In Dependence
Our world is in a perpetual state of conflict, a state of war. From the microscopic level where our bodies have to fight off germs and viruses, to nature where we see one species after another fighting to preserve its existence, all the way up to our interpersonal conflicts and especially actual wars between nations. The war in Ukraine continues and has the world walking on egg shells hoping it doesn’t expand into a wider conflict.
This is not new. Everything is in a state of conflict because of the reality of sin in the world. The world is not in harmony with itself because it is in bondage...the bondage of sin (all of Romans really, but particularly 8:19-21). And sin is essentially a human problem that has filtered down into the entire natural system (Romans 5:12-14). According to Genesis 1 and 2 we were created as the pinnacle of creation and given charge over all of creation by God. We were made to be the stewards of creation and so what happens to us directly impacts the world over which we were given dominion. Everything is interconnected…it’s what is called symbiosis in biology. Nothing is truly independent…everything exists in relationship to something else. So, when we broke our relationship with God the rest of creation automatically broke with us. As we often say here at Dandelion sin is essentially a rejection of relationship, a rejection of needing anyone or anything else, that desire for autonomy (being a law unto oneself), a desire to be God, to be in control, to always look out for “numero uno.” We don’t believe symbiosis is real even though we see the effects our decisions have on the world around us every day from the personal level with how you affect those around you to the global level with plastic filling up our oceans as one example. We try to reject dependence on God and interdependence with the world around us for our own independence. And it’s a pipe dream. Independence doesn’t exist.
This is a strange thing to say this week as we remember and celebrate our Independence Day as a nation. Independence is in our blood as Americans. It’s part of our DNA, our identity as a country. But the independence we hold to so dearly in the United States of America is limited and qualified. This too is widely evident as we see the tension that exists between our individual liberties and the welfare of the nation. It can be felt when considering your neighbor down the street or when you head out to the polls to vote. Our celebration of the 4th of July carries this tension inherently as we remember the founders of our nation who sacrificed so much to ensure these liberties for all who could come after them. Personal sacrifice...a laying down of personal independence in service to and for the sake of the freedom of others.
I have been on a David McCullough kick lately and have read three of his books in relatively close succession, 1776, John Adams, and Truman...two are Pulitzer Prize winners, all best sellers, and all of them excellent. They are from very different periods of our country’s history, following different men called to lead in very different contexts. 1776 focuses in on George Washington and the Revolution’s early struggles as he fought to birth our nation...the hardest struggle happened right here in New York! John Adams follows his life as a patriot through the Revolution and beyond, highlighting his struggle to define and preserve our very young nation as its second President. Truman watches this high school educated farmer and WWI vet climb the ranks of politics to Vice President under FDR. After FDR dies, Harry Truman is thrust into the role of Commander in Chief in WWII and is faced with the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Wildly different times, yet there is a continuous thread through them all. Each person was carrying the great weight of pursuing and preserving liberty at great personal cost to themselves, not to mention the lives of all of those they commanded and put in harm’s way for the greater cause of freedom.
Christianity, the faith of all three men mentioned above by the way, is very clear that pure independence is not actual freedom. In fact, it is more a symptom of the problem rather than freedom...that broken desire to be autonomous. Our real hope is being dependent.
Paul drives this point home to the Colossians and us that we are dependent on Jesus Christ...whether we believe in him or not (1:15-23). Jesus is supreme, and to prove it, Paul goes all the way back to the beginning. He tells us that everything was made by Jesus. “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” (16). Paul wants us to see that there is no one above Jesus. There is no one and no thing greater than Him, especially we humans. That’s why he gives us the full scope of existence…all things…“in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.” Then he lists every kind of power you could possibly imagine: “thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.” Jesus is over all of it. And then Paul tells us that Jesus has an invested interest in all of it. “All things were created through him and FOR him.” This world and everything in it, including and especially you, belongs to him. We are his stuff. And he cares about what happens to his stuff.
