Sunday, November 25, 2007

Sermon: "The Leader of the Pack"

Scripture: Colossians 1: 11-20

Reverend Larry M. Gerber

We have our favorite sodas ? Classic, Diet, Cherry, etc. But what if we treat Jesus just like we treat our soft drink options?

Nothing tastes quite like Zero while actually being zilch.
What?!?
That's what Coca-Cola is pleased to hear from the booming market share created by its new soft drink giant Coke Zero. Test-marketed in 2005 and expanded worldwide in 2007, Coke zero is a zero sugar, zero guilt knockoff of original Coke. The company claims the taste is almost indistinguishable from the Real Thing, but there are no calories to count. No nutritional value to speak of.

This is the Paris Hilton of sodas. Appearance without substance. Notoriety based on nothing.

This is the Seinfeld show of sodas: a soda about nothing.

But nothing is having quite an effect. Coke's faux refresher is the company's most successful product line launch in the last 22 years. The last Coca-Cola product to do this well was ? umm ? Diet Coke - introduced 22 years ago.

 Diet Coke is derived from the "new Coke" formula of the mid-'80s. Coke Zero is a derivative of the top-secret classic formula that has been in production since the 1880s.

Here's another surprising difference. While research shows that most men are turned off by both the feminine air associated with "diet" drinks and their astringent, chemical taste, Coke has successfully attracted waistline-watching males with its zero calorie, full-flavor soda.

Leave those diet colas for the sissies ? real men drink Zero.

Really?

Yes. According to The Wall Street Journal, Zero isn't merely cannibalistically converting Coke and Diet Coke drinkers. It's drawing a new market of water, juice and energy drink consumers into the Coke fold.

We've seen countless soda products come and go over the years. But expect to see, and drink, Zero for some time.

Coke is an icon ? as American as apple pie. So here's a pop-culture communication device that almost all of you will connect with. The household familiarity of the many Coke products can serve as a metaphor for describing the ways we often think about and relate to Jesus.

Beginning next week our churches are entering the season of Advent ? a time for focus and reflection on who the real Jesus was and is for us and our world. This season and today's passage in Colossians will ask us to consider what kind of Jesus we believe in. So what are the options?

The Diet Jesus. Do we approach Jesus like Coke Zero or Diet Coke? We want all the taste and none of the calories.

This Jesus is for people who love the concept of Jesus, but not all the impact he might make in their lives. We want Jesus to save our souls, but to leave our lifestyles alone. We love this Jesus. He gets people out of hell, but not the hell out of people.

This take on Jesus is as misdirected as overeating accompanied with a Diet Coke. You have seen people go to McDonald's for a super-sized 1,500-calorie lunch of a double cheeseburger and fatty fries ? washed down with a Diet Coke. Are they kidding themselves? What's the point of monitoring the beverage?

Faith is the same way. We can't check off the "saved" box and take no look at our lives. Jesus Zero or Diet Jesus doesn't work. The Scriptures are clear that we can't be saved and stay the same; In Christ we are a new creation! The old "has passed away; behold, all things are new!"

Those words come from Paul's letter to the Corinthians. Yet change is a favorite Pauline theme. He talks about a radical change in allegiance which occurs when we're in Christ here in the Colossians text before us. It's as if the redeemed have been traded to another team ? "He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son," he writes in verse 13. This new freedom doesn't mean we are free to live however we want to. It means that sin and self-directed lives are no longer the only option we have. Christians are not in bondage to their old, flabby lifestyle; rather, they're set free to live out kingdom values.

Diet Jesus can only offer forgiveness of sins ? all debts cancelled and we walk scot-free. But Jesus Christ brings redemption with his forgiveness ? all debts still cancelled, but now we walk in freedom.

The Additive Jesus. Here's a really common flavor that's subtle yet strong in many of our churches, and this passage hits it head-on. Think of Cherry Coke or Vanilla Coke. It's Coke, plus a nice little additive to create interest.

Sometimes people see their lives as friends, family, career, recreation, retirement accounts, etc., and then throw in some Jesus additive once a week. He's a nice flavor enhancement to an otherwise intact formula.

