8.17.25 Worship Preview "Reveal it Clearly" Colossians 4:2-18 and Acts 13:13-16 & 15:36-41

Press Release for August 16^th, 2025

First United Methodist

Upcoming Events: 

Community Office Hours this week! Would you like to chat with the Pastor, perhaps about this column, or share a time of prayer, but you’re not comfortable coming to the church? He totally gets it! So - Monday afternoons Pastor Christopher will be at a local location with open time to visit with you. This week join him at Common Grounds any time between 2pm to 4pm.

Wednesday, August 20, Feeding Families in His Name: A free, no obligation meal is served “to-go” style from underneath our portico from 5:30-6:30pm each Wednesday, prepared each week by our members as well as several area churches and community groups. If you would like to support this ministry, you can make donations online at: www.firstumcfortscott.org/feedingfamiliesdonation. Thank you.

Worship This Sunday: 10:30am –  “Reveal It Clearly”   Scriptures: Colossians 4:2-18 and Acts 13:13-16 & 15:36-41. Rev. Christopher Eshelman preaching. 

This week we come to the end of Colossians and another part of the Scriptures we often skip – a list of greetings and salutations – often unfamiliar, difficult to pronounce names that seem unimportant. Yet these greetings tell us a great deal about the early church and about Paul’s journey. The letter to the Colossians tells us about several of his associates and concludes with a call for the hearer (reader) to “devote yourselves to prayer” and pray that God would “open a door” that Paul – and in turn all disciples – “may declare the mystery of Christ” and “reveal it clearly” in all circumstances.

One of the great myths of our society is the “self-made man.” Reality is that we are all interconnected. True, individuals may have great drive – but we are all shaped by, assisted (or hindered), and reliant on what others do and have done. Sometimes we overemphasize the Apostle Paul without listening to his story. He firmly believes he is authentically representing and proclaiming Christ – and that what he proclaims came from Christ, not from any human teacher (Galatians 1). And yet he knows he does not do this work alone, indeed his purpose is to raise up other disciples. Even in his earliest days of newfound faith and understanding, he is crucially assisted, first, by Ananias, who baptizes him and by the disciples at Damascus who take him in, build him up, and later help him escape the city when threatened (Acts 9). He is shaped by 3 years in “Arabia,” about which we know very little before he goes to Jerusalem (Galatians 1). There, knowing his reputation, the disciples that were closest to Jesus fear Paul – but Barnabas steps forward to vouch for him (Acts 9).Without that assist, Paul’s journeys doubtlessly would look very different and likely have been far less fruitful. The greetings, here in Colossians and in other epistles, offer us a glimpse into how the early church worked together – in agreement and disagreement - as the body of Christ.

I mentioned last week that it is crucial, when wrestling with words attributed to Paul in 1^st Timothy about women and authority, to read that text in balance with texts such as the greetings in Romans 16, in which Paul extends thanks, appreciation and encouragement to no fewer than 7 women who lead and teach, several with titles of respect and, yes, authority. The Epistles, written by Paul and others, tell us about the struggles of early churches to define themselves, understand their context, and respond faithfully. The “greetings” help anchor our reading in those realities. We hear parts of ongoing conversations – times of success and of shortcoming – and we are invited, in our time and place, to join those conversations - realizing that we do not journey in faith by ourselves.

As I tried to convey last week as we looked at the examples of John Newton, William Wilberforce, and John Wesley, each of whom became abolitionist after coming to faith, the Bible is not about simple answers, it is about faithful relationship with Christ and with our neighbors as the body of Christ, the church. We are to wrestle with and be shaped by Scripture, taking it seriously, not merely literally. To help us do that and explore our own journey, it is well worth exploring the “boring parts” of the Epistles, who the people listed are, what we learn about their stories from Scripture. We’ll work through the names from Colossians 4 with a particular emphasis on Barnabas and his young cousin John Mark – whose stories we’ll hear part of from our Acts readings – and we’ll look at Paul’s transformation from persecutor to apostle with an eye towards the people who walked with him as a way of understanding our own paths.

These verses also tell us that, in addition to Colossae, the letter is intended for the church in Laodicea – and that the Colossians are instructed to read a letter apparently sent to (or from) there. We do not know the contents of that letter or who wrote it. Some scholars suggest it shows up as parts of the Epistles we do have, but most consider it lost. Certainly, many letters to and from early churches were not kept and collected – and particularly that might be true of letters from Laodicea. If that city name rings a bell, it is the last of the 7 cities named in Revelation 3, where the church there is condemned as being “lukewarm.” As we have heard the last few weeks, the letter to the Colossians challenges us not to have a lukewarm faith but to walk in the Way Jesus shows us; to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly; to set our minds on Christ; and to root ourselves in the grace, faith, hope and love revealed by Jesus, who is the Alpha and Omega, the image of the invisible God!

If any of the above intrigues you, we invite you to explore the hope and presence of Christ together with us at 10:30am each Sunday. 301 S. National here in Fort Scott. Blessings on your journey! 

This week our writing prompt is: ““Who are the people who shaped your faith journey and who are people your faith has, in turn, helped shape?” I’d be delighted to share your response in our September newsletter. Blessings on your journey ~ Pastor Christopher.