Why Cosmic Faith Must Shape Everyday Life

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Scriptures: Colossians 4

• Sermon Summary

  Summary: In the fifth sermon of our series, Cosmic Thoughts for Daily Life, Jeremy walks us through the cosmic, cultural, and colloquial arguments of Paul’s letter so far, which culminates in a list of his companions’ names in chapter four.

  The Cosmic Opening: Jeremy reviews Paul’s opening remarks which lift our gaze to Christ as as the one who holds all things together and reconciling the universe. Jeremy reminds us that his words act as the grounding for everything that follows. Our daily choices flow from our beliefs about the cosmos and thereby we participate in big and little ways in the grand reconciliation story of God.

  Contributions and Desires: Paul writes that our lives and even our sufferings are part of Christ’s ongoing reconciling work. Jeremy challenges us to examine our desires—not with shame, but with the hope that we are capable of wanting better. We can reorient our lives toward love, peace, and the flourishing of all if we don’y shy away from interrogating our inner worlds. Jeremy encourages us to trust that our deepest desires, when rightly discerned, align with God’s good intentions for us and the world.

  Households and Subversions: Jeremy re-examines Paul’s challenging household codes, showing how Paul subtly undermines the cultural norm with a Christlike ethic. Jeremy shares that even in the systems we can’t fully dismantle, we are not powerless. Christ invites us to embody mutuality, love, and dignity even in places where power imbalances exist.

  Bringing it all home: Paul ends Colossians with a roll call of names and a call to prayer. Jeremy explains how these final verses reveal how cosmic convictions should shape how we speak, encourage, and interact every day. The outcome of our beliefs ought to be thankful, hopeful, and wise. Jeremy reminds us to live as if the universe is being reconciled, because it is. And let that assurance in Christ ground your kindness, your courage, and your persistence in your daily life.

• Discussion Guide

  Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions and reflections are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.

  Summer Discussion Guide 2025

  If your group is meeting this summer and wants to talk about the sermons, here are a few questions that you could use to engage with our teaching.

  • What specific part of the message resonated with you the most? Why do you think that particular part, or idea, or story caught your attention?

  • Did the sermon speak into a particular struggle or question in your life or your faith journey right now?

  • What did the message challenge or encourage you personally? And what do you think the application could be for our church community? Was there anything that could strengthen or stretch us as a church?

  How did the exposition of the scriptures used in the sermon provide you with a new perspective of deeper understanding?

  It is good to remember that the conversation experience in the group is shaped by the personal stories of those who participate in it and how willing the people are to be open and vulnerable in the group.
  
  So if you’re leading the discussion, feel free to model and encourage person-centred and story-centred sharing by reflecting on how some parts of the sermon resonate with you personally.

  Additionally, what contributes to a more authentic group discussion is when people can share not about the abstract and theoretical applications, but one or two practical things they are taking away from either the sermon or the discussion.

  So, you can end your time together with this question:

  • What is one thing you are taking away from either the sermon or the discussion we’ve just had?

• Service Songs & Prayers

  CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 96

  MUSIC Curated by Curt Muller
  
  
  CANADA DAY PRAYER

  God of community,
  We give you thanks for this part of the world we call home,
  for the magnificence of the land,
  for the faithfulness of the earth that sustains us,
  and for all our neighbours with whom we share it.
  Would you grow in us an awareness of the ways that we rely on,
  benefit from,
  shape, and are shaped by, our neighbours,
  whether chosen or circumstantial.
  So that we may not forget that, we too, are a neighbour to someone else.

  God of the Nations,
  who involves yourself with our goings on,
  and our day-to-day,
  and who sees our fighting, and our peacemaking.
  Hear us,
  We pray for the indigenous people of this land who have been here a long time.
  May our ears and feet match yours, when we listen and walk down the path of reconciliation.
  
  We pray for those who came before us who molded this continent into nations and treaties.
  May our memories and stories match yours, truthful and honest, hopeful, and new.
  
  We pray for those fleeing war, seeking refuge in this land—the foreigner.
  May our eyes and hearts match yours, seeing suffering and embracing someone different from us.
  
  We pray for the lonely and isolated among us.
  May our homes and dining tables match yours, open and without expectation.
  
  We pray for the nations,
  May our hands and lips match yours, building and creating bridges, writing good law, and speaking justice and truth even when no one listens.

  God of this place,
  Help us keep our home, Canada, in good estate.
  Help us remember well, the complexities of the past, and guide our steps as we build our future.
  Teach us to celebrate diversity and welcome each other's humanity beyond what divides us.
  Continue to create, O God, and let us be both the outcome and a part of the process.

  Amen.
  
  SERIES BUMPER
  Cosmic Thoughts for Daily Life