Colossians 1:1-14
Introduction
“We thank God for you, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints.” “…and Epaphras has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”
Right from the beginning of their letter, Paul and Timothy are loving the Colossians expressions of love. Love for all the saints, love for the Spirit, love for one another. It’s a letter filled with love about the Colossians expressions of love—making this quite the love letter. In fact, it’s so full of love you almost expect to find at the end a string of X’s and O’s—kisses and hugs—those monikers our grandmothers put on birthday cards— a simple code intended to express love and affection. We use these coded monikers still today in text messages and e-mails. Of course in our fast paced world of texting and emailing, this simple coded expression is habitual at best, but usually just superficial—and sometimes awkward.
Amanda McCall, a comedy writer in New York City, tells about a phone conversation with a producer regarding a collaborative project. The next day McCall received a text message from the producer telling how she was excited about their upcoming project, and then ending her message with a long string of X’s and O’s. That’s all fine and good, but later an e-mail arrived from this same producer, with the subject line XOXO, and then the message was just a long and now awkward sting of, “XO XO XO XO XO XO XO XO.” McCall was mystified saying, “I’ve never seen so many hugs or kisses in any kind of correspondence, not even from my parents or boyfriends. It was weird and I didn’t know how to respond. I mean, would I hurt their feelings if I didn’t respond with equal number of X’s and O’s? What’s the rule on X’s and O’s?”
Well I tried to find out, and it seems appropriate protocol for X’s and O’s usage hasn’t yet been established, thus the line between cute and cordial and creepy remains blurred. But this isn’t the only example of obtuse X’s and O’s usage and the blurred message they can convey.
News anchor Katie Couric used X’s and O’s so frequently panic broke out when she didn’t use them, causing her text recipient to fret saying, “Katie didn’t X-O me! What did I do to upset her!” Talk-show host Wendy Williams wishes she could stop, but admits she is powerless to the XOXO power, saying, “My fingers just do it without me thinking about it.” Karli Kasonik, a Washington consultant says, “XOXO has taken on its own kind of life, along with similarly associated emoji’s. And like it or not, they are here to stay.”
This usage of XOXO and their emoji counter parts, makes me wonder if Paul and Timothy were writing today would they use a coded farewell at the end of their letters. Because if they did, they wouldn’t use XOXO. Rather they would use just a single X. After all, for a follower of Christ, a single X says way more than all the X’s and O’s and emoji’s anyone could ever text or email.
Move 1
Paul, Timothy and the Colossians were not adverse to these public displays of affection. Unpack Paul’s letters, and the words “love” and “beloved,” are used over 130 times. Paul speaks of “God’s love”, the “love of Christ”, the “love of the Spirit”, “beloved fellow servants”, “God’s beloved Son”, and the need for all people to “love one another and be united in love.” Paul seems to be in love with love, even using it as a means of warning when he says “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). So Paul is an “XO” kind of guy who implores us to have love “for all the saints”; to express “love in the Spirit”; live as Disciples of God’s “beloved Son”. But how should we do so in ways that are not just superficial (or creepy), but rather faithful?
Well, we all know love is an essential part of life. We need to receive love and express love—especially as Christians because Christian love is more than a hug and a kiss at the end of an e-mail or text message. So what I think would be helpful to express love faithfully, and not creepy, is a rebranding of XOXO to just simply X.
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The use of X as a symbol for affection goes back at least to the year 1763, when The Oxford English Dictionary first defined X as “kiss.” But we can actually go back even farther—all the way back to the Greek language and alphabet used in the New Testament. There, we find the letter chi, which looks like an X, and is the first letter of the Greek word “Christos”—which means Christ. So for Christians “X” doesn’t mean “kiss,” it means “Christ.”
A single, solitary X therefore, points us to the love that is at the heart of the Christian life—a love we find in Christ, a love we are called to share—not in coded letters, not in emoji’s— but in how we live and treat and respond to others.
Move 2
Paul and Timothy’s letter to the Colossians, shows us love never drifts far from faith. Paul and Timothy say, “We always thank God … for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints.” The Colossians are showing faith in Jesus, the one who lived a life of unconditional love and then lovingly offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to bring forgiveness and new life. They have seen a perfectly clear picture of love in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and are now following his example as they work to love one another—even those who are difficult to love.
For the Colossians “X” is not indication of romantic love, and certainly not a cute little sign off moniker. Rather it is the mark, the symbol, the reminder of sacrificial love— a love that feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, heals the sick, welcomes strangers, and even lays down one’s life for a friend.
