You are on your own now. Your parents are probably worried about what you will think. But they are still confident—or at least pretending to be confident—that all is okay. If your college is typical, there will be little interest in religious faith and the truly deep questions in most of your classes. But there likely will be individuals and groups that will be urging one or another approach to really important issues. Some will argue (plausibly, of course) against any religious faith; others will urge an explicit kind of commitment or involvement. How do you decide?
What has Paul said so that no one will deceive you? He just reminded his readers that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are found in Christ. That is your resource. Keep Christ at the center at all times. Then you will have assured understanding because it is based on the most plausible argument ever—Jesus Christ.
Prayer: O Lord, do protect me from the deceit of dangerous arguments. Amen.
13 – To Be “In,” or Not To Be
Colossians 2:5–7 — (5) For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ. (6) As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, (7) rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
My wife spent four wonderful years at a college that sadly closed its doors some years ago. She is a graduate of a school that no longer exists. She continues to attend the occasional alumni reunions—each time with fewer participants. Like alumni of other, still-existing schools, she and her fellow grads are bound together in spirit, but the numbers dwindle. There is no longer a place to be “in,” where “roots” are put down and you are “built up” and “established.” Rather than “abounding,” diminishing seems the more operative term. (Note that in occurs eight times in this passage—especially “in spirit . . . in Christ . . . in him . . . in the faith . . . in thanksgiving.”) How important it is that there be something to be “in.” Without something to be “in,” it is hard to be.)
In contrast, beginning in the 1980s, Duke University enjoyed the prestige that an outstanding basketball program brought—winning national and conference titles. In this day of freedom and of student suspicion of discipline, members of the Duke team had to be “rooted” in the coach’s discipline and vision. He “built up” his team and “established” it as a great team by ensuring that each player did it his way. The result? The team “abounded” in success.
One group shrinks toward inevitable death; the other increases in morale and strength. In many ways, those are the options. Moments of rest, when nothing happens, are rare. You are always diminishing or growing.
The biblical passage for today represents one of those rare moments of pause. Paul applauds the Colossians for coming so far in Christ. Good work, he tells them. Relax for a moment. Remember that you have sent down roots into the Christ who has nourished you. You learned well. Relax. Enjoy.
But note the subtle warning: “Continue to live your lives in him.” This “time out” is only the briefest rest. There is serious work ahead. The cosmic Christ is being challenged on all sides. You have done well so far; it’s soon time to push ahead.
Prayer: Thank you for the promise and the equipment for growing strong and rich in the faith. Amen.
14 – Warning: Intellectual Hijackers
Colossians 2:8–10 — (8) 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. (9) For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, (10) and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.
Once I saw a large banner suspended from windows above a pedestrian walkway on the campus of a major university. It read: “Jesus Christ, Lord of the Universe.” I wondered if those who had hung the banner could make the less audacious claim: “Jesus Christ, Lord of the university”? Has it occurred to you that he is the Lord of the university? Have you questioned how he might be Lord of the university? Or even if he might be Lord over a department, or even over some individual teacher or just even a student . . . like you?
Or is the university so powerful that Jesus Christ cannot be its Lord? If that is the case, it sounds like the university may be one of those “powers” that Scripture mentions. God has ordained the “powers” for our benefit. For instance, government is an institution that provides services, protection, assistance. But we know that government occasionally gets off track and fails to provide for the people. It can lose its vocation and do really bad things—the execution of Jesus, the Holocaust, apartheid.
The problem with philosophy is that it is limited by the ability and perspective of the people who do it. That is the problem with human tradition—it is, well, human.
There is no doubt that philosophy is a powerful tool, useful in thinking about deep matters. Justin Martyr, a second-century Christian, argued that Christianity was in fact the best philosophy. St. Thomas Aquinas in the 1300s used the philosophical system of Aristotle to organize and express what Christians believed they knew about God. For such serious and thoughtful Christians philosophy was an excellent tool. For Justin it was of great help in defending the faith in the face of hostile and powerful foes. For Aquinas it was of help in organizing the faith, always provided that the center and the supreme authority was God. So, philosophy? Just be sure that Christ is at the center of what you do with it.
Prayer: Free me from loving my own thoughts and let me love you so passionately that I can think clearly. Amen.
15 – When in Trouble, Check the Cross
Colossians 2:11–14 — (11) In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; (12) when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. (13) And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, (14) erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.
Have you ever been in trouble? Really BIG trouble? Do you remember how it feels to be “on the carpet” in front of your parents for a really big boo-boo? Or in front of the school principal? Or when you got a traffic ticket? Take all those scared, guilty, embarrassed feelings, multiply by a gazillion, and imagine yourself really guilty of every bad thing you ever did and imagine having done them to God who has called you into court on the charges.
Paul uses a legal metaphor to describe your pre-faith and post-belief situations. Then you were doomed—in huge trouble with little hope of escape. Now, after the baptism of faith in Christ, you are alive. The charges—whatever they were—are taken care of in Jesus’ death on the cross.
Another way to describe the same transformation of your life is to use another package of terminology and narrative. Before you were a member of the kingdom of darkness. Then you were cut off from the dominion of darkness, from untruth. This is in the Jewish language of “circumcision,” using the term metaphorically, with reference to the cutting off of Jesus’ life in his death on the cross. Your “baptism” follows the model of death and burial in Christ. The result of either way of