Psalms in the key of life: the key of life in the Psalms (Psalm 1)

the sermon was preached on Sunday September 1st at HopeWhangarei  and here is the audio including an introduction to sermon bingo. 

Maybe it’s hard for us in a country blessed with plentiful water and evergreen tress to understand the significance of the metaphor at the heart of psalm 1 about the person who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates or chews it over, day and night being like a tree planted by a stream.

Lynn Baab who was the lecturer in pastoral Theology at Otago University was in a similar position. She had grown up in the pacific north-west, where rain fall was reliable and frequent and water was plentiful and trees just grew everywhere. There were vast swaths of lush green forest as far as the eye could see.

She said it wasn’t until she moved to Shiraz in Iran that she discovered the significance of a tree planted by a reliable water source. Shiraz is 1500 meters above sea level and can be described as mountainous desert. She lived there for six months and in that time it only rained twice. Once for five minutes and the other for half an hour. Her impression of the place was that it was all beige brown. Beige brown houses and dusty beige brown streets surrounded by beige brown country leading off to beige brown mountains. There were no trees, only scraggly shrubs with withering leaves. When it rained it didn’t result in green plants sprouting it simply turned the beige brown dust briefly to beige brown mud.

 Friends from the church she attended there would take her and her husband on trips around the country. One day they were in the beige brown mountains and her guides stopped the car by a small stream. The blue of the water was such an amazing contrast. They walked up through a small gully and came to the place where the stream originated as a spring bubbling up out from under the mountain. There by the spring was a big healthy tree with green leaves…”totally unexpected astonishing and refreshing” said Lynne “ here was the tree of Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17. The tree planted by the reliable water source, that did not run dry” She took a photo of it and it reminds her to meditate and dwell in the scriptures as that source of living water in her every day busy and messy  life. The same encouragement we get from the reading this morning.

We are starting a series today looking at selected Psalms. The series is called “Psalms in the key of life: songs of hope amidst real life”. The book of Psalms presents us with a picture of real life, a messy picture of ups and downs, great joys and deep dark sorrows, faithfulness and failings, challenges and obstacles, broken promises and broken hearts and bodies, self-doubts and darkness, for Israel as individuals and as a nation, amidst that the presence and the guidance and the goodness of God, a source of living water, nourishment, encouragement and hope. Reason to worship and praise and persevere and put ones trust in God’s unfailing love.  These songs, these prayers have been a source of comfort and hope for over two and a half thousand years. They were the sound track of the Jewish people, the sound track of Jesus life and they are lyrics that speak to us still. They are for us now, they draw us to God.

The book of Psalms surprisingly starts with a beatitude. A way in which a person can be blessed by God. You could say that the psalms in the key of life start with the key to life in the psalms. Jewish poetry is not about rhyming words or metered lines, rather it is about metering out wisdom in rhyming ideas. Coupling together different ways of looking at the same thing. And the blessing in Psalm one is given through two contrasting examples, two contradicting ways in which we could live.

A negative, a way we should not live to receive God’s blessing, which is walking and sitting and going in the way of the wicked, the sinner and the mocker. Not that we avoid them but that we don’t allow them to influence us. This is contrasted with the positive of delighting in the law or torah, and meditating on it day and night.  Meditating means to chew over, and extract all the goodness for our sustenance. Like a cow chewing its cud.

One way which while looking like it may yield a great harvest, but is in the end hollow and has no roots. That is like chaff blown away by the wind. An image drawn from the agricultural practices of winnowing wheat. Throwing it in the air on the threshing floor so the wind will blow away the chaff, the husks of the wheat seed, the rubbish, and only leave you with the good seed to be ground into flour.

One way which is likened to that tree by a stream, even in the hot desert sun, the strong dry wind, it will put down roots find sustenance, grow, remain green and bear fruit. Fruit which Paul talks of in Galatians 5 as the result of walking with our live attune to the Holy Spirit… Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

One way, which flourishes for a season, but which the Psalmist tells us lead to destruction. That does not provide wisdom to make right decisions, sound judgments and discern what is best in life…  

The other way which is a safe path, even though the desert land, even in treacherous territory because the Lord watches over those who walk it, providing wisdom and guidance.

In this blessing the psalm asks which way will we allow to influence your life? Which way will we walk? Where will we find your delight? What is your water source for life?

