A sermon delivered on April 12, 2024 by The Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley.

I have never done this before but this morning, since it is the last formal sermon I will preach before I retire, I want to dedicate this sermon to the Educational psychologist who in 1985 was the gatekeeper for Greater Atlanta Presbytery and Columbia Seminary and determined who was allowed to proceed with the educational process and the pursuit of a call. I shall never forget as he looked me in the eye and said, “Mr. Wrisley, I really do not like you, and frankly, it will take a miracle of God to get you through seminary.” Well, Dr. Urie, I believe after over forty years in the ministry, I, sir, believe in miracles!

Our morning text comes from Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae which was a community in what is today’s Turkey. His letter focuses on two primary issues confronting the church at the time. There were some rogue teachers and preachers infiltrating the church with some bad teaching. On the one hand, there were those who were using philosophical arguments saying Jesus was not really who he said he was, i.e., the living embodiment of God – Immanuel. On the other hand were those who said that if you want to know Jesus, you had to know “the secret handshake”; in other words, these folks taught in order to have a relationship with God, you must be taught secret knowledge about Jesus. It is known as the ancient heresy, Gnosticism.

Now at the end of all of Paul’s letters, he takes time to give special encouragement to the letter’s recipients and then circles back around to highlight one more time the letter’s key themes. Today, let us read Colossians 4:2-6. Listen to the Word of the Lord.

Colossians 4:2-6

2Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. 3At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, 4so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should. 5Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. 6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.1

In our text this morning, Paul’s final thoughts to the Church of Colossae are evangelistic in nature, and he is urging the community to focus on prayer. It is not just prayers in general but prayers for the Spirit’s direction as to when and as to how to share the winsome news of Jesus Christ. Specifically, the Church is called to pray for Paul and his companions that the door of opportunity will be thrown open for them to share that faith even though he is in prison.

The second issue he reminds them of is to be mindful of how they, the Church, present themselves to the larger community. He realizes that people outside the Church will not only judge the Church but more importantly, they will judge Jesus by how those of us in the Church act and through what we say or do not say and how we say it. The Message paraphrase has verses five and six reads,

Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.

So, these are some of Paul’s final thoughts directed to the church in Colossae. I want to offer you, beloved, my final thoughts to you. What is it I want you to remember after I leave?

Whether or not you were aware of it, for the last three years I have been sharing core values I wanted you to marinate in while I was here. As Paul spoke of seasoning our words with salt, I want to share with you six primary seasonings I add to every worship service to marinate and season your soul in the rue with what I think are priorities in our walking the Way of Jesus. This is how I personally, week after week, try to make the most of every opportunity to declare the winsome Word wisely.

How do I start every worship service? Do you remember? I welcome you each week with, “In the Name of the One who is, who was, and who is to come, grace and peace to you in the Name of Jesus Christ, good morning.” I begin each worship service this way because I want you to remember in whose Presence we are gathering; we are gathering in the Presence of God whose Presence has no boundaries. It points us to the Providential nature of a timeless God that is always with us in good times or bad. I then remind us about the nature of this space in which we gather: It’s a space of grace and peace; or put another way, it is a place of acceptance and safety. 

The second dash of seasoning added to worship is that I call for us as a community to become silent, still, and expectant. “Shhh. Listen! The Holy Spirit is in this place!” Each week I begin our worship service by reminding us we are now entering God’s time, and as such, we are to be alert and aware of the Presence of the Spirit in our midst. I want us to prepare ourselves to expect God to show up and make a difference in our lives. It’s a reminder that worship is not about learning “Six Principles for Spiritual Living” or anything like that; no, Church, we are asked to be still and pay attention; we are getting reminded God is here and that Spirit is going to upend your apple cart of status quo.

