Saturday, May 10, 2014

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Colossians 3:1-17

Are you familiar with the ‘facepalm?’ It usually happens when one is faced with an extremely absurd or the disappointing situation. Reading the third chapter of Colossians can do that for a lot of people. Our little portion today ends before we get to it, but if you were to continue on, the oft-quoted “no longer Greek and Jew... slave and free” section gets followed up with a list of household rules that many see to legitimize sexism and slavery (3:18-25). 
< facepalm >

So what to do with these bits? One approach might be what we have today: editing so that the difficult passage is eliminated. This might make sense in some settings, but the danger is that by ignoring the challenging bits, we might never learn what to do with them. 

A different approach is to change or finesse your understanding of scripture. A more historical-critical approach might help you to read the passage in its original context. Some might suggest that the situation of the early Christians was fraught with danger and conflict, so the household rules help us to see that they did not want social revolution affecting the spread of the Gospel. Many Christians at this time may have anticipated a quick return of Christ, so the task of overturning social mores were secondary. Perhaps verse 11 has within it the seeds of social revolution that would develop over time. 

When considering tricky issues, many Christians think about what Jesus did or might do in such a situation. This approach seems to be in line with our reading today (3:15; 3:16; 3:17). Maybe when we wrestle with difficult scripture passages or real life situations we need to take a step back and instead of using tiny proof texts we need to consider in a more broad manner our history, theology, and scriptures. Such an approach might not always yield easy, black and white answers. But when Christ is at the core of our being, we might find some peace in the midst of chaos and confusion.

  As you're going about your day consider a few questions:

- What does it mean to call scripture 'inspired?'
- How does or might the Bible inspire or guide you in your own life? 
- How should the Church handle/understand/preach on the problematic bits? 

- Matthew Kieswetter