Growing in the Fullness in Christ - Col 2: 6-19

The following story was shared with me by a pastor who served a three-point charge in Perth Australia: While serving a three point charge in Perth that was attempting to merge, the pastor was noticing tension. A lot more tension then that which normally accompanies something as stressful and emotion filled as a merger. The perishners were fighting with each other about everything. So one day, at an ad-council meeting for the charge, the pastor shifted the focus of the conversation from those things that were going wrong to what the church was doing right. He asked each person to take out a slip of paper and write down the name of someone they spiritually admired, someone who mentored them in the ways of Christ. Out of the thirty slips of paper collected, only five names were mentioned. Some of the people mentioned weren’t even a committee member or Sunday school teacher. No, these people were the pillars of the community, those who had raised and continued to raise people up to fullness in Christ. The pastor went on to ask each person to write how the person they mentioned encouraged them to grow into their own spiritual fullness, and the list was endless. These five beautiful individuals showed that there was no set way to encourage people, no set way to grow with God, or magic formula to apply. Instead, growing in Christ was done through authentic relationships. After that meeting, the tune of the merger started to change. By recognizing the model of their spiritual mentors that each person identified at that meeting, the people realized how foolishly they had been acting. By looking at the lives of those who had helped them grow, they committed to love others like that person had loved them in their own way. Relationships began to be intentionally healed, and the merger eventually happened smoothly.

The Colossians had seen the light. Paul had come to them, taught them about Jesus, and they received the message. Then Paul left. And like the Galatians, the Colossians began to be swayed from the truth of Paul’s message by the rules and philosophical rhetoric of other people coming to the area. The human systems and ways of thinking that they were being taught were contrary to what Paul had previously taught them, and without his presence in the community to disarm these new teachings, some of the Colossians began to wander down the road that opposed the teachings of Christ. In other words, caught between two messages, the Colossians began to stagnate.

And here we enter the story of the Colossians in today’s scripture passage. Paul is passionately trying to remind the Colossians of the fullness of Christ and his death and resurrection. No other teaching was needed. And no other teaching brought the reliability of its completeness. What Paul states about the lives that are lived in Jesus, “rooted and built up in him, established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” is both a present reality and something to be grown into. Another mirror of the Kin(g)dom of God – here and now and not yet, at the same time.

Like any other person in this situation, the Colossians seemed to be okay with the here and now. It was the not yet that caused the problems. Especially since the here and now, is so dependent on the future. Plagued by questions and doubts about the assurance of the teachings and sacrifice of Christ, they were captivated by the teaching brought in by the philosophers that had rules – a spiritual checklist if you will, to make sure that they were putting feet to what they believed now in order to make sure that they meet God when they die. For this new teaching, the power lied with each person to “do it right”. Paul wanted to turn to Colossians back to the Christ that lived inside of each of them, not a list of more things to do or giving into an authority other than their Savior. For Christ conquered all of the sins of the Colossians, and no rituals can forgive them any more then the complete forgiveness they have already received. And Christ conquered the ways and power of all other rulers, as he “disarmed them and made a public example of them, triumphing over them.”

Christ victorious in the past, now, and in the future. There was no need to try to have a back up plan that involved turning to other earthly authorities with their rituals and laws or demi-Gods, because Christ rules over all of them, whether they realize it or not.

At the heart of Paul’s message is the question – how do I know I am spiritually growing in Christ? And oh how we struggle with this question today. We live in a culture that tells us to look to just about anything other than God for assurance for the present and the future. We are told to work hard to play hard. And that God is just a card we have in our back pocket for when things get really bad, along with our rabbits foot and self-help book. But stock markets crash, we no longer seem all that lucky, and we find that all of our empty prayers and rituals weren’t really a strong relationship with God after all. We didn’t have anyone to look up to in the faith. Anyone who could show us that we needed to embrace the Holy Spirit that lives in each of us in order to grow. No one to guide us in discovering our own unique brand of spirituality. And we had not mentored anyone else to knowing God.

When people are approaching the end of their lives, they often do not say that they wish that they had worked harder, spent less time pursuing a relationship with God, less time with those who mentored them in the faith, less time mentoring their own friends and family. No they crave the relationships that they now hold dear, for they will only be around a few minutes, hours, days later.

Just like our relationships with people, our relationship with God cannot grow if it is not nurtured. And like any other relationship there is no end point when you can say, ‘that’s it our relationship is perfect, there is no need to grow anymore.’ As Untied Methodists we believe that we are growing in our relationship with Christ towards entire sanctification – which is a fancy way of saying that there is more still to come, more still to grow into. John Wesley believed that entire sanctification could only take place right before death or after death when we are united with Christ. But knowing that this form of relationship was in the future was not to stop us from growing fully in Christ now. It is just a different type of fullness. The difference between a long distance relationship and getting to spend time with the person you love, face to face. Our faith is now like breathing, completely natural and without thinking. We are so centered in Christ that it is not something to be worked for, but experienced in all of its simplicity. Christ is our only joy and we no longer feel any temptations to sin.

In the words of John Wesley, entire sanctification was “the loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. This implies that no wrong temper, none contrary to love, remains in the soul; and that all the thoughts, words, and actions are governed by pure love.” In other words its holiness. And like any relationship we can not say, ‘that’s it were as holy as we can get.’

The frustrating thing for task-oriented people is that Paul’s question to us today, “how do I know that I am really spiritually growing in Christ” cannot be answered by a set of tasks. And for relationship-oriented people, Paul’s question is equally hard in a world full of many relationships, some of which distract us from our growth in Christ. But instead of throwing up our hands in defeat or turning to a teaching that appeals to our human desire for tangible assurance now in order to take away the need for faith in the future, maybe the answer can be found in the example of the church from Australia. Maybe personal growth can comes through identifying the person or persons who have mentored us in life, and trying to live by their example of entering into encouraging, engaging and authentic relationships that model growing into the fullness of Christ. That show us that there is no formula to apply in order to grow that is universal, for God has created us to be unique and to grow in unique ways. May God give us this day eyes to see ourselves as God sees us and to recognize those people who have mentored us, ears to hear the call of the Kin(g)dom in its present and future form, and hands to reach out and mentor others in the faith as we have been mentored ourselves. And maybe most importantly, lips that say Thank You. Thank You to God for allowing us to grow spiritually in different ways. Thank You to those who mentor us. And Thank You to the Colossians for reminding us that we are not alone in any struggle that we may have concerning assurance and spiritual growth. Let us keep moving further and deeper in our relationships with each other and Christ, as we pursue that time when we can “love God is all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.” Amen.