I love this text! It illustrates the biblical conviction that Jesus and his friends, the Messiah and the messianic community, God and his people belong together! We – you and I – figure in God's economy and politics.

The church is necessary for faith in Christ. ……

The Epistle to the Colossians has one of the great statements about Christ. It was a hymn that was sung in the early church. In Christian worship Jesus Christ is celebrated as

… 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,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities –
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning,
the first-born from the dead,
that in everything he might be pre-eminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of his cross.
(Col 1:15-20)

Here is another of those great statements about Jesus Christ: "… in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily " (Col 2:9).

But what is an overture apart from the opera that follows? What is the Messiah apart from his people? God — apart from his people, is that possible?

Is it not amazing that in the Letter to the Colossians, the same letter that speaks so highly about Jesus Christ, a letter that has only 4 chapters, nearly one whole chapter is taken up with names. Names of people. Precious pearls of thoughts about them. Small remembrances of them. Good wishes to them.

After the great solo to Christ, there are now the regular choir members, without whom the star cannot and, indeed, does not want to live. After the great christological overture, there are now the people and actors that flesh out the melody and theme.

A list of names. Names of people. We hear of the run away slave Onesimus; of the Jewish Christians Aristarchus, Mark and Justus; of the Gentile Christians Epaphras, Demas and Luke; of the lady pastor Nympha; and of Tychicus from Asia Minor.

And is that not what the church is all about? People! Is that not what you remember when you think of a church? People! So let us merge the horizons of the church in Colossae and our own community and let us ask whether God can challenge us and encourage us by reflecting on this list of names from an early Christian church.

Let us talk about the church as people.

We all know Peter and James and John. Mary of Magdala is also familiar to us. But do you know Onesimus and Aristarchus and Mark and Justus and Epaphras and Demas and Nympha and Tychicus? What a colourful list of names. They are slaves and fellow prisoners of the apostle; they are Jews and Greeks; lay people and ministers; men and women. Their names lighten up for a moment in the flux of history, and then, like a falling star, they disappear again. Just like yours and mine. But kept in the memory of God.

Variety
as the Reflection of the colourful Grace of God

But there is something new with this community of people who believe in Christ and follow him. Just as an opera continually alludes to the overture and develops its themes, so the community of the friends of Jesus constantly refer back to him and try in their own lives to reflect the colourful grace of God.

What was new in the ancient world was the multi-cultural variety in the Christian church? While in clubs one was trying to mix with people of the same class, the same culture, the same education, the same intelligence, the same race, — in the church it was different. While in clubs one wanted to be among themselves — homogeneity was the aim, in the church one was aware that God is the creator and God of all people. God wants to build his people from all nations, from all cultures. The people of God are to reflect that variety of God’s creation. Not homogeneity, but variety is God’s word. Let us affirm God’s ways. Just as he has created the world in great variety, so he has also redeemed the world with its variety. That variety we affirm and live in the church. So, you can be and should be yourself and thus make your contribution to a dynamic and interesting community.

A Variety of People

And this variety is a variety of people. It is sad and even ridiculous, but it is true. Sometimes we have to remind each other that the church is made up of people! Of course, there must be structures and constitutions and confessions and doctrines and liturgies and sacraments. We cannot simply leave the church to the subjective inclinations and interests of people. But with equal emphasis it must be said that with the resurrection of Christ, God has not created a new denomination or a new doctrine, but a new reality that is spoken into peoples’ heart and changes them. The gospel is God’s power that opens people up and focuses them on their creator.

Let us be the church. A community of people who have opened their hearts to Jesus and tuned into his future.

Let us echo Epaphras in our life and in our church:

"Ep'aphras, who is one of yourselves, a servant of Christ Jesus ... always remembering you earnestly in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in La-odice'a and in Hi-erap'olis." (Vv. 12f.).

The beauty of being called

They are very different: Onesimus and Aristarchus and Mark and Justus and Epaphras and Demas and Nympha and Tychicus — and in and with their difference they reflect the colorful grace of God.

