Bible reading: Colossians 1:3-14.

Message.

In about 1895, a teacher at Munich’s Luitpold Gymnasium or High School allegedly wrote this comment in a teenager’s report: “This boy will never amount to anything”. Whether this is true I don’t know, as the boy was already a proficient pianist and violinist and an outstanding mathematician, the master of differential calculus. Perhaps he wasn’t so able in other subjects; or perhaps the teacher couldn’t understand a lad who didn’t easily fit into the rigid German education system.

But this boy grew up to be one of the most significant physicists in history, in fact he changed the way we view the universe. Within 10 years he had completed his doctorate; within 20 he was holding down a prestigious university position. And we’ve all seen pictures of him, with his dreamy eyes, his unkempt hair and his shaggy moustache: for that boy was Albert Einstein. His thinking would lead to the nuclear age and modern astronomy; mathematicians and scientists such as Stephen Hawking and Brian Cox are indebted to his memory.

I wonder what our school reports were like? Did we nervously hand sealed envelopes to our parents, fearful of what they might read (or did we surreptitiously open, read and reseal them on our way home from school)? These days reports, which are required by law, must follow certain guidelines and be comprehensive: for instance an online website with tips for good report writing tells teachers to make sure that every statement they make includes four elements: the child’s achievement and success, evidence of that success, the targets they need to work towards in the future, and the resources which will help them to hit those targets. I have to say that, when our grandson’s report came home a couple of weeks ago, my son was so pleased and proud that he rang us up and read out the whole thing!

Paul’s words to the Colossian Christians sound very much like a report on the church, don’t they? For we not only read about how well they are doing, but of Paul’s hopes for their future. And it’s not the only such report in the New Testament: the so-called “letters to the seven churches” in Revelation – which weren’t of course written by Paul – are other examples (and at times are quite damning!). We’ll be looking at what Paul wrote in a moment; but we first need some background.

So let’s talk about Colossae, a city in the Roman province of Asia Minor, the southwest corner of modern-day Turkey. This was a place which had seen better days (we can all think of Welsh towns like that): having once been an important commercial centre, famous for its cloth, it was now losing out to nearby Laodicea. Both cities were destroyed by earthquakes in AD17 and AD60. Colossae was rebuilt but never regained its earlier importance; by AD 400 it had ceased to exist.

Let’s talk, too, about the “book” of Colossians which is really, like so many parts of the New Testament, a letter. You need to know two things about it: first that it (together with Ephesians, Philippians and Philemon) was written by Paul from prison in Ephesus or Rome; and second that Paul had neither started nor visited the church to which it was penned. In fact we don’t know how this church had begun, the book of Acts doesn’t tell us: it’s quite possible that the Gospel message was taken to Colossae by Christians who had been converted during Paul’s two-year stint in nearby Ephesus. What we do know is that Paul’s colleague Epaphras had been instrumental in building up this new church, and that it was he who brought news about it to Paul. In response, Paul wrote this letter to confront two major issues that the Colossian church was facing: the infiltration of teachers who were peddling false images of Jesus, and sheer survival during the reign of the cruel Emperor Nero. I’ll come back to these next week.

So what does Paul say? Well, like the advice on report-writing I mentioned earlier, he begins by where the church’s progress and situation – at, of course, second hand, based on what he has heard from Epaphras and, perhaps, other contacts. And he is full of praise: this is a church which clearly has built up a good reputation during the short time it has been in existence. It is a church, too, which is strong on the essentials of Christianity: faith in Jesus and love among its members. This contrasts with the shallow or lukewarm faith which characterised some of the other early churches; and with the party factions, lawsuits and frivolity which so bedevilled the Corinthian church. The Colossian Christians were strong on the basics, and also on the hope of heaven, which gave them impetus to keep going.

And there’s more: we are told that “the gospel is spreading throughout the world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard about the grace of God”. These people weren’t reticent or embarrassed about their faith, even though it must have appeared strange to many of their neighbours; in fact they were so convinced of the blessings brought by the Gospel that they needed no encouragement to pass it on. Evangelism was something that came to them naturally. As I’ve already said, this church was doing well.

But Paul did not want his readers to become self-satisfied or to rest on their laurels. Oh no: he wanted them to go further, and he sets some high aspirations before them. He wants them to be “filled with the knowledge of God’s will, with all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives” – this will give them the wisdom they need “to live as the Lord wants and always do what pleases him” – which wasn’t necessarily easy in a hostile society with values that were far removed from Christian ones. Paul also wants to see the Colossians living out their faith in practical ways, by doing “all kinds of good deeds” which will doubtless be observed by the wider community. Finally he wants them to keep deepening their understanding or knowledge of God as this will make them strong, able to endure the many challenges that they will inevitably face, with patience and joy. That’s quite a list! I wonder if any of us have ever prayed in similar terms for this church? My guess is that we haven’t; perhaps we should.

Paul was writing nearly two thousand years ago. I wonder what he might say if he was around today and writing to Christchurch? I hope that he wouldn’t feel that he had to say what Fr Brennan, the priest of the Holy Family Catholic church in Coventry said as he stepped down from his role – you may have read this in the paper:

“The righteous, the clique, the worthy,

the disdainful look given, the thought you’re in my seat,

the unfriendly, so that the stranger remains so.

Gossip flows from holy lips,

a hobby to talk about so and so, you know?

A mix of disgruntled, unlikeable,

entitled offended, who don’t want to know.

Better than you, holier too,

tutting for a living, whispering about you know who …

The words of love conveniently ignored”.

And that’s just part of what he wrote – strong words indeed!

Let’s draw to a close by thinking what Paul might say if he was writing to us today. We’ve all heard the responses you’ve written: hopefully there are things he would praise but also areas where he might well have put, “Can do better if they try”; areas of strength and areas of weakness. We also might want to think of the targets he – or, rather, Jesus – might want to set us: no church can stay the same year after year. Perhaps our next year together (by which I mean September to July) might be one where we start doing some things a bit differently – not for the sake of it, but because God wants us to.

I started by talking about school reports. I honestly can’t remember much about mine, which were nothing like as detailed as today’s, except for two things. One was the single word comment made by the French teacher when I was 15: “Trying”. (Think about it). The other was the comment which the Headmaster seemed to put at the end of almost every report (and there were over 1000 of them): “Persevere”. That became a bit of a joke among us but, looking back, it wasn’t a bad thing to write. For Christians and their churches, it might be the very best advice we could be given.