Paul was feeling responsible for youngsters in the faith.  He had received word that problems had popped up in the society of Christians in Colossi.  Paul had founded a number of Christian fellowships and he was aware of how factions could develop and compete, and how neophytes in the faith could misinterpret what they knew about that faith.  Paul was writing from prison in Rome. We find these words to the church in Colossians 1:15-28.

 Some of you, I am sure, follow Beetle Bailey in the Courier or other high-class publications. You may remember the scenario in which Sarge asks “Who would like to go on a secret mission?” Beetle eagerly volunteers and finds himself on KP. With his hands in the dish water he asks, “What’s so secret about this!?” And Sarge replies, “You didn’t know about it, did you?” There were those in the first century who claimed to have the secret of contact with God, but denied that Jesus Christ had any part in it.

 
Why is Paul saying that Jesus Christ always was and that he had become visible by means of human birth? He was refuting the teachings of people called Gnostics (their name came from the Greek word “Gnosis” which meant knowledge). These folks believed that all matter was evil and therefore God could NEVER have appeared in a human physical form. Their take was that this world was created by a distant emanation of God. In fact, the emanation was so far removed as to be in opposition to God. It was something like water running through a long, small pipe. The friction reduces the pressure until there may finally be a backflow as the pressure is depleted.

 
How do humans get to God? They must work their way up past all of the lesser intermediaries until they finally get closer to God. Only those who have the secret knowledge will make the ascent. They must know the passwords. So, guess who had the secrets!

 
Paul says plainly that Jesus Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. That hardly sounds like he is talking about ‘just another great teacher” as some even today continue to contend. He is indeed making a high claim when he says that Jesus Christ is the revelation of God and of true humanity.

 
We must give the Gnostics credit; they were trying to find the true relation between the inward life of human creatures and the universe. In Paul’s day, as is true today, there was a great searching for spiritual understanding and for a meaningful relationship with unseen power. The only problem was that they were barking up the wrong tree!

 
Contrary to the Gnostics, Paul is saying that the Son of God has in himself the full nature of God. Christ resembles, represents and reveals the God of creation. Jesus Christ is head of the physical world; Jesus Christ is the head of the spiritual world. In this view we are saved not “from” but “with” the material world. What God created, God saw as good. While we are made in the image of God according to the Genesis record, Jesus Christ is the image of God. We are created as persons with free will. We can either be partners with or foes of the One who created us. Is it possible as verse 22 states that we can be “holy, pure and faultless”? Yes, in God’s sight it becomes true if we allow Christ to forgive our sins and take control. Paul does not deny that we are sinful and broken but the even more important truth is stated a bit later in Colossians 2:6: “Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with him.” We can be set free from the control of sin!

 
In Paul’s understanding Jesus is the instrument by which everything was created: you, me, the farthest galaxy, the San Francisco Peaks, the Colorado River, the Pacific Ocean, meteor dust, and germs. Jesus is also the head of the church — not the Pope, not the pastor of any church, not the President of the Latter Day Saints. Not even the Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church that Pastor Tim is attending, nor the General Conference of the United Methodist Church that met ten or twelve weeks ago is the source of life for the church. Jesus Christ is the head! He has made peace between sinful humans and a holy God. What a transformation! God has accepted you as friends, Paul says. Those who had been separated and estranged have been brought near in love. Salvation comes not from some secret knowledge, but through redemption and the forgiveness of sins offered to all by an eternal God.

 
The Gnostics claim a secret available to an elite few. Paul declares the REAL SECRET is made known to ALL - “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Does this excite you? It should! Christ dwells in YOU if you have opened the door of entrance at the center of your life. We are made God’s friends not as the result of our effort, but through God’s gift. We are never left alone in the swirl of life’s problems. God has come among us, has shared our human lot and offers to be our friend along the often troubling trail.

 
A Dakotas Conference colleague writing some time back regarding a fellow clergyman, who had made a tragic moral choice, told of attending his uncle’s funeral. While there he had said to a cousin, “Your dad was a sign of hope.” He went on to explain that that uncle had left home, gone away to college, married, had even been accepted by Harvard Law School (although he had not gone) and had held a very responsible job with a large company. At some point along the way alcohol took hold of his life. He lost his job, his marriage and his family. Eventually a woman whom he had met much earlier, and who had a strong Christian faith, came back into his life. God worked through her and in the uncle’s life to bring about healing and redemption. The uncle became a model loving husband and a caring person for others. There was even some healing in the lives of those he had hurt by drinking. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

 
The Colossians are reminded that Christ was the first-born from the dead. It was now possible for many more to follow. We can overcome the last enemy, DEATH! Donald English, who happens to be English, has said, “I sometimes put it by saying: the heartbeat of the created universe is that which we have seen in Jesus Christ. His love, His self-giving, the way He liberates people, His sense of God everywhere, His way of reading life so that there is time and eternity intimately mixed up — all of this is the heartbeat of the created universe.

 Christ energizes the church with new life. At its best the church takes on the nature of the One who founded it. Sadly, the church too often has operated at its worst, driven by human selfishness, desire for power, and clouded by human ignorance. The ‘70’s which many of you remember quite clearly was a decade whose key words were personal growth, fulfillment, human potential, self-actualization and self-expression. These were good words. Unfortunately, to describe human reality we must also include: sin, estrangement, rebellion and the need for confession and repentance. A Roman Catholic seminary student could be speaking for any one of us when he said, “I’m a Christian to prevent me from being myself” I have often wondered what that “self’ would have been in my own case had I not responded to Christ’s invitation, “Come, follow me.” I ruefully admit that I have often followed afar off, but I know that the direction has been far different from what it would have been had I followed my own inclinations.

 In our society today there is a great search for meaning. Many people feel that in the grand scheme of things they just do not matter. They see no plan, no purpose and no promise as they look at the life they are living. Paul’s message, needed so badly by the Colossians, is equally needed today. What you and I need is not a religion but a relationship. That relationship is not found through angels or new age philosophies but through the person of Jesus Christ. It is true that Paul’s teaching does not make sense to the rational mind. One commentator has said, “Rational analysis cannot fathom it. But faith can appropriate it, live by it, and know its benefits.”

 
The Gnostics claimed a secret known only to the elite few.  There are still “secrets” packaged and purveyed by those who invent systems by which mortals can gain admittance to God’s presence.  We can choose the self-help circular staircase of these philosophical systems, though they have always fallen short of delivering on their promises.  OR, we can choose Paul’s secret, revealed for all people who will believe and receive “Christ in you, the hope of glory” — God’s good gift for this life and for all eternity.