Ninth Sunday after Pentecost—July 25, 2010 Worship Report
Colossians 2:6-15
“Rooted in Christ”
Pastor John C. Wohlrabe, Jr., Th.D.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The text for our message today is the Epistle lesson read a few minutes ago from Colossians 2:6-15.
Friends of Jesus and Friends of Mine: Several weeks ago, Geneseo had a fairly severe storm that involved winds of over 70 miles an hour ripping through our area. The result was a number of broken limbs, and even a few trees that were uprooted and blown over. On North Street, just west of the City Park, one tree was blown against a house. There were probably many others that were blown over. Even this past Friday evening, there were broken limbs throughout the town, perhaps also some fallen trees from another storm.
The roots of trees are amazing. How well a tree is able to stand against wind depends on the nature of its roots. In trees, roots normally grow both down and out. Like an iceberg which has an incredible mass beneath the surface of the ocean, a sturdy tree can have a greater amount of roots beneath the ground than the amount of tree trunk and limbs above the ground. When a tree is firmly rooted, it is well established and stands firm even in the worst of storms. When a tree’s root system do not go down deep enough or out far enough, they can be toppled in strong winds. Yet, roots do more than just give trees stability against fierce storms. An extensive root system also absorbs water and nutrients and then stores those nutrients for the tree. The health of a tree depends much on the extent of its root system.
In our text for today, the Apostle Paul reminds us that we are rooted and built up in Christ. We are established in the faith – faith in Jesus Christ. Like a sturdy tree stands rooted firmly in good soil, so are we rooted, built up and established in Christ. Paul tells us that this begins at our Baptism. The truly wondrous miracle of Baptism has set you solidly on the foundation of Christ.
The complexity or simplicity of something isn’t always the best measure of its true value. Sometimes the very simple has great power and impact. The Gettysburg Address, for example, contains only 266 words. Yet it has inspired millions to greater enthusiasm for liberty and the rights of others. The Lord’s Prayer contains only 56 words. Yet it summarizes all for which we need to pray.
In Baptism, not counting the name of the one being baptized and the word “Amen,” there are only 18 words used. Baptismal certificates aren’t very elaborate either. Baptism is so simple, applying water we say “I baptize you in name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Yet, “Baptism is not simple water only, but it is the water comprehended in God’s command and connected with God’s word.” Baptism unites us with our Lord Jesus Christ in a very special way. In our Baptism, God takes the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus, and makes them our own.
Baptism sets us solidly on the foundation of Jesus Christ, rooting us in him, connecting us to all that Jesus is and does. Paul reminds us that in Jesus Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily. That means that Jesus is true God who became a man. God did this so that as both God and man, Jesus could die for our sins. He took our place, suffering the just wrath of God over our sinful rebellion. Jesus also rose from the grave so that the record of our debt, the list of our sins, would be cancelled, nailed to the cross and wiped clean. Jesus triumphed over sin, death, and the devil at the cross and the empty tomb. He has disarmed Satan and all his evil angels so that they have no real power over us. As simple and yet incomprehensible as this may seem, we receive the fullness of Christ Jesus in our Baptism, all that he is and all that he does for us.
Before Baptism, we were dead in trespasses and sins. Can someone who is dead choose to come to life? If I was to have a heart attack this very moment and collapse here in the church, but my brain was still functioning, could I decide to come back to life on my own? No! I would need one of you to perform CPR on me to get my heart going again, to get me breathing again. So it is with our spiritual death. We can’t decide or choose to come to new life in Christ. Instead the Holy Spirit works this new life in us through God’s Word in Baptism.
What do you do with something that is dead? You bury it, right? And that is exactly what God did with us. He took our spiritually dead nature and buried it. But he didn’t use earth. He dug no tomb. He used the water of Holy Baptism, by which each one of us was united with the death and burial of God’s own Son. United with Jesus in his death, we are also united with Jesus in his resurrection. We were dead, but now we are alive again in Christ!
