CMLC 2025-11-23 Sermon

Howdy Colossians 1 verses 13 and 14 God has delivered

Colossians 1:13

us from the domain of darkness and transferred

us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom

we have redemption the forgiveness of sins Colossians

1 13 and 14 I love a good story Marvel movies

are totally my game All right, that is my bag.

I don't know if we're allowed to say that anymore.

Is that still popular, right? Okay, yeah, thank

you. But yeah, from Iron Man and Captain America

and all of the Hulks at the very, very beginning,

I was already hooked. It was amazing. All the

Avengers movies, well, let's not acknowledge

the second one, but all the other ones, amazing.

And I love that for years I have had a continuing

storyline. built on itself. Any wonder that I

like Doctor Who? But also trilogies, oh my goodness,

like how many years that I had to wait but Back

to the Future finally got its second and third

movies. That was my childhood right there. An

extended series. Nine years later and we finally

get to the conclusion of stranger things. Oh

my goodness I am all over that for sure that

the actors are weird, but I love the story And

you know with all of this is that it's really

when you get to invest in it and see what happens

I still remember watching how I met your mother

for the first time and wondering, where has this

been all my life? Why did I not see this before

some of my very dumb mistakes? Because stories,

they end up pulling you in because we see ourselves

in them. We see who we are and we understand

ourselves better. I may be okay telling stories

in a sermon because I've prepped for it, but

I wish I were better at telling them off the

cuff. One of the things that I find fascinating

about entering the story though, I mean, when

you really get into it, when you focus long enough

on any one character, as long as you're looking

at them long enough, something in you begins

to root for them. Even the worst ones. Even the

ones that you would never trust to water your

plants. And that's saying something from the

guy with the black thumb. You know, you spend

enough time with any character, and your heart

starts whispering, come on, maybe this is the

moment that they can turn it around. No matter

how flawed, how broken, how wildly unqualified

that they are to be any sort of hero in the story,

once you pay attention, you start wanting redemption

for them. And that's how we see this man named

Dismas. What a name right? I think his parents

didn't like him It sounds either like a precious

metal or someone who definitely owes you money

I mean one or the other and he's never gonna

pay you back. You know, he's never gonna pay

you back But he's not really a great character.

He's just not if you were choosing teams You

wouldn't pick him You would hope you could just

pretend you didn't even see him in the crowd.

If you were casting a movie, he would probably

be thug number three, the one who gets knocked

out before the opening credits even finish rolling.

Whatever shady things he's done in his life,

they're not the sort of things you brag about

at Thanksgiving dinner, and that's even with

your Uncle Jim. And yet, the longer we start

watching the thug, the criminal, paying attention

to him, Something in us can't help but hope for

him to make something of himself. Even though

his story is headed toward disaster, even though

nothing good seems likely to come of him, even

though he's corrupt, compromised, and honestly

undeserving, something in us keeps whispering,

yeah, but maybe, maybe there's still a chance.

Maybe grace will find him. Because when you enter

a story deeply enough, Redemption stops being

a plot twist and starts being a longing inside

of the audience. The audience is hoping for the

redemption story. And if we're honest, we want

redemption, but not just for the criminal. We

want it for ourselves as well, because there's

a little part of us that gets the criminal. It's

not really about wanting to be in the kingdom

of God. expecting forgiveness to be in our own

dark world. We want it on our terms. We want

it to redeem us without us needing to change

anything. I'd love some redemption here. Just

don't expect any change. Colossians 1, 15 through

16. Jesus is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn of all creation, for by him all

things were created. All things were created

through him and for him. And maybe that's the

strange twist of all this. We don't ever actually

want the perfect hero. Let's just be honest.

We don't want the perfect one. We want the one

who limps the way that we limp. The one who says

the wrong words that we say. The one who panics

at the wrong moments. The one who snaps at the

wrong people. The one who breaks promises. The

one who gets caught. Because deep down we know

that we would have gotten caught too. We understand

them. We kind of feel bad for them. It's like

when the flawless hero walks onto the screen

and we think, well, must be exhausting being

that perfect all the time. There's this one actor.

