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Sound & Season is a daily audio devotional designed to connect the routine moments of life to the rhythms of the Church seasons.
This is Sound and Season. It's Sunday, the second week of Lent. Our passage this week comes from Paul's letter to the Colossian church, chapter two, verses six through 10. And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Jeffrey Heine:See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him who is the head of all rule and authority. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The apostle Paul often used the word walking to describe the life of following Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:It was a way to invoke a sense of movement and activity. Here in our passage today, Paul mixes the image of walking with that of rootedness in Christ and being built up in him. It is a composite image of walking rootedness. Before moving on to the strong warnings against human traditions and their philosophical captivity, empty deceit. Paul notes the result of living in this walking rootedness in Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:It is an abundance of thanksgiving. There are many results we look for in our everyday lives. Efficiency, praise, reward, success. But Paul says that the result of following Jesus is a gain of thanksgiving, gratitude that abounds. I have observed that even people walking through great trials or suffering, those who are abounding in thanksgiving are also abounding in joy.
Jeffrey Heine:The grateful person is a joyful person. It's no mere happiness that comes and goes with the ups and downs of life, no it is a resilient and defiant joy born out of thanksgiving. Therefore, it is the fruit of thanksgiving that we who follow Jesus should be looking for in our own lives. It is thanksgiving that we should be nurturing and protecting because it displays and gives witness to a walking rootedness in Christ, that we are healthily built up and established in the faith. Our gratitude in Christ is evidenced in our gratitude for Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:Our thanksgiving is expressed to him in our daily living, for in him the whole fullness of God dwells. And because we have been filled in him, our thanksgiving is the outworking of our walking and our rootedness in Christ himself. In this Lenten season, it is an opportunity not only to grow in rootedness, but also in thanksgiving. So we meditate on the goodness of God in the sending and suffering of Jesus. We look to the cross of Christ and consider the love of God that has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, hear our prayer, and let our cry come to you. Let us pray. Almighty God, who is all seeing, all knowing, and all loving, you are the light of the world who opens blind eyes, who cleanses darkened hearts, who draws near to the ones who are suffering. By your Spirit, cleanse our hearts and open our eyes, that we may not be like the Pharisees who are blind to the truth of who you are, but rather give us hearts of faith like the blind man whom you made to see, so that like him, we may live lives of worship. Purify us by your saving power, that we may not fall into sin.
Jeffrey Heine:And strengthen us with your power, that we may testify to your name. Oh, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Glory to the father and to the son and to the holy spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:And now, our meditation companion from composer Kyle Carpenter and his Lenten instrumental suite, Tenambre, here is Silver Quiet.