Years ago, in the wide open spaces of the Wild West, a little girl was baptized. The next day at school her friends asked her why she was baptized. The young girl said, “I was a little maverick out on the prairie. When I was baptized, the Jesus mark was put on me, and now everyone knows that I belong to Jesus.” The word maverick was originally a man’s name. Samuel Maverick was a Texas cattleman who for some reason did not brand his cattle. Because of that, an unbranded animal, especially a lost calf, came to be known as a maverick, and such a maverick could then become the legal property of anybody who would catch it and brand it.
We are all spiritual mavericks as we come on this human scene. We are lost as far as God is concerned, straying outside the boundaries of his ranch, far from the Father’s house and home. But out of Divine love and by the power of his Word, the Holy Spirit finds us and implants within us the precious life that we call faith. We are then rooted in Christ. When the Spirit has branded us with this mark of faith, we are no longer mavericks but children in the family and household of God.
As we walk in faith, rooted in Christ, confident that we are his through Baptism, we are warned by the Apostle Paul to beware lest we are taken “captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Paul doesn’t teach us these things as idle talk over tea and cookies, so that we’ll simply have a pleasant memory or memento when the tea party is over! He wants you to understand that you are on the front line of a real struggle.
The church at Colossae in Asia Minor had been founded by Epaphras. Through his ministry the congregation had become “rooted and built up” in the true faith in Jesus as the Christ. But their faith was under attack. Epaphras turned to his mentor, the Apostle Paul. As Paul wrote his response, he saw three areas where their faith was being put to the test. In each test, the Colossians were led to believe that something was lacking in their faith. Though they had been baptized into Jesus, their Savior, false teachers were telling them they needed more. They appealed to natural human reason, which says, “If I am to be saved, I must do something myself.”
Some were saying “you don’t know enough.” They appealed to curiosity and intellect. They contrasted their sophisticated, hidden knowledge with the simplicity of the Gospel, leading believers to wonder, “maybe the simple Gospel we’ve been taught isn’t enough.” Some were saying, “you must do certain things. Without circumcision, the right foods, and certain ceremonies at the right times, you aren’t part of the true church.” These people made their appeal to the Old Testament ceremonial laws, leading believers in Christ to wonder, “since God’s people, Israel, used to have required rituals, foods, and festivals, perhaps we must do so also in order to be saved.” Some were saying, “you don’t have the right connections. There are other spiritual authorities and powers besides Jesus Christ whom you need to contact.” Each of these errors was leading the Colossians to think something was missing in their faith. False teachers were all too willing to supply what they thought was missing. Paul had to warn them that all these apparent deficiencies in their faith are nothing but lies. Baptism into Christ gives them everything they need.
These days we are confronted with all sorts of false teachers who use every kind of media known to man, proclaiming so-called new strategies and claiming to have discovered things never before revealed. Yet, in one way or another, all these are attempts of Satan to get us to doubt the all-sufficiency of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If we think that we have an insufficient Gospel, then we will want to fill it with something else. Perhaps it will be so-called extra or superior knowledge, which is the path of secret societies, lodges, and cults that only reveal their secrets once you are shut up inside.
It’s so bizarre you wouldn’t think even Tom Cruise could fall for it, but he and his wife, Katie Holmes, and John Travolta and Kirstie Alley aren’t the only ones. Do you know anything about the Church of Scientology? It was founded in the 1950s by science fiction writer, L. Ron. Hubbard, who was once quoted as saying that the best way to make a million dollars would be to start one’s own religion. Scientology teaches that a human is actually an alien being called a Thetan, which has lived numerous past lives as an extraterrestrial but is now trapped on earth and in a body. Scientology will help one become clear of disruptive engrams and thus again become an “Operating Thetan” – all for a substantial fee and after signing a legal waiver. Scientologists claim that at least six million people worldwide, three million in the U.S., have bought in. What’s really frightening is that Scientology is just an extreme case of what entraps many times more people, precisely as St. Paul warned the Colossians. Any teaching that distracts us from Christ Jesus, no matter how much more gentle and reasonable than Scientology, can still destroy our souls.
