Mtr Kelli Joyce

Friends in Christ,

I love today’s reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. It is rich with theology about the person of Jesus Christ, expressed in beautiful poetic language rather than dry assertions of fact. Paul’s language in the first part of the passage reminds me strongly of the Nicene Creed. Paul says “[Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible...”

Sometimes I hear people dismiss the value of the creeds, suggesting that they can’t be relied upon because they were written by men, well after the time when Jesus actually lived. But the words and concepts of both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed draw heavily from scripture - from the letters and memories of people who personally saw the Lord. The point of them was not to invent new ideas, but to distill important teachings from scripture about who the God that we worship is, and how that God has acted throughout history.

This passage was undisputedly written a few decades after Christ lived and died - certainly within the same century. Already, the content of the faith of the apostles was becoming clear and being written down and shared - Jesus of Nazareth was more than a prophet, and more than a good teacher. He was and is the exact image of the heretofore-invisible God. In the next chapter of Colossians, Paul will write that “in him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” He was and is God in the flesh, the only-begotten, uncreated creator and sustainer of all that is. And he, who created the sun and the oceans and the mountains, wants to know and guide each one of us, and the communities to which we belong. What an absolute wonder it is. Thanks be to God.

In peace,
Mtr. Kelli