Jesus Christ Cosmic Superstar

Hey everybody. This January 15th posting is dedicated to any of you who told me you check my blog over the Christmas break. My quasi-resolution of the year is to post at least once a month, by the fifteenth, thanks to Mrs. Robin Balhman. So, Robin, here's to you!

What I've posted here is a slightly adjusted version of my preaching assignment for second year. I preached in class today and I think my content was a little too much for the 9-11 minutes I was given. I knew that going in to the preparation, but it was something that was interesting to me so I just did it anyway.

I'll start with the disclaimer that this might seem a little crazy to some, and I think that it's not so important that everyone has to care, I just happen to be really fascinated by it.
comments welcome!

Anchor Text:

Colossians 1:15-17 He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or powers, or rulers, or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.

• Questions I want to answer
• What the heck does this mean, with emphasis on vs. 17?
• Questions about the Poetic Language, what do we do with it?
• These verses are one of the most debated passages of scripture, because of the poetic language, understanding the proper interpretation is difficult. Whats the theological significance.
• Looking at the other instances when scripture is talking about the word, word of truth, worship in spirit and truth, hope that springs from love, by grace, etc. We believe this, because it’s in the bible, but can we grab hold of it and know what it looks like? And how does that affect our lives?
• Two options: (both can be true)
  
• this is beautiful speech about a beautiful God to be taken as a symbolic message to be written upon our hearts and understood by our spirit
• or it is possible to understand these terms in a literal sense:
• Our tools are Science (quantum physics, metaphysics, etc.) paired with knowledge of the kingdom that we get from scripture. So our understanding of the physical world paired with our understanding of God’s kingdom reality.
• These verses support this kind of thinking—Paul references the Heaven and Earth as well as the visible and invisible creation.
• These concepts might be thought of first as opposites but here Paul is bringing them together, as a whole united under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, not as a dichotomy of opposing significance but as a unified pair.
• Dual characteristics of a singular reality that is under Jesus
• We are not to divide our worlds lives into separate spheres. Spiritual/material, religious/secular, etc. integrated life with the spirit.
• Example 2: A physical substance creating a spiritual reality or state of being. Vs. 20 “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross”
• Peace is created through the blood, which was shed- not through the act of the shedding of the blood, but the physical blood itself is said to create peace, which is an idea or concept that exists in the Spirit
• Supported by science as well: What the Bleep do We Know, a film about quantum physics, spirituality, etc. a scientist days, “the most solid thing you can say about all this insubstantial matter (nucleus of an atom) is that it’s more like a thought—it’s like a concentrated bit of information. What makes up things are not things, but what makes up things are ideas, concepts, and information.”
• God spoke the world into existence
• It has to be this way: We believe in transportation, the power of the life and death in the tongue (proverbs 18:21) Why does this work?
• Double science of the spirit and physical interacting.
• We believe in transportation, so,
• The visible and invisible are not separate; God has to have created a way for this to happen in the physical world.
• We believe the tongue has the power of life and death, so
• Words, ideas, concepts declared, like Bill answered me in class, become spirit, when they are in the heart of God.
• Spirit has force to act on the world, visible and invisible.
• Mr. Emoto’s experiment –water, thought, word, musical, vibration energy. http://www.life-enthusiast.com/twilight/research_emoto.htm
• John G Lake talks about the spirit as a substance, that when we pray for people a spirit substance is transferred from person to person—there are still laws in the spirit

• So, if maybe it is possible to dissect a concept like truth or peace in the physical world-- let’s go back to the scripture, thinking about the possibilities of understanding the visible and invisible working together when it’s talking about Jesus—vs. 17
• I think this passage opens up a door to understanding Jesus in a deeper way, in two contexts

• (1) JESUS THE MAN, who we already know from scripture
• (2) Jesus the Logos Word of God—as the CONCEPT of truth revealed within creation.
• Examples of Jesus the man being identified in spiritual terms:
• He does not only say, I am Jesus, born of Mary and of God. He says…
• John 14:6 I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the father except through me.
• John 8:58 “Before Abraham was born, I am”
• John 1: 1-3, 14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
• Logos---the spoken word of God, Jesus Christ
• We can see that Jesus identity is established with him as a physical man and also as a spiritual something—to better understand one or the other, we have to have knowledge of both.
• Paul and John presented Jesus this way on purpose: Comparing Colossians and John
• Colossians and the book of John written in relatively close proximity to each other—maybe 20-30 year difference.
• Written to the province of Asia. So we can assume that the same threads of thought were existing among the people who would be reading these scriptures—
• In response to Early Gnosticism: saying Jesus can’t be man and Spirit as one, because all material is evil, among others
  
• To a gentile population, with a background of pagan religions, and experience with a spirituality separate from the God of Israel
• These authors were appealing to a spiritual experience that their readers could relate to and from there, they go on to declare that this spiritual reality of truth that they perceive is in fact Lord Jesus.
• A person could be experiencing the truth of Jesus and not perceive it as such. In fact, with the levels of truth contained in the physical world, it is very easy to come to messed up conclusions about the truth if you don’t know God or have an understanding of the Kingdom.
• EX: We are all Gods, The universe is God, Truth is subjective to each person
• So why should we care?
• Understanding Jesus in these dual contexts can be a tool for evangelism: In understanding how this is possible—Jesus as a man and a revelation of truth in creation, we can help clarify for unbelievers his identity and their salvation and redemption.
• This is the “how” of the kingdom, it’s a faith builder for me personally. It shows us why the gospel works and that God functions within the systems he’s created, visible and invisible. It helps cement in my heart the identity of Jesus and the purposes of God.
• Something doesn’t have to be explainable to be true, but finding an explanation can be a different way of ‘seeing’ in the spirit.
• After you’ve seen something yourself, it is confirmed in your heart and your faith grows.
• In class, Judy Franklin referenced point zero energy that is within the smallest known part of an atom—very powerful and concentrated energy. What would it mean to think about that energy Jesus Christ himself? Is this heresy? Ah!
• So, when we find ourselves asking, ‘yeah but what does it mean?” lets remember that it is possible to delve into the answers taking into account both the physical and the spiritual worlds and sciences. That understanding both together lends to a better understanding of each in itself and that this is of benefit to our personal faith and also to our ability to communicate the gospel to those who are unaware of it.