Perhaps the false teacher will take the ritual route. Your cup will be full only when you observe certain rituals, foods, and times, or lead a sanctified life by carrying out certain distinctive habits. All such appeal to rituals and actions are religions of the law. You are doing something to save yourself.
Islam has five pillars, which every good Muslim must do to be right with their god, Allah: 1) The shahadah is a set statement normally recited in Arabic that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet; 2) Salah is the daily prayers of Islam consisting of five prayers each day. All of these prayers are recited while facing the direction of Mecca. 3) Zakat or alms-giving is the practice of charitable giving by Muslims based on accumulated wealth, and is obligatory for all who are able to do so; 4) Different types of fasting (Sawm) are required: Ritual fasting during Ramadan, fasting as compensation for repentance, and ascetic fasting. The fast is meant to allow Muslims to seek nearness to their god, to express their gratitude to and dependence on him, atone for their past sins, and to remind them of the needy; and 5) The Hajj is a pilgrimage that occurs once each year to their holy city of Mecca. Every able-bodied Muslim is obliged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime if he or she can afford it. Except for Christianity, all religions of the world are religions of the Law. You must save yourself by what you do. And there are even some Christian denominations that mistakenly impose the ritual route on their members. Yet, Christ has done it all for us.
Finally, false teachers may appeal to other spiritual powers. You must display certain charismatic gifts as proof of the Holy Spirit. Or you should contact other spiritual powers and authorities through astrology, psychics, or channeling. Wicca, paganism, and other New Age religions are filled with this type of deceptive appeal.
The Apostle Paul wanted his readers in Colossae and he wants you to know, trust and believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ “having disarmed the powers and authorities, made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Baptized in Jesus Christ, your cup is already full. Your Gospel is complete. You can’t put any more into a cup that is already overflowing. You have all God’s fullness in this One who lived in the flesh, died on a cross, and was raised from the dead for your justification. In Baptism, God circumcised you in a way that tackles your whole sinful nature, and you now have new life in him. Christ has the last word over any spiritual powers trying to take you down. You are rooted in Christ through Baptism.
One other thing about tree roots you should know. Because the roots of some trees don’t go down deep, like those of oaks, maples, or elms, those trees with shallower roots must band together so that their roots interconnect, and together they stand tall and firm. This is the case of the sequoias in Northern California. The coastal redwoods are the tallest trees on the planet with one almost 380 feet tall, and the giant sequoias near Yosemite are the largest trees on the planet, one measuring 57 feet in diameter. In the case of both types of trees, their roots do not go down as deep, but they remain standing for thousands of years because they are bound to other trees by their roots. Christ connects us to his body, the Church, where we are bound together with other believers and where he continues to feed and nourish us with his Word and Sacraments. So, when we are baptized, we are welcomed into the Church by fellow believers, all rooted together and nourished in Christ.
An old legend about Zacchaeus, the wee little man who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus, says that after his great experience of having Jesus come to his home and his coming to faith in Jesus as the Messiah, Zacchaeus would get up and leave his home early every morning. After a while his wife became curious and even a little suspicious, so one morning she followed him to see what he was up to. At the town well, she saw him fill a jug with water and carry it to a sycamore tree outside the town walls, where he poured the water on the tree’s roots. After that he gently caressed the tree and stood there a few minutes. At this point, his puzzled but relieved wife came out of hiding and asked, “Zacchaeus, what are you doing?” He simply answered: “My darling, this is the tree that enabled me to see Jesus.”
RFor most of us that tree, which enabled us to see Jesus, is the church. Here you are rooted in Christ through Baptism. Here you are nourished and fed with God’s Word and our Lord’s Holy Supper. Here your cup overflows in Christ. “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught…” Amen.