ADVENT 2B (December 4, 2011)

This week the Advent series I chose to follow shared in Reformed Worship 101 uses Col. 1: 9-17 to 'look for the REAL Jesus'. This week we find Jesus, our King. Thanks to Sally A. Brown's blog on Working Preacher for Christ the King, Year A, 2010 for her contribution to my understanding.

This is another way of phrasing what scholars have called 'the cosmic Christ; for a very long time. The Son of God who is not only the visible image of the invisible God, above all, but is the one both through whom and for whom things were created -- including the 'powers and principalities' of the world. Christ existed before all else and is the matrix, the point of origin, of all coherence and sensibility for all created things.

To put it another way: Paul's emphasis here is not on the fall of creation or of a corrupted one, but on the claim that creation makes sense because of the Son. Period. Since the beginning of time. end of discussion.

There is a baptismal connection here as to the reality of our true identity. Is our mental image of the cosmic Christ, of King Jesus, any where near big enough? Can we allow him to do the promised work of reconciliation to bring who and what we and the whole creation are right now to the fulfillment of God's kingdom?

stone on Tara that, when a true king's foot was placed on it, cried out his name

 

queen of the rock? --  the Cloisters, Iona, Scotland

baptismal font at Lindisfarne (Holy Island), England