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[Note: This speech (given at the Xiamen International Fellowship) started with a reading from the Bible: Colossians 3:12-17, followed by a short video that introduces aspects of the church.] Click here for another XICF message.

To make a difference, live right and give thanks

Michael Krigline (November 18, 2012)    www.krigline.com

        We have much to be thankful for at XICF, as you saw in that short video: diverse praise and worship teams who really help us express our love for God through song, a rainbow of skin colors and nationalities who share one heart for Christ, friendships and an extended family while we are away from our home countries, access to interesting things like conferences and other special events, and of course our Mexican pastor!

        Now, I’m from the USA, and back home, this is “Thanksgiving” season—with preparations already underway for many special Christmas outreach programs. In the US, the cornucopia is a common symbol of this Thanksgiving season, and whether your cornucopia is full or nearly empty this year, may this message remind all of us just how much we have to be thankful for.

        But I realize that for many people, the cornucopia is kind of empty this particular November; if that is you, perhaps it is a difficult time in which to be thankful. I know people in this fellowship whose job is not at all what they expected when they signed up. Others face financial stress, or loneliness as they face the holidays without a loved one—due to bereavement, distance or other factors. Some face an insecure job or business situation. And illnesses, like my father’s deteriorating Parkinson’s Disease or our pastor’s cancer, can test our faith and cast dark shadows on our future.

        But it is in such times that we need all-the-more to be thankful, and here the apostle Paul gives us an example to follow. Today’s Bible text wasn’t written in a place or time of comfort; Paul penned it in jail, as false doctrine was deceiving new believers he was responsible for. Nonetheless, his letter to the Colossians rings with prayer and praise, and yes, thanksgiving. No less than six times in four short chapters, Paul mentions “thanks” or “thanksgiving.”

        This “theme” really struck me a number of years ago. In graduate school, one assignment was to read every book of the Bible, but we had to read each one in one sitting. Now most of us rarely read whole Bible books in context, but when you do, certain words and phrases jump out at you. This helps us see what the author had in mind at the time he wrote it.

        So it was that I came to the little book of Colossians. The book has several strong themes. Jesus Christ is central in the book—more so than in just about any book outside of the Gospels. Paul also emphasizes our place “in Christ” and challenges us to conform to His image by revolutionizing the way that we think and act.

        But as I sat reading the text in the middle of a hectic school semester, the word that kept jumping out at me was “thanks.”

        What was Paul so thankful for? Unfortunately, Paul doesn’t really say!

        In three of the references he does say WHO we are to be thankful to: the Father (1:3, 1:12, 3:17). That’s helpful.

        Twice, Paul links thanksgiving to prayer. For example, in 1:3 he says: “We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.”  And in 4:2 he says: “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.” So, it is altogether appropriate to end today’s service with a special time of thanksgiving and prayer.

        Then, in 2:7, thanksgiving is tied to faith or the faith, but the context of this verse needs a preface. Remember that Paul was living in a time and place of misplaced faith—faith in various philosophies and religions. In many ways, it was a time similar to our own.

        Vivian and I spent 2010 in the US, after being in China for almost a decade. I remember one newspaper article that reported that the percentage of Americans who claim to have “no religion” had risen from about 3% when I was born to almost 20% today. I understand that similar things can be said for the once-strongly-Christian nations of Europe. Pastor Gabe has mentioned that there are places in Mexico strongly resistant to the Gospel, so maybe the same is true in Central America.

        And what can I say about the situation here? When I studied at Xiamen University in the 1980s, the Nanputuo temple was a deserted place. I never saw anyone in Xiamen burn paper money to the dead, and I don’t remember seeing god-shelves on display in homes or restaurants like they are today. In those days, less than a decade after the Cultural Revolution, the centuries-long grip of India’s Buddhism and China’s traditional religions seemed to be finally broken, but things are very different today.

        It seems that now—as in Paul’s day—many of our cultures have fallen prey to empty human philosophies or traditions. These “basic principles of the age” (as Paul called them) include a drift from an awareness of sin and thus the need of a Savior, and from an enlightened view of Jesus as God incarnate who is especially worthy of our praise and thanksgiving. Paul clearly faced similar problems, for in Colossians 2:8 he wrote:

⁸Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; ¹⁰and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (Col 2:8-10)

This was the context of the verse where Paul linked thanksgiving with faith. To Christians living in such a deceived society, Paul wrote:

⁶As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, ⁷rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. (Col 2:6-7)

        “As you have received Christ…” How is that? “By grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph 2:8). So how should we continue to walk in Him? Again: “Grace, by faith.” Yes, we are to study and “be established in the faith”, but our knowledge didn’t save us; God did. And the same faith in His grace that brought us eternal life must also be the power behind our daily choices and actions, including the choice to “abound with thanksgiving.”

        By the time we get to Colossians 3 (today’s reading), it is clear that to Paul, it was our relationship with Christ from which life itself flowed.  God had chosen us, forgiven us, and filled us with His comforting Holy Spirit. Regardless of what was going on in the culture around him or in the trials of his own life, even in that jail cell Paul found the grace in Christ to rise above things, choosing to (in Paul’s words) “put on” the characteristics of his Savior.

        What characteristics? Listen to Paul again, starting in Col 3:12…

¹²Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; ¹³bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

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        As Paul continues, he says there is something even better than these virtues: namely love—the love that unites us into one body, regardless of cultural background or church label. Look around you: within a few meters there are people from other countries, who have a rich church tradition very different from your own; they may prefer to worship in a different way, or even in a different language. So what bonds us together as ONE, if not the love of God? Col 3:14 says:

¹⁴But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. ¹⁵And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.

