Sermon for September 3, 2006THINK ON THESE THINGS8th in a series of sermons from Philippians By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz |
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September 3, 2006
Scripture: Philippians 4:2-9 2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. Last week our United Methodist Women leadership team helped us celebrate a significant milestone. They reminded us that the Methodist people have been ordaining women as ministers for fifty years now and it is an anniversary worth celebrating. I have personally benefited and grown immensely from working with ordained clergy colleagues like Cindy Bates for these past five years and Sharon McCormick before Cindy and Brenda Lear and Diane Bell before Sharon. Jenny Ricklefs is on the road to being a minister and is able to do that because of some of the pioneer Methodist women clergy from these first fifty years. We are a stronger and spiritually richer denomination because of that decision fifty years ago and we have been a pace setter for other churches in the world, some of whom still believe that if you are not male, that you can not fully represent Christ. We do need to remember, however, that there were some other pioneers 2000 years ago who also recognized that both men and women have gifts of leadership in the community of faith. Jesus was astonishingly liberated for a first century Jewish rabbi when he allowed women to travel with his band of followers—wealthy women they were, says the gospel of Luke. And the apostle Paul has gotten a bad rap from the false letters attributed to him but not actually written by him. In some of those false letters the writer urges women to just be quiet or to be submissive and subservient to men. That is not Paul’s writing and is not Paul’s theology. In today’s verses we hear some of what Paul believes about women as leaders in the churches he started. Let’s begin a couple of steps back. The first person Paul baptized ever in Europe was in this town of Philippi and it was a woman—a wealthy woman business leader named Lydia. Later on after he left Philippi and went on to the Greek city of Corinth—the Las Vegas of the first century—he recruited two people to be his co workers in that startup church whose names were Priscilla and Aquila. They were a married couple and Paul almost always names Priscilla first. They were leaders and co workers in that congregation. Today he names two women whom he calls his co workers who have struggled alongside him in his work. This is one of several places where Paul identifies women leaders by name in his churches; one of the other places is in Romans where he calls women named Junias a “diakonos”, a minister. Paul was way ahead of even us Methodists in appointing women leaders and he still needs to be listened to by others who believe that women are just inherently inferior. The second issue in these verses has to do with the disagreement that Euodia and Syntyche seem to be having. We learn from this letter that there can be conflicts in the church!! You probably knew that already. Did you know that—that Christians often disagree with each other? What is sad to me is that we sometimes are very caustic about how we disagree. I have heard from some of you that last Sunday’s guest speaker made some troubling statements and I have responded to some of those emails by saying that I believe some of her assertions would not represent my own reading or application of the Bible. For instance in the children’s story last week which we did already edit, there is no mention in the Bible of an innkeeper and certainly no mention that there was a wealthy family who did receive a room in the inn after Mary and Joseph were told there was no room. I received several emails agreeing with and disagreeing with her arguments and while most of them were civil and thoughtful, one that characterized her presentation as a rant went on in the email to become a very passionate diatribe of its own. We will disagree with each other many times in the community of faith and we have ever since the Bible was written. We will do our best in our congregation to honor persons as we disagree. We have responded to the feedback from the speaker two weeks ago on Iraq and on Israel by inviting in Shaul Amir from the Allied Jewish Federation next Sunday night to give us an alternative perspective on the policies and practices of Israel and the US in the middle East. What I hope we can do is what I hear Paul asking his two church members to do—not to have the same opinions but to be united enough in Christ that we can differ and disagree with love and respect. I am somewhat encouraged that Paul’s churches and our own churches today have similar problems and challenges. The next few verses are some of the most important verses in all of Paul’s writing and many of you have committed these to memory; in fact, we will be distributing next Sunday some wallet cards with these verses and later ones from Philippians imprinted on them, they are so important. Paul begins this segment by doing a little meddling. Have you noticed that the Bible does that at times—starts to meddle in our complacency and our greed and our