Psychology could certainly be the servant of the gospel, but only the gospel could finally comprehend her situation and hold out hope for its healing. Which is to say, life's problems are ultimately theological. My relative went to her pastor in vain. Theology has everything to do with life. Bonhoeffer was right.
Theology has everything to do with life.
When a church's theology unravels, that church disqualifies itself as the vehicle of hope and help of healing for the world around it. When Paul wrote his letter to the church at Colosse, that church's theology had unravelled. Paul knew that the unravelling had enormous consequences for life, the life of the individual member plus the corporate life of the congregation plus the life of the society surrounding the congregation. The one thing needed was a recovery of theology, a reaffirmation of the truth and substance of the gospel. In the passage which forms the text of today's sermon we too are made beneficiaries of this recovery and reaffirmation.