July 20 | Pentecost 6, Year C
Amos 8:1-12 or Genesis 18:1-10a
Psalm 52 or Psalm 15
Colossians 1:15-28
Luke 10:38-42
We pride ourselves on our independence and how we have made our lives secure. We are well insured, have excellent health coverage, fine pension programs, and good jobs. Yet there is a thirst at the center of our being. When in solitude, we ask the meaningful questions of life, and those questions always seem to hang in an answerless silence. Our problem is that we have allowed our search for security to crowd out God—the One with the answers. We have made ourselves deaf to the Word of God.
Real living comes not from the things we possess or consume, but from the source of life—God. As he spoke creation into being, God speaks life into our lives. Jesus is the Word of God.
St. Paul presents us with an amazingly complete summary of who Jesus really is in his letter to the Colossians. Here is his catalog of attributes:
Image of the invisible God: As the image of God, Jesus is the revelation of God’s nature to the world.
Firstborn of all creation: Jesus being the firstborn of all creation does not mean that he was created first, for he is uncreated, but rather that he is the primogenitor or heir of all things.
Creator of all things: Because Jesus was the Creator, all things were created by him and for him—everything belongs to him.
Sustainer of all things: Jesus as the incarnate Son of God also is the One who keeps all creation in existence.
Head of the Church: Christ is the head of the Church because it does his work in this world according to his will.
The beginning: As the Son of God and the Creator, Jesus Christ is the Alpha, the beginning of all things, because he is before anything was.
Victor over death: By defeating death through the Resurrection, Jesus lives eternally and therefore is the Omega—the Last.
Temple of God: Because Jesus is the Incarnation of God, he is the dwelling place of God, which is God’s Temple—the Temple in Jerusalem was no longer needed and has never been rebuilt.
Reconciler of all things: Through his death on the cross of Calvary, Jesus took on our sin and gave us his righteousness so that we through faith in his sacrifice can be reconciled to God—and, along with us, all creation.
High Priest: Jesus is also our High Priest in that he presents the faithful to God.
Our hope: Jesus is the promised hope—he is our Savior and through faith in him we can realize the promise of being God’s people and of God being faithful to us—eternally.
St. Paul’s catalogue of Jesus’ attributes demonstrates that Jesus is God and there is no other. No one else manifests all these attributes. No man, no angel, not even God the Father. No one but Jesus fulfills the categories of being divine and human, human and sinless, sinless and sin-bearer, necessary for our salvation.
But there is even more. St. Paul’s catalog of attributes also demonstrates that Jesus is sovereign over every aspect of this life in this world. And because of that he eliminates the dualism between the spiritual and the natural and the sacred and the secular. There is no compartmentalization in the life and ministry of Jesus, so there can be no legitimate compartmentalization in the lives of his followers.
Read It: John 14:6-7
Think About It: Jesus is the only way to the Father. To know God, we must know Jesus as he has revealed himself.
The Rev. Dr. Chuck Alley, former rector of St. Matthew’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, teaches anatomy at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School.
