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Text: Colossians 1:19-23 Speaker: Ed Park
Recently there was a remake of the 1985 charity single “We are the World” written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie for Haitian Relief:
We are the world, we are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives It's true we'll make a better day Just you and me
After a Live AID concert, Bob Dillon said to the press that he was uncomfortable singing that song. When asked why he was uncomfortable he said, “man cannot save himself.”
In a 2007 Times article, at 41, Bono says, he has given up on music as a political force. He believes his work negotiating in political back rooms is more vital and effective than singing in sold-out stadiums. "Poetry makes nothing happen," the poet W.H. Auden once wrote, and Bono wistfully agrees. "When you sing, you make people vulnerable to change in their lives. You make yourself vulnerable to change in your life. But in the end, you've got to become the change you want to see in the world."
We must become the change. But we cannot. Therein lies a problem. Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners need to be reconciled. But by whom?
The Bible teaches us that there is a Designer behind the design of the universe. And that he came in the flesh in order to reconcile creation to its Creator. The result of his work is both legal and personal.
Colossians 1:21-22
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation
He finds you beautiful personally. He treats you as perfect – legally. There has never been such a radical claim that such a relationship with a creator God is possible. And those of us who have that relationship, know that it gives you a joy and a confidence that cannot be put out.