Monday, May 18, 2009

Philippians Part Two

If you were here last week you will know that we are going to move through Paul's letter to the church at Philippi over the next few weeks if not the rest of the summer. Philippi is located in Northern modern day Greece; the church began in about 50 AD when Paul met some Jewish women worshiping Yahweh by the river of this city. The women became persuaded that the gospel story, the meaning of Jesus' life, death and resurrection, was the fulfillment of the promises Yahweh made, beginning with Abraham and continuing through the prophets, to bring the promised restoration of Israel and through her the redemption of the world. Thus, the church at Philippi was born.

I have been eager to move through this book with you as it was written to a church that was relatively young in age, in a city, along a trade route, full of hustle and bustle. There will be many times I hope where the words of encouragement, exhortation and sometimes admonishment will leap off the page and into our hearts helping us to understand how we are to live faithfully as citizens of the kingdom of God and citizens of Chicago.

This Sunday we picked up on the theme from last week - of the partnership that the Philippians had with Paul. We also continued to approach the letter by asking it this question: what do you have to say to us about what it looks like to be a healthy church community? We noted that Paul chose to talk of his relationship to the church by emphasizing four separate times in the first few verses that when he thinks of them he thinks of "all of them - all of you".

* He says he is praying for all of them
* He says that the way he thinks about them (with affection and hope) is regarding all of them
* Because all of them share, or are partnered with him, in his ministry
* And he longs for all of them with compassion


We asked why he might be going out of his way to make specific that he was talking to and about all of them. One clue that sheds some light is the recognition that this letter is the form of a friendship letter, typical of the letters written between friends in the Greco-Roman world. Gordon Fee remarks: "'hortatory letter of friendship' is only part of the story.... for in Paul's hands everything turns into gospel, including both the formal and material aspects of this letter. Most significant, friendship in particular is radically transformed from a two-way to a three-way bond between him, the Philippians, and Christ... Paul's and their friendship is predicated on their mutual participation in the gospel. This involves them in most of the conventions of Greco-Roman friendship, including especially social reciprocity; but it does so in light of Christ and the gospel (Fee)"

In other words, Paul's friendship with the Philippians and the Philippians' friendship with him is one that neither they nor he called into existence; their relationship is because of Christ. So, his love is for all of them because it is Jesus who has brought all of them together.

In our culture, friendships have become more and more about common interests which is not all bad. As human beings we are gifted by our creator with unique interests. It is good that I have some friends who like to watch football; otherwise I would be doomed to watch alone. But if affinity based friendships take up almost the whole of our relationship-space are we not simply reflecting the narcissism of our culture in ourselves and within the basis of our friendships? We must ask God for the grace to expand our relationship-space to include those relationships with "all" in the life of Christ's church so that the mysterious work of the gospel might work more effectively in us and our world.

1. In the different seasons of your life have you noticed any negative impact to you when you have not been able or willing to embrace "all" of the Christian community? If not, does that mean that you don't need to be concerned about heeding Paul's example discussed above? Clearly, we could just answer this by saying we ought to do it because God's word says to and this is a good response to the admonition from the letter to the Hebrews to not forsake the assembling together, etc. But God does not require certain things of us without showing us why. So, let's explore the rationale by asking why, even if you imagine that you will be OK without being involved meaningfully with "all" of the Christian community, is this not OK?
2. Does this teaching mean that you have to be really good friends with everyone in the church? What do you think it means for you to be involved meaningfully with the "all" of the church that Paul has in mind?

4 comments:

  1. Thanks Bob for your recaps. I ran across this description of the church in the chapter "What does it mean to be a Member of the Church?" in a book I read about nine months ago entitled The Promise of Baptism by James V. Brownson and thought it fit along with the idea of "all of you." It's a paragraph following his argument that membership in the Church is defined quite differently than membership of another organization or as a citizen of a country or state.

    "We cannot therefore simply or directly apply the values we attach to normal human associations and groups to the church, without recognizing its unique place in human life. The church is not, as we too easily assume, a voluntary association of like-minded individuals. It is much more the community of those who have been called by God and joined to Jesus Christ. It is made up not so much of like-minded individuals as of a diversity of members (body parts), who may often find it hard to understand each other because they are not always like-minded on many topics. It is not a gathering of individuals who share a common pursuit of safety and happiness, but rather a community of disciples who find themselves together challenged to take of their crosses and follow Jesus Christ, knowing that paradoxically, it is precisely in giving up the pursuit of their own safety and happiness that they will find true life. To be a member of the church is to be a part of this living body of Christ in the world, directed and empowered by God through the Holy Spirit, in the service of God's great and gracious mission to the world."

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  2. Thanks Keith. I really appreciate your post. Thanks for the quote from the book too. I have heard this book is excellent all around. Is that your impression too?
    Bob

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  3. I did find it to be an excellent review of Reformed Christian baptism, with helpful thoughts also on being a Christian and a member of the Church. Another one of my favorite passages (not directly talking about baptism) discusses what it means to be a Christian.

    "...This means that Christians are not people who 'have it all together.' Being a Christian is not a badge of spiritual accomplishment. Rather, being a Christian means standing in the grace of Jesus Christ, who chose disciples who were completely ignorant of, and often even resistant to, what he had in mind (e.g., Mark 8:31-33). Being a Christian means living in the knowledge that one's discipleship is radically dependent on the forgiving grace of God shown in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. To be a disciple is to know that, at the core of one's life, one still has much to learn, and that the first step in our discipleship is always the step of receiving forgiveness. All our obedience, all our attempts at faithfulness and responsibility to God's call, thus flow from an even more basic posture of gratitude that we have been given a life which, in the most basic sense, we do not deserve and did not earn..."

    Perhaps not saying something radically new, but clear and succinct nonetheless.

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  4. Thanks for posting this. I really like this a lot and is so wonderfully succinct.

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