By the Will of God
Colossians 1:1-14
NO 07/15/07 EW

That Important Salutation

Paul starts off his letters to the Colossians like this, “From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…”  These are words that we can use as a modern day mantra as Christians.  I believe that it is vital that we understand that even though we were not one of those original disciples called by Jesus we, like Paul, are called to be Christians by the will of God.  By the Will of God!

Somewhere along the way, perhaps as far back as the fourth century, we decided that we are Christians because we decided to be.  We changed how we behaved and decided to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and thus we are suddenly Christians.  If our hope rests in our making the crucial decisions about what we are to be about as Christians then we are a most hopeless people.  As long as we hold onto any of the vestiges of it’s what we do that makes the difference we are still wondering around in the desert looking for manna to satisfy our hunger.  As long as we think the story is about us is exactly how long we will search for but not find the Promised Land.

The Story is about God and God’s Will.

Ask Paul About God’s Will

Paul was a man assured of salvation.  He was a rabbi of the first order.  He knew the law and he knew how to argue his point.  Paul was religious.  He was well versed in the scriptures.  He understood that there would come a day when the Messiah would rule on this earth.  Paul knew about the Exodus, Abraham, Moses, the King and Prophets and how God had provided them to help the Chosen People keep on the right road of obedience.  All our evidence describes Paul being a mover and shaker in his religious community.  He was what we would label today as “highly successful.”

He obviously knew about Jesus and his little band of heretics.  I don’t know that Paul ever personally heard Jesus or saw him preaching and teaching but there is no doubt that he knew of him.  He was aware of the anxiety within his religious tradition concerning the growth of this new cult that was gathering in homes and catacombs.

            Paul Sets Out to do God’s Will

Paul and others have written about how Paul strikes out as a good Pharisee to do God’s will by doing away with this young cult.  He is given authority to arrest and imprison those who were accepting the teachings of Jesus.  He even participated in stoning Stephen to death.  He did this all to be about God’s Will.

                        Doing God’s Will

Over the centuries religious traditions have gotten caught up in defining and then doing God’s Will.  The inquisition is an example of an attempt to cleanse the church of those who were not true Christians.  The dunking of witches and killing them was another attempt to do God’s will.  Today, it is getting rid of homosexuals and persons that we have defined as people whose sins are an abomination to God as if there is sin that is not an abomination to God.  We are constantly attempting to get it right by doing God’s will.

I am convinced that one of the human drives in life is to do God’s will whether we know God’s will or not.  We can choose a good cause and say that’s it.  We can find scriptural passages that will justify our decisions.  We can gather large numbers of followers who agree with us.  But I’m convinced that we are terribly dangerous when we decide God’s will.

                                    Paul Discovers God’s Will

Paul moved from believing he was doing God’s will to doing God’s will.  This is similar to one moving from knowing about God to knowing God.  Paul met Jesus on the Damascus Road.  He then was introduced by Ananias to those who would teach him what he needed to know.  This was personal experience by Paul but it was not Paul’s experience by himself.  He had to have others to help him discern the will of God.  Once his eyes were opened they saw more than a successful young religious man on a mission for what he thought was God’s will.

Prayer Is Central

Paul shares with that new church that they are to pray and they are being prayed for continually.  Paul, Timothy, Epaphras and others were praying for the Church in Colosse these things:

            For God to Fill Them

Notice, Paul does not tell them how to act or even what to believe.  He is not telling them anything about what they should or should not do.  Paul tells them what they are doing for them and what they want God to do for them.  Paul is not going to fill them and he does not want them filling themselves.  Paul, and others, is praying that God will fill that church family.  God will do the filling!

                        Fill them with Knowledge of God’s Will

We need to ask others to pray for us for the same thing.  We need to pray for knowledge of God’s will but we also need to have those outside our walls praying for us.

                                    Human Tendency to Have It Our Way

The danger in our doing all the praying is that we can also come to the conclusions we desire to come to.  Back in the days of the Lay Witness Movement a group at North Wood understood that I needed all the prayer they could muster.  They, like me, prayed for very specific desires that appeared to be what is needed.  Now, I have no difficulty with people praying and praying for specific results.  I did have difficulty with them having a notebook and on one side of the page there was the prayer and the other side how it was answered.  God answered every single one of their prayers exactly as requested -- I have a problem with that plus they would never let me see my pages.

                                                            Gathered Discernment

I am convinced that one of the things we need in our church family is what I call, “Gathered Discernment.”  It is where we come together and share what we believe God has placed in our heart.  It is out of that sharing that we can learn to discern what the will of God is and our will is that we call the will of God.  Even at our best there will be mistakes and in this discernment process there is no room for, “See, I told you so. 

We need folks who pray a lot to be praying that we are filled with the knowledge of God’s will.

            Filled with Spiritual Wisdom and Understanding

Boy, Paul lays it on the line with these early men and women who are following our Lord.  He wants them to be filled with Knowledge of God’s Will of Spiritual Wisdom and Understanding.  I bet that those new Christians wondered what Paul was talking about in this letter.  At the same time, I would bet that they had this deep rumbling in their hearts that set them afire for listening to God.  You know, we get filled with half-baked ideas and then call them God’s will and after the bottom falls out we wonder what happened.  We wonder how come God let us down.  We quit.

Paul is laying his ministry on the line here like, as Terry reminded us, Jesus did at the tomb of Lazarus.  Paul tells these folks that they can continue to grow in the Good News and the world around them is also responding with growth.  But he wants them to be filled with God’s Spiritual Wisdom and Understanding for a purpose.

Transformed Lives

Paul wants God’s involvement so that the lives of the church family, the church itself, and the community will be able to produce the fruits of living that will be pleasing to God.  Paul is telling them, and us, that God tills the soil, God plants the crop, God provides everything it takes for the fruit to grow and be pleasing, and then God desires for us to Give back to God what already belongs to God.  God will transform us into what God wants us to be.

            Upside Down

This is upside down from how I was raised.  I was taught that if I would be good enough I would be acceptable to God.  Now, I don’t have anything against being good.  I don’t have any difficulty with piety other than I never seem to be able to live what it calls for.  I honestly think we should all be as good as we are capable of being.  But I want you to know that scripturally this is not the process.  The scriptural process begins with God and ends with God.

Conclusion

Listen to these words of Paul, “He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  Some versions say, “He Rescued Us…”  We did not rescue ourselves.  We are not capable of rescuing ourselves.  It is through God’s redeeming Grace that we are saved rather than by our good works.

What’s the difference?  Why do we need to believe anything?  I don’t know but I believe that it makes a difference that we know Jesus as our Savior.  For me it is not a heaven and hell issue but an issue of how I will live life today.  Believing that the Story is About God, God’s coming to earth as a redeeming act, God’s power over evil and death, God deep drive for every person to bask in the love of God all has to do with how I live life today and how I relate to God, neighbor and self.

It will be By the Will of God rather than our will that salvation will be a surprise to many or even most or all.  It will be By the Will of God rather than our will that people living in misery and aloneness will be reached out to with love and acceptance.  When our will becomes God’s will we will surely please God and others will surely know of that Kingdom that is built with hands other than human. 

Pray that God’s will will be known by each of us and we will follow God’s Way!