materialism? I have noticed that and it is just one of the hazards that comes from really listening to scripture and applying it to my life. It makes me uncomfortable at times and I want to warn those of you who are going to be in our Disciple classes that there are times that your Bible reading will challenge you and cause you to revaluate some things and reprioritize parts of your life. That is what it means to meet Christ and act on the invitation to follow Christ. There are parts of the Bible that might even offend you! One of the three negative emails I got from last Sunday said that this person did not come to church to be offended. Well, if we really listen to the hard teachings of Jesus, sometimes we are troubled or perhaps even offended because most of us have not reached Christ likeness yet and when that goal is lifted up to us, we might be uncomfortable. Was it John Ruskin who paraphrased Jesus by saying, “The truth will make you free but first it will make you uncomfortable!” Paul asks us to notice what we are thinking about. Umm. That is a little personal—sort of like the Bob Dylan line about if people knew what he was THINKING they would send him to the guillotine! Paul asks us to think about what is honorable and lovely and commendable and pure and just. He is recognizing that whatever we think about most will wind up controlling us. Jesus says wherever your treasure is, that is where your heart will also be—whatever we treasure, think about most, that is what we really worship. What do you think most about? The next purchase you will make? Sports? How you look? How we can make our houses more comfortable and whether to buy the 42 inch projection TV or the 52 inch one? Rabbi Harold Kushner has a great story in his new book about a rabbi who ran into a member of his congregation in the street one day and said, “I haven’t seen you in synagogue for while. Is everything all right?” The man answered, “Everything is fine, but I have been worshipping at a small synagogue on the other side of town.” The rabbi said, “I’m surprised to hear that. I know that rabbi. He’s a nice enough fellow, but he’s not the scholar I am. He’s not the community leader I am. What can you possible get from leaving my synagogue to worship at his synagogue?” The congregant replied, “That’s all very well and good but that rabbi has other qualities. For example he can read minds, and he’s teaching me how to read minds. Let me show you. Think of something and concentrate on it. Then I will read your mind and tell you what you were thinking.” The rabbi concentrated for a few moments and the congregant ventured, “You are thinking of the verse from the Psalms, ‘I have set the Lord before me at all times.’” The rabbi said, “Ha. You are wrong! I wasn’t thinking about that at all”. To which the congregant replied, “Yes, I know you weren’t and that’s why I don’t worship with you anymore!” What do we think about most? Do we have scripture passages committed to memory that we use to guide us and help us make decisions and determine the right course? Are there verses we have put before us on the walls in the building ones that we use to guide our life? What if we used the verse from Micah on our cornerstone several times every day? “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to practice kindness, and to walk humbly with God?” What if that verse was the foundation for any discussions we have about the emotional topic of immigration right now in our country so that we begin not with our preconceived ideas but with the claim that as God’s people we are to work for these deep Biblical values of justice and kindness and humility? Would that approach make a difference? What do you think about most of the time? Paul gives us a direction—let whatever is true and honorable and just and pure—think about this first he says. Many of you have committed these words from Paul in chapter 4 to memory and we are going to reinforce this next Sunday by handing out printed cards with most of these verses on them for you to carry with you. They are some of the most important sentences in the whole Bible: do not worry but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be known to God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your heart and your thoughts. When I met with Donna Schuett’s family last week to prepare for her funeral, they brought her Bible with them and they opened it to Philippians 4 and she had underlined some verses there. She underlined these verses for today and she underlined those later verses we will have printed on the wallet cards for next week: Paul says, “I have learned to be content wherever I am in life. I have had little and I have had plenty. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Ed Schuett told me that he remembered many years ago when Donna was going through a tough time she had underlined this passage in chapter 4 and it was a resource and guide and comfort for her. What if we each just read this passage from chapter 4 for the next seven days every day? What would happen to us? Think about these things, Paul says, and the peace of God, a peace so profound it is beyond our comprehension, will guard your heart and your thoughts. |
