Our passage today come from Ephesians 5. We are encouraged to learn to love by watching Jesus. Our response to learning to love like Jesus is not arrogance or judgment but the learning of a new dialect which is gratitude or thanksgiving.
Ephesians 5 (The Message)
Wake Up from Your Sleep
1-2Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. 3-4Don't allow love to turn into lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed. Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, those who follow Jesus have better uses for language than that. Don't talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn't fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.
1) I give thanks for new beginnings: new members, new elders and deacons, new leaders, new opportunities, new energy and , yes, our new president. I give thanks for term limits and the wisdom of our system (both Presbyterian Church (USA) and the US of A) that recognizes the need for new beginnings, new leaders, new energy. I give thanks for the new energy and optimism I feel both in our nation and our church. These are gifts from God in the midst of very difficult times. Thanksgiving is our dialect.
2) I give thanks for the challenges we face and for the opportunities those challenges give us to learn about the extravagant love of Jesus. Paul in Philippians 2 says, "Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand." We have the opportunity to see what these words really mean as we face our national, local and congregational challenges together. Thanksgiving is our dialect.
3) I give thanks that Randy, in his Dame Cinco last week, reminded us that somewhere in the world it is warm! Thanksgiving is our dialect.
4) I give thanks for Hiripan, Itzi, Angeles, Lizzie, Diosselyn, Ivan, Lucas, Greg, Pastor Alfonso and our team leader from Heart to Heart International, Rick. On the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday we gave three hours of service stacking 20 pallets full of medical supplies to be shipped to hurting people all around the world. I give thanks for the tacos, tortas and burritos we shared in celebration after our work. Thanksgiving is our dialect.
5) I give thanks for the Rev. Abbey Abendroth who brought four of our brothers from Rolling Hills Church in Johnson County to experience Grandview Park's unique gifts. I give thanks for Javier and Gely who bravely and honestly shared their stories with these brothers who only moments before had been strangers. I give thanks that some other Presbyterian Churches are considering how they might reach out to their neighbors who may speak another language and may be immigrants. I give thanks for the words of the law in Leviticus 19:33-34: "When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don't take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt. I am God, your God." Thank God for the possibility of new beginnings everywhere. Thanksgiving is our dialect.
Thank you for reading my Dame Cinco. I also give thanks for each of you who take the time to spread the dialect and culture of gratitude each week. Keep up the grateful living and "be deep spirited friends."
Don't forget to visit the blog or recommend it to your friends. Feel free to post new thoughts there throughout the week. I will continue to encourage us to forward the emails as I get a little thrill out of seeing a new Dame Cinco in my mail box. It's like opening a special homemade present crafted out of lives of love. But feel free to share gimmecinco.blogspot.com with your friends and neighbors who might want to be introduced to our dialect of thanksgiving.
"Observe how Christ loved us."
Pastor Rick
Here's mine
ReplyDeleteI am thankful...
1)That I get to go home in less than a week
2)That there's still 6 days left here in sanfran
3)For this month in sunny CA
4)That demolition has finally started for a new wizards stadium
5)For the hope that a new president brings