Angry about Adverbs
Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth – Colossians 3:2 (NRSV)
Slavery. Patriarchy. Parental supremacy. Obedience, ingrown and toxic. These are a few reasons to take issue with Paul’s (or someone’s) letter to the Christians in Colossae.
Growing up in the so-called Bible Belt, I have seen Colossians justify true horrors: blatant racism, domestic abuse, folks told to endure harm because “scripture says to.”
Why, then, am I so hung up on Colossians 3:2? Well, at the risk of seeming like some out-of-touch quibbler, it’s the adverb modifying the first “are.” It’s “above.”
As we make the turn from spring into summer, we are surrounded by vivid reminders of the earth’s ability to literally do what theology calls us to imagine: transform death into life. As flowers and trees and shrubs explode with new vivacity, resurrection is on full display. Rather than “above,” the things on earth seem to be where Christ most evidently is, right?
Given all the emphasis on the “above”—the heads of households and other hierarchies—could that be at least part of what gets us into trouble, into pain, into systemic harm?
I vote we change the adverb, if not in scripture, then in theology. Let’s take it upon ourselves to seek the things that are “deep down”: the roots that revive creation, sunk into the same humus from which, according to Genesis, we ourselves are made. Let Christians seek those who are downcast, downtrodden, and downright tired—not to “help,” but to listen, learn, and maybe even obey the truths such a turn might reveal.
Prayer
God who knelt down alongside those who had been pushed down, help us to see You on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
About the AuthorTony Coleman is Pastor at First Congregational UCC in Memphis, TN.