On 28 November 1979, an aircraft, a sightseeing aircraft, took off from Auckland in New Zealand, headed for Antarctica. Halfway through the flight, in order to give the passengers a better look around the landscape, the pilots took the plane down to a lower altitude. But instead of seeing the spectacular landscape beneath them, a whiteout prevented the pilots from seeing that they were heading straight towards Mount Erebus, an active volcano 12,000ft high. Perhaps you remember it. It made the headlines all over the world. Camera film later found in the wreckage could still be developed and showed that pictures were being taken just seconds before the terrible disaster. It’s become called the principle of one degree, or the one in 60 rule. The idea is that one degree off course will take you one mile off course for every 60 miles that you travel. So travel from here to Brighton and that doesn’t take you very far off course, just half a mile or so, 500 metres. But the further you travel, the more obvious it is. Fly from Gatwick to New York and you will miss it by 58 miles. And the same principle is true in our lives. Set the compass of our lives even a degree wrong. And after a lifetime of decisions, we will find ourselves, if we are not careful, in disaster. It’s true for a church as well. One degree off course and down the line, a church can find itself somewhere it could never have imagined being. That’s why we’re thinking about these core convictions. At our annual meeting in April, I introduced six core convictions that the church council, the PCC and the staff team and the church wardens have discussed and shaped together. And you’ll find them up on a board under the tower at the back of church. Chris Stain has made a wonderful display board for us and they’ll stay there for a little while. Six core convictions for us as an evangelical Anglican church. And our first conviction is that we be Christ centred. Christ centred. And I think there are lots of things that can compete for the centre of a church’s life. In a busy, active church like ours, it’s possible for good things to take the central place of the best thing social action, uplifting music, Bible teaching, a felt sense of the Spirit’s presence. They’re all good things and we want them. All rightly so. But are they the centre of a church? Should they be the centre? It seems to me the big errors are easy to spot the overbearing leaders. And if you’ve seen the news in the last few days, we’ve been shocked yet again by more scandals among evangelical leaders. But the big errors can be easier to spot. It’s the 1 degree errors that are the harder ones and therefore perhaps the more dangerous ones, because a long way down the line they can take you far off course without you realising it. The principle of one degree. Some years ago someone in another church told me that to be Christ centred was too narrow. We should talk less about Jesus, he said, and more about God in the general. That’s more inclusive. Well, I understood his sentiment, but I think he was mistaken. Because the Scriptures say that the only place that we can know who God is is in Jesus, that he has revealed himself in his Son, his image. That’s how Paul speaks, certainly in Colossians chapter one. So can I invite you to turn back to that passage on page 1182 of our church Bibles? We’ll pick out a few verses in the few minutes that we have left. Page 1182, Colossians 1:15. Paul says Christ is the image of the invisible God. Christ is the place where the unknown God can be known. If we want to know who God is and what he is like, then we have to start with Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God. If you were to study religious studies at school or university, the teachers there often begin with philosophical arguments about God, as if it’s possible to say certain things about God that are available to everybody before we get into the details of Jesus. But you know, the Bible blows that thinking out of the water. It says that if we don’t begin our thinking with Jesus, we will never end up with Him. We can’t slot Jesus in later down the line. I wonder how many of us have had conversations with friends or neighbours about God. And for a while we thought that the conversation has been going well. And then after a few minutes we realise, actually we’ve got completely different ideas of this God that we’re talking about. Jesus isn’t the best place to know God. He is the only place where God may be known. People come to Jesus in lots of ways for sure, but Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He is the only way to God. So if there is somebody here this morning, perhaps a bit new to Christian things, you’ve come to church this morning because you are searching for God. Well, the place to find him is where he’s revealed Himself to us in Jesus, in the Jesus we meet in the Bible. That’s the place to begin. And if we look for him there, we will find Him. But why? Why is it surely Jesus can’t be the only way to know God. What about all the people who lived before Jesus? What about people around the world today who haven’t heard about Jesus? Surely they still know God, don’t they? Surely the world made sense before Christ. Well, if you look down at verses 15 to 17, Paul reminds us there was never a time before Christ. Yes, 2,000 years ago, he took on flesh. He became a human being. He