Rev. Dr. Les Martin

Pentecost+8 2025
Rev. Dr. Les Martin
Colossians 2:6-15

Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world – Colossians 2:8, NLT

In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Anglican bishop and scholar NT Wright would have us realize that we have reached the key point of Paul’s letter.  He writes:

Verses 6 and 7 sum up the centre of what Paul wants to say. Everything that’s come so far…prepares for this. Everything that’s going to come after this leads on from it.

So, let’s hear those 2 verses again:

Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Col. 2:6-7, NET)

There it is.  The main point of the letter, and of our lives in Jesus Christ.  In the past few weeks, we’ve kind of already said as much.  Last week, Fr. Doug reminded us that:

The mystery of all creation has been revealed to us. It is not a math formula. It is not the secret to wealth. It is not great power. It is Jesus. He has come to reconcile all things to God.

Jesus has come to us, been given to us.  And how are we to live as a result?  Back in our first sermon, Dr. Graham put it this way:

Our ordinary posture is one of simply hearing and receiving.  I’m sorry, that’s it.

Having received Jesus and now united to him in baptism with all our transgressions forgiven, we are to simply- as verse 6 says- live our lives in him.  Which leads us to two questions this morning: Why can’t my sermon stop here?  Why doesn’t Paul’s letter stop here?  Because we refuse to believe that’s it! If we are honest, many of us- if not all of us- really believe that it must be harder than this.  More must be required.  As Tullian Tchividjian writes in One Way Love:

We conclude that it was God’s blood, sweat, and tears that got us in, but that it’s our blood, sweat, and tears that keep us in.

More must be required. It can’t be that simple, that easy.  Our history and theology are littered with a multitude of attempts to fill in the gaps in what verses 6 and 7 say, to add to the truth, and thus be able to do what it “really takes” to be saved.  We are given “just Jesus,” and invariably turn it into “Jesus + something else that is needed.”

Now, this is not a new problem.  It was a problem in the Colossian church as well.  In verse 8, Paul warns them not to be deceived, captivated, robbed and ripped off by empty, deceitful- and yet persuasive- philosophies, folk tales, and competing spiritual traditions.

We’re not really sure what “Jesus + system” the Colossians were buying into. There is the Law with it’s moralism and works, of course, that perennial temptation, but it seems that they were flirting with more than just that.  Some have suggested Phrygian mystery religions, others Gnosticism, others that they were picking up the ascetic and spiritual practices of the Ebionites.  Maybe it was simply the Greek worldview.  We don’t really know, and in some sense, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is, they were tempted by the belief that more is required- that they needed “Jesus +,” as opposed to being rooted in the faith they were taught.

Solomon may have been wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before him, but that didn’t make him immune to this approach.   In our reading today, he highlights his pursuit of first wisdom and then pleasure to improve his life. Elsewhere in his story- for example in 1 Kings 11- we learn of his indulgence in idolatry and witchcraft, as he explored the false religions of his foreign wives.

It seems to me that these are the 3 common alternatives to being firm in a “Just Jesus” faith:  First, the pursuit of extra knowledge, or Gnosticism, secondly, a focus on pleasure to make our lives more palatable, or Hedonism, and lastly, occult, magical, or pagan practices, which when you get down to it, are really all techniques of control.

And so today we have Jesus + Stoicism or Marxism, or Jungian psychology.  Jesus + the American dream or recreational drugs or sexual libertinism.  Jesus + shamans, or psychedelic retreats or the Prosperity Gospel.  Even Jesus as just one of many gods.  You can add your own examples, beloved, because they are legion.  It’s not just the Colossians who add something extra to the faith they have received; it’s us too, right here in 2025.

But what does this really get us? What is the result of all these extracurricular additions to the faith?  Solomon tells us he is studying both wisdom and pleasure to try and make sense of the meaning of human life under the sun. Spelled S-U-N. Why? Because, he says, human life is “an unhappy business.” But what he finds is this: the more our wisdom about life and the human predicament increases, the more our sorrow does as well. It’s the same with pleasure- and it goes without saying that his idolatrous and occult practices lead to the same end, if not not much worse. In Chapter 2, verse 11 he writes:

Behold, all was vanity and striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. (Ecc. 2:11b, ESV)

Let’s clarify this a bit- while idolatry, witchcraft and all other forms of spiritual control are always a dangerous dead-end- it’s not the case that knowledge per se or rightly ordered pleasures are bad.  God has given us minds and intellects to use, and living in the 21st-century, we see the value of that. For me personally, the life of the mind is a great joy. It’s the same with pleasure. Provided it stays within appropriate limits of use, and within our moral and ethical boundaries, it’s a good thing.

