.
However, when we get to verse 18, which is when the codes begin, I am going to stop reading, and I will allow a minute or two of silence so that you can read it to yourselves, or if you do not want to read it, you can close your eyes and enjoy a moment of serenity.
Even though part of the sermon will address these codes, I’m not going to read those verses out loud because it is important that you do not hear me say those words from the pulpit. It is important that our children do not hear me say those words. It is important that my own daughter not hear me ever say those words.
You may be wondering why I don’t just skip that section of Colossians. Why all the fanfare? Why not just ignore it? That would be easier in some ways, yes.
But these parts of scripture will remain in the Bible whether or not we ignore them. And I would rather us deal with them together in a place of promise, of worship, of community, than for anyone of us to stumble on them on our own and take them as God’s great plan for the world.
It’s important that we know these troubling, and even downright wrong, texts are there so that we are not caught unaware. You need to know that I know they’re there, and I need to know that you know. Because ignoring them is like carelessly leaving a weapon somewhere a child can find it. We need to put that weapon in its appropriate place.
So, here we go. The first part of today’s text is quite nice. Let’s begin.
Colossians 3:1-24
3 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. 7 These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. 8 But now you must get rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10 and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. 11 In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all!
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.
20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart. 22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not with a slavery performed merely for looks, to please people, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever task you must do, work as if your soul depends on it, as for the Lord and not for humans, 24 since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality.
This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
Our worship series is called Study Hall, and today we’re looking at school supplies. What will need for this life in Christ? What do we need for our classroom, our learning lab of Christian love that we call church?
When I was a high school English teacher, the school supplies would mostly be taken care of before the first day. But I would usually have something on my syllabus like “composition notebook for writing day, to stay in the classroom.” Sometimes I’d invite kids to bring a ribbon for a community-building art project.
But we’d also start with a Mrs. Dargai pep talk, the first of many. I would say to them “There are actual tangible things you need for this year. But there is also a way of entering this classroom and engaging the course work that can’t be packaged. You need to have done your homework. You need to do the reading, of course. But you also need to open your minds, your hearts even. You need to be ready to climb into the world of these stories. You need to be ready to tell your inner critic to go for a walk while your creativity gets some work done. You need to accept that we won’t find all the answers and we may even be troubled by some of the things we read, but we will trust each other to walk there together.”
There were always some eye rolls of course, but there were also some twinkling eyes. And beyond that, there began a trust that persists today with many of my students, though I have been out of teaching for years. The point is not even I could predict all that would come up that year even though I wrote the syllabus. So we made a pact to walk through the coursework together as partners.
Today’s section of the letter to the Colossians deals with the supplies the church will need for the tasks ahead, and it starts with a pep talk of sorts.
The writer begins, “So if you have been raised with Christ…” This phrase tells us everything we need to know about the posture assumed by the Colossians.
This phrase, “So if you have been raised with Christ…” gives us the ground rules for life in Christ: they are to live by a resurrection ethic. This is an ethic that remembers our baptism, it’s an ethic that affirms the goodness of embodied existence, and, this is crucial, it’s an ethic that is practiced in the face of death.
Now, the Colossians are not in immediate danger of physical persecution. That’s not to say that they weren’t in any danger—it’s just this is not the an imminent threat every day.
However, they do live in the Roman empire, and empire is as empire does. We have already talked in this series how empire holds captive our imaginations. The Romans did this in their military celebrations, their temples dedicated to worship of the state and the violence it enacts, and through Caesar’s face on coins and town entries.
But there is an subtler way that empire grabs hold of one’s psyche—and it’s a trick that the Hebrew prophets railed against, it’s what Jesus sought to pierce, and it’s what we are still trying to discern today as the continuing of the church.
Empire wants you to believe that everything is fine. What you see is what you get. What you see is normal, and not only normal, but inevitable. It does this by perpetuating ways of thinking that go like this: “We have no choice. That’s just how things are.”
Power at large wants us to believe that the future holds nothing but just more imperial hopes and dreams. They hold us captive by the ideology of continuity between the present and any imaginable future. Things must remain the same or continue along the same ideological path. It’s inevitable, empire says.
