Note: You can watch this teaching on CrossWalk’s YouTube channel.

            On July 17, 2020, Rep. John Lewis lost his fight with Pancreatic Cancer.  Lewis was known for taking on challenges.  He was the last of the Big Six leaders who were key leaders during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s.  He co-led the march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge on what would become known in the US as Bloody Sunday, where peaceful marchers were beaten by Alabama State police.  Lewis was beaten – receiving a concussion – and thought he was going to die.  Nobody would blame Lewis for holding hatred toward the officers and their leaders who commanded such violent action on non-violent protestors.  But Lewis didn’t hate his oppressors.  He trained himself not to.  The primary reason he couldn’t allow himself to harbor hatred was because of his theology.  Lewis essentially believed that those who beat him had Christ within them, that they had intrinsic worth, that they were, therefore, at their core, good.  He chose a path of love even toward his enemies.  Sounds like Jesus. It also sounds like one of Jesus’ converts, Paul.

            Paul reportedly wrote the letters to the churches in Colosse and Ephesus, as well as a letter to Philemon, from Rome where he was under house arrest.  He would not leave Rome alive.  He was in the final season of his life, but he was not done living, and not done making a positive contribution to the world.  His letters to the church were meant to encourage people who found themselves trying to live into a new paradigm, one which was heralded by Jesus as the Way of the Kingdom of God.  Paul spent his last days physically living under the shadow of the Roman Empire while doing his best to live under the reign of God.

            Most Jewish people had a bad opinion of non-Jewish people – Gentiles – and for understandable reasons.  For most of their history, the Jewish people lived under the thumb of foreign oppressors, with Rome being the dominating force during Jesus and Paul’s lives.  Living under the Pax Roman which came with extremely heavy taxation, it would not be difficult to imagine the underlying hatred that simmered just below the surface for many Jewish people in the first century CE.  And yet Paul was able to transcend that hatred.

            One reason Paul was able to avoid succumbing to hating his oppressors is because he saw them with God-fashioned eyes.  More than simply being loving and forgiving, Paul, as recognized in his letters to Colosse and Ephesus, believed that through Christ, everything had been reconciled to God.  Further, he understood that Jesus taught and lived to bring to light a great truth: “God wanted [God’s people] to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory” (Colossians 1:27 NLT).

            This truth which transformed Paul communicated that every person is inherently worthy of dignity and respect, because the creative presence of Christ is a part of them. Paul was deeply convinced of this truth as evidenced in his other letters encouraging Jesus followers to see beyond the labels they put on others and rather view everybody as equals in terms of God’s love and grace.  This moved Paul to treat others from a position of grace instead of hatred.

This capacity to see Christ in others and in everyone and in every part of creation is the game-changing paradigm shift.  When the shift is made, it is truly an experience of being born again.  Many people who wake up to the grace that is theirs are immediately more graceful toward others, even those who oppressed them in some way.  The love of God is that powerful.  It is a choice to embrace it or not.  Paul uses language like circumcision, baptism, and death-and-resurrection to describe the decision his Colossian audience made to follow a new Way.

            When have you experienced a waking up moment akin to being born again or anew?  

            Paul knew, however, that being born again was really just the start.  As he wrote to the Colossians, “we want to present everybody to God, perfect [mature, full-grown, fully initiated, complete] in their relationship to Christ” (Colossians 1:28b NLT).  Paul knew that God’s dream was for everyone to grow into their healthiest full potential where they thrive, propelled by the very Spirit of God.  This is not easily done.  As John Lewis surmised, while people may be born innocent, they are immediately trained to see the world through the eyes of those who raise them, which is always distorted to varying degrees.  Correcting vision is an unlearning process that requires intent and courage and involves action that may go against the status quo.  This is why Paul instructed the Colossians not to be swayed to participate in practices that ran counter to the Way of Jesus.  Be certain, however, that when the Colossian people chose not to engage in the behavior of the majority, it came with a price (as it always does).  Sometimes the price is social, sometimes economic, sometimes physical, sometimes emotional – but always there is a price to be paid by those who behave counter-culturally.

            When has choosing the Way of God – the Way of Love, Peace, Justice, Mercy, Humility, etc. – cost you something? What choices are before you right now?

            Paul knew that to mature in Christ – to live more and more into our True Selves – required work.  He instructed: “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7 NLT).  Rooted in Christ, building on Christ, leads to the life we were meant to live.  When we are living that life, thankfulness overflows.

            Jesus used both of these metaphors.  He is remembered using a parable about four soils into which seeds of faith are planted with varying levels of success: rocky soil, weedy soil, a well-trodden path, and good soil.  The type of soil we are when we receive the seed of the Good News determines to differing degrees how well the seed will grow.  Obviously, the good soil is most likely to produce a good plant.  We can’t help our original soil, but we can definitely influence our type of soil once we know it’s a “thing”. 

How are you promoting healthy soil for your soul, for your faith?

Jesus concluded his Sermon on the Mount with a parable about building on his teaching (Mt. 7:24-27).  Jewish leaders were present who knew the right answers but did not live accordingly.  Jesus admonished them, saying that they were essentially not in relationship with God.  The relationship is one of knowing and acting on what we know. Without the action piece, we might have a beautiful structure, but it won’t be able to handle the storms of life.  James said that faith without works is dead.

In light of Jesus’ teaching about building on a foundation of rock as the putting into practice what Jesus taught, how are you doing?  In what areas of your life has this come easily?  In what areas has it been more difficult? How do you know when you’re not practicing what has been preached?

In his interview with Krista Tippet, John Lewis talked about his lifelong work regarding civil rights was love in action.  Love of nation, love of neighbor, love of the beloved community dream – all compelled him to action to see the best in each realized. It was this love that kept him from hating his oppressors, that kept him on the path of non-violence, and that helped him persevere.  Makes me think that Christ really was in him.  

Beyond theological reasoning, how might we know Christ is really in us? What role does our action play in our experience of faith, in our spiritual knowing and assurance?