WORSHIP RESOURCES
Ordinary Time (Proper 12)
Colossians 2:6-19
Belong to Christ
Additional Scriptures
Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Luke 11:1-13; Doctrine and Covenants 165:2f-3a
Preparation
For the Focus Moment, you will need potted plants—some healthy, some not healthy.
Prelude
Welcome
In Community, we belong to Christ. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him.” All are welcome in the love of Jesus Christ. Let us join this day in praise, reflection, proclamation, and commitment, that our worship may be acceptable in the name of God, the creator, Jesus, the liberator, and the Holy Spirit, our comforter.
Call to Worship: Psalm 85:8-13
Welcoming Hymn Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their own.
“Uyai Mose/Come All You People” CCS 84
OR “Jésus est le rocher de ma vie/Jesus is the Rock for You and Me” CCS 25
If this is unfamiliar, consider singing along with the vocal recording found on Community of Christ Sings Audio Recordings available from Herald House.
Invocation
Response
Moment for Reflection
You are invited to do what makes you comfortable: close your eyes, plant your feet on the floor, take a deep breath. Consider for the next few moments how you belong to Christ, especially as experienced in Community of Christ. Feel and experience the welcome and invitation present in Christ’s hospitality.
Pause for a time that is comfortable for your congregation.
Hymn of Contemplation
Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their own.
“God Forgave My Sin in Jesus’ Name” CCS 627
OR “Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love” CCS 367
Prayer for Peace
Light the peace candle.
Peace Prayer
God of Welcome,
We have entered into your presence in the name of Jesus. Help us to reflect the love of Christ in our lives and always be a welcoming presence for all. May the peace of Jesus Christ be shared among us and spread to all who listen for your voice. We call upon the name of Jesus to end all strife, division, and hatred in our world. Help us to be ambassadors of the Blessings of Community and a beacon of peace in the hope of Zion, is our prayer in Jesus’s name. Amen.
Scripture Reading: Colossians 2:6-19
Focus Moment
Provide several potted plants as examples of belonging to Christ—some healthy, some not healthy. Pointing to healthy plants, ask, “What would happen to these plants if they were removed from the soil?” Allow for discussion.
Plants need to stay connected with the soil so they can absorb water and nutrients and stand in the sun.
Pointing to the unhealthy plants, ask, “Why do you think these plants are struggling?” Allow for discussion.
Plants that don’t get the proper amounts of water, sunshine, and nutrients will struggle.
We are like plants; we belong with Jesus Christ (our soil). We are called to “continue to live [y]our lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith.” What happens when things pull us away from Jesus?
Allow for discussion.
What are some ways we can put our roots deeper into the soil, that is Jesus? Allow for discussion. When our roots continue to grow deeper into the soil, we grow stronger in our faith and witness. With every breath we demonstrate what it means to belong to Christ.
Ministry of Music OR Hymn of Liberation
“When We Are Living/Pues si vivimos” CCS 242/243
Encourage participants to sing in a language other than their own.
OR “You Walk Along Our Shoreline” CCS 598
OR “The People Walk/Un pueblo que camina” CCS 292
Encourage participants to sing in a language other than their own.
Message
Based on Colossians 2:6-19
OR
Testimonies
Ask two or three participants to share a testimony of belonging to Christ.
Disciples’ Generous Response
Scripture Reading: Doctrine and Covenants 165:2f-3a
Statement
We can help spread God’s love by being kind and sharing with others. Maybe by giving our money, we can be a rainbow for someone else and that can help God’s beautiful love shine for everyone to see.
If you have participants joining the worship online, remind them that they can give through www.CofChrist.org/give or through eTithing at www.eTithing.org (consider displaying these URLs).
Blessing and Receiving of Local and Worldwide Mission Tithes
Hymn of Sending Forth
“O for a World” CCS 379
OR “Thuma Mina” Repeat several times. CCS 661
If you are unfamiliar with this song, consider singing along with the vocal recording on Community of Christ Sings Audio Recordings, available from Herald House.
Benediction
Response
Postlude
SERMON AND CLASS HELPS
Year C—Letters
Ordinary Time (Proper 12)
Colossians 2:6–19
Exploring the Scripture
The Gentile church members in Colossae struggled with the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Was Christianity a special form of Judaism? A corollary to a Gnostic view of secret knowledge and elemental spirits? Or was it a new faith tradition?