It's like every time you see him in a movie,

you know he's always going to lose the girl.

He's too good. He's way too pretty. The guy who

plays Cyclops in the X -Men, oh my gosh, come

on, he seems like a nice guy. But then, you know,

we hate it. We don't want the girl to choose

the good guy. We make up in our heads reasons

why that good guy deserves to be ignored and

rejected. But then the camera cuts to the side.

The character who's sweating, confused, and frankly,

morally reprehensible. Exactly. And suddenly

we're like, there he is. That's my guy. The one

who clearly has nothing redeeming about him.

The one who actually makes everything worse and

makes me feel better about myself. That's the

guy for me, but hey, at least he's honest. Dismisses

that guy. A man who is something of a mystery,

except we know he deserves to be punished as

a criminal because he is one. And Jesus, well,

well he's Jesus. Come on. Does anybody really

want to root for the perfect person? Does anyone

really want to pay attention to Jesus as a person?

As someone to connect with? As a savior, yes,

absolutely. But do you really want to connect

with Jesus as a human being? Yes, he's human,

but do you really want to think of him that way?

Colossians keep shouting at us. You don't understand.

He's the image of the invisible God. He's the

firstborn. That's the guy to be like. Follow

him, please. Let's be honest. When Paul says,

in him all things hold together, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah. Most of us hear it like a refrigerator

magnet or a stitched pillow at Hobby Lobby, the

Jesus store. you know frankly you're like oh

that's pretty that's some good stitch work on

there it doesn't quite hit doesn't really connect

doesn't mean anything you're just kind of like

well put it right behind you know my hip because

you know my lumbar is sore because we're far

more aware at a time when it says in him all

things hold together frankly we're just a little

bit more aware of how things are coming apart

for us so we gravitate toward the character who's

coming apart too The more we watch Jesus, the

more we admire Him. But the more we watch dismiss,

the more we understand Him. And nine times out

of ten, the person you understand is the one

you root for. He gives us a place to hide our

hope. If that guy could be saved, then maybe

someone like me could too. Colossians 1, 17 through

18. Jesus is before all things, and in Him all

things hold together, and He is the head of the

body, the church. But you see, here's the tension.

Colossians, it insists that Jesus is the one

who holds reality itself together. You remember

like the word is moving on the waters at creation

and all, yet we keep trying to rewrite the story.

We complain that the stories turn out exactly

the way that they were designed. We say, well,

I didn't want that to happen as if the universe

owed us a gentler episode. We watch the blonde

dragon lady descending into darkness, and then

we're angry when she suffers for it in the eighth

season. We watch nine seasons of a sitcom, watch

two characters fall in love exactly as the writers

set up in episode one, And then we roll our eyes

when they get together at the end and say, oh,

that was terrible. We want our version that makes

us feel better about ourselves and our expectations.

We want our own story arc. We want our own ending.

And when the ending is different, the anger wells

up. And that's exactly what happens with the

man we keep trailing through the shadows, Dismas,

the one who did what we do, the one who ignored

what God had designed people to do. He took the

storyline that built on God's design and said,

no thanks, I'll improvise. The one who stole,

maimed, killed. But even when we try to scribble

all over the script and add all of our notes

in red, thinking that we are the next Robert

Downey Jr. We try to ruin the original story.

The author doesn't abandon the story. The author

doesn't abandon us. See, Dismas doesn't know

it yet, but as much as he tried to escape a story

that God would have originally wanted for him,

God is about to sweep him up into a redemption

that we never could have imagined. Colossians

1, 19 and 20. For in Jesus all the fullness of

God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile

to himself all things Making peace by the blood

of his cross And this is where the whole thing

cuts open if God's story only worked when characters

behaved properly and Followed the right person.

We wouldn't have a story. We wouldn't even have

a pamphlet We'd have a very very short blurb

Because the fullness of God, it doesn't show

up only in the scenes where everything is tidy

and fits what it's supposed to do. It shows up

right when the story derails and derails spectacularly.

