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Cheerleading the Community Philippians 4:1 – 9 William Willimon is a Methodist teacher, preacher, and former chaplain of Duke University. He is well known among pastors because of his prolific writing and pastoral advice. About a year ago, the United Methodist Church elected him to be one of their Bishops and sent him to Alabama. It’s a big shift — from being the Dean of the Chapel at a University where one would have time for reading, writing and teaching — to suddenly be given a whole set of churches and clergy to serve as administrator, pastoral advisor, and general director and caretaker. Willimon recently published an article about this new adventure and finished with the following story: “On one of my worst days, a grueling eight-hour marathon of appointments, I was about ready to go home when I was informed I had one more appointment. Two older women walked into my office. “We’ve come to Birmingham from Cullman to tell you about our ministry,” one said. ‘“Gladys’s grandson was busted, DUI. We went over to the youth prison camp to visit him. Sad to say, we had never been there before. We were appalled by the conditions; those young men packed in there like animals. We got to know them. Are you aware that only 10 percent of them can read? An illiterate 19-year-old and we wonder why he’s in prison!” “Well, we began reading classes,” the other one said, “Sarah taught school before she retired. Then that led to a Bible study group in the evening. We’re up to three Bible study groups. Two friends of ours who can’t get out bake cookies for the boys. Some of them said those cookies are the first gift they’ve ever received. We’ve also enlisted two wonderful nurses who help with the VD.” “And you want the conference to take responsibility for this ministry?” I asked with bureaucratic indifference. “No, we don’t want to mess it up,” Sarah responded. “You need me to come up with some money for you?” “Don’t need any money. If we need something, we get it from our little church,” she said. “Then why have you come down here to tell me about this?” I asked. “Well, we know that being a bishop must be one of the most depressing jobs in the church – too many things that we are not doing that Jesus expects us to do. So Gladys thought it would be nice if we came down here to tell you to take heart. Something’s going right, that is, up in Cullman, Alabama.” “In the late afternoon light (Willimon concludes) Birmingham, Alabama glowed like the Holy City, or at least Bethlehem. Almighty God was located, incarnate, and I was blindsided by the undeniable fidelity of the people of God.” (The Christian Century. September 20, 2005. Vol. 122, No. 19. P. 31.) In these 2000 years of church life, the organizational structuring has grown and developed in ways that sometimes cannot be considered healthy. Willimon’s gaff of trying to be the good bureaucrat – providing all the answers, doling out the major resources to the needs is a humbling and important example. I only wish I had read this story and pasted it on my desk when I served as a Regional Minister, or had Gladys and Sarah come to visit me late one afternoon. In the beginning of the Church, however, these new baby faith communities needed encouragement…wisdom…cheerleading to keep them going. The Apostle Paul was called neither a bishop nor a Regional Minister. But he created a unique role for himself, because he passionately started urban churches, staying no longer than a couple of years before he would go on to begin another one. He would stay in touch with those for whom he had given so much life. Staying in touch for him was through letter writing. He wrote very personal, public letters to the congregations; several of which we have maintained in the new Testament of the Bible. Today’s passage is a portion of a letter he sent to the church he had begun at Philippi. He seems to have three specific and differentiated concerns in these nine short verses. First, Paul has obviously heard about some problem within the congregation. Two women are bickering. He names them (not their problem) and suggests they get over their tiff, and that others in the congregation help to make sure that happens. So much for a healing pastor who goes about privately trying to mend fences between and among folks in the congregation! Caution to the wind, Paul just spews it out in this letter, which would probably be read to the congregation on a Sunday morning. As much as I would not recommend or try such an antic, the underlying premise of honesty and facing conflict openly and as a community is Paul’s take on difficult situations. Too many times in organizational and family life, we develop an ugly practice of triangulation. I have a problem with Joe, but rather than going to Joe with that problem, I go Sally to complain and try to get her to get Joe to come around to my view. Paul knew that was no way to handle problems. So in his letter, this public letter to the whole congregation, he writes: Suzanne and Joe — you have a problem — you better deal with it and get over it; the unity of the church is far more important than wasting lots of people’s energy over your little issue. Blunt – but probably quite effective. After Paul ‘took care of business,’ he turns to this wonderful refrain of joy and peace. Herein is the crux of the Christian faith: we do not need to be anxious. When we are most afraid…most alone…most susceptible…most vulnerable to peril, God is standing guard over us. God will stay awake so we can rest. God will be alert so we can relax. God will be in charge so we can let go of the controls. Nothing needs to keep us immobilized in distress, fear, worried terror. This is not simplistic pabulum, this is not that a meaningless statement that we should have no worries or cares or that everything in life is perfect. This is not don’t worry – be happy. Rather, we can count on the presence of God being with us in the midst of all those concerns. We can be assured that the love of God surpasses whatever devastation we may feel at any given moment. We can let go feeling that the solutions to all life’s dilemmas rest on our decision-making. The most peace providing greatest joy in life is realizing that we are not the hub, the center, the beginning and the end. Rejoice, cries Paul, we can trust that God is at that center. The admirable traits in the last portion of this passage come directly from the Greek culture of which the Philippians were a part. The true…the honorable… the just…the pure…the lovely… the excellent…the praiseworthy — this list of commendable virtues that were known to these people as they are known to us. They (and we) can live lives with these virtues with or without a foundation of faith in God. Paul, however, would have those virtues grounded and acknowledged in coming from the one God – who made all of life, and continues redeeming it each day. He implored his people to recognize these virtues — not as free standing — but incorporated and modeled through faith-filled lives. So church today, Union Avenue Christian Church, St. Louis, 2005:
And finally, may we know that in accepting these time worn practices that Paul wrote about 2000 years ago … that we will be able to bring good news to our neighbors … to the world …and even to our Regional and Area Ministers when they are having weary days of believing they have to solve all the church’s problems. SW |
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