DOES THE CENTER STILL HOLD? – 7/31/20

Many Christians in Third World countries live in a world that is very dangerous, where hostile forces threaten them every day. They have little patience with American Christians lecturing them on relativism, tolerance, and religious pluralism. The only way they can live with these evils is to have a strong faith in Jesus Christ as the center of life. They believe that Jesus Christ is the only savior of the world and to center all life in Him alone!

Something has happened to America: We have gone from a centered world to an uncentered and chaotic world. Things began to come apart in the sixties and are unraveling at warp speed now. Our political and economic systems are in shambles, our social structures have turned upside down as the things that use to shame people are now honored and things that use to be honored are now shamed. Marriage and family systems are broken and our Constitution is no longer the law of the land. Even Church, which use to be built in the center of the village, is now on the periphery. And it is not just one group of people involved but most Americans are guilty. There seems to be no center or binding force that holds all sides, forces and things together. We are losing our center!

Can we find any center that will guide us in these terrible times? In the words of Paul “in Christ all things hold together” (Col. 1.17). Christ is the only center. He holds all things together. Nothing is excluded. He remains our only center, our only way out of this uncentered world. Life is out of control in America and all we know to do is to fight one another! And when we throw in the Corona Virus it multiplies fear and anger to the mix and there is no center!

William Butler Yeats said, “things fall apart; the center cannot hold.” We do live in a world that is falling apart. Many believe that there is no center to hold things together. We live in uncertainty because we do think “things fall apart; the center cannot hold.” Most people are in search of a center that that can hold on to and give them some sense of stability. When they cannot find a center that will hold they will turn on each other!

Paul gives us the answer to our dilemma in Colossians 1:15-20, known as the Christ Hymn:

He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross (ESV).

Paul answers our centerlessness by the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and the priority of the church. Jesus is the Center. The church under the lordship of Jesus is the place of centeredness. It is the place where peace and reconciliation occur in Christ. The only center this world will ever have is Jesus Christ. He is the Head of the Church and lives and moves in His Church. If you want to find a center that will hold through all this chaos and when “things fall apart” then put your focus where it belongs—on Christ the Center and on His Church where He dwells!

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil

His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

Jim