filling the bucket to overflowing: commitment

from my sermon on 2/12/12 from Col. 2:6-7

Abounding with thanksgiving...that's what Paul says. Like a bucket that can't hold anymore and spills over with gratitude....that's how we can be. We can do this because we have a God of abundance.

I love what the Psalms say. In 103:8, the LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. In Psalm 5, But I through the abundance of your steadfast love will enter your house, I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you. In Psalm 69, as for me my prayer is to you, O LORD, at an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me. And of course, our favorite Psalm, the 23rd, which says my cup runneth over.

We can be overflowing with thanksgiving because of what God has done in Jesus Christ, who lived among, died for us, and was raised again for us. In John 10:10, Jesus says that he came that we might have life and have it abundantly. In the only miracle that is record in all 4 gospels, the feeding of the multitudes, Jesus takes the offering of a few fish and loaves of bread and multiplies them so that huge crowds are fed, and abundant leftovers are taken up, many basketfuls. In Acts, it records that the church increased daily; it grew abundantly.

The word for abundance or overflowing means excessive, more than enough, be extremely rich, be left over, over and above the basic needs or expectations.

My heart is overflowing with thanksgiving today. I always try to live into these passages as I prepare the message each week. I want to tell you 4 stories of overflowing with gratitude. The weekend previous, we held a Created by God workshop here, where 5th and 6th graders get to hear about this gift of human sexuality, that we are made male and female in the image of God. I do an evaluation instrument with the young people asking them how they feel when they first get started. Almost without exception, the response is "scared." I have them draw a picture of their face when they first learned they were coming to this event. Many times it looks like that famous painting of "the scream." In the evaluation, I ask them to write how they feel now that they have finished the course. One male wrote, "I feel like I can be a man who respects his sisters." It doesn't get much better than that.

At that event, Dr. Jim Chudleigh, offered one of the devotionals on Saturday. He talked about how as a physician he had the joy of delivering babies. What happens is that he would receive this life into his hands. He was the first person to hold this new person. After a bit of cleaning up, warming up, and wrapping up, he would hand the child most often to the mother. She would hold the child in her hands. Then she most likely would hand the child off to the father. Then the child would be handed off to grandparents, other relatives, and friends. Are you following the metaphor? All through life, we are being handed off. Preachers, teachers, scout leaders...and on and on. We are always in someone's hands. Jim talked about the death of his father and the image of his children, his father's grandchildren carrying the casket in their hands to the gravesite. There the man was given into the hands of God, from whom he came. Isn't this the gospel? I was so filled with gratitude for Jim and all the small group leaders.

Then Tuesday, we had a district professionals meeting where we preachers and other church professionals in the Austin area get together to talk and eat and best of all worship. Eight of our younger clergy candidates led the worship about how they encountered Christ in other people. One of those was Abby Parker, former youth minister here. She talked about going on a mission trip to Guatemala. She would spend her free time not hanging out with the team that came from the States, but with the locals, the bus drivers and the women. She was so moved by the women who at 13,000 feet altitude would carry huge water jars on their heads, bringing the water that was used to make her weak coffee in the morning. Abby felt such community with these brothers and sisters. I felt so full of gratitude at how God was calling Abby and others into ordained ministry.

Then on Thursday, I was visiting with Pam Cho, she who is going through another round of cancer. Pam was saying how earlier her white cell count had been at 28,000. This past week it had dropped to 8. Not 8,000, or 800, or 80, but 8. Pam has a dedicated, competent healing team in the medical field. Pam is also thankful for our prayers for healing. On a lighter note, Pam gave me permission to say that before this treatment started, she was looking at losing some weight. Through this process, she has lost quite a bit, for which she gives thanks. However, she does not recommend this as a diet plan for others. There are other ways to get your weight down. My heart overflowed with joy at Pam's news.

One more story that involves Igor Petresky. For more than a year and a half, we have been walking with the Petresky family after Igor was greatly paralyzed in a diving accident. The family was given a Suburban by former church members to get to hospitals and such. Igor has made great progress in rehab, to the point that he is attending ACC as a part-time student. He is now able to do a chair to car transfer by himself....but the Suburban is too tall. His parents are straining their backs to get Igor in and out. This past week, another family in this church has offered their car which is just at the right height. My heart is full of thanksgiving.

The passage from Paul to the Colossians says that we are to stick to our faith and to stay in relationship with Jesus. Now in the next part, the verb tenses are important. They are present tense participles, meaning continuing action. In other words, we are to keep on being rooted in Christ, keep on being built up like a house in Him, keep on being established like a contract in Him, and keep on overflowing with thanksgivng. May it be so today and for ever.