Sunday 13th July 2025
Amos 7: 7-17
Psalm 82
Colossians 1: 1-14
St. Luke 10: 25-37
“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.”
Colossians 1: 13-14
If you live in North Bay or the area and you’re watching a hockey game on TV, which team are you rooting for?… The long-suffering Toronto Maple Leafs? The Ottawa Senators?… I know a certain parish treasurer who will remain nameless – most of the time he roots for the Leafs, but he’s okay for the Senators win a few games too… Or maybe you’d like to keep it local, and you’re in the stands for all the home games of the North Bay Battalions…
Maybe we’ll never be good enough to make the 3 million 491 thousand dollars, which was the average salary of professional NHL hockey players last season, but we might lace up skates ourselves for a friendly neighbourhood competition…
Maybe we have a loyalty to another team, like the Blue Jays, or the Toronto Argonauts; or maybe we’re passionate about who wins the Brier this year in curling…
As we know, many professional players are traded, and so they change their loyalties, from one team to another…
There is something about belonging to a team, or cheering for “our” team (the team from our region), which inflames our passions, and our loyalties… It’s no bad thing, to have a sense of belonging… To be a Christian is to belong to Christ’s Church… Belonging is good, so long as (as the Third Letter of John warns us) we aren’t so concerned about the purity of our group, that we don’t give other people a chance to belong…
Today’s second lesson is from the beginning of Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. Paul is evidently thankful for how the Church in Colossae is growing. Then, St. Paul uses this image of Christians having a transferred loyalty, from the powers of darkness to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. We have a transferred loyalty…
“(God the Father) 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 (vv. 13-14).”
Hmm… This “transferred loyalty” isn’t just for sports teams. Paul is writing something profound about belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ. Our loyalties have been transferred…
What have we been transferred from? What was our previous allegiance?… Paul writes plainly that we previously belonged to the “power of darkness…” “Light” and “darkness” are common images in the New Testament (especially in John)… Light and darkness contrast the way of Jesus Christ, with the priorities of a fallen world…
The power of darkness is wide-ranging: The power of darkness includes excessive self-centredness to addictions to horrendous spiritual evil. As part of our baptismal vows, you and I renounce whatever is against God’s good purposes… As Christians, we are called to move decisively to a new team (as it were). We choose to live as disciples of Jesus Christ, through thick and thin…
We are to care about our own spiritual well-being. The Lord Jesus has harsh words for people who have a timber in their own eye, while pointing out the splinter someone else is carrying at the moment!… However, to care about our own spiritual well-being includes caring for others, and their spiritual well-being…
Even within parts of the Christian Church today, there seem to be people who aren’t concerned very much with the spiritual welfare of people around us, with their own appetites and idols… Yet, if someone around us is stumbling around in the darkness, it isn’t loving just to leave them alone to struggle!…
If we aren’t doing this already, I encourage each one of us to pray for specific people that we know, that their eyes would become open to the Light which outshines all the darkness… We pray fervently for them. And, we pray for opportunities and for courage, so God can use us, to help others, in ways which are gracious and life-giving…
Part of the good news is that God wants us to belong to the spiritual team or family membership of the universal Church. Jesus Christ formed a community, so that we might walk together in the light…
If belonging to this community of the Church family matters to God, it ought to matter to us as well! (Let’s keep in mind, other denominations or local churches are not competing for another team; we’re all part of the same team… The “power of darkness” are the idols of a broken world…)
In Colossians 1: 13, St. Paul expects that our loyalties have been transferred, from darkness, to light…
What does this look like in practice?… How do we live in such a way that our way of life becomes more and more beautiful?…
Here are 3 qualities of life, which are part of being transferred to the kingdom of God the Son… Verse 4: “We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus.” Even in jail, Paul has heard about the Colossians’ deep faith in Jesus. Paul is profoundly thankful…
“We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love that you have for all the saints (v. 4)” For the New Testament Church, “saints” referred to the entire Christian congregation… St. Paul begins this letter by addressing it “to the saints…” So, when Paul is thankful for the Colossians’ “love for all the saints,” that’s another way of writing, their deep love for every single person in the Christian community… A healthy parish is one in which there are many diverse people gathered together in the bonds of love… One of the signs of this transformed loyalty to Christ is the deep love we have for one another…
Next, St. Paul mentions that the Colossians are “bearing fruit:”
You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God (vv. 4b-6).
“Spiritual fruit” is sometimes used as a picture or a metaphor for God’s growing priorities within us. One of my prayers for us all is that we won’t stay the same… Just as fruit grows to maturity on a fruit tree over time, we can learn to become more loving; more patient; more humble; more joy-full; and so on… God has given us a lifetime to draw ever closer to him. Like the Christians in Colossae, may spiritual fruit grow in our lives over time…
Being transferred to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son means that we need to carry faith; and love for all the saints – a broad, supernatural love; and, that the fruit of God’s Spirit would grow in our lives day by day…
Paul begins his letter by giving thanks to God. May we have the same gratitude that by faith we have been transferred, from an old way of living in darkness. However clumsy or uncertain we are at times, as we dare to believe, God has done something wonderful: We have been transferred to the kingdom of his Son, Jesus Christ. (We want all people to have the same opportunity, if they so choose…)
May we exhibit in our lives the gifts of faith, and a love for all – even those we might find it challenging to love. May the fruit of God’s priorities grow more and more in our lives, in the power of the Holy Spirit; now and for ever. Amen…