"Season Your Greetings"

Sermon Transcript for December 10, 2000

By Rev. Mike Beck

Scripture Reading: Colossians 4:2-6

 

I want you to be on the alert for a serious virus that is going around. Here are some symptoms you can check yourself on:

Be on the alert! The Advent Virus is very contagious and I hope that each of you catch it!

Now, I realize that I’m biased; but I think my mom qualifies as the world’s greatest cook! If you would just come to normal family gatherings you would find, and I am not exaggerating, at least three meat selections and at least six dessert selections. But if you go into Mom’s kitchen, and this would be true of any good cook, you would find a cabinet filled with a variety of seasonings. A good cook will go to those seasonings to savor and to add flavor to the food.

We are going to take a break from the Christian Believer series for the next four weeks. And our theme during this four week period of Advent and Christmas will be "Seasoning the Season". Next week we’re going to see how we can "Season our Giving". On Christmas Eve we’re going to see how we can "Season our Getting" because many of us do a better job of giving than we do receiving. On New Year’s Eve we’ll be looking at "Seasoning your Goal-Setting". But today I’d like for us to think together for just a moment about "Seasoning our Greetings".

I was at a District minister’s meeting on Tuesday of this week; and Bishop White was to make a few remarks. And as Bishop White is always prone to do, when he got up the first words out of his mouth were these, "The peace of Christ be with you". To which we as clergy knew to reply, "And also with you". That is a greeting that is used often within the church.

I would invite you to think with me this whole concept of greetings is given a great deal of attention in Scripture. In the Christmas story we remember the Angel Gabriel brought greetings to Zechariah there in the temple, to Mary, and also to Joseph. When Jesus appeared to His disciples in the Upper Room following His resurrection, He greeted them with these words, "Peace be with you". And as we read the letters of the Apostle Paul, you notice Paul is big into greetings. Sometimes his greetings take the whole first chapter of a letter.

I would invite you to reflect on how important greetings are. Why? Because our greetings of other people are an indication of our concern for them. When we acknowledge others with a warm greeting, when we take them by the hand, when we’re able to call them by name, what we are doing is affirming their worth.

If you saw last year’s Academy Award winning movie, "The Cider House Rules", perhaps you remember the way the orphanage doctor, played by Michael Caine, would tuck the boys of the orphanage into bed at night. Do you recall his words? As he stood at the door each night ready to turn out the light, he would say, "Good night, Princes of Maine and Kings of New England". And his greeting brought soothing and inspiration to these parentless children that were under his care. You and I must never overlook the power of our simple words of greeting.

Let’s think together for a moment about some of our greetings during this special season of the year. First of all many of us send out Christmas cards. Mickey and I have already received many beautiful cards and expressions of love from many of you. Let me remind those of you who send out cards that that handwritten note, that word of expression of faith to an unsaved friend or family member, can become a wonderful opportunity for you to witness to the Gospel.

A second group of people that I would invite us to think about in the way of greetings are those casual persons we meet who cross our path. The person who waits on you at Sears or Pennys or Lazarus. The server at the restaurant when you go out to eat. The cashier at the convenience store that rings up your purchase. I’ve always believed that how we treat persons like that is a real indication of the character that we have within us. In Colossians 4:5 that Dan read for us Paul says, "I want you to be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; making the most of every opportunity". I raised a big chuckle in the office this week when I suggested that I was the pastor of the cashiers down here at the Bigfoot Amoco station. Now you need to understand that my drug of choice is the caffeine in Diet Coke. And I make at least three trips a day down to the Bigfoot to take my refill cup and have it filled back up. And then I bring it back to the office and sip on it over the next couple of hours. In fact I’ve told people that work in the office, that if I should happen to succumb during my ministry here at Grace, be sure to put my Bigfoot refill cup in the casket. But you know, I know all of the cashiers down there at the Bigfoot on a first name basis. They greet me with a smile; I greet them with a smile. They let me know if their mother or their sister is ill. And there is a very real sense, in which in a limited way, I’m their pastor. A greeting to those persons who cross our paths.

A third group of persons I’d like us to think about in terms of our greetings are newcomers to our church. Friends, there’s not a Sunday that goes by but what some new person or family visits our church. Oftentimes, there are two or three new family units on a Sunday. And I’m proud of you in that regard because I think Grace gets very high marks on the way in which we extend warmth and friendship to newcomers. When I meet with people in the new member’s class and ask them why they are excited to come to our church, almost always they talk about the way in which they were greeted as they came here. But we also know that in many churches that’s not the case. I was given this article recently that has a profound word of truth in it. Hear it carefully.

"One day a man went to visit a church. He arrived early, parked his car, and got out. Another car pulled up near him and the driver told him, "I always park there. You took my place!" The visitor went inside for Sunday School, found an empty seat, and sat down. A young lady from the church approached him and stated, "That’s my seat! You took my place!" The visitor was somewhat distressed by this rude welcome, but said nothing. After Sunday School, the visitor went into the church sanctuary and sat down. Another member walked up to him and said, "That’s where I always sit. You took my place!" The visitor was even more troubled by this treatment, but still said nothing. Later, as the congregation was praying for Christ to dwell among them, the visitor stood, and his appearance began to change. Horrible scars became visible on his hands and on his sandaled feet. Someone from the congregation noticed him and called out, "What happened to you?" The visitor replied, "I took your place."

