Tuesday, November 22, 2022  

Today’s Scripture Reading
Colossians 1:11–20

May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He 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. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. (NRSV)

Reflection

“For in Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” Do we realize what this really means? I had a rabbi colleague at a college where I worked who began the classes he would teach with a question: “If God were to walk in this classroom right now, what would you do?” The students would sit in silence, mostly, and then a brave one, almost certainly, would say, “I would get the heck out of here.” And the rabbi would just chuckle, because the student caught the edge of the question. If God the creator of stars and galaxies and lobster and fingernails came into the room, wouldn’t that Presence send any of us running? Yes, the one who could call out the fakes and call in the humble . . . God, who knows all, sees all, is all, would be just plain overwhelming to us. So here in this verse we hear that in Christ the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

I love the word pleased. Just the idea that it was so pleasing to have God’s fullness so readily available is quite comforting. The joy of a relationship with Jesus is that we are brought into relationship with God, who longs for us to do so. In relationship with Jesus, we find ourselves known to the core and loved for the uniquely created being we are, and we are brought forth as a very, very special child of the highest.

In the Jesus house (that is church) we can bask in the acceptance by God, not by what we do but simply by our baptism’s naming us as a child of God. And after all of our associations with the one, Jesus, with whom the fullness of God was so glad to dwell, we get to the tough stuff of faith—like caring for neighbors with whom we disagree and being angry at injustice and proclaiming that God is really at work in this world and carrying the burden of another because it is simply too hard for them to do so. And that is also the fullness of God seen in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Can you see it? Can you feel it? You know what? You also may just be another place where a measure of the fullness of God is coming to dwell. Are you ready?

Prayer

Ready us as you to come into our lives, O God, with thankful hearts, attentive minds, and open spirits. Amen.

Written by Lucy Forster-Smith, Senior Associate Pastor for Leadership Development and Adult Education

Reflection and prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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