Psalm 1 is also seen, along with psalm 2 as an introduction to the whole of the collection. In texts from the middle-ages it would have been written in red ink with no number given, acknowledging that it is a preamble to the Psalms. It is the compilers forward instructing us how to use the Psalms. Both liturgically, they are songs and prayers that form the basis of communal worship, in the temple they would have been recited at the hours of both day and night  offering peoples praise and prayers to God. On a personal level they are prayers and songs that as we reflect on them bring the whole of our life before God, and open us up to God to speak and minister to us.

When we think of meditating on the law of the lord, or the torah we can think it simply means the first five books of the bible. From our position post the cross and the resurrection we can find ourselves wrestling with that as we wonder where grace and gospel fit in. But In the Psalms themselves, and in particular, psalm 119 which many scholars see as written by the same person who wrote psalm 1, there is a series of five different words that are used interchangeably, including law, to speak of the whole scripture. Maybe this is reinforced by the fact that what we know as the book of Psalms, is actually presented as five books, given to us like the five books that make up the law. Scholars also see in Matthew’s gospel written primarily to Jewish people that Jesus teaching is presented in five groupings, Matthew’s way of equating Jesus teaching as torah, to be read meditated on and put into practice.

The other thing Psalm 1 says about the Psalms is that there is value in the study of them systematically, there is much to be gained from reading through them as a collection, studying them and allowing them to speak to us.  

I want to simply bring out two of those benefits today. 

One is that as I’ve been saying the whole of our life is bought before Godin he psalms. Even in the psalms we find difficult, like psalm 88, which is known as the dark heart of the psalms and finishes not with praise to God, but by saying ‘darkness is my only friend’ sums up moments and seasons, where we wrestle with tragedy and  grief and wrestle with the spectre of seemingly unanswered prayer. Or Psalm 109, where the psalmist filled with anger, calls curses down on his enemies, but somehow is able to leave judgment in the hands of God, the God who answers all human darkness and sin through the cross of Christ, not in vengeful spite. Psalm 51 where the pain of knowing we have sinned is bought to God, Psalm 31 which speaks of trusting in God as our refuge, while sometimes we simply feel like broken pottery or refuse. Then there is the comfort and assurance of God’s life-long love and goodness in Psalm 23. The times when we just want to jump and rejoice and celebrate the Goodness of God, in psalm 150, where we are told to make a joyful noise unto the Lord, and like in Psalm 42 when we have to speak to that spirit of heaviness and depression that tries and hold us captive and say why are you so downcast O my Soul… I will yet praise him my Lord and my king… All that is lifted up to God in the Psalms, as a gift for us.

Secondly, as we focus and mediate on the Psalms, like all scripture they point us to Jesus Christ, God’s word made flesh, the fulfillment of the law. They foretell of his coming, and point us to the ultimate victory of the Kingdom of God. Psalm 2, amidst the rage of nations and kings, God speaks of establishing his son as king. The psalms that speak of the David pointing us forward to the hope of that just and righteous king, Jesus. Psalm 22, which Jesus himself quotes on the cross, that starts with the lament “my god my god why have you forsaken me and finishes with salvation in the line “God has done this”…”it is Finished”. It is as we meet and mediate and focus on Jesus that we find the living water we need for life, abundant life, and eternal life.

I want to finish with our New Testament reading from this morning, from the end of the sermon on the mount, because Jesus, who had started his sermon with beatitudes, how to live the life blessed by God, finishes as well with wisdom that there are two ways to live. And also brings a metaphor from the desert land to illustrate that. Jesus is speaking to people who had meditated and reflected on God’s word all their lives, but somehow for many it had not impacted on the way they lived. He says that there are two ways to build one’s life. Either on sand or on a solid rock, the solid foundation of hearing his words and obeying them.

One of the things with living by a stream in the middle-east is that they often in a wadi a steep sided valley. When storms come and the rains fall the wadi will begin to fill and flash floods will happen and sweep anything in its path away as surely as the wind blows the chaff away, anything that does not have a solid foundation.

It is not just enough to have the psalms or have Jesus word’s it is as we allow them to be the foundation for the life we build that we will find them enough to weather the storms of life, that we will find them and him a life giving source of water.

