Amos 7:7-17; Psalm 82; Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37
The Rev. Drew Brislin
Some of my fondest memories growing up center around fishing trips I took with my dad and
Grandfather as a young boy. I remember my dad coming in and waking me up in the early
morning hours before daybreak to get ready. Now during the school week, the wake up from
my dad came in the form of the lights be flipped on and a hearty get up! This was juxtaposed to
the gentle nudging that our mom always deployed. On Saturday mornings though, with a
fishing trip as the bait, so to say, my dad didn’t need much in the way of motivation to get me
going. The boat was always gassed up and hitched to the car and loaded down with our fishing
rods and other gear. The coolers and snacks were carefully prepared and packed and while I
had not yet started drinking coffee, my dad and grandfather always had a thermos prepared as
well. All that was needed now was a quick trip to the bait shop on our way to the boat landing.
The trip to the bait shop was always fun as well. The person running it would often let me help
whether it was scooping minnows or worms or shaking crickets into our cricket basket
container thing made of chicken wire. With bait in tow, we were off, headed for destinations
with romantic names like Bogue Chitto Creek, Gee’s Bend, Little Miami, Beech Creek or some
other slough that emptied into the Alabama River that my dad or grandfather were familiar
with and that often-produced good beds of whatever particular fish we were going after that
day whether it was bream or crappie which they typically fished for with me. It would be
several years before my dad would start to teach me about bass fishing. The sun would just be
beginning to rise as we put the boat in the water. This usually put us at our fishing destination
in the early morning and at prime fishing time. We would get our hooks baited and lines in the
water and then the fun part began. You know that favorite part of fishing that involves the
really fun part of waiting and watching. That waiting and watching that is strengthened by the
hope of watching the cork dip below the water line or seeing the tip of your rod bend. But as
you can imagine in the midst of that hopeful waiting a little boy’s stomach starts to grumble.
In our reading from Colossians this morning we find a letter written to the young Christian
community that is growing in the town of Colosae which is located in modern day Turkey. It is
often claimed that this letter is written by Paul, however, scholars today think it was most likely
written by someone or a group of people, who may have been followers of Paul, writing as if
they were Paul. This letter is meant to be a letter of encouragement to a young community that
is in danger of being deceived by people they encountered who made plausible arguments and
employed false ideology most likely revering the elemental spirits of the universe revered by
the authorities that governed them. The writer deploys the element of hope at the beginning of
the letter. “In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for
we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that have for all the saints, because
of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the
truth, the gospel that has come to you.” Like the little boy whose stomach begins to rumble as
he is waiting on that monster fish to take his bait, so too is this young community of Christ
followers seeking confirmation of their faithfulness. The writer confirms, “Just as it is bearing
fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit and growing in the whole
world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly
comprehended the grace of God. This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant.”
The author of this letter is confirming for the young community that what they have heard, that
the Gospel that has been proclaimed to them from Epaphras is the true Gospel because the
fruit of the community is good and therefore the fruit of the Holy Spirit at work. We also hear
Paul’s foundations of faith, hope and love mentioned in this reading, however, in this letter
faith and love are made dependent on hope and that hope is the content of salvation as
salvation is what is hoped for in this young Christian community. The prominence of hope in
this letter of thanksgiving is a reminder for us of the security that is found in a life centered on
Christ.
As a young boy, I was often impatient, but also would grow hungry. That hunger was often
satisfied with Vienna sausages and saltine crackers or a soggy tuna fish sandwich and a Chek
cola from Winn Dixie. That was the sustenance that I needed as I waited and when I saw the
cork move and go under the water or the tip of my pole bend in a u-shape, I knew it was all
worth it. Hope for that big fish was sustained in those not so healthy snacks. Those memories
today give me hope that one day I will be reunited with my dad and my grandfather. Those
memories often sustain me. These letters of hope sustained these young, growing Christian
communities in the early days of the church. Christian hope is defined as the anticipation of the
future as the fulfillment of God’s purposes based on God’s covenant faithfulness and the
resurrection of Jesus Christ as known by the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church. I am ever so
thankful that hope is grounded in God’s covenant with us and the assurance that God will keep
his promises to us even when I so often fall short of keeping my end of the deal. Even in
adulthood I too often find myself getting impatient. I need to remember that there is always a
soggy tuna sandwich to get me by.
Amen