Our girls are very into Legos. They each have their own sets, many sets as a matter of fact...too many quite possibly...and the reality of ownership has become a big deal to them. They both like to play with each other and with each other’s different Lego sets, but they are also very clear on which Legos belong to whom, and whenever something is happening with their particular Lego set that they don’t like you hear about it. They let you know. I was exactly the same. I loved Legos as a kid and had tons of them, and I also had two little siblings. I remember more than once spending hours building my elaborate Lego sets and then leaving them in my room as I went off to school only to come back and discover that my little brother had gotten into my room and “played with them,” which actually meant he destroyed them. It made me furious and sad. Those were my Legos. I had worked really hard on creating them, and no one had the right to take them apart or break them other than me. Just like my girls, I was jealous of my Legos. Paul is telling us that this whole world, this whole universe, belongs to Jesus. He made it and everything in it...again especially you...and he is jealous for it and you too.
If you didn’t already have one…your picture of Jesus should be very big right now. Paul leaves no question about who Jesus is here. He is God. He is the Alpha and the Omega. As Paul says, “he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (17). He is the supreme ruler over all things…preeminent. That’s good news for us because even in this broken, conflicted, war-torn world Jesus still holds things together. Even when we think we can and should be independent and we try to gain our independence at the expense of others and the world around us…we are still completely dependent on Him whether we like it or not. He holds all of us together. He does not allow us all to simply implode. He has not let our sin and all the resulting wars bring us to extinction. Like I always did with my Legos, He promises to rebuild what was destroyed (Rev. 21:5).
That’s where Paul goes with this amazing description of Jesus. He doesn’t just leave it in the abstract…the kind of huge metaphysical and universal level. Paul wants us to hear how Jesus uses all of that power, why being dependent on him is such good news. Jesus uses all of his supremacy to save us. He does the opposite of what we have done. Where our actions have resulted in a world in war and conflict, Jesus has come to bring peace (Luke 2:14). He has come to put an end to this every-man-and-woman-for-themselves way of life. He has come to bring reconciliation between warring parties…most specifically to reconcile all things to himself (Col. 1:19-20). He wants his creation to be restored. He wants to recreate it, to rebuild what has been torn down, to heal what has been broken. He wants us back in relationship with him and uses all of his power and authority to this end.
But he does it in such a surprising way. He takes all that power and authority, all that supremacy, that true independence that only belongs to God…and gives it up, he gives up his rights for our sake. As Paul tells us, “he makes peace through the blood of his cross” (20). Jesus emptied himself. He gave himself up. Personal sacrifice, a laying down of personal independence in service to and for the sake of the freedom of others. Instead of coming and demanding obedience from the people he created, instead of coming and asserting himself by a show of force against us, the perpetrators, Jesus comes and suffers for us. He comes and takes the perceived weaker position, as Paul says in another of his letters by taking on the form of humanity (Phil. 2:1-11) . He becomes one of us, and he does not stop there. He gives up his own life to save us. He takes the blame for our rejection of God. He takes the blame for our hatred of each other. He takes the blame for our inability to love, he takes the punishment and dies. He suffers as the ultimate casualty of this great war that we started, so that we might have peace. Peace with Him, peace with each other, and peace with all of creation. Reconciliation.
Jesus, the Son of God, in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell reconciled us to himself by crossing over enemy lines. He did this through shedding his own blood on the cross to cover over our sin. And he rose again from the grave defeating sin, death, and the devil once for all.
We have peace and freedom because we know that God loves us because of Jesus. Even when we don’t feel much peace or feel very free in our day, even when we still experience the conflict in us and around us, we know that Jesus has ended the war for us. The grave was empty, and so we have hope…THE Hope. We have hope of a new future, a peaceful future. We have hope for the day when he will return and what he accomplished on the cross will be experienced in its fullness in heaven and on earth. We have a taste of it now because we get to experience the love of God right now. Jesus has shown God’s great self-giving, unconditional, free love to us. We can know his love and pleasure through Jesus, and we can experience reconciliation with each other too. Because Jesus has won for us forgiveness of our sin, we can actually let go of our need to survive, trying to take what we can for ourselves to be independent. Instead, we can actually forgive one another. When we realize our dependence on him…our interdependence with each other can be restored. Our conflicts, which still do happen right now, do not have to end in someone’s death or in the death of a relationship. We can say we’re sorry. We can give up our rights like Jesus did, and forgive one another. We can actually know love right now because of Jesus. He has reconciled us to himself and us to each other. Our war is over. Amen.
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