Opening Address

Micasa Hotel Apartments, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Friday, 14 June 2002

by Jason Wee

If there is a distinction between true love and the kind of love that can only engender suffering and despair, the same can be said of faith. There is a kind of faith that sustains us and continues to give us strength and joy. Then there is the kind of faith that may disappear one morning or one evening and leave us completely lonely and lost.

When you have faith, you have the impression that you have the truth, you have insight, you know the path to follow, to take. And that is why you are a happy person. But is it a real path, or just the clinging to a set of beliefs? These are two different things.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

The Colossian congregation, in its 'steadfast' faith and outlook of love towards 'all the saints', i.e., fellow believers, was much commended by Paul for ever greater 'wisdom and spiritual understanding' (1:9). This young Christian community never directly communicated with Paul before this letter, only through a proxy missionary named Epaphras. Yet it was clear from the letter that this is church 'which is obedient to the apostolic gospel'. This despite the many difficulties that may well have been potential obstacles, such as:

An economic slump. In his book The Education Of Cyrus, Xenophon called Colossae an 'inhabited city, prosperous and large'; three centuries later, in the time of the Gospels, Colossae was but a town, eclipsed by its wealthier neighbour (2:1), Laodicea. Its prosperity is evident in Revelations, where the Laodicean church is personified as saying 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing' (Rev. 3:17). By Paul's time, Laodicea became the seat of the judicial district of Cibrya. Colossae, on the other hand, became Smallville.

An inglorious past, where they had 'hostile minds' (1:21) towards God and his truth, 'wicked works', and persistent 'disobedience' (3:6), 'in which you yourselves once walked' (3:7). They had lived a life by ignoring the truth (Eph 4:18) for the easier comforts of insolent sensualities (Eph 4:19), blithely reasoning away the difficult pursuit of goodness by distancing themselves ('alienated' 1:21) from any associations with God.

A young faith. Paul reassures the church more than once that the faith that they received is the same that he was called to preach (1:6, 1:23, 2:5-6). The Colossians did not inherit an inferior, corrupted, or heretical gospel, but the same one that Paul, in his apostolic office, was called to minister to (2:25).

A new way of looking at the world. A ferment of unorthodox beliefs that would later developed into a comprehensive worldview influencing literature, history, philosophy, and theology, known as Gnosticism.

What is Gnosticism?

Gnosticism was a response to the widespread desire to understand the mystery of being: it offered detailed, secret knowledge of the whole order of reality, claiming to know and to be able to explain things of which ordinary, simple Christian faith was entirely ignorant.

The Gnostic movement has two salient features that appeal to countless minds in every age, i.e. the claim to present a secret lore, explaining otherwise incomprehensible mysteries, and the assertion that its secrets are accessible only to the elite.

- Harold Brown

The pre-Gnostic teachings Paul spoke against:

Advocated a spiritual meritocracy based on human efforts towards a kind of asceticism, i.e., eat less, reject hunger, avoid sensation, avoid pleasure. In such a meritocracy, angels were considered superior spiritual beings.

Taught a 'secret' gospel that was the privilege of the few. This knowledge of salvation is hidden from the world and made known only to the exceptional. The distinction is made between the knowledgeable elite and the ignorant masses. Paul however says that the gospel is no longer a secret. It is a mystery that 'now has been revealed to His saints' (1:26). Paul emphasizes humility and equality (2:18, 3:11) 'where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free'.

Often embroiled itself in esoteric complexity. The confessions of the true gospel (1:12-20) are simple enough for a lay person to understand. The language of the gospels strove for every man to understand. It is the language of love. 'But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection' (3:14)

What Is This To Us?

Are we guilty of new forms of elitism, falling into the same legalistic pit by demanding that others meet our standards of 'self-imposed religion' (2:23)? Are we really better than the drug user? Are we smug about our standards for sexual fidelity? Are we unconsciously creating cliques based on how much a person parties, or how much a person professes to 'straight-acting', or how much a person professes to be a 'traditional Christian'? Are we giving the impression that we are better Christians than others because of how much we pray, how much Bible we've read, or what we do, or what we say, or what we studied?

Are our academic debates on the intricacies of biblical semantics taking our time away from what is really important, the people we could be serving, the people we could be comforting, the people we could be loving?

Will we turn out like the Laodiceans and the Colossians in Revelations, thinking we are safe and secure in the Lord, when we 'do not know that we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked' (Rev 3:17)? Are we blind to our own faults, so much we only see the speck in our enemy's, or our friend's, eye? Do we need to 'anoint our eyes with eye salve, that we may see' (Rev. 3:18)?

Finally, how central is Christ to our faith? Do we go about our days as though he is truly the binding, pivotal force in our lives, or is our daily motivation something else? Personal ambitions? Pride? Envy? Lust? Loneliness?

Reading: (Revelation of John & The Colossian Epistle)

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be alert and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful.

Closing Prayers

Leader:

Prayer For Self-Surrender

Father,
I surrender myself into your hands;
Do with me what you will.
Whatever you do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
And in all your creatures -
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
For I love you, Lord,
And so need to give myself,
To surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
And with boundless confidence,
For you are my Father.

- Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916)

Response:

Prayer For Transformation

O my divine Savior,
Transform me into yourself.
May my hands be the hands of Jesus,
May my tongue be the tongue of Jesus.
Grant that every faculty of my body
May serve only to glorify you.
Above all, transform my soul and all its powers
That my memory, my will, and my affections
May be the memory, the will, and the affections of Jesus.
Destroy in me all that is not of you.
Grant that I may live only in you and by you and for you
That I may truly say with Saint Paul:
"I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me".

- Blessed John Gabriel Perboyre (1802-1840)

Extra Reading

Gnosticism is a religion of redemption. Ignorance is a slave. Knowledge is freedom.

The visible world and its creator are negative evaluated; the identification of "evil" and "matter" occurs in Gnosis as a fundamental conception.

- Kurt Rudolph

Gnosticism disdains every form of physicality, such as hunger, thirst, sensation, and the disdain is extended to the creator of this physical world. The material world cannot be meaningful in any objective way. Gnostic salvation arrives when the individual understands this, and furthers this understanding towards completion by unfolding the divine secret within himself.

A sample of Paul's counter-statements:

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths. (2:16)

Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations - "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle", which all concerns things which perish with the using - according to the commandments and doctrines of men? (2:20-22)

Bibliography

Thich Nhat Hanh, Going Home.
William G. Storey, A Book Of Prayer.
David Ford & Michael Higton, Jesus