Security and Belonging
To the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae.
Colossians 1:2
I went to Colossae in 2006. After some of the other 1st-century sites of western Turkey, and especially after Ephesus, it was a little disappointing to stand in front of a small mound, with a rather battered metal sign saying Colossae. So perhaps it was a good thing that Paul, right at the beginning of this letter, tells the Colossians that they are in two places, two realities – in Christ and in Colossae. Two identities, two locations – within the purposes of God in Christ and within the purposes of God in Colossae. And both at the same time.
Paul was a great traveller, but most of the members of this 1st-century Christian fellowship in this now vanished small city probably lived and worked there from birth to death. They belonged there and only there, these Jews and Greeks, slaves and masters (Philemon and Onesimus, for example). In AD 60 an earthquake devastated the area and I wondered how many who had read Paul's letter were forced to move on as refugees.
Today the questions ‘Where do you come from?’ or ‘Where do you belong?’ can be hard to answer. Our lives are rich in places – birthplace, parents’ home, college city, holidays, workplaces, where I live now, where I lived ten years ago, my church fellowship. The Christians of Colossae walked out of their Christian meeting place and on the narrow streets of the town they rubbed shoulders with neighbours, fellow workers and family members. Today many of us live in separate worlds, a train journey from work, a car ride from church, and a day’s travel from close family.
So we need to be reminded that, like the Colossians, we are first and foremost found in Christ, and that ‘place’ lights up and transforms all our other places. So when an earthquake comes, in personal or in global circumstances, our security is in Jesus, and he goes with us when we too have to move on to another place where we may well be a stranger again, leaving behind the security of belonging.
Margaret Killingray
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