An Image Worth Considering

An encouraging word for the weekend …

I’ve been studying the book of Colossians for several weeks now as part of a teaching series at The Bridge Community.  It’s a first century letter written to a young church, giving them a vision for life and faithfulness.  One of the significant passages in the book is Colossians 1:15-20, a great poem, or hymn of the Christian faith.

With this passage in mind, I want you to have this poetic, interpretative expansion on that text.  It’s written by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat in their book, Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire.  I hope this will allow the Scripture to come alive and confront our changing cultural reality …

In an image saturated world,

a world of ubiquitous corporate logos

permeating your consciousness

a world of dehydrated and captive imaginations

in which we are too numbed, satiated, and co-opted

to be able to dream of life otherwise

a world in which the empire of global economic affluence

has achieved the monopoly of our imaginations

in this world

Christ is the image of the invisible God

in this world

driven by images with a vengeance

Christ is the image par excellence

the image above all other images

the image that is not a facade

the image that is not trying to sell you anything

the image that refuses to co-opt you

Christ is the image of the invisible God

the image of God

a flesh-and-blood

here and now

in time and history

with joys and sorrows

image of who God is …

So, this weekend, may we see all the “dehydrated” images for what they are.  May we fight the robber-barons of the soul, those competing images that seek a “monopoly of our imaginations,” and dwell on the only image that matters!

Related posts:

1. Who Am I? Why Am I Here?