WHO'S ON FIRST?

Years ago, Abbott and Costello came up with a humorous sketch which to this day is 
one of their most remembered.  It is entitled, "Who's on First?".
It's far too long to share with you here, but for those of you who aren't familiar with 
it, Costello has gotten a chance to play with the New York Yankees, and Abbott has 
landed a job on their coaching staff for as long as Costello is there.
Costello wants to learn the names of the players at the various positions, and he 
expects that Abbott, as coach will know them all.
Abbott remarks about all the funny names the players had back in those days, like 
Dizzy Dean.
Costello pushes the question, and Abbott responds, "Well, let's see, we have on the 
bags, Who's on first, What's on second, and I Don't Know's on third."
Costello says, "That's what I want to find out.
Abbott responds, "I say Who's on first, What's on second, and I Don't Know's on 
third."
After some discussion, Costello asks, "Well then, who's on first?" and Abbott 
responds, "Yes".
Costello asks, "I mean the fellow's name" and Abbott answers, "Who".     and thus it 
goes for another 10 minutes.
But the same question, once Abbott and Costello are off-stage, takes on considerably 
more significance.  
Who's on first?  It is obvious from this little sampling of what Paul has written to the 
church at Colossus that Jesus is on first.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;
Verse 15 doesn't say he was created in the image of God.  Jesus is the image of God - 
as much of God as we have the ability to fathom.
The reference to being the firstborn of all creation states clearly that Jesus is the 
ultimate heir of all of God's creation - of everything that is God's.
In verses 16 and 17, Paul continues, 'for in him, all things in heaven and on earth 
were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or 
powers - all things have been created through him and for him.
He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.'
Doesn't this echo beautifully, the opening words of the book of John?
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  
He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and 
without him not one thing came into being."
Christ, the firstborn of all of creation is on first.  He was here first, and he is first 
among rulers, king of kings, and Lord of lords.
Our Chancel Choir does an anthem called, "Thou art Worthy", which I love to sing, 
which reflects this passage.
The words to the first verse are,

Thou art worthy, Thou art worthy, Thou art worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory, Glory and honor, Glory and honor and power.
For Thou hast created, has all things created;
Thou hast created all things;
And for Thy pleasure, they are created,
For Thou art worthy, O Lord.

What a powerful statement this anthem makes, and what a beautiful reflection on 
these passages.
Paul continues with verse 18; 'He is the head of the body, the church; he is the 
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in 
everything.
The firstborn from the dead? Christ was the first to defeat death.  With that, became 
number one in everything.  Lord of the Universe.
And the head of our very church... or rather, the head of his church, in which he 
graciously permits us to participate and worship.
'For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was 
pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making 
peace through the blood of his cross.'
If we flash back to verses 13 and 14, Paul says, 'God has rescued us from the power 
of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we 
have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Christ bought redemption for each one of us individually with that act.  He made 
peace between sinful mankind and God on our behalf.
We no longer have to go looking for God. Christ has paved the path straight to him.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Paul continues in verses 21-23; 'And you who were once estranged and hostile in 
mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so 
as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him -
- provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without 
shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been 
proclaimed to every creature under heaven.'
Now we had better slow down.  Up to this point, we were listening to Paul's verbal 
portrait of Christ, but suddenly he turns and faces us.
This is a lot like one of the exercises we did in Disciple Bible Study called Theological 
Bible Study.  We examine a passage, and try to answer three questions about it:
¥ What does this passage tell us about God?
¥ What does this passage tell us about Man?
¥ What does this passage have to say about the relationship between Man and God?
Paul appears to be doing the same thing with us here.
In light of who Christ is, and our acknowledgment that he is on first for everything, 
what is expected of us?
If we acknowledge Christ as the head of our church, then our church - that is, those 
of us sitting and standing right here - should be striving to:
¥ Live in his Spirit;
¥ To know his will;
¥ To obey his will;
¥ Live together in love and harmony as his children.
For us to live together in his Spirit would for me mean that we would all be sharing 
the joy of salvation with everyone around us.
