Made in Christ and Living in Christ

Made in Christ and Living in Christ

Colossians 1:15-20

I’m realizing how good my mom was and how much I didn’t appreciate about her. She was quite beautiful when she was young. She was a tall lady – not statuesque—but still an imposing presence. She spoke very clearly and probably bequeathed some of that to me in that at least I articulate properly. She was very strong willed. Of course two boys would think that their mother was strong willed.

Mom was very organized and a good housekeeper. She was very conscience that she ought to do everything that would make her boys – good boys. She wasn’t cuddly but she made sure you got the right food, all your clothes were in good order and that you were looking well. So she did all those things very conscience of what a good mother was to be and how she was to bring up her children. Mom was very exciting in that she was strong armed and quite strongly disciplined.

I knew my father’s mother who was the Salvation Army officer. So I knew her and would visit her. From time to time would visit my mother’s mother – but not very much. And I always felt there was some difference there which I as a boy couldn’t tell and never did know why it was. It was just so.

So it was really after dad was dead that I was visiting a cousin of mine and found out what had been hinted at by my brother towards the end of his life. The story of my mother was quite surprising. Now one of the things that I did experience -- which was strange in a protestant home – was for a mother to talk about sister so and so who was of the “Poor Claire’s”. As little boys we guessed that “Poor Claire’s” was Catholic but we really didn’t know.

From time to time my mother would write to a sister whose name I don’t remember. And this sister would write to her from time to time. Then I discovered that my mother was illegitimate. She was the product of a housekeeper and the noble man of the estate (however noble he was). She was born out of wedlock. I would presume the housekeeper was Catholic and maybe the man was Catholic too – who knows. She was then obviously sent out to a home for orphans run by the Poor Claire’s.

Then I heard from that cousin that there must have come a time when she was either going to farmed out to someone else or maybe the people who were the owners of the home where she was taken advantage of – maybe they were protestant and they wanted to get her out of the “Poor Claire’s” grip. She was actually transferred to a man who was a Welsh Methodist. He had come from Wales with his family and seemed to take in other children too. They seemed to be kindly people and upright.

And so this cousin describes my mother as a little one or two year old all dressed beautifully and this was their new sister that they were all meeting. So that’s really all I know. She would have gone to the Bernardo’s home if she hadn’t gone into that home. So that was her background. And that explains some of the way she thought that she ought to do the best she could for her children. And of course the dear man that married her – my dad-- obviously had exciting times.

From time to time if I have trouble with inferiority complex, I have no trouble explaining it because my mother specialized in that. So I would look back and say, “I’m my mother’s son and I know where these things come from.” This doesn’t help you too much – when you look back to your parents and try to find the reason for your own shortcomings in them.

It then came very strongly to me that “she was not your mother.” And this might help you. You are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. He is your mother and your father. You may not have my little incident to describe things. Even if your mom and dad were the most normal and ordinary and best parents in the world they are not your mother and father.

I found this to be light. I was made in Christ Jesus. Of course it’s reinforced by all of Jesus’ words, “I am in you, and you are in me.” “Abide in me as I abide in you.” “Because I live you live also.” It’s very strongly presented that we are the children of Jesus. We were created in Him.

Yes, we came to the world here through our mom’s body just as He did in Mary. But He is our mother and our father. And it is from Him that we come and all his beauty and brightness is potentially inside of us. And we are made in his likeness.

For me it was a lift because I thought of Jesus and then of all the brightness when the birds soar in the Heavens. Think of all the lightness that he brings when the sun rises. It’s all coming from him. The beauty of the flowers all come from him. All the kindnesses that are done here on earth come from his heart.

I came from him. I was made in him and all that he is, is mine. And it just gave a different view of life to me as I saw it. And I don’t know what you think yourself but I think we possibly get it wrong. You know how dear your mom and dad are to you. I certainly know how mine were. But they are only his way of getting us into life here on earth. He himself is our mother and our father.

That’s why the Bible talks about when you have Jesus you have everything. All things are his and if you are in him, all things are yours. Of course it takes away a lot of the self-excuse that goes on inside of us when we talk about our mother being like this and my father being like that. Or, my mother treated me this way and my father treated me that way.

No, no. You had the very best. You are like me, you had the very best. You were made in Him and you are part of him. You are actually part of Him and that’s the thing that came to me from God for today. You are part of him because God sent his son to this world to develop it according to his will.

God’s Son was here right from the beginning because the world itself was made in Him. We saw Jesus in the fiery furnace “like unto the son of man”. And we saw him in many of the angel appearances. And then he came in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. And then he left the earth as Jesus of Nazareth and he came in his Spirit to live in you – in you.

God sent the Spirit of His son into our hearts. And Jesus is in you to do what he has always been doing by his father’s command. Develop this world in the way his father wants. And that’s who you are.

I know it seems extreme but you are Him and He is in you. And he is in you to do things that only He can do through you. I know you agree with that. I know mentally we agree with that. We say, “I know that’s the way to think of it. Jesus is in me and this is his life. But even as we say it we know we are talking at a distance. He is in me and this is his life.”

We say that rather than, “Lord, what do you want to do here with these hands that are yours? What do you want to do with this tongue that is yours?” There is immediacy once you realize that Jesus is in you in a way that he isn’t in any of the rest of us.

You have to admit this is extreme. This is ridiculous. “Eat this bread and take into you Christ.” It’s extreme. God has gone to extremes to impress upon us that he means what he says. He is in you in a way that he isn’t in anyone else. I think what has happened is that we have thought that is egotistical or neurotic or psychotic. That’s in line with the guy who thinks he is Napoleon Bonaparte.

We have backed off that. We don’t want to say that we are Jesus because we see people in psych wards who think that way. But in fact, Jesus left the earth as Jesus of Nazareth and then in his Spirit returned to the earth. He returned into each one of us. I would be inclined to go further and I know this is dangerous.

If you wanted to put it into the extreme form there isn’t a thing that Hitler did that Jesus was not forced to feel inside Hitler. In a real way Jesus is in everyone here on the earth. They don’t recognize that and they don’t respond to that and so they don’t live in the reality of it. But Jesus is in them also.

Most importantly he is in you and me and we are a unique expression of Jesus. What has made this even easier for me to grasp is this business of the Quantum. It’s crazy that this whole world is made up of particles so small we can’t see them. And yet He knows the position of every one of us. And they are flying around so that this thing is flying around here. It looks solid to us because we are all moving with it. But it’s flying around and he knows where every particle is. So of course he knows all about you. He knows every detail of what he intends to do through you. And he has things that he wants to do today.

I think we are unfair and unreal when we think we are little human animals and we’re here today with lots of things we want to do. From time to time we ask him what we should do. In a real way Jesus is in everyone here on the earth. They don’t recognize that and they don’t respond to that and so they don’t live in the reality of it. But Jesus is in them also.

You are really Jesus. You may have covered him up. You may have made it difficult from others to touch him but you are him and he is you and this is his life and not yours. So I think as we eat the bread and drink the wine speak to him yourself. Have a conversation with him. Have a talk with him. And explain that you understand and that you will be listening and watching for his actions in you. And your life is his to do what you want with it. Let us pray.