Colossians 1:15-17
Sermon at Marquand Chapel, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT
April 11, 2025, 11:30 AM
We find ourselves in a difficult time. Our beliefs, values, and hopes appear to be no longer welcome by those who have power and control over us. We look around the room to see if it’s safe or safe enough to speak. We wonder if we can trust others with our thoughts. We copy-edit ourselves of our familiar lexicon so to not raise a red flag.
As an Asian American, I often wonder if my participation in a group is because of my identity. Do others see me for who I am or mainly for what I look like?
When my brothers, cousins and I were growing up in Roxbury, a neighborhood in Boston, the Phillip Brooks Elementary School counted us as “colored” because it needed more people of color for their records when the school was mostly white. But when Roxbury became a predominantly, African American neighborhood, we were then counted as “white!” We were invisible.
I was in second grade when the teacher had this cardboard holder with little slots. She passed out these little white cards for the pupils to write their names; last name, comma, first name initial on them so she can slot them into this seating chart to remember our names. Remember, the desks and chairs were screwed down on the floor. So, I wrote, Ng, D. When she came to my card, she said, “Does this mean, No Good, Desk!” I was invisible.
Not to overly generalize, but most Asians and Asian Americans are usually sitting in the back of the room, often not first to speak, usually deferring to others, and unassuming to not stand out. We are often perceived as unscrupulous, whatever that means; perhaps secretive; perhaps as like a stranger from a different shore. We can still recall the internment of Japanese Americans mostly US citizens during World War II. We need to be invisible to survive or we might be deported.
Visible Christ
In this season of Lent, we will soon enter Passion Week when we remember the sacrifice God made in the Suffering Servant Christ so that Easter may come.
In Isaiah 53, the prophecy of the coming of the Suffering Servant describes the servant as
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (v. 7)
As an Asian American, I identify with this as a follower of Christ at this time of Lent. There are times when it’s better not to speak. My mother used to teach me that once a word, especially a bad word, leaves my mouth, I would never be able to take it back. However, perhaps unhealthy as it might sound, invisibility can be one’s survival.
But as Easter People, the Suffering Servant has completed his task, we know this. We know that after Maundy Thursday, after Good Friday, after Holy Saturday, comes Easter morning!
After Jesus himself became invisible in that dark, closed up tomb after the crucifixion. After when the fearful disciples made themselves invisible in hiding. After the women returned to their unnoticeable daily work. After everyone in the world have returned to the expected way things should be that power is in control and death has the last word, life on Easter morning begins anew! The invisible is visible!
New Order
In Colossians 1, Paul wrote,
Christ 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. (15-17)
We come out of our dorm rooms or apartments to be here. We close the doors of our offices behind us to be here. We travel sometimes great distances to be here. We come to chapel as people to be seen and no longer invisible because in Christ, we are no longer invisible but confident and strong to worship and speak truth to power, preach peace to war, do justice against the unjust.
One of the themes of Colossians is that creation is created to be good and that it’s essential that we don’t abandon it. The cosmos, through Christ is redeemable, just as the church has been redeemed. Our response as disciples and community of faith denies the worldly despair that we are encountering today. We are not at the end of the world that may lead us into hiding but as Christ has made the invisible, visible, we are no longer sleep walking anymore. Our faith has given us eyes to see.
No Longer Invisible
Five years ago, when the Covid pandemic shut down the world, the coronavirus was blamed on the Chinese. We all became afraid of being too visible. I was on my early morning daily walk through my town when a woman shouted slurs at me, including telling me to go back to my country like being born in Boston near Fenway Park was not enough. AAPI Hate became a news story and today, I still look over my shoulder sometimes when I pass someone who appear to be threatening.
One time, I was walking with one of my grandsons and he was amused that I greeted “Good morning” to everyone I pass. He told me that I didn’t need to be so friendly. But he just hasn’t learned yet that when we are visible, it’s not a bad idea to have some friends around.
Maybe that’s the reason why I serve on boards like Andover Newton after retirement so that I can be visible. Maybe that’s why I said yes to preach at chapel today so that Asian Americans like me won’t be afraid to speak up when we need to, that we don’t need to sit in the back of the room to be invisible, that we do have something to say in the conversation to enrich and offer a more complete picture of the world. I am visible up here so that those who are Asians and Asian American at YDS can also be visibly significant in this community.
Redeemed Community
We are living at a difficult time. We have become afraid of being accused of being “woke” or committed to DEI or saying, “Black Lives Matter,” or even the discipline of critical thinking. Isn’t that’s the reason why we exist? If the university laboratory is unwilling to try to become educated and informed about all of life, why do we exist? If the seminary is unwilling to embody the reign of God on earth where we are visible to one another in the sharing of all of our gifts, talents, abilities, shades of skin, richness of cultures, tapestries of histories, languages of Pentecost, the genders of our humanity, then how can we ever be the beloved community?
The church in this world is going through difficult times! Walter Brueggemann in The Prophetic Imagination said, “Imperial economics is designed to keep people satiated so that they do not notice. Its politics is intended to block out the cries of the denied one. But it is passion that has the capacity and readiness to care, to suffer, to die, and to feel is the enemy of imperial reality.” Can we have the passion to share the love of Christ to eradicate the world’s oppression?
In Colossians, Paul insists that in Christ, the world comes together in coherence, not in separate and disparate pieces but held together in the midst of difficult times. There is no power greater than God’s power in Christ.
The unity we have in Christ means that we have unity among us. No longer will I need to be invisible because of Christ. No longer do you need to be invisible because of Christ. No longer will the redeemed community, the church needs to be invisible because of Christ.
God is calling us to be active in this world because it is worthy of redemption. We see evidence of this in Christ, our Redeemer. Let us be courageous in our witness of what is right and speak against what is terribly wrong. Let us not be afraid of our own shadows or be intimidated by any power or silently and quietly sneak into hiding and become invisible. Today is the day to stand out in the sun and speak truth and justice against thrones, dominions, rulers and presidential powers.
When we, the church in Christ brings order and peace and love and justice and hope today, we will be like the Colossians.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (3:16-17)
Let us go out to be visible in Christ; to bring righteousness in these difficult times.
Let us pray.
All-knowing God, lead us to believe that in Christ, our world is worth saving that requires us to respond to you faithfully to love one another, to call for justice, and to make peace. When we wander away from your vision for us, help us to see that all of creation is visible and essential in the interdependence of life. Still our anxieties, cast away our fears, and untie our tongues so that we become instruments to bring healing, hope, and joy. As we continue to live in these difficult times, hear our prayers and empower our ministries. Amen.
Communion
Union Seminary Professor Kosuke Koyama in Three Miles an Hour God, wrote, “It is better to eat half a plate of pizza in this living space than to eat the full plate alone.” Our Lord came to create human relationships that fulfil God’s will. When we share pizza with each other, when we break the bread of life and drink the cup of the New Covenant in Christ, we make this space, a holy place that pleases God’s heart.
On the night,
Bread, Body broken for you
Cup, New Covenant in my blood
Let us pray.
O God, not as we ought, but as we are able, we offer thanks to you, for Jesus Christ. We thank you for his life and ministry, for his sacrificial death on the cross, and for his resurrection and the promise he gives to all who are here to share in the new life in him. By your Spirit, make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world. Amen.
Benediction
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual song to God. (Col. 3:16)
Be no longer invisible, but in Christ, be visible and have courage in these difficult times. Amen.