Slogans reinforce this continuity. Pax Romana, there is no Lord but Caesar, free trade, law and order. These are hedges to hem in our imaginations for what the world could be.
But the writer of the Colossians in keeping with prophetic tradition and in the way of Jesus is shouting in protest the resurrection ethic. The writer says, “You are dead to all of these lies of empire! You are not bound by the ideology of sameness. You are no longer held captive by the powers that want to eternally preserve brokenness, oppression, and idolatry!”
When the writer says to set our minds on things above, he or she is not advocating to forget life on earth and think only of an ethereal afterlife. No, the writer is urging the Colossians to abandon any allegiance that is not only and foremost unto Christ. Abandon empire’s vision for the world that has held us captive.
“Secede from unholy unions of power and money,” as the poet Wendell Berry wrote. “Put to death what is earthly” means to put to death the remaining vestiges of an imperial imagination and praxis that still has a grip on our lives. Put it to death before it kills you, because it will. Without a second thought.
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothed in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, say boldly to empire’s imagination: We beg to differ.
Because what does a community renewed in knowledge according to the image of the Creator look like? It looks like the Creator. By embodying in its communal life the virtues that are formed by this alternative story, by God’s story, arguably the truest story there ever was, the Christian way of life stands in contrast to empire’s.
And this way of imagining the world that could be, the world God wants, leads us to a radically inclusive way of thinking in Colossians: “In that renewal,” the text says—that is, in this resurrection ethic—“there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all!”
In Christ, we are all beloved and treated as such: Greek, Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythians (look them up or take my word for it--they were seriously scary barbarians), enslaved and free.
Of course, we don’t just rise out of those baptismal waters or wake up one morning with completely transformed hearts and lives. Maya Angelou said, “I’m grateful to be a practicing Christian. I’m always amazed when people say, ‘I’m a Christian.’ I think, ‘Already?’ It’s an ongoing process. You know, you keep trying. And blowing it and trying and blowing it…”
We are a transformed people through practice. That’s why we call them spiritual practices. And one of the main ways we learn the rhythms and contours of a resurrection ethic is through what we’re doing right now—worship.
Worship is a world-making endeavor, it’s a Christ-centered imagination station, it’s meant to recalibrate our hearts. The writer encourages the Colossians to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” That’s what we’re doing!
We don’t come to worship to feel better about ourselves or Christianize self-help strategies. We come to be challenged to see more deeply the way that Christ is reconciling all things—all creation, every atom, every whisper, every ounce of history—unto himself. We come to worship to proclaim that Christ is the Lord of our lives. Not the global market, not the president, not big-tech or big-Pharma, not military might. Christ alone. Christ is all and in all.
We come to worship to be clothed with love, which always looks like justice in public. Love is not mere warm fuzzy feelings. It’s biased toward the vulnerable, suspicious of the powerful, and bold enough to say to empire, “We beg to differ.”
I’d love to end my sermon here. It’s a good one. Resurrection ethic and imagination? Check. Come to worship because what we do here matters on a cosmic level? Check. Love? Check.
But we can’t end it here, can we? Because the letter keeps going.
The writer goes on to include these household codes—reinforcing the subordination of women, children, and enslaved peoples, and reinforcing a very specific family structure that glorifies heterosexuality over all else. It did so in that particular context, and it has done so throughout history.
Not only do these codes project an image of an idealized patriarchal household, it does so with a Christological spin. Yikes.
Now, I get that those who want to talk about historical context and the situation of the community, which I myself like to do, would seek reasons for why these instructions are included. Perhaps they were a response to a particular problem in the community or were an attempt to safeguard the community from imperial rule.
But let’s be clear: historical explanations are not solutions to theological and ethical problems. Saying someone was a product of their time and leaving it at that is insufficient.
This prescription for living contradicts everything we’ve just talked about, everything the letter has talked about. Underpinning empire’s hierarchy in the name of Christ goes against a resurrection ethic, unequivocally.
And it’s even more glaring than that, because when the writer talks about putting to death various things, he or she includes abusive language. Things like malice and slander and lying.
But abusive language is also sanitized ways of talking and thinking that serve to make a culture of violence and death appear normal. And acceptable. And when Christ’s name is included to give it an appearance of piety, it is idolatrous language. It is heretical. It is blasphemy. It is serving the empire. That is taking the Lord’s name in vain.