We would have an excitement in this church which would not only be visible to 
visitors, it would be so electric that everyone would feel the presence of the Sprit 
here.
For us as a congregation to know his will would for me that mean every church-
related meeting would begin with prayer seeking his will.
Every member of our church would be constantly checking with the Lord to make 
certain our talents were being used optimally for him.
For us to obey his will, we as a congregation would be confidently daring to do the 
outrageous after we have learned through prayer and meditation that such acts were 
indeed the will of the Lord.
An example of this might be something like an every-member tithe.
And I guess I don't really have to explain what it would mean to me if our church 
were to be first as an example of living together in love and harmony as God's 
children.
All this has to apply as well to me as an individual.
Who's on first in my heart?
Do I recognize Christ as the supreme authority in my life?  At work, I am not famed 
for my respect of authority figures.   My favorite Pete Sinclair cartoon is posted over 
my desk.
It shows his character walking by a brick wall on which is painted in big letters, 
"Respect Authority".  In the next frame, after he passes, there is added just below it 
the phrase, "Says Who?". 
The jackass brays mightily but the forest does not tremble.  The tiger's paw barely 
presses the fallen leaf, and all rush for shelter.
I have stated openly even in front of my managers that no manager can command 
my respect.
They all start out with a clean slate, and from there, they have daily opportunities to 
either win my respect, or to lose it.
I think what I am looking for is leadership.  A leader says, "Follow Me" while a boss 
says, "Get moving".
Jesus is my ultimate role model for a leader.  He led with personal power rather than 
exerting positional power.
I respect Jesus.  I respect him as the ultimate leader.  I respect him for his total 
consistency in seeking and obeying the will of the father.  I respect him for giving up 
his life to buy me salvation.
I am doing my best to follow Christ.  I am trying to make him first in my life - all the 
time, not just on Sunday morning.
I love Jesus, but like Peter, I'm often rather inept at this.  I fumble often, I fail often, 
but He picks me up and dusts me off every time. He loves me anyway.
If I truly love Jesus, I will also obey his commands to spread the gospel.  The last 
two verses of the book of Matthew are a direct command as well as an important 
promise from the risen Lord:
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything 
that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of 
the age."
Likewise, in the first chapter of Acts, Christ is with his Disciples and they ask him, 
"Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom?"
He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by 
his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be 
my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.."
A true Disciple must keep the faith, but not to himself.  I must be more than one who 
merely shares the word, I must help lead others to Christ.
A true leader never sets himself above his followers except in carrying out his 
responsibilities.
So what else does Jesus expect of me?  How about Worship?
Worship is my way of showing my love and admiration for him.  It has been said 
that worship renews the spirit in the same way as sleep renews the body.
Worship is my response to the holiness of Jesus.  We worship God in the person of 
Jesus because he alone is worthy of praise, just as the anthem suggested.
I worship the Lord in response to a direct command in Exodus 20, the first 
commandment: you shall have no other gods before me.
In this power-centered, money-worshipping world, this commandment really gets 
beaten up.  I have to work continually to keep Jesus in first place in my heart.
Another expectation if I am keeping Christ on first is for me to keep developing 
personal holiness.  This is about spiritual growth, and about not doing such things as 
mis-using the name of the Lord.  (The third commandment).
Personal holiness is not an end, but rather, it's a journey.  It is yielding more and 
more of myself to his will, and dedicating more and more of my life to his service.
Keeping Jesus in first place will also show up as an ongoing desire to serve him, to 
work for him.  George McDonald, the great religious fiction writer whose style 
preceded Tolkein and Lewis once posed a very clear test to find out whether your 
mission here on earth is finished: If you are alive, it isn't.  
Jesus should be first in my thoughts.  When I seek truth, do I consult with him?  If I 
have made him one of my priorities, my mind will be in touch with him frequently.
Christ was in constant touch with God - I can certainly maintain more than sporadic 
communication with him.
If I hold on to Jesus as the creator of all about me, the source of love and healing, I 
certainly should be expressing an attitude of gratitude.