But one thing they have in common. They have all heard the call of God to them, and they have responded!

The fact that they have responded to God’s call does not mean that they have all become the same. Paul, in another letter, compares the church to a body with arms and feet and ears and eyes and hands. All different, all important, all dependent on each other, but in and with their difference they make up the body.

Only one thing is important: the beautiful realization that God does not live in splendid isolation. That God is not the abstract object of our philosophical reflections and speculations. But that God loves and comes and calls. That he loves us, that he comes to us, and that he calls us.

Let us echo Archippus to whom the apostle says: "See that you fulfil the ministry which you have received in the Lord." (V. 17).

Each of us is given a gift, a ministry. Letr us help each other to fulfil it.

The dangerous memory of Jesus

On the whole, "God " is very patient. And we have not always been fair to God. We have interpreted God's patience as weakness and we have used it to further our own interests. It is important to remember that religious faith is not always healthy and helpful. It is important to remember that with reference to God people have become sick, and with the word "God" great injustice has been validated.

She is easily overlooked in the text: Nympha and the church in her house (v. 15). Nympha, the pastor of a local church, – and in those days all churches were house churches. The apostle recognizes her and sends her a special greeting.

That was quite new in those days. For some it was a revolution. In a patriarchal society to have a woman pastor! 2000 years ago. No Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirming the equality of women to men. That was difficult to take.

But the Christian message was not meant to simply be a religious cohesive to cement the status quo. The Christian message is tied to Jesus and Jesus has always been a catalyst for conflict.

When we call him the "saviour" we mean that he has undone the result of sin and that he can empower us to do the same.

When God created the human being he created the human being "male and female" — different but equal. This equality was distorted when men began to staff the positions of social, economic and political power. Men determined reality, and philosophers and theologians — even the very great ones — found arguments to justify the superiority of the male over the female.

Also in the church. The Pope has only recently declared that women can never be priests; the Anglican church nearly split over the issue; the Lutheran church in Latvia is the first church that retracts the decision to ordain women and the Lutheran church in Estonia will probably follow. And on this issue Baptists in the world are also not vanguards in their obedience to Christ.

It may be hard to take that Jesus does not only confirm our ideas, but he also judges them. Theologians who copied our text through the ages have tried hard to make a man out of Nympha. We have manuscripts in which she becomes a male: "Nymphodorus" or "Nymphas". Some scribes could simply not imagine that God would call a woman to pastor a church.

And she was not the only one of course. May I introduce you to Junia. In your Bible she may still be called "Junias", a man. Check it out in Romans 16:7. But it is Junia and she is called an apostle (Rom 16:7). And suddenly it begins to dawn. Is not Priscilla often mentioned before Aquila, her husband, so that she was most likely the pastor while he earned the livelyhood. And do you remember the churches of Lydia and Chloe and Mary, the mother of John Mark?

And has not the church tried very hard to forget that the risen Jesus first of all appeared to Mary in Jerusalem and only then to Peter and the others in Galilee?

My friends, let us not forget the dangerous memory of Jesus. God is God and therefore he is always good for something new. What a tragedy it is, when we as individuals and when we as the church fail to recognize the newness, the revolutionary dimension in the grace of God.

Thank you Nympha that you heard the call of God and that you responded! It could not have been easy for you in a male dominated society. Indeed the Nymphas and Lydias and Chloes and Marys have had a hard time to the present day. Thank you Nympha, for reminding us of the newness in the grace of God.

No church is an island

One more thought we want to gather from this text. The churches are encouraged to exchange the apostolic letters:

"And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the La-odice'ans; and see that you read also the letter from La-odice'a." (V. 16).

This reminds us of the ecumenical thrust in all the churches. God, by raising Jesus from the dead, has not called a denomination into being, but a community of the friends of Jesus. One Lord, one faith, one baptism — the church has confessed from the beginning.

We have the great privilege of being part of the people of God who have been called from all nations. Let us recognize our place in the world wide community of the friends of Jesus and ask what ministry God has laid upon our hearts – and then let us stand up and do it.

TL, Canberra, 20 September 2004.