        So, we see that the apostle Paul beckons us to give thanks in the context of all that God is and all that He has done. He is our heavenly Father (1:3), who answers prayer (4:2), and whose fullness dwells in Christ (2:9). And He has done so much for us: He’s established us in the faith (2:6), elected us (3:12), made us holy and beloved (3:12), called us (3:15), given us peace (3:15), made unity possible (3:15), and made us complete in Christ (2:10)—Christ who is the head of all principality and power (2:10) and who has forgiven us (3:12). Our Father calls us to put on (3:12) the characteristics of our Savior, especially love (3:14), and to let His peace (3:15) and His Word (3:16) fill our hearts. Just a glimpse of that list should make us break out in a song of thanksgiving!

        Indeed, the next two verses (Col 3:16-17) lift up the place of God’s Word and of music, which are rightfully such a big part of our weekly celebration. If you want to make a difference, start with His Word, sing with grace to the Lord, and do whatever you do in Jesus’ name. Picking up in verse 3:16:

¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. ¹⁷And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

        This last reference to “giving thanks” is the Greek word eucharisteo (yoo-khar-is-teh-oh), which not only reminds us of the grace available in the eucharist, or Lord’s Supper, but also lets me close with a remarkably appropriate story in John 6. For me, it was a surprising place to find this word.

        A vast crowd had followed Jesus up a hillside; some were looking for miracles, some simply wanted to hear his matchless teachings. But all of them were hungry, and Jesus’ disciples didn’t have the resources available to meet the great need.

        Doesn’t that sound familiar? We see needs all around us, both in and outside our church community. I have many friends in ministry in the US, and almost universally they tell me that church budgets and family budgets are stretched thin. Like the disciple Philip (in John 6:7), we look at the Master and say:

“Lord, 200 days’ wages wouldn’t be sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” (John 6:7)

The needs are just too great. Or are they? Just then…

⁸One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Jesus, ⁹“There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish…” (You probably know the story.) ¹¹And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks [there’s that Greek word eucharisteo…] He distributed [the loaves] to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. ¹³…and [they later] filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. ¹⁴Then those [five thousand] men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” (John 6:8-14)

        Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the people around us—our students, classmates, neighbors, and business associates—wouldn’t it be great if those people could come into contact with Jesus, through us in spite of our limited resources, and walk away saying:

“This Jesus is truly the Anointed Prophet who is to come into the world.”

        So, before I close with a special song, how do we become such thankful, attractive people?

        First, during this end-of-the-year Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons I challenge you to get more involved with your church: give generously (of both money and time), and pray regularly for your church leaders (at all levels of ministry, both here and back home). God has charged them with earth’s highest calling: to lead God’s people into a closer walk with Jesus, and to equip us to be ambassadors for Christ in our world.

        Secondly, follow St Paul’s advice on how to make a difference: (A) stop looking to philosophies, governments or religions to do what only the Holy Spirit can do: change someone’s character from the inside out; (B) let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly: that is, make the choice to read your Bible more often, letting this God-inspired book reveal the very heart of God; and (C) choose to “put on” God’s power to be kind, humble, longsuffering, forgiving, loving and thankful, and thus to become the “fragrance of Jesus Christ” in your home, school or place of work.

        And finally, may we summon up the faith to take our tiny, insufficient loaves and fishes, and place them in the Master’s hands. With God’s help, let us choose to live right and give thanks, trusting our Master to multiply anything surrendered to Him, to make a difference and meet the needs of our hungry and hurting world.

Prayer:

O Father, we thank You for the blessings You have poured out on Your church, and for Your Holy Spirit who brings light from Your Word to empower us to live right, reflecting the grace of Jesus Christ. Open our eyes to all that You are and all You have done, that we may become thankful people. Lord, multiply the gifts and talents that flow through our hands, and use us to make a difference in our world.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

        I’d like the worship team to come back up here to help me teach you the chorus of a song I wrote, inspired by the themes in Colossians. See how many you can recognize as you listen.

        You can read the story of how I wrote the song--during a class taught by Michael Card--on my website: www.krigline.com/giving_thanks.htm.

Song Lyrics:

I Want to Thank You (All references are in Colossians unless noted otherwise)

Father, I thank You, as your Word stirs my heart, (1:3)

To remember before You all the good You impart;

From the wonders of Nature, to the Gift of Your Son, (1:13,14,16)

Lord, I thank You for all You have done!

From the kingdom of darkness, You rescued my soul; (1:13)

Your grace made me holy, Your love made me whole! (3:12, 1:22, 1:13, 2:10)

You chose and empow’red me with comfort to share, (2 Cor 1:4; Eph 1:4, Jn 15:6)

As a mirror of the image I bear. (3:10; 1 Cor 15:49)

And I thank You for Jesus, who created all things, (1:16)

From the air that I breathe to the song I now sing.

In His cross You have vanquished the powers of sin! (1:19,20; 2 Cor 2:14)

I have hope for I’m hidden in Him! (3:3; 1:27)

I know that my song would sound hollow above

If my life here below doesn’t ring with Your love.

Only grace by faith saved me, by the same help me live, (2:6; Eph 2:8)

In the wisdom and power You give.

CHORUS:

I want to thank You, Lord; Worship and thank You, Lord!

For all that You are, and all that You’ve done, I praise and thank You, Lord!

We want to thank You, Lord; Worship and thank You, Lord!

For all that You are, and all that You’ve done, we praise and thank You, Lord!

© 2012 Michael Krigline. As far as I am concerned, people are allowed to print or copy this article, or link to it, for personal, church or classroom use.

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This song was recorded in 2002. If you would like a free mp3 file of the song, please write to me. (The address is on the home page)

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