Colossians 1:17
Certainly someone must recognize what I have in my hand.
(If someone says, “A hinge”) Not exactly. It’s only part of a hinge. I need another part to make it a hinge. This other part looks like the first, but it’s different. The second part is not identical, but it corresponds with the first. They fit together. They were made to fit together. So, once you put the two together, you have a hinge.
Actually, that’s not quite right, either.
There’s still another piece missing.
I found out about this other piece when I was a kid.
Somehow, some way, I noticed that one of the hinges on one of our doors was not quite right. Something was sticking up. I pushed on it, and it slid back down. I was fascinated. I pulled it up. I pushed it down. I pulled it all the way out. I got up on a chair and pulled the upper pin out. “I wonder why those things are in there?” I remember thinking to myself.
I found out when I closed the door. The door came out and fell down. I thought that was keen. I went around to all the doors in our home and took all the hinge pins out. It wasn’t out of maliciousness or some kind of childish prank. It was just that I was kind of proud of myself for figuring out how something worked. For some reason, it absolutely fascinated my 7 or 8 year old mind.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t equally fascinating to my mom when all the doors she went through fell down.
Then I had to go around and put all the hinge pins back in. I found out it’s harder getting the pins in than it was getting them out. The whole door has to be just right or the pin won’t slide in place. Trying to hold the door still and steady while trying to get the pin in, as a kid by myself, wasn’t as fascinating as pulling them all out.
I think I remember all that because, like I said, it was the first time I had figured out how something worked on my own.
I was just entranced by the simplicity of how it worked. You just put this pin in here and it’s held together and it functions as it’s supposed to. You pull the hinge pin out and it’s a disaster waiting to happen, as my mom found out.
It looks like it could work without the hinge pin.
And it might for a while. But before too long, the door will fall.
So, what have I got here? (Hold up one side of a hinge.)
(If they say, “A piece of a hinge,” say…) Not exactly.
What this is, is a person.
It doesn’t look like a person. But it is a person.
(Holding up the other side of the hinge) And what is this?
(If they say, “It’s the other side of the hinge, say…) No; actually this is God. I know most of your pictures of what God is like do not match up with this. But this is God. It kind of looks like the human over here in this hand. But they are much different from each other.
Remember in the story of creation, in the first chapter of Genesis?
When God created humans, what does the story say? It said we were created in the image of God. So there is some kind of semblance between ourselves and God. But mostly, to me anyway, what it means to be made in the image of God is that God made us to fit in with our Creator. When humans come together with God there is an important connection that’s made. When we are joined to God, it feels like a perfect fit. When we connect up with God, we work like we’re supposed to. So, the more we are connected to God, the better off we are going to be.
The problem is, we think we can do it better on our own.
Or we think we are independent enough that we are able to live life solo. We think we don’t need God’s other piece to fill out our own. We think we don’t need to fit in with God. We don’t need connection. Or, maybe it’s outright rebellion. Just a step at first; then another, then another. It starts with pulling ourselves apart.
A guy got a job painting a yellow line down the middle of the streets in a town.
After three days, the foreman complained, saying, “The first day you did great—you painted that yellow line for three blocks. The second day wasn’t bad—you did two blocks. But today you only painted the line for one block. Keep that up and I’ll have to fire you.”
On his way out of the foreman’s office, the guy looked back and said, “It’s not my fault. Each day I just got farther away from the paint can.”
That’s what happens in our relationship with God.
At first, we make a break for it. We loosen ourselves from God. (Pull the hinge pieces apart.) Then, step-by-step, we get farther and farther away. As someone put it once, “If we are not feeling as close to God as we used to be, who moved?” We need to find some way, if we really want to remain close to God, of staying joined.
God has provided that way.
With this. And this is? (If someone says, “The hinge pin,” say…) No, this is Jesus Christ. I know this doesn’t look like the pictures you have seen of Jesus. But this is Jesus Christ. God wants to be inter-connected with our lives. God wants to be a part of all that we do. Deep in our hearts, I think we want that as well. We want to be connected to God in a meaningful and everlasting way. In a way that will not and cannot become separated.
So God provided our Savior Jesus to make sure that happens.
We get connected up with God. Then Jesus makes himself the hinge pin of that relationship. Jesus connects us to God in an intimate and unbreakable bond. We are connected to God forever through Christ—and God with us. We work and function as we are supposed to. We live lives of usefulness, purpose, contentedness and peace. All because of the hinge pin—Jesus Christ. Our Bible verse for this morning from Colossians says that in Jesus, all things are “held together.” Everything depends on Christ, the hinge pin, to hold it together—if the hinge pin is in place. If it is not, weakness and self-centeredness is the result.
So, (hold up one side of the hinge) what is this?
(If they say, “God,” or, “A person,” say…) No, actually this is a husband. It may not look like a husband, but it is. And, (holding up the other side of the hinge) what is this? Right, a wife. Now you’re catching on. Together, they make a marriage.
Well, sort of.
A lot of couples try to make a marriage with one of these two pieces. One of them ends up doing all the work, making the marriage work. Or, with just these two pieces. They do fit together. They were made by God to fit and compliment each other. That’s God’s design. Remember what Adam said when he first saw Eve? "At last, bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” So similar. So similar, they fit. The Bible story goes on to say, "That's why a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves unto his wife."
But then remember our Bible verse: “In Jesus Christ all things are held together.” Just fitting together isn’t enough. Just coming together—the “cleaving”--isn’t going to give that relationship enough strength when stress comes. The couple needs to do more than just come together; they need to be held together.
The ability to come apart is too easy.
What is needed is this. (Hold up the hinge pin.) And what is this? Right, Jesus Christ. Not until Jesus Christ is allowed to be made part of that relationship will the relationship become strong and solid. With the hinge pin, with Jesus Christ, the two truly become one. As long as that relationship is held together by Christ, focused on Christ, instead of on self, it will be held together. The two shall become one. That is the promise.
So, (hold up one side of the hinge) what is this?
Actually, this is a parent. It doesn’t look like a parent, but that’s what it is.
(Holding up the other side of the hinge) And what is this? Right, this is a child. The same “held together” principle applies. You can be bound together by all sorts of ways with your children, or, as children with your parents. But there is a part that is needed in every parent-child bond, no matter how old you are, so that you are bound together.
(Hold up the hinge pin.) And that part is? Yes, Jesus Christ. When you pray with your children/grandchildren, when you read scripture with your children/grandchildren, when you have some kind of devotional time with your children/grandchildren, when you attend church with your children/grandchildren, you are acknowledging the hinge pin, Jesus Christ. You are making sure that pin stays in place. You are making that special relationship strong and whole.
I could go on and on. All of this is true for you and your friendships, you and your co-workers, you and all Christians, you and God’s creation.
In Christ, all things are held together!
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