In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

In the name of goodness and love and broken community.

In the name of meaning and feeling and I hope you don’t screw me…

In the name of darkness and light and ungraspable twilight

In the name of mealtimes and sharing and caring by firelight

In the name of action and peace and human redemption

In the name of eating and drinking and table confession

In the name of sadness, regret, and holy obsession,

The holy name of anger, the spirit of aggression

In the name of forgive and forget and I hope I get over this

In the name of father and son and the holy spirit

In the name of beauty and broken and beaten up daily.

In the name of seeing our creeds and believing in maybe,

We gather here, a table of strangers, to speak of our hopeland and speak about danger…

To make sense of our thinking, to authenticate lives

To humanize feeling and stop telling lies

In the name of philosophy, and theology, and who gives a damn?

In the name of employment and study and finding new family

In the name of our passion our loving and indecent obsessions

In the name of prayer and of worship and demon possession

In the name of solitude and quiet and holy reflection

In the name of the lost and the lonely and the without direction

In the name of efficiency, stupidity, and the wholly ineffectual

In the name of the straight, and the queer, and the sometimes bisexual

In the name of Mary and Jesus and the mostly silent Joseph.

In the name of speaking to ourselves, saying, “this is more than I can cope with”

In the name of touch-up and break-up and break-down and weeping

In the name of therapy and Prozac and full-hearted breathing

In the name of sadness and madness and years since I’ve smiled

In the name of the unknown, the alien, and the holy in exile

In the name of goodness and kindness and intentionality

In the name of harbor and shelter and family.

15-18 We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

18-20 He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.

Talking about Colossians 1:1-8 tomorrow. Sharing a meal afterward. Davidson’s are bringing lasagna.

Here’s the text we’ll start with:

^1-2I, Paul, have been sent on special assignment by Christ as part of God’s master plan. Together with my friend Timothy, I greet the Christians and stalwart followers of Christ who live in Colosse. May everything good from God our Father be yours!

^3-5Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.

^5-8The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. It’s the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you’ve been hungry for more. It’s as vigorous in you now as when you learned it from our friend and close associate Epaphras. He is one reliable worker for Christ! I could always depend on him. He’s the one who told us how thoroughly love had been worked into your lives by the Spirit.

Look Forward to see you there!