We cannot reconcile the baptismal language of radically transformed lives in Christ with the household code’s language of accommodation and subordination.
SO THEN WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE HOUSEHOLD CODES?
The lectionary leaves them out completely. If you attend a lectionary-only church, you will never hear these codes said out loud. But as I said earlier, I don’t think that’s the right course of action.
So here’s an alternative.
First, we remember what we’re reading. We’re not reading the 10 Commandments. We’re not reading a gospel story. We’re not reading a prophet. We’re reading a letter.
All of scripture is human testimony of the Divine, which necessarily means that humans muck it up. We’re charming in that way.
We can see so clearly that the writer is mistaken by saying these codes are part of this resurrection ethic. But he or she can’t. For whatever reason.
And perhaps that is what we do with the household codes.
We remember that until God gets everything God wants, until the day of the Christ, until the reign of God is fully realized, there is always a possibility of dissonance.
There is always the possibility that we will strive to live so faithfully and see the world so imaginatively, and still succumb to imperial imagination in some parts of our lives. There is always the possibility that we will be unable to see clearly and readily when we are participants in violence and oppression. When we repeat the slogans of empire without thinking about how it tastes in our mouth.
It’s humbling to read that this writer can say there is no Jew and Greek in Christ! There is no free and enslaved, while in the next breath telling the enslaved to to honor their oppressors. The writer essentially says to feel in your heart that you’re free, but don’t expect anything more.
It’s humbling because it happens to us, doesn’t it? We, too, have unexamined parts of our lives that are enslaved to empire’s story. That keep empire’s death-dealing ways alive in ourselves thinking it won’t kill us. It is good for us to remember that there are places as individuals and as a church where we are either ignorant or willfully ignorant.
Consider our own church’s slogan: “Be who you are with us.” It comes from our very Disciple-y slogan: “All are welcome.” And the generic church slogan: “Come as you are.” And these are beautiful things to say and mean with our whole hearts. I’m not questioning that.
We’re not even questioning that we believe them.
However, what does need to be examined regularly through things like worship and putting to death the ways that empire has held captive our minds, is how that belief is put into practice.
In what areas of our church life, our individual life, our collective life as Christians in America, are we proclaiming a resurrection ethic, yet still reinforcing empire codes? How are we proclaiming a wide welcome but still participating in oppression? Where do we still need to learn and grow and stretch beyond our comfort zone?
This is why the stickiness of living in community with each other is so important and so sticky.
But the good news, the gospel for today, is that being a Christian takes practice, as Maya Angelou said.
So we keep showing up. We keep doing the homework. We keep coming here open-minded, open-hearted. We keep climbing into the world that God wants, that God told Moses about, that the prophets preached about, that Jesus talked about, that Jesus died for, that the early church tried to live.
We stay soft and keep letting ourselves be molded and shaped and formed by these stories. We keep trusting and respecting each other enough to tell the truth, even when it hurts.
In verse 4 of our text today, right after the writer sets the scene for us, they say, “When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory,” which sounds like a riddle, right?
But it’s a reminder that Christ is always being revealed to us. Revelation happens all the time in our lives at moments of profound transformation. And those awakenings, those realizations, are glorious.
So yes, we have room for improvement. Always. We have room to grow and learn. But when we do, even the moment that we realize we need to, God, it’s glorious.
Amen.
Your Peace Will Make Us One (Tune: Battle Hymn of the Republic) - CLICK HERE FOR LYRICS
Sharing Our Resources
There are many ways to support and resource the ministries of Azle Christian Church. You can give online on our website, on Venmo, or in the offering plate as the deacons come by during our final song.
Invitation
If you’d like to become a member of this faith community, or if you’d like to become a disciple of Jesus, please talk with me after service or sometime this week.
Benediction:
Please rise in body or spirit for our benediction, the final song, and the Doxology.
Our benediction for this series is from Colossians 3:
May the word of Christ live in us richly.
And whatever we do,
Whether in speech or in action,
May we do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
Giving thanks to God.
Amen.
Now Thank We All Our God - 715 (v 1 & 3)
Doxology