Lets Pray

partners in the gospel: The secret of contentment (partners in generosity) Philippians 4:10-23

This is a message preached at Hope Whangarei and was recorded in two parts   part A and part B It was originally preached back in 2017 at St Peter's Church. 

I don’t buy newspapers, like an ever growing number of people these days I get my news via the internet and its various news feeds and websites. One of things I’ve noticed is the way adverts are more and more interwoven and packaged as articles on these news feeds or placed as links to similar stories at the bottom of news articles. They usually have headlines that say something like “this celebrity or that well known person shares their secrets to beauty”, or “this is a secret that the rich don’t want you to know of how they are able to accumulate wealth and so can you.” Or “the secret to having great hair”… Adverts that offer secrets of how we can get or maintain the western dream of being wealthy, healthy and attractive.

In the reading we had today Paul also offers us a secret he has discovered for life. Not a secret hidden as a link to another web address, or added on as a teaser at the end but freely and openly shared in the body of his letter.   A Secret which has been hijacked in some quarters to reflect and fit in with our western worldview, but which goes totally against the grain. As he thanks the church at Philippi for their generous gift to him he tells them the secret he has that enables him to face, keep faithful and have joy in times of plenty or in want, when he is well feed or hungry. It is the secret to being content in all situations. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me…

Over the last couple of months we have been working our way through Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. A letter written to thank that church for its generous support for Paul while he is in prison. A letter written to encourage the Church at Philippi to stand firm as partners in the gospel, in the face of persecution from outside and trouble within.  A letter written to exhort the church to Live worthy of the gospel, being unified, having the mind of Christ where they put each other’s needs above their own, where they guard against teaching that would try and add human endeavour to the cross of Jesus Christ for salvation. A letter where Paul assures them that the God of peace will guard their hearts and minds if they keep focused on him.  A letter in which Paul encourages the church to know joy, a joy that transcends situations, that is not tied to emotion or circumstance, but is founded in being known by and knowing Jesus Christ.  A letter that speaks that same profound truth to the church here and now as it did to the church then and there.

Today we are going to finish this series by looking at Paul’s final words of thanks to the church(v10-19), a doxology or giving glory of God, his final greetings (21-22) and his benediction or blessing (23). They all have something to say to us of significance. It does seem that the letter formally finishes with the doxology in verse 20, and it may be that Paul had dictated the letter to someone and then he writes the last greetings and blessing in his own hand writing.  The personal touch. Like with Paul’s letter we will focus most of our time on what he has to say as he gives thanks to the Church for their gracious gift and deal with the other two in passing.

Paul thanks the church at Philippi for their concern for him and the gracious and generous gift which was sent by the church with Epaphroditus. It was a gift of support which we assume was money. So he thankful for the gift but is also concerned that there is no misunderstanding about the gift as well.

Firstly, no misunderstanding about the nature of Paul’s ministry. In the first century, there were travelling philosophers and teachers who would make their living from their teaching. They would establish a group of followers and there was the expectation that that group would then support them and their work. A second century satirist Lucian speaks of them going house to house to receive a payment, or as they call it ‘sharing the sheep’ and people would give money out of respect for these travelling teachers or out of fear of their harsh words if they didn’t.

Paul is not like that… In Paul’s mission journey, he had supplemented his travel and preaching in long stays like in Athens by plying his trade as a tentmaker. A term that is used by missions today for people who go to countries for the sake of the gospel but work in those countries, usually they are countries that do not allow people to come as missionaries. But as they are there to work in their particular field they can witness to people around them and encourage the local church. In fact is scrupulous about handling money…when collecting for the poor in Jerusalem as well, making sure that representatives from the donating churches went with him and the appeal money to Jerusalem. Sadly today money is one of the things that can damage or lead Christian ministries off the rails. We see TV evangelists demanding money for extravagances, heavy handed methods for squeezing out so called “love offerings’ for speakers. Paul wants to distance himself from that. In the Presbyterian Church I actually like the way in which the minister’s stipend is linked to the average wage in New Zealand. 

Secondly. Paul wants the church to know that while he is filled with joy at the Churches show of concern for him. It’s not because of the money in his account but rather it is on account of what it says about the church at Philippi. Their generosity is a sign that they are growing and mature in their Christian love and desire to see the gospel shared and spread. Their generosity is an expression of the generous love they have received from God in Jesus Christ. They are generous partners in the gospel. That is full payment says Paul, that is credit to your account, then turning from economic language to the language of the old testament he likens it to a sacrifice given to God, which is pleasing, fragrant and acceptable.

