If you attend to the Epistle reading next Sunday you will
hear St Paul extolling the risen Christ in rapt, lyrical wonder. And then he adds: It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching
everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (Col 1:28) I
think in this passage he may be quoting an early church hymn of praise. Christ, he says, is the ikon of the invisible God… the first-born of creation… before all
things… in him all things hold together… head of the body, the church…
first-born from the dead… reconciler of all in earth and heaven… and so
on. These categories, what theologians
call High Christology, I find, are too rich a diet for me at this age and stage
and trying to live meaningfully in the 21st century. I need simpler sustenance. Simplicity, I find, comes easier, along with
generous dollops of mystery, not to mention humility. We had brief discussion here some weeks ago
about personal difficulties in reciting some parts of the Creeds… the Nicene
for instance: Only Son of God, eternally
begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten not made, of one being with the Father; through him all things were
made…
I am well aware people once went to their death defending
these things. And we might add, there
are contemplative teachers of our day, including the founder of the WCCM, Fr
John Main, who similarly extol the “Cosmic Christ”. Indeed it is very ancient teaching, and is
enshrined in Orthodox spirituality where a favourite depiction of Jesus is as Christos Pantocrator, Christ in Majesty
and Power, ruling all. The final Sunday
of the liturgical year is called Christ the King – a Sunday on which, if I
could, I got someone else to preach.
There are those of us who meet him in simplicity, more easily
than in what humans deem to be majesty, complexity or power, triumph, victory or
judgement. Something in us, it may be, has
shifted, feels alienated by ecstatic praise language we never normally hear
except of pop stars and sporting icons… and suspicious of what I would call
eschatological imperialism – Jesus sitting there ruling all, judging all at the
end of time. Jesus himself taught
reticence – you go into your room and shut the door… that is, your inner room,
the room of the heart. He sought
seekers, not relentless flatterers. He
was found often enough with society’s rejects, the powerless, oppressed perhaps
by religion, the poor, the foreigner, women in subjection to patriarchy and
power, the despairing… He taught
peacemaking, healing, reconciliation, forgiving. He dared to teach, You have heard that it was said… but I say to you… Above all the Father he loved is not our
enemy, but rather a compassionate God whose love, in truth, bears all our frailty
and error.
It is he whom we
proclaim, writes Paul. We warn and we teach in wisdom… he writes, in order to present everyone mature in Christ. “Mature” in Greek
is teleios (τελειος) – it means complete, fit for purpose… I think of a shaped
and finished kauri salad bowl fresh off the craftsman’s lathe, a lovely
thing. Paul says he warns and teaches in
wisdom, seeking some such result in those who follow Christ.
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