"Get Your Transfer Here"

(Colossians. 1:1-14)

INTRODUCTION:

Growing up as a boy, I loved baseball. I loved everything about it. I loved playing it. We'd divide up the big kids and little kids in the neighborhood and play inning after inning of baseball or softball either in our front yard or in a neighbor's back yard.

I loved collecting baseball cards. I loved listening to baseball on the radio. Sometimes, if there was an afternoon game, we would turn the radio on real loud and play while we listened. Sometimes we would play flip cards while we listened. I still love baseball.

The best thing about baseball was and is, going to a game. There is something about being in the park. Maybe it's the hot dogs and big pretzels. Maybe it's the slim possibility of catching a foul ball or a home run ball. I really think it's just the thrill of the game.

I started going to ball games when I was about 12 or 13. My Dad's supervisor lived down the street. His company had season tickets and one time this guy called and offered them to Dad. Dad wasn't much of a baseball fan. Certainly not one who enjoyed going to the game. But Dad did something that day that I will never forget. When offered the tickets, he looked at me and said, "Sure, I can use them." Then Dad gave those tickets to the see Cardinals to me and three of the other big kids in the neighborhood.

We thought Dad was going to take us, instead, we went on an adventure. You see, St. Louis has a great public transportation system. Buses run everywhere. There was a bus stop about a mile from the house. I had never ridden anything but the school bus but Mom and Dad grew up riding the bus and didn't think anything of letting us go into downtown St. Louis. Besides 35 years ago, the streets we seemed a lot safer.

Anyway, Dad took us down to the bus stop. He waited until the right bus came along and put us on. He told us how to buy a transfer from the driver. And he even talked to the driver. It cost us a whole sixty-five cents to ride the bus. That first ride was kind of scary though, because we really weren't too sure about this transfer stuff.

When it was time to get off at the transfer stop, this bus driver took time to help us and remind us which bus we needed to get on. He even made us buy a return ticket and transfer so we wouldn't spend all of our money on popcorn and cokes and not be able to get back home. And then he warned us: "Remember now, get on bus number so and so. Don't you be getting on any other bus now, or you'll get lost." And then the bus left. We watched half a dozen buses pull up but they were the wrong ones. We even argued over whether to get on one bus or not because it said it was going to the ball park. But instead, we waited and got on the bus that driver told us to get on.

We made it to and from the ball game just fine. The transfer went without a hitch. As a matter of fact, that was the start of something great. Whenever my Dad's supervisor had tickets (they were about half way down the first base line, five rows back) us boys got them. For three dollars we could ride the bus to the ball game and have a coke, popcorn and either a hot dog or a pretzel. Those were the days. Sometimes, we would save our money and just go and for something like $3.00, sit in the bleachers.

We had a great time. One of the things I really remember, though, is that first time and how scared I was (though I didn't want to tell Dad or my friends) about getting on the wrong bus. And then how safe I felt in the hands of that kind bus driver. And how excited I felt when we made that transfer and got on the right bus.

So how does all of that fit with today's passage? In his letter to the Colossians, Paul talks about how "God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of God's beloved Son."

My friends and I put our trust in that kindly bus driver. As a result, we successfully transferred to the right bus and made our final destination, the ball game. Paul says that through our faith in Christ; through our redemption and forgiveness our transfer has already been purchased and made. We've been given proper directions. And in essence, he echoes the bus driver: "Remember now, don't you be getting on any other bus, or you'll get lost."

Paul then goes on to list some prayer concerns he has for the Colossian Church. Some concerns that will make them stronger Christians now that they have been transferred into God's kingdom. He prays that they might be made strong through the power of God, that they might have patience and endurance and that they might joyfully give thanks to God in all things. Those are the things I want to look at.

I. STRENGTH:

A. The first thing Paul asks for is that they be strong. But notice this isn't physical strength. This isn't strength that comes from them or their inner fortitude and resources. This strength has its origins in God's Grace. Paul prays: "May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from God's glorious power." (1:11)

Paul is reminding them and us, that try as hard as we might, none of us can do it on our own. In the world we may be expected to, but in the Kingdom of God, we're called to trust God and rely upon God for strength.