The third subtle flavor I have tried to instill in you is that when we say the Lord’s Prayer, we end it on a high note, not a low one. It is a powerful, simple prayer straight from the lips of our Lord and so often Church, when we pray it we sound like we are bored: “For thine is the kingdom, power, and glory…amen.” Friends, the early church made a point of adding doxology at the end of this prayer! The Lord’s Prayer ends on a high note because it succinctly reminds us how we are to live our lives in God and with one another. “For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, FOREVER! AMEN!” It ends on an expectant upbeat!

This fourth thing I do each week is most likely the one you remember most. How do I greet you from the pulpit each week? “Good morning, saints! Good morning, sinners!” I am fully aware there are some of you really dislike when I do this. I had one man tell me that my saying this week after week is hackneyed; I smiled and said, “Brother, that says more about you than it does me and what I am saying!”

So why do I say this each week? Is it simply to get a chuckle out of you before I start preaching? Nope. I greet you that way because I want those of you who feel and act all high and mighty in your faith to remember you are as much a broken mess as everyone else. I want to those of you who feel you are worthless and unlovable to remember you are a dearly loved adopted child of God. The Church is a microcosm of the larger world but with this one difference: Christ-followers understand and acknowledge who we are as redeemed broken people and that we stand equal along with everyone else in need of God’s loving grace.

The fifth and sixth values I have marinated you in are thrown in the rue together. One is an invitation. The other is a blessing. I learned this from the late W. Frank Harrington of the Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. I worked as one of his associates decades ago. Although he was not the easiest person to work for, he did love the Church; those who worked for him had the best continuing education opportunity in the denomination.

Frank always gave an invitation at the end of the service. We Presbyterians might grumble that it feels too ‘Baptist’ and we are above the need to belabor the obvious that, “We are personally invited to come and walk with Jesus.” What I have learned over the years is there are very few Mainline pastors, albeit Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, or Episcopalian that invite people to contemplate an offer to follow Jesus or learn what that even means. It does not mean that Bryan plays fifteen stanzas of Just as I Am until someone finally gives up wanting to go home and crawls down the center aisle and gets “slain in the Spirit.” No! It’s just a simple invitation to you that says, “If your week was tough, if you are in crisis at home or at work, if you are in the depths of grief and are at your wits-end, Jesus is gently knocking at the door of your heart, and he wants to come and in and visit with you.” In training younger pastors, I remind them if they do this, they will speak to someone in the congregation who now knows it is safe to come and talk about their faith and learn about Jesus.

Coupled with my invitation each week, I give a blessing. The final pinch of seasoning I pull out of my cupboard is to declare God’s blessing upon you. It’s the old Aaronic Blessing, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord shine his face upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face upon you and smile brightly, gently, giving you the peace of Jesus Christ.” 2

It drives me nuts when I hear pastors mess up this great blessing when they incorrectly say, “MAY the Lord bless you and keep you. MAY the Lord Shine his face…MAY the Lord turn his face upon you…” One, they are not only quoting it incorrectly but more importantly, they are taking a declarative charge and are making it just a mere possibility.

“God might or might not bless you and keep you. God might or might not shine his face or lift his face upon you.”  Andrew Pervus, Professor of Reformed Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, says we have taken a declarative blessing and have watered it down into a vacuous optative voice expressing a maybe or maybe not. By misquoting Moses from the Book of Numbers, pastors have blessed congregations with nothing more than a big, empty “Good luck! Because God may or may not be with you!”

Beloved, I want you to know that you know that you know that as you leave worship, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost’s blessing is wrapped around you like a warm coat on a cold winter’s night. There’s no maybe about it.

Shhh! Listen! The Spirit of God is in this place! Saints and sinners, with a spirited doxology of gratitude and love, it has been a privilege to serve you in the Name of the One Who is, Who was, and Who is to come. You are the Beloved. And yes, I know calling you that annoys some of you, but it is how Jesus and Paul referred to those they cared for the most who were around them. It is to remind you that you are loved. Be the Church, beloved. You got this! Amen.

© 2026 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

1 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

2 Numbers 6:23-26. The great priestly blessing.