When All Is Said and Done
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Sunday Scripture Reading: Colossians 4:2-6 (NRSV)
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. 3 At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, 4 so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should. Read more…
Looking to Sunday: Preparing to Hear From God
by Elaine Poproski
Before I look ahead to Sunday, I’d like to make a recommendation out of last Sunday. As you are aware, last Sunday we arrived at that part of Paul’s letter to the Colossians in which, among other things, wives are instructed to be subject to their husbands. Verses like this have proven troubling for the Church for a long time. But the troubling verses aren’t just about women’s place in the home, they’re also about women’s place in the local church. There are some who understand Scripture to suggest that women are not permitted to serve in some specific roles in the church (such as preaching or teaching men). There are others, myself included, who read those same Scripture passages and yet believe that women and men are equally called and gifted to serve in any capacity in the church. I bring this up because very recently the Meeting House completed a 6-week teaching series around this whole question of women in the church and I think it is well worth listening to. I haven’t listened to the whole series, but I did listen to my friend Leanne’s sermon from February 17 based on the challenging text from Ephesian 5. I also listened to the podcast discussion with Dr. Cindy Westfall, who discussed her relatively recently published book titled, Paul and Gender. The podcast is nearly 2 hours long, but it’s well worth the listen. If you’re still thinking about or questioning the place of women in the church, or if you simply want to be better prepared to answer those who want to limit women’s role in the church, this series from the Meeting House is definitely worth diving into.
Now, looking to this Sunday…
Sunday marks the end of our journey through Colossians. We’ll be considering Paul’s final words. His request for prayer and his concern for how the Christians interact with the non-Christians with whom they come into contact day-to-day. Up to this point in the letter, Paul has primarily been concerned with his readers’ interactions with each other as well as reminding them what Jesus did for them. Do you remember the words from Colossians 1:13-14?
He [God] has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Such beautiful words! Everything Paul has to say about the church and how Christians are to engage with each other rests in this spectacular rescue, this redemption, this reconciliation with our Creator that Jesus made possible. Paul is never solely concerned with those who are already Christians. After all, his own unique commission is to share the gospel with Gentiles who don’t know anything about the Hebrew God or the Jewish Messiah named Jesus. These verses at the end of his letter to the Colossians, though they’re succinct, make it abundantly clear that the church was never intended to be a closed system; its edges are permeable and porous. “Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders,” he thus writes, “making the most of the time. Let your speech be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:5-6).
As you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to take some time to think about how you interact with people outside the church. How do you interact with those servers and cashiers, those bus drivers and passengers, those janitors and security guards with whom you may only have the briefest of conversations in a day? Do you pay attention to these interactions? Would might it look like for these momentary interactions to honour Christ? Is such a thing even possible?