In scripture wealth is not seen in the same way as it is often seen in our society, or even the church. It is seen as a blessing but also coming with a warning, wealth itself can assume divine status in a person’s life. Its pursuit can consume us, push out other important parts of life: to keep the standard of living we desperately seek in the west today actually demands a couple to work furiously, and to be exhausted at the end of ever longer and pressured work weeks with little time left for family and less for worship and witness and mission. The status and lifestyle that it provides can push aside Christian discipleship, and it can lead us to not depending on God. Proverbs 30:8 and 9 is not often quoted as a promise from scripture, but it forms the basis of a prayer we say in church a prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray, and it sums up the situation very well “Give me neither poverty or wealth but give me rather my daily bread. Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say ‘who is the LORD?’ But it also acknowledges the depravations and temptations of poverty, “Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God.”

Paul is pleased for the gift but what pleases him more is that the church at Philippi have not fallen into the trap of worshipping wealth. Jacques Ellul, a noted Christian anarchist, refelects ““There is one act par excellence which profanes money by going directly against the law of money, an act for which money is not made. This act is giving.” Generosity…

Paul is not a conman or consumed by money he is content. So what is Paul’s secret of being content in all situations, in plenty or with naught, a full stomach or amidst the growling pangs of hunger. It is says Paul… Christ. The word content come from stoic philosophy and it means self-sufficiency , not dependant on the things of the world around you for pleasure or joy and Paul borrows it here to say that he is able to face all these different and difficult situations through Christ who strengthens him. He is content because it is Christ who is sufficient for him. We can be content because Christ is sufficient for us.

On one level it is that Paul sees and focuses in his life on a higher good, that allows him to put what is going on around him in to perspective. Our focus can be on what we do or do not have but Paul has learned to find his joy and his peace and his wellbeing in knowing and serving Christ.  There are times when God provides in the midst of his life, the gift from Philippi is one of those times. Just as God was able to provide for Paul as he plied his trade as a tentmaker. But he’s also aware that to follow Christ is the road of the cross, that pain and suffering are not signs of the absence of God’s presence, or blessing but the reality of living out Christ like love and sacrifice.

On another level it is that Paul knows God has provided for far more than simply his physical needs. The greater need of humanity salvation, forgiveness of sin and relationship with God are met in Jesus Christ. meaning and purpose in life are met in following Jesus Christ.

Being content does not mean you can’t work to change your circumstances, when people come to Christ there is often what is called a redemptive lift. That as people’s priorities change and their lives become more straightened out their finances benefit from that.

Paul’s secret is then able to be handed on to the church at Philippi and to us. That just as Paul can do all things in Christ who strengthens him so he says ‘God is able to meet all our needs according to his riches in glory.’  We too can find contentment in knowing our God is for us and able to meet our needs, our spiritual needs and grant us our daily bread. So Paul finishes his exhortation to the church at Philippi the way he started it by assuring them that God is able to bring to completion the work that he had begun in them by assuring them that God is able to meet all their needs. The same assurance that we have regardless of our situation or circumstance.

Paul then moves to bring greeting to the church at Philippi. He had started his letter by greeting the saints and now he expands that to be all God’s people. The unity they have the joy they have the assurance that God has is not just for them but for all God’s people.  That includes us as well as God’s timeless word speaks into our world as much as it did to the church at Philippi. Paul reinforces the idea of the universal family of God.

It's interesting that while the church at Philippi was suffering for the gospel in a roman colony that Paul should also take the opportunity to encourage them by sharing greetings from believers within Caesar’s household. The gospel was having an impact at the very heart of the powers that were opposing them. It speaks to us of the world wide family of God being a source of comfort and help and support for those struggling under persecution and pressure. That in the west where we find ourselves feeling like the world is becoming more and more post Christian and resilient to the gospel that we can be encouraged by hearing and seeing that the Spirit of God is at work all over the world. I found myself in tears as I watched a video of the 25^th anniversary of the Harvest evangelism crusade by Greg Laurie (whom I’d never heard of before) in Southern California. I was amazed at the cost and the technology and effort that went into this event, but the thing that got to me was the testimonies of so many people who had had their lives transformed by meeting Jesus Christ, from alcoholism, dysfunctional families, drug addiction, abusive situations, despair and depression, atheism and nomalism to a saving new life in Jesus Christ, we don’t always see it in our little corner but the gospel is unchained and Christ is alive and moving in people’s lives by the holy spirit.  Recently I’ve found myself in tears as I hear the stories of Christian aid workers in refugee camps in the middle-east who at the risk of their lives share their faith and see lives changed. Even in the face of tragedy the willingness to forgive of a small Coptic village in Egypt whose twelve men were beheaded by IsIs fighters,  a couple of years ago, in a video put up on the internet, but the grieving widows, mothers, fathers and families chose to forgive. The power of the gospel in the face of hatred and persecution.

