Thursday, July 15
by the Rev. Jennifer Schick
We pick up our readings this Sunday where we left off last week in the Letter to the Colossians with a poem insert – often called the Christ Hymn that speaks of the Cosmic Christ. This hymn begins with the verse: “He is the image of the invisible God” and it is natural to ask how can we possibly have an image of that which is invisible?
Well, this past week pictures were released by NASA that expanded our notions of the cosmos. These images from the James Webb Space Telescope, invite us to open wide the eyes of our faith to see new images of the light of the universe, and to remember that what is normally hidden from view in the darkness of the night can be breathtaking and inspirational. These images make us wonder about the mysteries of the universe. In his own way, this is what Paul is attempting to do as well in the letter to the Colossians – to help us see – perhaps not through images – but through words, the mystery of creation. Read verse 24-25 of the letter as he writes “I became a servant of this gospel, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden through the ages but has now been revealed to his saints.” This mystery is Christ Jesus our Lord, who is described as the first born of all creation, including the sun and the stars and all the planets – all things visible and invisible. He is the one who spoke our world into being, yet who humbled himself to become flesh as we are, so that we may be able to see God and imagine God in a way we could comprehend. Christ, though human, is so much more than that too. He is indeed a mystery, and, as he existed in the time before cameras, we can only imagine what he looked like. However, although we may not be able to see Christ – if we pay attention to his words we will be able to see Christ in each other, in the natural world around us, and even in the skies above us. We will be able to enter into the mystery and see through the eyes of faith that God is present even in the things we cannot see. With this gift of faith, we are asked to trust that all things come from God, and belong to God for the glory of God. To which we can only say Amen. PrayerGlorious Lord Christ:the divine influence secretly diffused and active in the depths of matter, and the dazzling centre where all the innumerable fibres of the manifold meet;power as implacable as the world and as warm as life;you whose forehead is of the whiteness of snow, whose eyes are of fire, and whose feet are brighter than molten gold;you whose hands imprison the stars;you who are the first and the last, the living and the dead and the risen again;you who gather into your exuberant unity every beauty, every affinity, every energy, every mode of existence;it is you to whom my being cried out with a desire as vast as the universe,‘In truth you are my Lord and my God’. Amen – Teilhard de Chardin (from his Hymn of the Universe)