God gave us creation to enjoy. No, the problem Solomon is running into is something other than knowledge and pleasure being bad in and of themselves. See, he’s looking for all this wisdom and all this pleasure to have a greater purpose. Specifically, he’s looking for it to give meaning to existence, to provide some framework that makes sense of human life, toil and suffering.  And that’s the category error, because nothing under the sun (S-U-N) can do that.

No philosophical system, earned degree, or even conspiracy theory can offer a compelling account of why the innocent suffer. We may enjoy the fruit of our modern economy, industry and technology, but no amount of hard work, number of vacations, no 401(k), not even our vaunted medical system can address the ultimate futility of merely human life. We may eat, drink, and be merry-we may build bigger barns- but inevitably strife, suffering, sickness, and death await. In the end, it all amounts to chasing after the wind. Nothing in our lives will change this, indeed nothing in all creation. The answer we seek must come extra nos (from outside of ourselves).

As Christians, we do not live merely under the sun. (S-U-N), we also live and move and have our being under the Son, spelled (S-O-N).  Jesus Christ, the loving and personal organizing principle of creation, is that answer to our dilemma that comes extra nos. Jesus- and our life in him- is what truly delivers us from futility and chasing after the wind. That’s what Paul is trying to get the Colossians- and the people of Saint Brendan’s- to understand today.

In verses 7 and 8, he urges us to turn away from empty philosophies, human reasoning, high sounding nonsense, and esoteric systems, instead trusting in the truth we have received. 

In verses 9-13, he reminds us that no mere human ritual or works of the Law are the answer to our dilemma. It may be the case that humanity left to itself is dead in its sin, however, the solution lies not in anything we can do about it, but in what comes to us extra nos.  In baptism, our transgressions, and sinful nature are canceled through union with Christ.  The old Adam is buried, the old heart is circumcised, and we are- even now, in this life – alive with Christ.  There is simply nothing within humanity’s grasp that could possibly accomplish that.

Verses 14 and 15 speak the last word concerning spiritual entities, occult practices, and even the Law. The fact of the matter is this: when the charges against us were taken by Our Lord to the Cross, when he cried out “It is finished,” the power of these things over us was finished as well.  No condemnation, no subjection to hostile forces, no need to seek help from some other spiritual force need remain.  Their impotence and shame is our victory- we need pay them no more attention at all.

So often we muddle along in this vale of tears, living lives of futility and chasing after the wind- life under the S-U-N.  We forget all too easily that ours is a life lived under the S-O-N, united to him in baptism, rooted in his person, work, and love.

We may say “I know Christ is King, but…” and then substitute some other politics or philosophy, sucked from the fruit which our grandparents picked in the Garden. Gnosticism.  Higher knowledge than the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Or, “I know what Jesus taught, but…” and then flip over to some lesser way of seeking to bring ourselves joy.  Hedonism.  Putting pleasure in the place that belongs to life in Christ. 

Or perhaps, “I know that my sins are forgiven, my present and future are secure, but…” and then seek spiritual power and security either from our own works, or from some spirituality alien to our God and faith. Idolatry, witchcraft.  Seeking power, control, and safety somewhere other than in the blood of the Cross.

When the moment of our testing comes, whatever comes after that “but” in the sentence shows what our hearts really trust in. Whenever there is such a “but,” we are engaging in a “Jesus +” kind of life. Paul is urging us not to be captive to those “buts” and the competing ideologies they represent.  “Just Jesus,” he is urging, not “Jesus +”  We are complete through our union with Christ, who is the only authority we have or will ever need. In the words of 1 Corinthians, Christ crucified may be “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,” but we know and trust that he is in fact “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1:23-24, NET).  Or, as Brennan Manning, once put it:

Grace is enough. He is enough. Jesus is enough.

Let’s end where we started, with verses 6 and 7 again:

Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Col. 2:6-7, NET)