When the Colossians put their faith in Jesus, they begin to love with this kind of love. No, they are not perfect at this— they are as flawed as any of us—but they have been inspired by the love of Christ so everything they say and do is marked not with XOXO, but rather just X. Christ. Love.
Move 3
A few years ago The Christian Century magazine, challenged a group of Christian leaders to define the Good News of Jesus in seven words or fewer— just condense the Gospel into a handful of words.
Pastor and author Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber, met this challenge saying, “We are who God says we are.” As one who thinks why use ten words when you can use a hundred, I was pretty impressed. “We are who God says we are.”
Bolz-Weber explains her statement, saying, “In the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Christ we see that God is so for us, and with us, we can no longer be defined according to death. We are who God says we are: the broken yet forgiven, blessed children of God; the ones to whom God draws near.”
Environmentalist Bill McKibben responded to the challenge saying, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This isn’t an earth shattering statement— Jesus himself emphasized this law that comes from Leviticus. But listen to McKibben’s take on the importance of loving our neighbors: “Loving mainly ourselves—which is the definition of the high consumer society we inhabit— means creating a world that is self-centered and short sighted. Our world is getting increasingly hotter, causing almost all of us to increasingly feel economically insecure. But Jesus had it figured out: Life in this world only works when we’re in it together.”
McKibben is right. The world only works, as God intends, when we love our neighbor as ourselves. It only works when we, as is said to the Colossians, “lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as (we) bear fruit in every good work.” By rebranding our expressions of XOXO to a lifestyle of just X, then we truly are living as those who God calls us to be. When we live our “X”, and not just type it, then all of us are in this together, which blesses us, our neighbors, and even the planet entrusted to our care.
Conclusion
In their letter, Paul and Timothy remind the Colossians that God “has rescued us from the power of chaos and transferred us into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” If there was any doubt about the raw power of God’s love, this statement eliminates it. Far from being a set of X’s and O’s, kisses and hugs, God’s love creates an entirely new reality for those who follow Christ.
Through our faith in Christ, we are rescued from the power of sin, ushered into the kingdom of God’s, redeemed from death, and given grace and forgiveness. That’s the power of “X”. That’s the power of Christ. That’s the power of true, genuine, non-coded, emoji-less love.
So the next time you finish an e-mail or send a text, instead of a trendy XOXO, or a kissy emoji consider signing off with just a single X. Sure people might think you’re sending them a kiss, but you’re actually sending them the love of God and the love of neighbor found in X… in Christ Jesus himself. Because while XOXO means kisses and hugs, X means we are who God says we are: A broken and blessed child of God, who has been forgiven.
X means we strive to love our neighbor as ourselves, knowing our world works best when we are in it together. X means we are moving closer to the kingdom of God and we want everyone to join us there.
XOXO is a nice message of hugs and kisses—so sure, put it on birthday cards and Valentine’s Day cards (which is tomorrow!) But a single X is even better. And it is truly the moniker we should aim to leave at the end of everything. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, February 13, 2022
God of great love, help us to know in you we receive your loving grace, and come away strengthened by it, because when you discover, and rediscover your love, a new and rebranded life is always found. For in a world filled with death, you offer life. In a world overcome by sickness and disease, you offer life. In a world consumed with taking life, you offer life. In a world tired and weary, you offer life. But do we even understand what this really means for us?
Merciful Savior, we struggle to express the Good News of Jesus Christ. Some still say you were merely a great teacher or a prophet, but we know you to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Yet at times words themselves fail us and are inadequate to convey the depth of your love and peace and grace and what they have fashioned in our lives. At other times our confessions and our denials of you are separated by only a breath, and we are all too aware of our human frailty and shortcomings. And so we stand in need of you, and your love, yet again, so that we might love others as you love us.
Remind us of your infinite mercy. Draw us back to our first love. Refresh in us the passion to tell the story of your Son Jesus. Turn our minds from death toward your immense love that leads to a wonderful world. Awaken us to the opportunities before us to reach out to those who need us to share Christ’s love. Give us the courage to confront our passivity to love those who are difficult to love that we might have a growing faith in the one who came to change everything for the better—and give all your children a rebranded life.
For when we love our neighbor as you love us, then our brokenness, and the brokenness of others is transformed into healing and new life. May it be so.
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Hear now, we ask the prayers that come from our individual hearts, as we offer them in this time of Holy Silence.
All of this we pray in the name of the one we follow, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”