Close to the
beginning of almost every one of these prayers is effusive thanks for people.
Sometimes people who have been ministry partners. Sometimes people who have
invested themselves in the Church and her mission. Sometimes people who were
personally known and some known only by reputation. I am caught up in the
warmth of affection expressed in 1 Thessalonians 2:8 which continues through
the chapter. “So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with
you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become
very dear to us.” This is characteristic of the thanks for people that
permeates the prayers of the New Testament Epistles.
In this season
of my life, as I pray each of those prayers, I am prompted to remember those
with whom I have served with great gratitude. I am particularly thankful those
who have shaped me through the years. I am thankful for those with whom I
shared partnership in ministry. I am thankful for those for whom I was
privileged to bring some touch of Christ’s love and presence. And, yes, I have
been prompted to give thanks for those whom I found annoying or troubling or
confrontational at the time. Each day’s parade seems altogether too fragmentary
a sample of those for whom I am indeed thankful, but by coming back to it every
day, I am reminded of more and more folk in our great treasury of people.
This rhythm of
thanksgiving from the prayers of the New Testament Epistles has given me an
expansive vision of the vast treasury of people my wife, family, and I have
been enriched to receive. Looking back on now almost 50 years of marriage,
recalling the places we have lived and served, it is not the houses, cars, clothes,
travels, or even experiences or accomplishsment for which we give the greatest
thanks. We are supremely grateful for this great cloud of people who have so
lavishly enriched us. Remembering them evokes joyful thanks.
As her
Alzheimer’s opens ever larger holes and gaps in my wife’s memory, the wonder
and warmth of the people we feel God has given us over these years not only
persists but grows. Often something happens that arouses warm emotions from
even a distant past relationship. By talking it through together, we are often
able to piece together names, locations, events, family connections,
congregations in ways that affirm the gifts these folk still are to us. The
gifts are not limited by activities or benefits, but are expansive gratitude
for the people themselves. To be sure, the day may well come that she will not
be able to reconstruct these details. They are getting more challenging for me
as well. But the relationships with these folk will continue to be our prayer
of thanksgiving for our great treasury of relationships.
Someone else
might come up with a different inventory of the prayers of the New Testament
Epistles, but these are what I use. Romans 1:8-10; 15:5-6,13; 1 Corinthians
1:3-9; 2 Corinthians 13:7-10; Ephesians 1:15-23; 3:14-21; Philippians 1:2-5,
9-11; Colossians 1:2-12; 4:2-4; 1 Thessalonians 1:2-5; 3:10-13; 2 Thessalonians
1:2-4, 11-12; 3:1-2, 5; 2 Timothy 1:3-4, 16-18; Philemon 1:4-7.
