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The M3 - Monday Morning Mail for the Last Sunday in the Church Year
"Jesus Holds Everything Together"
Yesterday's sermon focused on verse 17 of Colossians 1: "And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." I used the album Disintegration and its first song "Plainsong" to hone in on the realty that life is disintegrating before our very eyes. The Cure's lyrics in the song talks about standing at the edge of the world, everything so cold and dark, like being dead. Life on this side of heaven moves towards death as a result of the curse in Genesis 3:17. I then gave the example of OJ Simpson. I listed his amazing accomplishments, climbing out of the ghettos of San Francisco, going to its community college, and eventually on to The University of South California, winning so many aways there and into his NFL playing career. He had climb to the top. I then showed an image of the Ford Bronco he drove, when he was trying to escape from the police after the discovery of the murders of his girlfriend and another friend. His life had completely disintegrated, sinning tearing it apart bit by bit. The point: if it can happen to him, it reminds us that we, too, suffer uner the curse. Our lives may be falling apart–disintegrating–in some ways or maybe in many. Even our bodies eventually fall apart, something with which we know first-hand in many cases. Paul's understanding of the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension teaches us that he holds it all together. His bodily resurrection confirms it. We live in faith with this promise, looking forward to the day of the new creation, when all of this will be made real!