You may not remember me…
I’m the kid you helped go to college a few years ago. I was a pretty good student in high school, but not the type who gets a lot of scholarship help. Not only that, but my parents couldn’t afford to send me to college. The scholarship your church gave me made the difference. I’m the first person in my family to get a higher education. And now, I’m a senior – going to be an engineer – and I’m getting married next summer too! I’m so excited about the future! You may not remember me…but I’ll never forget you. Thank you.
You probably don’t remember us…
We’re the family living in the house that you helped build. You probably never realized it, but just having a good house in a good neighborhood was like a miracle for the children. They didn’t have to worry about playing in a yard with broken glass all around, and being cold at night because of air leaks around the windows. We didn’t have to fret about being able to afford food for the family after we got done paying the rent. The kids are all grown now – got kids of their own – and every Sunday they come back to the house and we have dinner together. And when we say grace, we always thank God for you. You may not remember us…but we’ll never forget you. Thank you.
You may not remember me…
I’m the stranger who came to church a year or so ago. I didn’t realize there’d be so many people, and to be honest with you, I was kind of overwhelmed. So I just sort of sat there, thinking about this problem I was facing, wondering if God could help. I remember when you came into the pew and our eyes met for a moment and we smiled at each other, and then we both quickly looked away as if we were embarrassed. But moments later, you turned back to me and stretched out your hand and said “welcome”. And I never explained to you the reason I turned down your offer to join you for brunch after the service. You see, I had to have surgery on Monday and wasn’t supposed to eat anything. I know it’s hard to explain, but just in your simple act of friendship, you made God real to me. And here I am, sitting in this chair, taking my last I.V. chemotherapy treatment – hoping for the best – and it occurs to me that you may not remember me…but I’ll never forget you. Thank you.
Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. And as we number our many blessings and give thanks to God for them all, I wonder if I might invite you to an even higher form of thanksgiving.
In today’s Scripture reading, Paul prays for the Colossian Christians to be lifted into a deeper experience of God. He prays in verse 10 of this marvelous first chapter, that we might become like Jesus – and that our lives might bring blessing to others – and that, in the process, we might come to know God better.
Now, sometimes when we think of what it means to be like Jesus, we think of the Lord’s sinless life. And when I hear the call to be like the Lord, I’ll honestly tell you it scares me to death. Not only do I strongly doubt I can ever truly be sinless like Jesus, there’s a certain part of me that wonders if I really want to be sinless like Jesus.
Let me illustrate. One Saturday, my wife and I were glued to the television set watching our favorite football team struggle in their game against their arch-rival. It was down to the last couple of minutes and our team was mounting their incredible and heroic comeback.
And the telephone rang.
Well, my wife looked at me. I looked at her.
And we both simultaneously said, “You get it!”
“No, I’m not getting it!” I declared.
“Well, neither am I!” said she.
And the phone rang a few more times.
Now, I knew in my heart of hearts that my dear wife could not listen to that phone ring and not answer it. She – being a good person – would responsibly consider the possibility that it could be an emergency involving one of you or one of our children – maybe an accident – maybe an illness – maybe a crisis of some sort.
Me – being the truly rotten person I am – didn’t care what it was! I wasn’t answering that phone! At least not until the game was over.
And I know this is wrong. I know Jesus would answer the phone. And I ought to try to be more like Jesus. But why couldn’t we work on being more like Jesus on Monday afternoon when I’m in the office instead of on Saturday in the last two minutes of the big game?
So I get a little nervous when I hear Paul praying that I should become more like Jesus.
You don’t get nervous over that, do you?
Now Jesus did live a sinless life, and you and I are called to put away sin in our own lives. But in this prayer in which Paul prays for us to lead lives worthy of the Lord, he introduces an intriguing thought about how we might do that.
Here, in verse 10, Paul describes this “life worthy of the Lord” as a life that bears fruit.
This being the season of Thanksgiving, we are particularly mindful of the fruits of life. Thanksgiving in virtually every culture is a harvest celebration when the fruits of creation are brought in. The cornucopia on the dining room table…the barn filled to overflowing with produce…the Thanksgiving grace in which we number our blessings and give thanks – are all ways of recognizing the gifts of God that flow into and through our world.
And here, in Colossians, Paul prays that you and I will take on a lifestyle like God’s! A lifestyle of bearing gifts to the world. In other words, we are invited to step higher and wider than merely being the recipients of good things. We are invited not only to give thanks for what we’ve received, but also to become like the Lord – by becoming the very source of blessing to others.
