What I Want You to Know
Pastor Tim B. Johnson
Below is my rephrasing of the Apostle Paul’s words from Colossians 3:12-17, drawn from my concluding sermon on October 27, 2024.
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My beloved Attleboro friends, my heartfelt sisters & brothers in Christ - I want you to know, to really know and to be genuinely engaged by, the whole of God’s Word. Genesis to Revelation.
I want you not to skip over parts as if they don’t apply or because they seem too familiar. Instead, I hope and pray that you’ll find that everything in God’s words is so beautifully integrated and important to build your lives upon. And the lives of your children and grandchildren. And the lives of their children and grandchildren!
I want you to know and experience more about prayer. Not just formal prayer, but free, flowing and spontaneous prayer. Not just a few minutes in prayer, but sustained times in prayer. Interceding. Praising. Sometimes just being silent. Seeking God’s will above all else.That’s what I want you to know. (And that’s my paraphrase of Paul’s singular word, Therefore!).
And now, as we all continue to move on with our lives, I want you to know that the words “chosen and dearly loved” include you. You are chosen! You are dearly loved! Even when…and especially when…you might think you’re not loved or not chosen because of a penetrating stain on your past. Or because of a broken part of your life. Or an ongoing something that you keep hidden. I want you always to know you have been chosen by God, by Jesus, to be part of his kingdom. You are dearly loved. You are his be-loved. No matter what. I want you to know that deeply. Truly. And to find excitement & joy about that.
Holding that in mind, I want you to know that these beautiful traits of compassion and kindness you have, as well as the traits of humility, gentleness and patience, I want you to know these are like the clothes you’re wearing right now. Obvious and very visible. And even when you seem to yourself to be rumpled and worn out; even when you want to pounce on someone or walk away or put someone in their place; I want you to know that humility, gentleness and patience actually do bear fruit. And to know that these are what Jesus wants you to wear all day, every day. These are what people need to see, hear and experience from you. All because of Jesus. Every day I want you to know what it is to wear these clothes and to know that Jesus will help you live into them.
I want you to know, by practice and experience, the powerful gifts of releasing grudges, of letting go of any grievances, and of forgiving people. And every day to place all of this into God’s hands because he helps us do this. I want you to know how thoroughly and repeatedly we have each been forgiven. We live in a world where releasing and forgiving is not the norm. But in Jesus, as people who he sees and names as “holy and dearly loved,” you and I, all of us, are called to live in the ways of Jesus. No matter what.
Wrapped around all of this, I want you to know the gift of saying and showing how much you love people. That includes the people or person you live with who you might assume should know that you love them. Say it to them! This also includes people who make love a challenge and people with whom you have a difficult history. I want you to know that Jesus will help you to lead with words and actions of love. All the time. As you seek to into this, I want you to know that Jesus will bring his love to the front and center of who you are, increasingly more than it is right now.
I also want you to know God’s gift of peace. Not peace as in everything being calm and right. Not peace as in no worries at all. But the peace of Christ that reaches into the deepest parts of us as an anchor for our souls. It’s that peace that remains even in conflicted and uncertain times personally. It also remain in what we are facing right now as a nation. It’s a peace that remains even in the unknowns of what’s up ahead for this church. Peace. The peace of Jesus Christ.
Finally, through it all, I want you to know the wonder and beauty of a life of gratitude. Joyful and humble gratitude. Always and everywhere giving thanks to God for all that has been, for all that now is, and for all that is still to come. All through the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
These are things I want you to know. These are things I pray that you and I, all of us, will know and absorb more and more. And more! This is my adaptation of the Apostle Paul’s words. He wrote these words to a church many generations ago, but his words continue to throb with life and depth of meaning right now, today, all pointing to life in Jesus. May we each know this every day.
This is my prayer for you, my beloved sisters and brother in Christ.
Pastor Tim