Finally Paul’s blessing on his readers is that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ might be with your Spirit. Here is the thing that is the centre of Paul’s Joy, here is the foundation of Paul’s hope, the strength of his assurance that he who has started a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ Jesus. Here is the secret of his contentment, that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Here is the reason for Christian unity and the means to preserve it, that we have the mind of Christ. Here is the greatest Blessing. That we might know the grace of Jesus Christ in our lives. In the end it’s no secret, it is the person, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, present in our lives by the Holy Spirit.

Partners in the Gospel: Being Christ-like in a Catfight (Philippians 4:1-3)

This is a message I preached a couple of years ago and have reworked for a new setting.... However it is also one that there is now an audio recording of... here is the link if you wish to hear as well as read... partners in the gospel being Christ like in a cat fight. 

How you deal with conflict has really stepped to the fore on the world stage. Trade wars between the US and China, the gulf between left and right, progressive and conservative, widening and becoming more vociferous, ongoing racial tensions in our increasingly multi-cultural context, trolling on the internet… trying to have dissenting voices disenfranchised, silenced or written off as hate speech… people struggle to deal with and resolve conflict.

The Church is a very human institution and has been full of all these kinds of conflict as well. Big conflict and even conflict over the most trivial of things… (the perfect worship service)… The challenge is that our witness to Jesus Christ in the world around us really suffers if we can’t resolve our conflicts peaceably. It is part of the hope we can bring to our hurting world, it is part of our ministry of reconciliation that Paul talks of in 2 Corinthians 5. In the passage, we had read today, Paul deals with a conflict between two people in the church at Philippi, two church leaders whose falling out is having an adverse effect on church unity. Paul’s response gives us some helpful insights on conflict resolution: The hope for peace by being Christ like in the midst of a catfight.

We are working our way through Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, a letter he has written to thank them for support and financial assistance while he is in prison. A letter where he takes the opportunity to encourage his readers to stand firm, kia kaha, in the face of opposition from without and trouble within, to stand firm as partners in the gospel,. For Paul this standing firm is not teeth gritted, white knuckle hanging on for dear life rather it is knowing the fullness of Joy, rejoicing… a word he uses sixteen times in this epistle, fullness of Joy in Jesus Christ. Encouragement not just for his readers then and there but also for us here and now.

This section starts with a therefore, which connects it back to what has gone before but also signals a change. Paul now applies all he has said in this letter so far to a very specific situation. A conflict between two women in the church, Euodia and Syntyche, that is really starting to rachet up and putting the church under some strain. 

We don’t know what the conflict between these two women is, it could be theological as Paul had  talked of the false teaching of the Judaisers,  maybe one of them was starting to be prone to this ‘Christ Plus” teaching. Way back at the beginning of his letter he had talked of people having different reasons and motives for sharing the gospel, they may have had a conflict over how the gospel was to be done in Philippi. It could have been personal we don’t know. But it was effecting the Church, because these women were in leadership roles. Paul addresses them as co-workers who had contended at his side for the gospel, along with a person named Clement who we only meet in passing here. We know that they have suffered for the gospel because Paul tells us their names are written in the book of life, which in scripture is used to talk of people who have faced persecution.

Before we look at conflict resolution it is important to look at Euodia and Syntyche, because they are part of what Gordon Fee calls the “mute” evidence of women in leadership in the New Testament. It’s important that we hear their story.