He's the Jesus icing on the life cake. The Additive Jesus concept is Country Club Christianity ? make the visit once a week to show everyone you are still a member.

But while so many unwittingly think of Christian spirituality in this way, Jesus makes no claim to be the cherry additive. He's the Coke. He is the real thing!

For Paul, Jesus is not an add-on. The text is clear: If we are followers of Jesus, all of our life ? all seven days a week ? should be impacted by our faith. This passage is loaded with imagery and metaphors to describe the whole and complete scope of Jesus' reign.

He prepares his people to "endure everything" by offering "all the strength that comes from his glorious power" (v. 11). In other words, there's nothing we experience that God wants us to take on alone. He's rather nosy that way. Every negative thought. Every insecurity. Every temptation. He wants to be involved in every aspect of who we are.

As for his priority in the created order, Jesus has "first place in everything" (v. 18). We can't approach this Jesus and put him somewhere on the life priority list ? there is only one place he will be. First place. More important than our money, happiness, health, family ? ouch! The list gets close to home.

Jesus is no pleasant vanilla accent. He's the entire concept behind our whole lives, or he is an additive.

Tab Jesus. Many of your people will recall Tab ? that disco '70s font on the pink can of saccharin refreshment. Is Jesus anything like Tab? Sadly so. Many of our young people view Christ and Christianity as outdated and old-fashioned. A fad that we parents are or were into, but not relevant for today.

Tab Jesus is the "contemporary" service that's not contemporary. Tab Jesus is old music and dry stories. Tab Jesus doesn't understand the pressures and temptations to which the younger generation is vulnerable. Tab Jesus is just an obligation to family tradition and doesn't touch the lives of our children and grandchildren, the next great generation.

Tab Jesus needs to go the way of Tab.

Jesus is timeless. He is the "firstborn of all creation" (v. 15), meaning that from before time, eternal Jesus had his passion and love and creativity and dominion over every aspect of this universe. From eternity past through incarnation through 2,000 years of history, Jesus has demonstrated remarkable staying power in shaping souls. The same Jesus-concept keeps on working.

Remember that Tab was eclipsed by Diet Coke which may be bested by Zero. But the concept never changed ? no calories in something that tastes good to you.

We need to be careful not to dismiss our younger generations the way they dismiss their misconceived Tab Jesus. We need to create healthy, relevant, open-ended dialogue that invites those who are younger and disenfranchised into conversations that will shape the way we do church. The concept never changes ? Jesus Christ changing lives so people can help change the world. But the form that takes ? the packaging, the style, the way we go about it ? can and should embrace new generations with timeless truth.

Jesus is timeless, not just an old-fashioned trend or the current flavor of the month. But let's have the faith to believe that "in him all things hold together" in our churches, over which he is the head (vv. 17-18).

Un-Zero Jesus. Here's the point of this passage and of the season of Advent that is upon us. Jesus is not, and cannot, be understood to be a Zero. A no-calorie diet Savior. An additive to an already complete life. An outmoded concept of the previous generation.

No ? Jesus isn't like any of those. He's Coke. Coke Classic. The original. "The Real Thing."

An Un-Zero, non-diet, non-additive. What is the opposite of all of these other marginalized Messiah pictures? We might say he's "fullness." Paul did (v. 19).

We come to the climax sentence of Paul's nearly ecstatic praise and hear that Jesus is "pleased to reconcile to himself all things" (v. 20).

Do you know what the Greek for "all things" means?

Right. "All things."

Nothing is the only thing Jesus doesn't care about. Zero is what Jesus doesn't offer.

He is everything. Fullness. Reconciling all things in every aspect of every believer's life.

What kind of Jesus are we drinking in? Today and in the season of Advent, let's ask that hard question and look to come back to the classic, timeless, fullness of the Un-Zero Savior. In the  fullness of time, God sent His Son???.

Sources:

McKay, Betsy. "Zero is Coke's new hero." The Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2007, C1.

On Coke Zero commercials: cocacolazero.com/canwesueus.html.