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A Prayer for God’s People
(Colossians 1: 1-14)
(A Sermon preached July 15, 2007 at University United Methodist
Church, East Lansing MI by Kennetha Bigham-Tsai)
We come together in worship and we pray. Some of us pray with a partner or in
a prayer group. Some of us pray in our times alone. No matter how or when or how
often we pray, the commonality of our life together is that we pray. For,
indeed, prayer is part of the Christian life. It is part of who we are as
Christian people. It is part of our lifestyle to pray.
And so, this passage in Colossians tells us something about that lifestyle.
It tells us something about prayer. Indeed, it is a report on prayer, for it is
a letter that tells the people of Colossae how the apostles were praying for
them.
And if we look at how the apostles were praying, we can surely find something
that we can take to heart—something that we can learn about prayer. So, let’s
take a moment to examine this prayer. And let us reflect on what it means to our
lives and what it means to the ways in which we pray.
The letter tells the Colossians that the apostles are praying that they might
walk in ways pleasing to God. The apostles are praying that in order to live in
such ways the Colossians “…be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding.” The apostles are praying that the
Colossians be made strong in God’s strength and be prepared to endure with
patience, with joy and with thanksgiving for God’s grace carried out in their
lives through Jesus Christ.
Let us begin with what it means to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will
. First of all I believe that God’s will for each of us is different, because we
are all different. And I believe that God reveals to each of us God’s unique
will for our lives. I cannot claim to know God’s will for you, nor can I claim
that God’s will for you is the same as God’s will for me.
Instead, I can pray that you grow in the knowledge of God’s will. I can pray
that you grow in the wisdom and spiritual understanding that will help you live
into God’s will for your lives. I can pray that you would come to know who God
wills you to be as unique individuals in Christ. I can pray that you learn how
to be authentically who God wills you to be.
This is what it means to pray that you have knowledge of God’s will for your
lives. It means praying that you have spiritual clarity and conviction. It means
praying that you be able to hear God and to listen to God’s voice to the
exclusion of all others. It means praying that you be able to discern what God
is saying to you and how God is calling you to live.
And sometimes it can be hard to discern God’s will for our lives. It can be
hard to know that we are clearly hearing God’s call upon our lives. For, there
are so many other competing voices in the world—voices that get in the way of us
hearing God’s call and understanding God’s will.
There are the voices of people who are sure that they know how we should be,
what we should think, or what we should do. There are voices that insist that we
mold ourselves in someone else’s image. And there are also our inner voices that
get in the way of us hearing God’s will for our lives. There are our inner
voices that tell us we are not good enough. There are the inner voices of self
doubt and fear.
But friends we need to pray for the spiritual clarity and conviction that
will turn the volume down on these voices. For, there is only one voice to which
we need to listen. That one voice is God’s voice calling us and guiding us in
the direction of God’s will for our lives.
For instance, I am sure that it is God’s will for me to be in ministry. Yet
there have always been competing voices that were sure that women should not
preach and teach—that women should not deliver the sacraments or provide
spiritual leadership—that women should not be ordained. There have always been
competing voices that have tried to drown out the voice of God.
Yet someone must have prayed for me. Someone must have prayed for my
spiritual understanding and wisdom and for my knowledge of God’s will for my
life. For I have heard God, and I am walking in the direction of God’s voice.
And I have complete assurance that I am doing God’s will for me. And that
assurance of God’s will allows me to throw myself into ministry with passion and
with abandon. Those voices which would deter me can no longer hinder me. And, I
am deeply secure and at peace.
Many of you have had this experience. You have asked for knowledge of God’s
will for your lives, and God has turned down the volume on competing voices that
have said that you can’t do it. God has given you the clarity to see God’s will
for your life.
Many of you know what it is like to have the clarity and knowledge to see
God’s will. Yet, you also realize that knowing God’s will for your life does not
make it easy to live into that will. It is a challenge to live in the ways in
which God has called us as individuals and as the Church. We need more than
knowledge. We need strength. And indeed, to live into God’s will for our lives
requires a strength beyond our own. It requires the strength that comes from
divine power.
Now many of you know that I follow a fairly disciplined way of eating. I do
that for reasons of health. But I also do it as a type of spiritual discipline
that has been ongoing for some years of my life. What sustains me in this
practice is that I am fully aware that it is God’s will for me to walk in this
way. I do not know whether it is God’s will for any of you, (and some of you
are breathing a sigh of relief that your pastor does not think that it is God’s
will for you to give up desert). This may not be God’s will for you.
However, I do know that this way of life is God’s will for me. And, that
knowledge gives me assurance that I am walking in a way pleasing to God. But I
need more than such assurance. I also need strength beyond myself. And God gives
me that strength just as this prayer suggests that God will give us all the
strength for which we pray.
And friends God promises to give us even more. For this passage suggests that
God will also give us endurance with patience—endurance marked by joy at the
work of God’s grace in our lives—endurance punctuated with thanksgiving for
Christ’s redemptive work in our lives. This is endurance that keeps our eyes
fixed on Jesus who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its
shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, (cf. Heb. 12:1-3).
Indeed, none of us, if we were to follow God’s will for our lives would have
to endure what Christ did. But there is much we have had to endure. We have had
to endure the disapproval of others who did not have our vision and did not
understand our call. We have had to endure the criticisms of others who were
determined that we should fit into their mold for our lives.
We have all had to endure such trials, yet this passage calls us to endure
with joy. This passage calls us to endure with thanksgiving to a God who has
given us an inheritance in Christ’s kingdom—who has given us a share of all of
the blessings of God and showered us with grace.
And, that grace has been revealed in the person of Jesus Christ who has
rescued us from the power of sin and despair and has transferred us into his
kingdom of light. Christ has transferred us into a place of redemption and
reconciliation. Christ has made up for our shortcomings and made us whole.
Christ has enabled us to be all that God has called us to be.
If we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, then his’ is our example for endurance.
His’ is our example for patience. His’ is our example for ultimate victory. For
this Christ was imbued with such spiritual understanding and wisdom that he knew
that it was God’s will for him to sacrifice himself for the redemption of the
world. And so he prayed for strength to carry out God’s will, and God gave him
strength. He prayed for endurance, and God gave him that endurance. And he
practiced thanksgiving, no matter his circumstances, for he saw the joy that
would be his at the redemption of creation—the joy that would be his’ at the
realization of a reconciled relationship between God and humanity.
His life is the example of the way of life to which we are called. For, being
conformed to the life of Christ is God’s will for all of us. And when we are so
conformed, we receive the wonderful gift of living out God’s will and having
God’s grace increase in our lives.
But we don’t just grow in grace; we also become the vehicles of God’s grace
at work in the lives of others. When we discern God’s will for our lives and
pray for strength and endurance to live out God’s will, then we become vehicles
for grace for we can lead others into that place of discernment of God’s will
for them. We can provide to others an example of what it means to walk in ways
that are fully pleasing to God.
Then, we can bear fruit that can feed hungry souls in the world. We can
provide hope to people who have long given up on hope. We can be the Church
extending to others the grace of God in Christ—extending to others the gift of
the knowledge that Christ has called us all into a loving relationship with God
and has enabled us to answer that call—to do God’s will—to be who God created us
to be.
This is my prayer for you today. May you be filled with the knowledge of
God’s will for you with all spiritual understanding and wisdom. May you be made
strong in the strength of God’s power and not your own. May you be blessed with
the patient endurance of Christ and grow in his likeness each day. And may you
be filled with joy and thanksgiving for God’s grace so generously showered upon
you through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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