was born at Bethlehem. We celebrate that at Christmas. But there was never a time when he did not exist. Jesus was alive and at work in the world long before he was called Jesus, long before he became a human being. Verse 15 describes him as the firstborn over all creation. In the Bible, the firstborn is a title. It’s a title given to those who will receive the inheritance. If you think of the struggle between Jacob and Esau, if you remember them, if you know them, it’s about who is the heir. Jesus is the firstborn over all creation because he is the heir. One day he will receive all of creation as his inheritance when he comes again. Why? Because he made it in the first place. Verse 16. For in him all things were created. Everything exists because God the Father created it through Christ, his word and wisdom. In a year of elections around the world, maybe in the last week, as we think about the election in the United States and the triumphalism or the anxiety of the last few days, it’s good to remember verse 16. All things have been created through Christ, and for him, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Thrones, powers, rulers or authorities. Jesus is in charge of the lot. A generation or two ago, people used to ask the big questions of life. Why are we here? What’s it all for? Where are we going? These days it seems we’ve stopped asking those questions. At least here in the west, we assume that there aren’t answers to those questions. At least there aren’t answers that are true for everybody in this world. But when we find Jesus, we find the answer to all those questions. Why are we here for Jesus? What’s the future of the world? Where’s it all going? It’s going to be inherited by Jesus of Nazareth one day. What’s the purpose of our existence? To be involved with Jesus Christ. That is why you and I are here. If we’re not involved with Jesus here and now, we can’t expect to find a place for us on the day of Jesus when He returns. But if we are involved with Jesus right now, then we can be sure that when he returns, he will have a place for us. The whole creation is a gift from the Father to the Son. And if we join our lives with his now, if we put him at the centre of our lives now, then we find ourselves caught up into the most wonderful, most thrilling story, true story there could ever be. That is why we must be Christ centred. It’s what life is all about. Jesus at the centre. Verse 17 is a memory verse to commit to our hearts. Christ is before all things and in him all things hold together. Jesus is the logic. He’s the operating system that everything runs on. In our most recent census, more than half of Britons today identified as sbnr. Spiritual, but not religious. Many people, it seems, want a spirituality that is bigger than themselves and they’re right to want it. But Jesus is that all things hold together in Him. The stars and the galaxies, the human race, our work, our families, our purpose for being here, our lives, it all fits together. But only if Jesus is at the centre. In him all things hold together. It all makes sense. I think I mentioned before a conversation I had once on the streets with a member of a cult who was trying to persuade people to do a personality test and then to sign up for their publications. And he said to me, we’ve got room for Jesus in our system, you know. Well, Jesus doesn’t fit into anybody else’s system. He is the system. Everything else fits or doesn’t fit in with him. One of the early Christian leaders in Africa, Athanasius of Alexandria, said, the only system of thought into which Jesus Christ will fit is the one in which he is the starting point. We must begin with him. Jesus doesn’t fit into some bigger system called religion. Jesus isn’t merely part of something bigger. He doesn’t find his place among other truths. He can’t be proved or validated by any philosophical argument. It’s not that other things make sense of Jesus. He makes sense of everything else. He, if you like, built the theatre, wrote the script, is the star of the show and everything else and everybody else. We only fit and find our place when he is at the centre. And that’s why a church must be Christ centred. If I think that Jesus is only something for the children, or that he’s a nice idea for a Sunday morning and has nothing else to do with the rest of the week or the rest of this world, then I’ve underestimated him. Jesus of Nazareth is the beginning and the end. He is the operating system in which everything runs. He is the word of God who Holds everything together and stops everything from falling into chaos at every moment. He isn’t just the founder of a religion, he’s the founder of the universe. Well, in verses 18 to 20, Paul shows us that Jesus, who created the universe and will inherit the universe, has also rescued the universe. And here on Remembrance Sunday we take this to heart. Paul speaks in these verses about the death of Jesus, about reconciliation and making peace between enemies. He takes us back to the Garden of Eden in our thinking and reminds us that after the Father made everything through his son, there was a cosmic catastrophe. Our first parents joined with Satan in his rebellion against the Lord and dragged all of creation away from the Lord Jesus Christ, the light and life of this world. This world was dragged down into sin and death and darkness and hatred and