Jewish teachers insisted Gentiles must be circumcised Jewish and keep the laws of Judaism to be Christian. Teachers influenced by Gnosticism presented Christ as only one Spirit in a hierarchy of spiritual deities and angels. Paul wrote to the Colossians to combat these false teachings. Today’s text outlines the heart of Paul’s reasoning against circumcision.
Verse 6 reminds the Colossians that Jesus Christ is the center of the original teachings they learned from Epaphras. They not only have heard the message, they have been called to make it the foundation of their lifestyle and service. When they live “in him,” they adopt a new identity within a community of the faithful, where God’s new creation can break in and transform them.
False teachings are based on human philosophy, Jewish traditions, and ideas (perhaps Gnostic) about spirits that populate the universe. Some of these teachings presented a division of spiritual powers in various elements and divinities in a hierarchy of authority. In their understanding, Christ was only one of many. But Paul insists that “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily in Christ” (v. 9).
Jesus Christ is the physical expression of God: the Incarnation. We experience God fully in Christ, not in a partial, incomplete way. Also, Christ is the Lord of all rulers and powers on Earth and in heaven. We need fear nothing from human or cosmic authority. Christ already has defeated them.
Christian baptism replaces the rite of Jewish circumcision. More than surgically removing a symbolic piece of skin, “spiritual circumcision” (Christian baptism, v. 11) removes the entire previous life of the convert, leaving the person whole and complete. It is a spiritual transformation centered on Christ and his teachings. After being buried in the waters of baptism, each Christian is raised by God to new life in Christ through faith. Resurrection already has happened, as each Christian embraces the reality of a life forgiven, made whole, and empowered for service.
Past sins resulted in spiritual death, a condition of impurity (“uncircumcision of your flesh,” v. 13). God’s forgiveness and grace erased our record of sins and rebellion. That record was created as people failed to live the Mosaic Law. That record was nailed “to the cross” and died with Jesus. It is a canceled debt (v. 14). Christ’s resurrection was the victory over the rulers and authorities who wanted him dead, and his message silenced. He denied their authority publicly as if they were captives from a battle, stripped of armor, and paraded through the streets in humiliation.
These assurances of the effectiveness of life in Christ and God’s gift of mercy are the fundamental reasons to stand against teachings based on annual Jewish festivals, monthly observances of the moon, or weekly worship. These are not bad in themselves. But they are not the heart of the gospel. Keeping these rituals cannot bring salvation and transformation. Only Christ can do that.
Central Ideas
1. When we live in Christ, we adopt a new identity in a community where God’s new creation can break in and transform us.
2. We experience God fully in Christ, not in a partial, incomplete way.
3. Resurrection already has happened as we embrace the reality of life in Christ—forgiven, made whole, and empowered for service.
4. Ritual, tradition, and speculative philosophies cannot bring salvation. Faith in Christ is the path to a transformed life in him.
Questions for the Speaker
1. What false teachings come to Christians today through the media, entertainment, consumerism, sports, and political arenas? How does your congregation combat those messages?
2. In discussing the idea of “spiritual circumcision,” what would be a modern equivalent or symbolic action that would make this idea relevant today?
3. What does it mean in your life that “resurrection has already happened?” Is your congregation a community of the resurrected?
4. When have you felt transformed by the gospel of Christ?
SACRED SPACE: A RESOURCE FOR SMALL-GROUP MINISTRY
Year C Letters
Ordinary Time, Proper 12
Colossians 2:6–19 NRSVue
Gathering
Welcome
Ordinary Time is the period in the Christian calendar from Pentecost to Advent. This span is without major festivals or holy days. During Ordinary Time we focus on our discipleship as individuals and a faith community.
Prayer for Peace
Ring a bell or chime three times slowly.
Light the peace candle.
Lord, teach us to pray for peace and to be your hands and feet as we put more efforts into peace and justice. Remind us of the capacity we have to receive these gifts from you.
You told us to ask, and it will be given; search, and we will find; knock, and the door will be opened. Teach us, God, to ask for a world free of violence and fear, search for peace, and to knock on the right doors so the way forward is free of despair.