Firstly, we shouldn’t be surprised to see Women in leadership in the church at Philippi. Macedonia was one of the only places in the ancient world where women were accepted into the public realm, they owned property and contributed to public life and the economy. Statues in Macedonia have been found honouring women for their contribution. The Church at Philippi started with Lydia, a women of great means who was a saler of purple cloth. Lydia becomes a believer and leader in the Church, at least its patron, as a rich woman she would have had a house where a large group could gather and meet.  The next story of Paul’s time in Philippi recorded in acts is where Paul delivers a women who is being exploited for money as a fortune teller. The church at Philippi starts as a women’s story.  

We don’t know the details of Eoudia and Syntyche’s story but we do know they were involved in evangelism with Paul.  Sadly with the church becoming more and more an institution after the first two centuries, it become male dominated and their stories got lost. In fact early translations of Paul’s letter from the Greek actually put a masculine ending on these Greek names. The translators were not comfortable with women in leadership roles in the church. It’s the same as in Romans 16 where many women are mentioned and for centuries Junia which is a women’s name and who is said to be outstanding amongst the apostles had her name changed to have a masculine ending. It is a great blight on the Church that they moved away from this acceptance of women in leadership, that they came to reflect the culture around them rather than the gospel and the example of people like Paul and the Church at Philippi. It is only recently that we have begun to change, it’s a continuing blemish that there is still a long way to go.

Paul didn’t have these issues, yes there are texts that need to be wrestled with like Timothy 2:11-15 which has been used to deny Women the ability to teach and lead in Church, but from Philippians and Romans and Acts we see Paul valued and loved his women co-workers. In the passage we are looking at today it seems the church leadership was a balance of men and women. The way he deals with the conflict that they are having reflects the high regard he has for them. He does not put them down for their conflict, suggest it’s because they are women, in fact we know from Acts that Paul himself had had a conflict with his co-worker and his mentor Barnabas over the suitability of John Mark to go with them on the missionary trip that lead to Paul going to Philippi, we have evidence that while he was in prison that conflict was resolved as in 2 Timothy 2, he asks Timothy to bring John Mark with him when he comes as he is useful to me. We know from Ephesians 2 that Paul had had a conflict with Peter as well that had threatened the Christian witness and had to be resolved. Paul knows from painful personal experience about the impact that conflict can have on the witness of the Gospel.

That leads us back to conflict resolution.

The first thing to note is that Paul’s motivation for the resolution for this conflict is his love for those involved and his commitment to a higher common good. We saw it in the way he addresses the church at the start of this passage. He Calls them brothers and sisters, the basis of their unity is that they we are family through the life and death of Jesus Christ. He calls them beloved; in the NIV it’s translated “you whom I love and long for”, unity is not just based on a theology reality but personal affection. Both of which combine when Paul says he sees them as his ‘Joy and crown’, they are the proof of the gospel’s effectiveness through him. Having a common higher good, the gospel and unity in Christ, and a commitment to the good of those involved, that we love one another as Christ has loved us, provide the motivation for us to resolve our conflicts.

Paul deals with the problem in a timely manner, it’s not left to get worse and worse. The breakdown of their relationship hasn’t got to the point where Paul has had to speak to the church about factions as he had to the church in Corinth, where they were even taking each other before civil courts. Paul’s teaching in chapter 2 on grumbling and arguing may have been a reference to the effect this conflict was starting to have and that it was bubbling away under the surface.

To the Church at Ephesus Paul had given the command not to let the sun go down on their anger, but to seek to be reconciled. Athletes will talk about muscle memory, that by continually repeating actions that the body then does them automatically, by reflex. The heart is a muscle as well and if we keep turning away from someone we are in conflict with that action can become instinctive. In Exodus it talks of pharaoh hardening his heart, over and over again refusing to let the people of Israel go. Then finally it says God hardened his heart. That hardening of heart leads to greater and greater disaster for pharaoh and his people. We need to deal with conflict in a timely manner.

Paul does not take sides or associate blame in this conflict. He treats each women the same. He address the two women individually and identically. I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche. There is an impartiality which hopefully enables them to hear what he has to say. In conflict resolution that impartiality is important. People will remember the all blacks touring South Africa back in the bad old days when there was always a  South African ref, it was said they were up against sixteen people on the field. When dealing with conflicts maintaining impartiality, and love and respect for each party is important.

