Worship Preview 8.10.25 "Dwell in You" Colossians 3:12 - 4:1 and Psalm 115

Upcoming Events: 

Sunday, August 10^th 6pm – Ice Cream Social – bring your favorite homemade (or storebought) flavor to share and join us in Fellowship Hall!

Community Office Hours are back! 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 the Lowell Milken Museum of Unsung Heroes any time between 2pm to 4pm.

Wednesday, August 13, 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 by our members as well as area churches and community groups who each take a week. If you would like to support this ministry, you can make donations online at: http://www.firstumcfortscott.org/onlinegiving. Thank you.

Worship This Sunday: 10:30am –  “Dwell in You”  Rev. Christopher Eshelman preaching. Scriptures: Psalm 115, Colossians 3:12-4:1

We’ve been doing a deep dive into Colossians, having read almost all of Chapters 1 and 2, we heard the first half of chapter 3 last week. I mentioned then that, as helpful as the chapter and verse markers are, they also can have a downside. We have come to think of each Chapter as distinct and take specific verses as standing alone, when the authors of these books and letters did not think in such ways. Colossians itself is a flowing set of exhortations and encouragement meant to be read aloud, in one sitting, to the people of several churches in the area of Colossae and Laodicea, located in the Roman Province of Phrygia Pacatiana or what is now the western part of Türkiye.

One simple example of how Chapter divisions can hinder understanding is found in our reading this week. The lectionary cycle actually skips the latter part entirely. It is the earliest of the New Testament’s “household codes” – texts that often make many modern listeners uncomfortable because of the assumptions they show about gender roles and enslaved people. I agree they can be quite troubling and often do not reflect the kind of society or household that I want to be a part of – and I think they are worth studying – in part because they can tell us a great deal about how the church developed in the early centuries, especially as it became clear that the second coming of Christ would not be immediate. This led to increasing questions of how faith and living in Roman dominated society could work, especially as 2^nd, and 3^rd generations of Christians grew, filling house churches with those who had not directly known Jesus, and who increasingly did not consider themselves Jewish.

The last verses of chapter 3 address slaves, telling them: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not with a slavery performed merely for looks, to please people, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever task you must do, work as if your soul depends on it, as for the Lord and not for humans, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality.”

We want to skip these verses because we no longer condone slavery (although human trafficking and forced labor are still very much issues in the modern world – a problem the 2024 United Methodist Social Principles addresses, saying they are “profound violations of the inherent dignity and worth of every person and of their fundamental rights related to autonomy, including the ability of every individual to make personal life choices. We understand slavery to be a repudiation of the basic Christian understanding that all people are created in the image of God.”)

But let us look closer. First – look at Chapter 4, verse 1 – which given the chapter shift, often gets overlooked. It says: “Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a Master in heaven.” The household code in Colossians – including statements about husband and wives, children, slaves, and masters – is not a holy eternal decree from God about how our social relationships should be hierarchically ordered, rather, drawing from the way society was and the structures “everyone knew” – they are illustrations of how to live these relationships in reciprocal, loving, Christ-like, ways. Masters – those on top of the Roman hierarchy, should realize that they themselves are no more than the lowest rung in relationship to their Creator and Redeemer and their behavior should reflect the grace Christ has shown towards them. 

Working backwards – in the first Century Roman society, enslaved persons were as much as 1/3 of the population. The kind of cruel, race-based chattle slavery we easily envision from American history was not yet the norm, yet a large segment of the population were not free – their labor and their lives belonged to “masters,” sometimes as trophies of war or because of economic debt, but increasingly as people born into the caste. Roman slaves could, occasionally be freed, but generally were not able to inherit – yet here they, as equal members of the church, do share in the inheritance of Christ. Colossians proclaims that God does not observe our human divisions (shows no partiality)!

Our assumptions and 1^st Century assumptions about how society should be ordered are vastly different – but this message of hope and equality before God is still one we need to hear. Our first reading, Psalm 115, was selected because it’s first verse was one an early associate of John Wesley turned to in prayer throughout his career. William Wilberforce was a British politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the Atlantic slave trade. He began his political career in 1780 and became an independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire. In 1785, he underwent a conversion experience and became an Evangelical Anglican (as were most early Methodists). His faith was shaped and encouraged by John Wesley as well as John Newton, who you may know as a former slave ship captain whose own conversion to Christianity resulted in the beloved hymn “Amazing Grace.”

The last letter that John Wesley wrote, just before he died in 1791, was to Wilberforce, who was working hard to get abolition laws agreed in Parliament. In the letter, Wesley called slavery an “execrable villainy” and urged Wilberforce to carry on the fight. “O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.” Their stories, along with our deep dive into Colossians, has much to tell us about our own faith journey, how we read Scripture, and how we engage in society in times such as ours. 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! 

For week 5, our series writing prompt is: “Has there been a time when reading Scripture, or encountering Christ, has helped you change your mind or understand things in a new way?” I’d be delighted to share your response in our September newsletter. Blessings on your journey ~ Pastor Christopher.