There’s a profound word of truth for us there. And I hope that all of you as you worship on Sunday will mentally get in the habit of looking around you for someone you may not know and after the benediction is pronounced, that instead of seeing how quickly you can make it to the parking lot or to get to a familiar friend to visit with them, that you might take a moment to extend a warm greeting to that newcomer.

And then, fourthly, here’s where we’re probably off and under conviction, what about our greetings of our own family members. For friends, isn’t it true sometimes we greet strangers in a warmer way than we do our own family members. And I suppose that’s somewhat understandable. We put our best foot forward during the day when maybe we feel lousy. And then we come home where it’s safe and secure and we let all of our frustration out on our spouse or out on our kids. You perhaps have heard me tell the story of my wife, who after being late for supper for about the fourth time in the past month said to me as I walked in the door twenty minutes late, with the food getting cold, she just said, "Mike, you wouldn’t think about being late for an appointment with someone at church, but you think nothing about showing up late for supper. I just would like you to treat me with the same level of respect that you do the other people you meet with during the day." Isn’t that true of us? Oftentimes, the very person that lives right there with us that we say means so much to us, aren’t the beneficiaries of a warm greeting as often as they should be.

You know, in raising our boys I had someone talk to me about a problem with their kids this week, and I just smiled and said, "Been there; done that". We had the same problems, shed the same tears, had the same disappointments raising teenagers that many parents have. But at our Thanksgiving gathering, our boys are now 22 and 25, I watched them that evening and had a real sense of pride that, "Well, we must have done something right". Because I watched them, as family members they hadn’t seen for awhile, entered. And I watched them get up to greet them. And I was especially touched. The grandparents were the last to leave. But I watched both of my sons go up individually to each grandparent, put there arms around them, give them a kiss, and say, "Grandma, Grandpa, I love you". What a greeting means!

In our Scripture today from the book of Colossians, we are given some words of wisdom and guidance concerning our greetings to one another. Let’s look, just quickly, at some of those words. Paul tells us, "Let your conversation be always full of grace and seasoned with salt." Let’s think first of all about "full of grace". And I invite you to put this image in your mind. What Paul says we need to have simmering on the stove of our hearts is a good-sized pot full of savory grace! When the doorbell rings unexpectedly or the telephone interrupts our silent night, or a family member’s actions disappoint us, just how gracious are we in the way we respond? For you see, and hear me carefully on this, grace is a gift that we give that is undeserved. Grace is not determined by how we are feeling in that moment. And I wonder? Do many of us need to ask God to put a good-sized pot of savory grace upon the stove of our hearts?

And then Paul adds the words, "seasoned with salt". Well, let’s think about that for a moment. In his day, salt was what preserved meat. And that’s what Jesus had in mind when He referred to His followers as "the salt of the earth". We are to be that savory essence, that redemptive presence in the midst of a sin-scarred world. Colossians 4:2 gives us the recipe for how we do that. For you see, what flows out of our mouths is in direct relationship to what is going on in our hearts. Paul says, "Devote yourself to prayer, be watchful and thankful". There’s the ingredients. Devote yourself to prayer. And I think what Paul is saying is not this kind of prayer, although that’s an important part of prayer life. When Paul says, "Devote yourself to prayer", he’s inviting us throughout the day to be tuned in to our Heavenly Father.

Paul says, "Be watchful". As I was thinking about those words, I came to this conclusion. All of us need to learn to become wise and aware of the "Achilles’ heels" in our lives. Now what do I mean by that? What are those situations or circumstances that cause you to blow up, that cause you to say a word in haste that you wish you hadn’t said. The first step to overcoming that is to know what those are and to avoid those kinds of situations.

Be in prayer, be watchful, and then be thankful. Something that is emphasized so often in Scripture. If we could go back to the previous chapter of Colossians, we would find even more examples and advice on how to "season our greetings". I invite you to read these words with me that are on the screen. Let them sink in to your hearts. Let’s read them together.

First of all, "Clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." Are those the clothing that you are putting out? In the previous chapter were also these words. Read with me. "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another." That’s a hard thing to do. But our greetings won’t be all that they can be without the element of forgiveness. Let’s go on; read with me. "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." And then Paul goes on to say in closing, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." Do it all in His name.

So I invite you as we close, to think a little more consciously throughout this Christmas season and in every day of our lives to let your greetings be "full of grace and seasoned with salt". Would you pray with me the words on the screen: "With the word of grace inscribed on our hearts, we leave this place to be letters of Your love. Seal us by your Spirit and send us on our way. May our words and actions give those we meet a sense of Your presence and a glimpse of Your kingdom yet to come. Amen."  

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