Paul’s plea to them is that they might have the mind of Christ. He had articulated what he meant by that, that Christ while being equal with God, did not deem it something to be held onto, but emptied himself and took on the nature of a human being, became a servant, obedient even unto death, death on a cross. In conflict resolution Paul is not giving them an answer rather he is pleading with them to adopt an attitude or posture where the issue can be resolved and the relationship mended. In a marriage, even a good marriage, there is that uncomfortable silence after an argument, which ironically seems just so loud, and no-body is prepared to start the healing process. “I’m right! I’m not going to say sorry, I’ve done nothing wrong…” where it needs someone to go first for the sake of the relationship. Not to always simply give in but start the process of talking again and getting it sorted. I love the illustration from the marriage course of sitting together on the couch and getting the issue out on the table in front of you, not between you.

The other thing that Paul does in this situation is he asks a person, whom we simply know as the true companion, to help these women be reconciled. When we are in conflict it’s hard to see the way forward and it is often in those situations that we need a third party to facilitate, mediate. It is easy to want to come in with an answer and a solution, but that probably has more to do with our personality rather than what is needed. The picture from scripture that fits here is what Jesus calls the Holy Spirit… the councillor, the advocate, the friend with legal training who comes alongside. We need people who are willing to train in mediation and reconciliation. The blessed peacemakers of the beatitudes. The ultimate example of a mediator for us is Jesus Christ… who reconciled us with God. 

One of the most frustrating things about biblical scholarship is we only get a glimpse into the life of the early Church, we are left wondering about the outcome of this conflict, just as we are unaware of the substance of this conflict or the name of the person who is asked to help out. But that leaves the story open for our story. We can find ourselves in this story. Alongside Euodia and Syntyche in conflict with relationships tearing or broken, we can hear Paul's Plea to adopt the mind of Christ. But all of us can hear Paul’s plea to be a true companion, to be the Holy Spirit’s agent to come alongside and help, to be a peacemaker. Our witness is not to be perfect but to stand firm in our faith, which does not mean an absence of conflict but that we cope with it, not just in a peaceful way but a Christlike way.  That is a witness that can then speak to the wider issues of this world.

partners in the gospel: Rejoice in the Lord as we press on together towards the prize (Philippians 3:1-21)

here is an audio link to this sermon (the last minute of the sermon is not on the recording... sorry) 

We are working our way through Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. A letter he wrote to thank them for their ongoing support and care for him, as he is in prison in Rome. It’s a letter where he calls them to stand strong, kia kaha, as they face external opposition and internal strife. A letter where he calls them to be partners in the gospel with him, not just with the support they give but by living out and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A letter where Paul uses the word rejoice sixteen times to remind his readers and us that this partnership in the gospel, despite the struggle and hardship is a source of great joy. Joy that comes from unity, and in the chapter we are looking at today Joy that comes from knowing and being known by Jesus Christ. That the church and we should rejoice in your union with the Lord…

In this chapter, Paul warns the church against a group of false teachers, known as the Judiezers, a group going round and insisting that for gentiles to be true followers of Jesus they need to be circumcised and keep the Jewish law, all of it including the dietary requirements. They want to add these things that we can do, human endevour, to what God has done for us in Christ. This chapter is helpful for us today as church history is resplendent with groups at different times and places who would try and add something to what Christ has done for us. Add something extra to the gospel that we must do or have to be put right with God. That instead adds value, but really robs us of the joy of knowing and being known by Jesus Christ, the wonder of the gospel that we are saved by grace alone, by Christ alone.

 We meet this group in Acts 15:1 where they descend on the Church in Antioch, which was the first center of Gentile Christianity, and that the whole Church had a major meeting in Jerusalem, the first ever general Assembly, or council,  to discuss the issue and we read they, inspired by the Holy Spirit, decided that gentiles did not have to be circumcised or keep the law to be followers of Christ, to be saved, that was only through faith in Jesus Christ, as an outworking of that they did need to abstain from food sacrificed to idols and from sexual immorality. Paul had been an important speaker at that meeting and was asked to take those findings to the churches he had founded. But the judiazers kept trying to spread their message. Paul had to counter it in his letter to the Galatians and he is concerned that they are about to arrive in Philippi. He writes to safeguard the church against them.

And I want to look at what he has to say through the lens of three metaphors or illustrations, that come out of the text themselves.

The first is an inorganic rubbish collection.

