I can remember very distinctly watching one filmstrip in an elementary school science class. I don’t remember the name of the film or even the narration. What I do remember is the image on the screen. With the blinds closed and the lights off, the screen at the front of the classroom lit up. I could hear the whir of the film projector next to my head and the gentle hum of the reels as they wound the film, passing it over the bulb.

The opening scene was of a typical town. It was a Main Street, bustling with activity. Then the image zoomed out and we could see the whole United States and then the whole world as though we were floating around in space. The blue of the oceans and green of the land was obscured only by the occasional cloud. Then the image zoomed out again. Earth became a shrinking dot on the screen as the moon and planets zoomed past until finally the image came to rest.

We found ourselves looking at our solar system from the perspective of Pluto. The dot that was the earth had long ago disappeared from sight and the sun itself was greatly diminished looking at it from so far away. Then, just as we were getting used to that perspective, the image began to zoom out again as we flew around the Milky Way and to regions of the universe I can’t even name.

And just when I was beginning to feel completely insignificant, looking out upon the vastness of the universe, the image reversed. We zoomed back into our solar system catching a glimpse of Jupiter’s rings as we sped back home to that seemingly insignificant blue-green planet. Earth came into view and as we swept through the atmosphere we spotted North America. Going at speeds impossible to achieve in reality, we zoomed back into the town where it had all started and focused on a single child standing in the middle of the busy Main Street.

Now I’m sure this was a film intended to teach us about the vastness of the universe but I admit that it only brought to my mind my own insignificance. I got that same feeling when I looked at the pictures in my textbook that diagrammed the place of earth in the universe. I got that feeling of insignificance when I looked at timelines tracing the various geological eras. When I saw how small the time of humans was on the timeline, I felt so insignificant. My life wasn’t even a speck of dust or a flash of light in the cosmic timetable.

I wonder if that was what the Christians at Colossae were feeling as they heard the beginning of this passage. As they heard about Christ being the creator of all that exists did they think about their place in the whole scheme of things? Did they ever wonder how it all fit together? Christ is credited with creating not only the things we can see, but also the things we can’t see. All things were created though him. Christ is the glue that holds all the creation together.

It’s like the film panning out to capture the whole universe in its lens. But it’s not only what we can see such as the planets, the stars, the blue of the oceans and the green of the land that Christ created, but also the things we can’t see. Scientists continue to discover new things that have been invisible to us all along. Black holes and dark matter occupy the front pages of scientific journals. And yet with all our efforts, there is still so much we have not yet discovered. And all of it created through Christ.

But then after capturing the vast creation of things seen and unseen the hymn shifts focus and begins to zoom back in on our blue-green planet. The same Christ credited with creating every thing, is credited as head of the Church. The chief of creation is the chief of the Church. And this head of the Church is not just some honorary title with no significance or power. Christ as head of the Church garners reconciliation. All the vastness of creation is brought into right relationship with God through Christ. As head of the Church, Christ brings all of creation back into focus. And that focus is God.

If you’ve ever looked through a nice camera with a long-range lens or a pair of nice binoculars, you’ve had that experience of trying to focus. You peer through the viewfinder knowing that you’re seeing something out there but it isn’t until you turn that dial to the right position that the picture just snaps into focus. You have to find the right f-stop to bring the picture into focus.

It’s the same idea with those of us who wear glasses or contact lenses. Without the glasses or contacts to help us focus, the world appears blurry and out of focus. I’ll never forget the day I got glasses. All of a sudden when I put on those pink plastic frames the world came alive. The trees had individual leaves and the lawn was full of individual blades of grass. Finding the right focus makes all the difference in the world for our ability to see the world clearly and accurately. Christ as the head of creation and as head of the church provides us with that focus. Christ is the correct f-stop for seeing creation.

But the author of this letter doesn’t stop with Christ as the head of the Church. Stopping at the image of Christ as head of the Church would be like stopping that filmstrip when all we could discern of earth was the blue of the ocean and the green of the land. We pause there hovering in space, drinking in the vastness of what is said.

What does it mean that Christ is the head of the Church? Reconciliation is the answer the author provides us with. Because Christ is the head of the Church the right relationship between God and creation is restored. Because Christ is the glue that holds all things together and because Christ is holding on to us, reconciliation can occur.

But the image doesn’t stop with us resting out there in space just able to discern the different continents beneath the earth’s atmosphere. The author zooms in again. Like the filmstrip that was able to find the individual child among the bustling main street, the author zooms in to find each of us within the life of the world.

We journey from the edges of the universe, heralding Christ as the creator of everything to zooming in on each of us individually. The author praises, "the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Not only is Christ out in the edges of the ever-expanding universe creating everything that was and is but Christ is also within each one of us. This vast mystery of Christ in us, gives us pause. All of a sudden those feelings of insignificance that we felt at the edges of the universe are transformed into feelings of joy as we see and feel Christ within us.

Though the translation given in both the NRSV and the NIV read "Christ in you," we may not fully understand what the author is trying to convey here. In proper English grammar, "you" could be singular or plural. The "you" in this phrase "Christ in you" is plural. Here in the South we would probably say, "Christ in y’all."

This is a significant difference in meaning that is lost in the translation. Maybe one day we will get a Southern translation of the Bible, which will use y’all for the plural. But this understanding that Christ is in y’all is significant because it’s not just "Christ in me" but Christ in each one of us.

If I think that Christ is just in me, then it doesn’t matter how I treat others. But if I can look at the person next to me and know that Christ is also in her or him, then that changes how I treat the other person. But it goes even deeper than that. It’s not just that Christ is in me and Christ is in you but Christ is in us. Just like Christ was understood as the glue that holds the whole universe together, Christ is the glue that holds us together.

We can bicker and fight and be all around nasty to one another but when we remember that Christ is in not only us, but in our neighbor and our enemy, perhaps that will change the dynamic. I’m not trying to spout out some Pollyanna-type rhetoric. I’m not even asking, "Can’t we all just get along?" But I think that the very rhythm of our lives is changed when we can look at someone and see Christ within them. Be it politics or church polity the only way we can stayed glued together is to realize that Christ is in you as much as Christ is in me. This is the mystery and this is our hope of glory.

Thanks be to Christ, the glue of creation, the head of the church, the Christ within y’all.