war and despair. Jesus isn’t just the centre of creation, he’s also the source of its rescue. Paul says the source of redemption rescue through his blood shed on the cross. Look at verse 18. He Christ is the head of the body, the Church, the beginning and firstborn from among the dead. Church is the name given to everybody who has been restored by Jesus. He’s our head, we’re the body. We’re so joined to Him. Where the head goes, the body will follow. I don’t know why I do this, but I’m on dangerous grounds. I know whenever I have a sermon illustration about childbirth, I’m in danger of alienating more than half the congregation in one go. So bear with me as I plunge recklessly forwards. When a baby is born, I’m told the most painful thing is for the head to be born. But then the body often follows very quickly. Where the head goes, the body follows. And Jesus our head, suffered and died and came out into resurrection life so that his body, the church, would follow him, spared from the agony and suffering of hell and judgement. That’s why as a church we must be centred on Christ our head, the Creator, the Redeemer, the one who has the supremacy. So as we draw to an end, let me ask you a question. How big is your vision of Christ? How big is Christ in your heart and mind? Is he everything? Is he big enough to handle what you may be facing this week? Is he big enough to handle the issues that our world will be facing this week? He is. Do you believe that? In verse 19, Paul reminds us that Jesus isn’t just a watered down version of God. It says that for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, dwell in Christ, all His fullness dwell in Christ. And through him to reconcile to himself all things. It’s telling us that Jesus isn’t just a good religious teacher among many an inspiring man, nor that he is the supreme example of love and sacrifice. He is God in the flesh. God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus, so that when Jesus was nailed to the cross, it is God’s hands that were nailed to the cross. God was crucified for us in the person of the Son to reconcile all things to Himself. That was the reason. Yes, Jesus died for you and me. But more than that, Colossians tells us that the death of Jesus reconciled the whole creation to God. Stars, galaxies, oceans, heaven, earth, parts of the universe that we have never seen and no telescope has reached, were reconciled to God in those three hours on the cross when God shed his blood for you and me. How big is your vision of Jesus? When I was at primary school, it was nuclear war that was going to kill us and end the planet. This is in the 70s and 80s and we were shown, I remember scary, frightening videos of what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Do you remember seeing some of those public information videos comprised in something like hide under the table or hide under your desk? I think even then I realised that wasn’t going to do a lot of good. By the time I got to secondary school, it was the hole in the ozone layer that was going to fry us. Now, of course, it’s global warming, or maybe that’s being replaced by AI and the march of the robots. Now, as Christians, we thought about this several times. We want to care for God’s creation. We have responsibilities, but we are stewards, not saviours. It is not, if I may say, it is up to us to save the planet. Why? Because that’s already happened. 2000 years ago on the cross, Jesus secured the future of the whole of creation by shedding his blood there. That’s how big it was. And even the biggest problems of this world, Jesus is the answer. Well, what does that have to do with you and me? Why does all this matter? Paul has taken us back to the creation of the world. He’s taken us forwards to his future when Jesus returns and inherits everything. He’s taken us in our thinking, through death, into resurrection life. He’s taken us into the life of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But where do you and I fit? How can we find our place in this church which is his body? The answer is in verse 23, by trusting Jesus. On this Remembrance Sunday, we remember that on the cosmic scale. We were once enemies of God, enemies in our thinking, our assumptions. They were all wrong. We were in God’s eyes, dysfunctional, inhuman, alienated from him because of our evil behaviour. Good in the eyes of Jesus is loving God and loving our neighbours with our heart, soul, mind and strength is laying down our lives for one another. Focusing on ourselves and our own desires shows us just how alienated from God we were. But verse 22, the death of Jesus that rescues the universe will also rescue and transform each of us. Trusting Jesus by what he did on the cross is what makes enemies into friends. So now verse 23, we want to hold firmly to Jesus, not moved from the hope held out in the Gospel. Paul says so as we think about this principle of one degree, where is the compass of your life fixed? Where is the compass of your family life? Where is the compass of this church fixed? We will veer off course, perhaps without knowing it if our vision of Jesus is too small. But we’ve seen that Jesus is everything, so let’s fix our hearts and minds on him again. So this is our first conviction that we be Christ centred, gratefully focusing on God’s Son, crucified for our sins, risen, glorified and returning.