Colossians

 

Late Wednesday night, early Thursday morning, the Time is 12:03 AM and I don't often do this, but I'm up late enjoying being alive. 

Life is short, and we haven't much Time. These days I spend too much of it napping because of the One Thing Rule (we can do one thing, and then we have to have a sit-down (Linda in the blue riser chair) or outright lie down (me), pull up the covers, and go to sleep, usually an hour or two, sometimes three hours. 

At this, my post-midnight moment, I'm thinking about being ninety, which I never expected, so now and then I do something, like now, to be in life itself, enjoyment of, and gratitude for, shehechehyanu, who gives us life - - and sustains us, and has brought us to this Time, blessed are You.

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Looking at the Colossians reading for the upcoming Sunday: it's loaded with heavy theology, and it doesn't matter, but like many, I cannot see Paul having written this. Greek readers can dig into Colossians and report back significant differences between it and Paul's vocabulary and Paul's style in the seven undisputed letters. I can't do that competently, but the reading below flashes red lights in its differing theology: tor Paul, we are not already raised into the new life with Jesus, that comes at the end of days, when the trumpet will sound &c. Also the Colossians author's assertion, picked up in the Nicene Creed, that all things were created through Jesus Christ. It is foolishness - - in the nature of what was discussed in yesterday's meditation by Fr Richard Rohr about refusing to learn something new and clinging to what one "has always known to be True" - - to insist that Paul wrote Colossians, rationalizing away evidence to the contrary. 

But I really don't care. 

Anyway, here's the Colossians reading:

Colossians 1:11-20

May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-- all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.