And there are many ways we can bless others. By sharing our resources, by advocating for those who are powerless, by giving ourselves away in all sorts of mission to and with others.
But today I want to point out yet another way of blessing others. It’s not the only way. But it’s a high and important way. We catch a wonderful glimpse of it in Jesus’ life.
Perhaps you remember the poignant scene in Matthew 25 when Jesus describes the Great Judgment. All the world is gathered before him, and what Jesus says in that judgment is not what we might expect.
“Come, ye blessed of my Father and enter the kingdom that has been prepared for you. For I was hungry and you fed me…I was thirsty, and you gave me drink…”
Do you remember this passage? I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed before, but it seems to me there is something very powerful going on in this exchange between Jesus and his people. In fact, what Jesus is saying to them in this passage is something that goes like this:
“You may not remember me…but I was that old man on the street corner who was hungry and you took me in and fed me. You probably don’t remember me…but I was that thirsty child to whom you gave a drink. You may not remember me…but I was the stranger who moved into your neighborhood and you welcomed me. You probably don’t remember me…but I was that inmate at the state prison you visited on Friday afternoons. You may not remember me…but you touched me with the grace of God, and I’ll never forget you. Thank you.”
Being like Jesus involves more than living a sinless life. Being like Jesus means practicing the spirituality of recognizing, appreciating and giving thanks to those who’ve touched your life with some wonderful grace of God.
And I wonder if, as you worship on this Thanksgiving Sunday, you might think about some of the people in your life history who have touched you and blessed you and lifted you in some special way.
A short while ago, I read a story about a teacher who was retiring after years and years of teaching. There were all sorts of honors bestowed upon her for a truly distinguished career. But the best gift of all, she said, was a note she received from a student who – at the time – she thought would never make it. In the note, the boy – now a medical doctor – said, “At a time in my life when no one thought I’d amount to anything, you told me you believed in me. I’m sure you don’t remember that, but I’ve never forgotten those words. Much of who I am and what I have today, I owe to you.”
Who are some of the people who’ve blessed your life in special ways?
Perhaps it was that second grade teacher who helped you grasp the mystery of writing…or that convenience store clerk who always had a joke to share and managed to cheer you up whenever you came in to buy something…or that family member who said just the right word one day when you were down…or that secretary in the office who knew just what you needed before you even knew it yourself…or that old childhood chum who taught you the first lessons of friendship…
They may not remember you, but I dare say – like Jesus in Matthew 25 – you’ve probably never forgotten them. And it’s important for you to say thank you.
In the days following my dad’s death in 1973, our family received a letter in the mail. It was from a couple we did not know, but who my dad had stayed with when he had gone on a lay witness type of weekend at a church in another state. The Lord had led my dad and my mom into this wonderful ministry of sharing with others the real and wonderful things God was doing in their lives, and they went off to many such weekend-long retreats.
Well, my mom had missed that particular weekend for some reason, so my dad went alone. He stayed at the home of this couple, and while he was there, they stayed up talking late into the night. During that conversation, it came out that theirs was a marriage that had fallen apart, and the only reason they were together that weekend was because they’d agreed months earlier to host some of the people coming for the weekend. The plan was to end the marriage as soon as the weekend was over.
The letter they sent our family started out like this, “You probably don’t know this, but…” and it went on to describe how my dad’s presence in their home that weekend had changed their lives. Listening to them as a Christian friend, witnessing gently to his own struggles and to God’s faithfulness in helping him through those struggles – my dad had touched some deep corner of their soul. That night they recommitted their lives to Jesus and to each other, and made the decision to truly work at building a successful Christian marriage. Now, something like a year later, upon hearing of my dad’s death, they felt a deep need to write that letter to our family just to tell us how he’d touched their lives with the grace of God, and to say “thank you.”
It was one of the most beautiful gifts we’ve ever received. For it celebrated both the grace of God, and the significance of my father’s life as one of its sources.
Who are the people to whom you need to send a note? Who are the ones you need to call on the phone? Who are the folks you need to visit?
To tell them how they brought grace to you, and to say thank you!
In so doing, you become a blessing to others, and stir up their gifts, and put them in touch with the significance of their lives!
You bear fruit for the kingdom of God!
Dear friends, go into the world this week, and proclaim the Gospel message…you may not remember me, but I’ll never forget you. Thank you!
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