Discipline: gratitude (#5)

Colossians 3:16 NASB95

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

This is such a rich verse to meditate on.

First an admonishment to have the word of God dwell (be at home) in us.

Then an encouragement to teach one other with the sung word.

This is an odd encouragement for us today. And yet in a way we do this. Think of how many of us always have a music player on: Christian radio, hymns, praise songs, or contemporary Christian music, or the great, traditional choral music.

However, Paul's encouragement was to be an active participant in this flow of music, not a passive spectator. And another thing, I can be taught as I listen to a song on the radio, but it is not sung with me in mind. Nor can I sing a song for someone else.

In our house church, sometimes, someone brings music. I had a Honeytree song ("Pioneer") played for me a few weeks ago.

The last thing in the verse is to express thankfulness to God with singing. Again, not a typical picture for our age. All (or ALL) of us can sing (or least make a "joyful noise"). We can sing our thankfulness to God at all times. I realize that this is easier in some traditions than in others. Choruses and simple songs lend themselves to this better than the more exalted (and exalting) forms of choral music.

Most of us rely heavily on the "people up front" to lead worship. Who does it depends, again, on our traditions: the organist, the choir director, the pastor, the worship leaders.

But worship and thankfulness were never meant to be limited to Sunday morning. The verse encourages an on-going flow of music so that the Jesus’s word dwells in us richly.

Church is were 2 or 3 are gathered in Jesus’s name. Worship happens all the time. And, in Paul's encouragement and in God's eyes, I am (and each is) the real worship leader.