I remember a brief story I heard or read years ago. It seems there was a little boy who was helping his Dad work in the garden. One of the things they were doing was picking up rocks. Everything went along fine until the boy came to a fairly large rock embedded firmly in the ground. Dad watched as the boy pushed, pulled and did everything in his power to move that rock. But it didn't budge. The more he tried, the more frustrated he got. The father walked over and asked his son, "Are you using all of your strength?"

The boy said he was and the father replied, "No you're not."

The boy stopped and looked at his father, giving him one of those, "What, are you some kind of idiot?" looks that kids can give. And then the father finished, "You haven't asked me to help."

B. There is so much power for living the faith that is available from God. All we have to do is get on or stay on the right bus, the bus of Grace not works. We've been transferred into the Kingdom, all we have to do is call upon and rely upon the "strength that comes from the glorious power of God."

We can do that, we can stay plugged in to God's power through daily Prayer; that personal time with God. We can stay plugged in through Devotional Time, it focuses our hearts and minds on God. We can stay plugged in through daily and ongoing Bible Studies like Disciple Bible Study and the Baby Boomer Bible Study. They keep us in touch with God and strengthen us with the "strength that comes from God's glorious power."

II. PATIENCE:

Second, Paul prays that they have endurance and patience. I have always been in awe of long distance runners. Those folks who have the stamina to run in a marathon When I was in the 9th grade I decided to try out for the track team. It was there that I first saw the training the cross country runners went through. Me, I was a sprinter. I didn't have the stamina for the long distance. I could run fast for short periods of time, but I didn't have the training or the endurance for the long distances.

I think a lot of people today are living life and faith like sprinters. We've heard life described as a "rat race" and for many people it really is a race. But most people don't see it as a long distance race. They see it as a series of short sprints. They sprint from this job to that or this thing they can't live without to the next thing they can't live without. And when a crisis occurs, they find they have no stamina. They hit the wall and wind up with a faith that is completely out of breath.

Paul reminds us that we need patience and endurance. Patience grows from endurance. Endurance comes through the strength God gives us through our faith in Christ. You see it all goes back to Christ. The more we seek Christ, the more we depend upon Christ, the more time we spend in the presence of Christ, the more strength to endure we are given. And the more strength to endure that we receive, the more patience we develop.

III. JOYFUL THANKSGIVING:

A. Finally, Paul tells us that we should joyfully give thanks to God in all circumstances.

How are we supposed to be joyfully thankful all the time? Sometimes it's hard enough just being thankful. Sometimes the circumstances of life are such that it seems hard to be thankful for anything, let alone be joyfully thankful. Yet, that's exactly what Paul tells us to be. And again, he starts at the root cause of our thankfulness, our relationship with God through Christ. At the heart and center of everything we are and do is God, who through Christ, has transferred us into the Kingdom of God's son.

As long a we remember that, as long as we stay on board that bus, so to speak, we are assured of our safe arrival and we can and will be filled with joyful thanksgiving.

B. Marie Curling, in A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul, tells about a little boy named Jamie who was trying out for a part in a school play. He had his heart set on being in it, and his mother was afraid he would not be chosen and be devastated. On the day the parts were announced, Ms. Curling went with the mother to pick Jamie up after school. Jamie rushed up to her, eyes gleaming with pride and excitement and shouted. "Guess what, Mum, I've been chosen to clap and cheer." (1)

In a sense, Paul is saying we have all "been chosen to clap and cheer." God fills us with God's strength which enables us to endure and develop patience and fills us with the spirit of joyful thanksgiving that allows us to clap and cheer.

CONCLUSION:

Paul's prayer is pretty powerful. It's a prayer that is fit for anyone and any Church. A prayer for God's Strength; for Endurance and Patience and for a spirit of Joyful Thanksgiving. All of that is possible, Paul says, because we have been "transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son through redemption and forgiveness." That's the one thing that undergirds all of this. It begins there and ends there. We have been transferred into God's kingdom through our faith in Christ and that's all we need. God's redemption and forgiveness through Christ covers us, surrounds us, undergirds us and lifts us up.

Just remember what that bus driver said, "Don't you be getting on any other bus, or you'll get lost."

Rely on God's strength for endurance, patience and a spirit of joyful thanksgiving

This is the Word of the Lord for this day.

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1. Marie Curling, A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, (1996 Health Communications Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL), p. 239.