Look at the cast around Jesus. Disciples who

blurt out the wrong answer at the wrong time.

Followers who can't stay awake through a prayer

meeting. A betrayer who thinks the perfect moment

to hand Jesus over is the exact moment that Jesus

has finally revealed who he really is. Thanks,

Judas. If this were a movie, the same audience

that was so excited to see all of those characters

mess up and ruin things would still be yelling,

what were you doing? He was getting to the good

part. He was so close to making everything finally

work. And then it gets worse. As Jesus is betrayed,

as his story is ruined by the characters we were

originally excited to see, the ones whose character

flaws were just like ours, even while we didn't

want to admit it. Two thieves appear on the hill

with Jesus, about to be executed for crimes they

really did commit. And just to be clear, these

are two criminals. We get those pictures of the

three crosses, and we see two people up there.

These are not two cute commentators for the story

of Jesus. These are not Statler and Waldorf in

the Muppets heckling Jesus from some pretend

balcony. These are not charming old men making

snarky commentary. These are hardened criminals,

genuinely dangerous and genuinely guilty. And

that's the point. These were not actors sitting

around the casting table discussing who was going

to play each part, making an amazing story that

would win the Academy Award. These were people

taking the beauty of God's world and destroying

it, betraying it, ruining it. But the fullness

of God means that while their sinful rebellion

was never how it should have been, God would

still step into the ruined story and find a way

to redeem it. God says you broke the narrative.

You mangled the plot. You took the only character

that was good in this and threw him away for

the others. But I'm still going to set it right.

And how does he do it? By letting the only sinless

character in the narrative carry the consequences

of everyone else's improvisation. Being blamed

for what he didn't do while others lived according

to a lie Luke 23 To others who were criminals

were led away to be put to death with him One

of the criminals began to mock him, but the other

rebuked him saying Jesus remember me when you

come into your kingdom And he said to him today

you will be with me in paradise And that's what

we find with the two thieves who were given names

in early Christian tradition, Gestus and Dismas.

Gestus mocks Jesus. Dismas turns to him. And

everything in the story, all of Colossians' cosmic

claims that all the brokenness and improvisation

and rebellion, when we realized we completely

ignored it, suddenly collapses into a single

moment. The man whose resume is nothing but failure

puts all his hope in the one whose resume is

nothing but faithfulness. The one who deserves

nothing asks for everything. Paradise. And Jesus

gives it. See, that's the scandal of grace, the

punchline, if you will. The upside down kingdom,

Paul keeps shouting about In Colossians, the

worst character gets the keys to the kingdom.

This isn't something where we try to imagine

that Dismas up there has gone through all of

these things where now he's a good guy. He's

desperate and he knows it. But he turned to the

one who could finally give him everything. And

he does. And it's a good thing He does. Because

that's us. We do not deserve paradise. We did

not choose the right path. We still don't. We

did not cling to the right storyline. We threw

away the only one who ever followed it perfectly.

And yet, God still hands us the kingdom. Holding

the keys does not mean we earned them. But we

still have them anyway. Here is my hope. This

is my plea to all of you, if you will. Seeing

that the keys are now in our hands, my hope is

that we stop trying to rewrite the story to fit

what we wanted it to be. My hope is that we stop

insisting on the version that flatters us and

ignores our biases. My hope is that we would

stop returning to paths of corruption, self -protection,

and self -creation. My hope is that we would

now take the time that we have to say more than

Dismas ever did to say, Lord, change me. Help

me understand why I chose what was wrong. Before

I enter your kingdom that I will never deserve,

let me follow you now. I hope so. Because maybe

in that moment, maybe in that surrender, maybe

at that cry in the ruins of all that we did,

turning toward the true firstborn, as he is on

the cross for us, maybe that becomes the chapter,

just like Dismas, that stands for all eternity.

And maybe that becomes the chapter where the

author himself rewrites our ending and the ending

of all of those we reach forever. Thanks be to

God.