In Luke 17 verses 11-19, Jesus heals ten lepers.  Only one of them, after realizing 
what Jesus has done, turns back and starts praising God with a loud voice, 
prostrating himself before Jesus' feet, and thanking him.
And he was a Samaritan. Jesus then asked, "Were not ten made clean?  But the other 
nine, where are they?  Was none of them found to return and give praise to God 
except this foreigner?"
Then Jesus said to the man, "Get up and go on your way, your faith has made you 
well".
Christ should also be on first when it comes to my stewardship.  First of all, what 
wealth I have accumulated isn't mine anyway - it is his, on loan to me to invest on 
his behalf -  like the parable of the talents.
As the recent bumper sticker suggests, "Tithe if you love Jesus, any fool can honk."
A very wealthy man was nearing death, and he tried to strike a bargain with God.  
He really wanted to take some of his accumulated wealth with him when the time 
came.
He negotiated with God, who finally relented, even though this was an exceptional 
request, but the wealthy man would be limited to bringing a single suit case.
The man spent a lot of time thinking about it and he finally bought the largest 
suitcase he could find, and filled it with gold bouillon.
The time came, and he headed for heaven, struggling with the heavy suitcase in 
hand.  At the pearly gates, St. Peter intercepted him.
"You can't come in here with that - didn't anybody ever explain to you that you can't 
take it with you?
The man tried to explain, but Peter wouldn't hear of it.  Finally the man convinced 
him to call Gabriel and check for the agreement.
Gabriel showed up but quickly took the same position as Peter. This sort of thing was 
just not permitted.
Finally, the man convinced Gabriel to check with God.  Gabriel finally came back 
muttering, but said, "It's highly irregular, but if God said you could do it, I can't stop 
you... go on in...
"But before you go, could you tell me what's so important to you that you feel 
compelled to lug it all the way into Heaven?"
The man proudly opened the suitcase and showed them row after row of shining 
bars of gold.  Gabriel turned to Peter and asked, "Why on earth would he bring 
paving stones with him?" 
Stewardship has over the years come to mean money, but the real meaning 
encompasses managing all my resources, especially my time.
Time is more valuable than money because time is irreplaceable.
For example, how much time does it take to read from Genesis to Revelation?
If I were to read the Bible at standard pulpit speed (slow enough to be heard and 
understood) the reading time would be seventy-one hours.
If we break that down into minutes and divide it into 365 days, I could read the 
entire Bible, cover to cover, in only twelve minutes a day.  Is this really too much 
time to spend reading about God?
But for all these aspects of Christian living, I think I may have omitted the most 
important.
Why were we created?  I believe it was quite simply for relationship.  I think the 
Lord wanted some friends with whom to commune.  To share his thoughts and 
beauty of the day.
But we got tempted to have some of that power and knowledge for ourselves, and 
succeeded in getting ourselves evicted from his garden.
We were too focused on becoming number one ourselves.
In a survey taken several years ago, all incoming freshmen at MIT were asked if 
they expected to finish in the top half of their class.  Ninety seven percent of them 
responded that they did.
Look at all those "We're number one" mittens we see at football games - on both 
sides of the field.  How many coaches get fired because their team came in third?
And look at the play-offs:  Only one play-off team in the entire NFL will finish the 
season with a win.
One of the greatest NFL coaches of all time, Vince Lombardi once remarked, "Winning 
isn't everything - winning is the only thing."
Fortunately for us, God sent down to live with us the true number one.
The one who should always be first in our hearts.
The one who came to buy back our salvation.
The one who repaved the road back to God.
The religion of Jesus begins with one word, "follow"; and it ends with one word, go.
Let us all go forth and share the love of Christ with those we encounter every day - 
in our family, our workplace, and even in our church.
Let us all work toward building our end of that essential communications bridge with 
the Lord.  He has a lot he'd like to share with us.
Let us leave him on first, and go about his business as his servants, not concerned 
with our position.
We will reach the pinnacle of success when we are no longer interested in money, 
compliments, or publicity, but rather in helping everyone to get to know him better, 
and discovering that he really is on first.
Who's on First?