Don't be taken captive through philosophy and empty deceit.....

 PROPER 12 (17)  Seventh Sunday after Pentecost   Year C  July 24, 2022

·       Hosea 1:2-10 and Psalm 85   •   Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)  •   Luke 11:1-13

 

We are a people who live in a physical world and most of our life is concerned with physical things.  Being at church means that we have a belief in God and something that is beyond the physical… something spiritual.

 

I’ve heard people, who don’t believe in God, say that they don’t believe in the “big fairy in the sky”.  They relegate the story of our faith to a fable – old wives’ tale.  Although these ones refuse to believe in God, they often believe in Ghosts and even believe in spirits.

 

Today I want to look at the message in Colossians where it says, “see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to christ.”

 

We are those who DO believe in a spiritual realm, because God is spirit. 

 

I did a quick search on the “elemental spirits of the universe” mentioned in the verse above, and discovered that these are Earth, Water, Air and Fire.  These are physical elements, but my searched revealed a belief that there is an Archangel set over each element and spirits that belong to each.  This information came from an article that explained this as folklore, but this was not fairy tales, but a real belief about the spiritual world and how it works and influences the physical, natural world. My guess is that this was a common knowledge and belief with the Colossians also.

 

It may well be true that there are Archangels in charge of the elements of our world.  There are scriptures to support this such as Daniel Chapter 10, where an Angel visits Daniel, but explains that he was delayed because the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted him for 21 days, until Michael, one of the chief princes, (or Archangel’s) came to help him.

 

What this tells us, is that there is a spiritual battle going on in the spiritual realm, which then has an impact on our physical world.  And that delay experienced in the book of Daniel, also perhaps, begins to give an answer to the age-old question, “Why are my prayers not answered?”

 

There is indeed a spiritual realm and a spiritual reality.  Somewhere, way back in time, God gave human kind a choice.  Humankind chose the wrong side. There is a spiritual reality that began in the garden of Eden when a choice was made to accept the words of the serpent.

 

Spiritually, we chose the wrong side.  Our scriptures tell us that we were then subject to a law of sin and death.  It was the spiritual consequence of our choice. Our reading from Hosea gives us a picture of what it is like for God.  Humankind is like Gomer, the unfaithful wife.  According to the law of that time, she should be put to death for her sin, but Hosea (who is a picture of God), has great and deep love for Gomer and constantly calls his wife back.  We notice that Hosea is hurt and lets his wife go and declares that her children are not loved and not his.  But that is not the end of the story.  The end of the reading declares that where it was said “not my people”, they will be called “children of the living God”.

 

God, with his deep love and goodness, takes his faithless people back to himself because, though they are unfaithful, HIS love is steadfast, unchanging, unconditional and faithful.

 

Colossians tells us that in Jesus the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily”.  Jesus is the righteousness of God.  All of his nature is righteous and good – without sin.  God’s nature is to be just and perfect. We, as a community, as a nation, as a society, and even individually, are simply as unfaithful as Israel who was compared to Hosea’s wife. 

 

None of us could deny that, under normal circumstances, Justice quite understandably, requires that those who have erred should make restitution… but how can you “make it up to God”.  We who are human will only fall again.  We pray to God and want to be God’s people when we need something, but we also want to please ourselves, and go our own way more often than not.  When things are going well, we tend to forget about God.  So, how can we realistically, ever come into a wholesome and right relationship with God?

 

Righteousness and peace meet in the person of Jesus.  Jesus suffered and died as a human.  He was both fully God and fully human.  He represented both parties, God and us.  More than that, he made restitution for us because only he could.  He satisfied the need for justice and brought peace for us with God.

 

Colossians goes on to explain this further by explaining that we were buried with him in baptism, we were also raised with him….God made us alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands.

 

We say words like “Jesus died to save us”, but we don’t always comprehend the magnitude and the completeness… or how it all works.  All our trespasses, our failings, whether past or future, are erased.  The spiritual legal demands for justice have been satisfied through Jesus.  There is nothing standing in the way of our relationship with God. Our prayers need not be hindered.

 

It was once explained to me this way…

Due to the righteous and Just nature of God, on one side, and our fallen nature, the reality on the other side, we humans were subject to a law of sin and death… separation from God.  But through Jesus there is another law, that of grace.  These two laws operate like two laws with which we are familiar, gravity and aerodynamics, which is how aeroplanes are able to fly.  In our own strength we can do nothing to win eternal life… and the law of sin and death is operating over our lives, much like gravity.  But if we get on board with Jesus, we step into the law of grace, much like aerodynamics.  Gravity is a reality, and is always there but the law of aerodynamics supersedes that law.

 

Because we belong to God, we want to please him and do what is right, but it is important to remember that these things we do, are never a measure of our holiness or an indication of our place in God.  The Colossians had this problem, because every religion had practises concerning food and ceremony.  The Pharisees of Jesus time were slaves to the traditions and ceremonies of religion.  It is pretty clear that these people saw themselves as holy because of the actions of their religion.  We need to fully understand what Christ achieved, so that we don’t make the same mistake.

 

The essence of the Christian message, is that the only thing necessary, is to accept the sacrifice of Christ and to identify as his by faith, through baptism. 

 

Prayer was also one of the ways that many religions thought they could have control over the spiritual realm.  Many would have rote prayers.  They believed if they repeated these a certain number of times they could be absolved from their sins or have prayers answered.  Occasionally these kinds of ideas still pop up on facebook and there will be a post that is passed from person to person, promising special blessing if you will only say this specific prayer.

 

 

When Jesus came, he made it clear that what God wanted, was not these actions, traditions & ceremonies, but to be in a relationship with us.  God has done everything possible to achieve this.  He gave us free will, but we turned to our own way.  God’s people turned away from Him over and over again, and he continued to call them back.

 

He sent Jesus to satisfy the need for justice… to make a way… to appease every spiritual authority.  When we, as a human race, chose our own way, we unwittingly became followers of Satan and under his legal authority.  This is why we read in Colossians that Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities – it is referring to the spiritual authorities and powers that have a spiritual legal right to influence our lives.  When Jesus was tempted in the desert, we read that Satan offered him the authority over the kingdoms and he stated; ““I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ….””

 

 

The sacrifice of Jesus bought us back - We now belong to God and He who is in us, is greater than he who is in the world.  The spiritual legal requirements are dealt with, and nothing need keep us from the love of God. 

 

While we are on this earth and in this fleshly body, we are limited and we find it hard to realize the love of God.  We sometimes feel distant from God.  The good gift that God the father gives us is the gift of himself within us.  It is the final piece of the story.  The Key! Without the Holy Spirit, we will always try to work out our faith by traditions, hard work and ceremonies.  Colossians tells us, “therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”           

 

If we don’t want to make the mistakes of the Pharisees, we need to operate in the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 8:15 tells us that the Spirit causes us to cry out, “Abba, Father”…. It is a personal, close and loving term and it is the Holy Spirit that enables this.   It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us to pray, who intercedes, knowing both our heart and the mind of God.

 

With the Holy Spirit we have help in prayer, but we also have a teacher and guide who will lead us into all truth.  Rather than being led astray into working for our salvation by following rules and false beliefs we can rejoice in the truth of our completed salvation, spiritual freedom and victory through the sacrifice of Jesus, and rejoice in the reliable, constant call of God’s unconditional love which will be forever calling us to be his beloved.