Thank you for teaching us how to pray, just as you pray. Help us always to persevere in prayer and never lose hope. We ask for your blessing of love and peace. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Centering Prayer
Read aloud:
Centering prayer is a method of mediation used by Christians to sit in silence with God. This prayer helps us experience God’s presence within us. It also is a very calming activity and can help reduce stress and anxiety, clearing our mind to experience the Divine presence more fully.
Read aloud:
Choose a word as a symbol of your intent to open to God’s presence, such as “Aware,” “Open,” or “Peace.”
Sit comfortably, with your eyes closed and repeat your word slowly and silently.
When you become aware of thoughts, physical sensations, or emotions, allow them to pass from your mind. Then return gently to your word.
We will continue this practice for three minutes.
Close with “Amen.”
Sharing Around the Table
Colossians 2:6–19 NRSVue
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Watch out that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by the removal of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.
Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food or drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the body belongs to Christ. Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, initiatory visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with a growth that is from God.
Church members in Colossae struggled with the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Jewish teachers insisted that Gentiles must be circumcised Jewish and keep the laws of Judaism to be Christian. In addition, teachers influenced by Gnosticism presented Christ as one Spirit in a hierarchy of spiritual deities and angels. Paul wrote to the Colossians to combat these false teachings.
Paul reminds the Colossians that they have been called to make Jesus Christ the foundation of their lifestyle and service. When they live “in him,” they adopt a new identity within a community of the faithful, where God’s new creation can break in and transform them.
The false teachings influencing the Colossians presented various elements and divinities in a hierarchy of authority. In their understanding, Christ was only one of many. But Paul insists that Jesus Christ is the physical expression of God: the Incarnation. We experience God fully in Christ, not in a partial, incomplete way. Also, Christ is the Lord of all rulers and powers on Earth and in heaven.
Christian baptism replaces the rite of Jewish circumcision. It is a spiritual transformation centered on Christ and his teachings. After being buried in the waters of baptism, God raises each Christian to new life in Christ through faith.
God’s forgiveness and grace erased our record of sin and rebellion. That record was created as people failed to live the Mosaic Law. That record was “nailed to the cross” and died with Jesus. It is a canceled debt.
These assurances of the effectiveness of life in Christ and God’s gift of new life are the fundamental reasons to stand against teachings based on Jewish law, practices, and observances. Keeping these rituals cannot bring salvation and transformation. Only Christ can do that.
Questions
- What “false teachings” come to Christians today through the media, entertainment, consumerism, sports, and political arenas? How do you stand against these messages?
- What does it mean in your life that “resurrection has already happened?” How do you experience new life as a follower of Jesus?
- When have you had to give up something old (idea, tradition, understanding) to embrace something new?
Sending
Generosity Statement
Faithful disciples respond to an increasing awareness of the abundant generosity of God by sharing according to the desires of their hearts; not by commandment or constraint.
—Doctrine and Covenants 163:9
The offering basket is available if you would like to support ongoing, small-group ministries as part of your generous response. You also may give at CofChrist.org/give.
This offering prayer is adapted from A Disciple’s Generous Response:
Discipling God, as we navigate our world of debt and consumerism, help us save wisely, spend responsibly, and give generously. In this way may we prepare for the future and create a better tomorrow for our families, friends, the mission of Christ, and the world. Amen.
Invitation to Next Meeting
Closing Hymn
Community of Christ Sings 574, “Touch Me, Lord, with Thy Spirit Eternal”
Closing Prayer
Optional Additions Depending on Group
- Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
- Thoughts for Children
Thoughts for Children
Materials:
Three or four pieces of paper with statements written on them:
· The sky is blue.
· The best ice cream is strawberry.
· Swings are more fun than monkey bars.
· Penguins are the funniest animals.
Ask the children to agree or disagree with each statement as you show and read them aloud.
Ask: Do we always have to agree? What if I don’t agree with you, are you still my friend?
Faithful disagreement means we can disagree on things, even important things, and still be part of the same loving community. I can disagree with you and still love you, pray and serve with you, and comfort you if you are sick.
We can practice faithful disagreement by staying friends with people, even when we do not agree. We grow as disciples when we look for things we have in common (like we both like swings better than monkey bars) rather than letting our disagreements separate us.
Thank the children for participating.