I don’t think you have them in Whangarei… but I have vivid memories of them in Auckland. Once a year the city council would invite people to put all the rubbish that they couldn’t put in the normal rubbish collection out to be picked up. For a couple of weeks outside every home, along every street would be a pile of junk. Broken furniture, once treasured possessions now tarnished and broken, toys, abandoned projects that just never got finished, building material, broken appliances and electronics. They would sit there and eventually a truck would come and take it off to the dump. Not the most ecologically sound thing I know. There was some recycling that happened, out west we used to call it shopping. People would drive round and spot something they might find useful and grab it. I have friends who kitted out their house bus from the inorganic. More recently all the metal would miraculously disappear overnight, as people scrounged it to sell for scrap.

Paul uses the metaphor of wild dogs to talk of the judizers, who he writes about them you could imagine him banging his fist on the desk as he wrote… wild dogs… evil doers… mutilators of the flesh… in first century cities food scraps would be thrown out onto the street and wild dogs would fight over it.

Paul says that of anyone he had the right to have confidence in the flesh. More than the judizers he could have confidence in what the judizers were telling people. He had done the ceremony’s, he was circumcised on the eighth day, he had the whakapapa, he was of the tribe of benjimin, the tribe that had stayed loyal to the Davidic kings when Israel had split into the northern and southern kingdoms, after the reigh on King Solomon. In fact his birth name was Saul, after the first king of Israel, Saul, a benjimite. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, even though he had been born in the gentile city of tarsuas, his family had kept their language, and customs and strict religious observance. Unto the law he was a Pharisee, the strictest group within Judaism when it came to keeping the law, Paul says he had been stringent in keeping the law, faultless even, and as to zeal a persecutor of the Church. It’s like he is putting these things in a spread sheet, a ledger. Then Paul says all these things add up to nothing compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ, and being known by Christ. There is not profit in them.  They have no value compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. The righteousness I managed to achieve was negligible, nothing compared to the righteousness that I receive, that we receive from Christ, from God… This other stuff we’ll it rubbish you take it out to the curb and dump it.  The Judizers were scavenging this junk and trying to drag it back and make out it was treasurer, like dogs wagging their tail because they’ve found a bone in the leftovers.

In verse 10 and 11 Paul sums it up by saying he wants to know Christ, to know the power of his resurrection, to participate in his suffering become like him in his death and somehow attain ing to the resurrection from the dead. His life his purpose, his hope joy was in knowing Christ. His whole life says Paul is shaped and guided by Christ’s life and love for us. His suffering a reflection of the redeeming grace of Christ, his death a witness to Christ, his life now made possible because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection hop of new life and creation we can know know, and that was his future hope, that he would be raised to life with Christ, because Jesus had been raised to life again.

The second illustration is that of an Olympic athlete, 

There whole life is focused and geared towards one goal, one prize, winning the Olympic gold medal. In fact I saw a usain Bolt quote this week where he says “ I trained for nine years, nine years  so I could run under 10 seconds, and people give up after two months because they don’t see reults” which sums up that dedication. And  in a race if you are always concerned about what is behind you and turning your head to look at it, you are not going to be concentrating on doing your best and winning the prize. This is the metaphor behind what Paul says in verse 12-15.

Paul must have been a sports fan because he often uses that analogy with people. I can imagine Him and Timothy going to the games when they were in Corinth… So here Paul talks of his own life and says that knowing Christ is the prize, the goal, and he is aware that he has a long way to go in that relationship, so he forgets what is behind him and strives to attain the goal. Not to earn his salvation, but to grasp hold of Christ because Christ has got hold of him, It is in response to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, that Paul says he and we should focus our lives on knowing and being known by Christ.  There is that cheesy cliché in romantic comedies, when the two lovers spot each other, maybe at a train station as one is about to walk away, or at the airport or across a crowded room, and they run towards each other. Their eyes fixed on each other… Paul says his life is like that.

He encourages his readers at Philippi and us to do the same thing. To focus our lives on Christ like an athlete. To live up to what we have already obtained. Not to get distracted or side tracked by other things. It’s easy to do… As the writer to Hebrews says “let us run the race with our eyes fixed onn Jesus Christ the author and perfecter of our faith.”

The third illustration come from the world of art.

I don’t know if many of you will know the name Karl Sim. He is a well-known New Zealand artist who died in 2013 at the age of 89. When I say well known I don’t mean famous rather infamous. You see Carl Sim is possibly New Zealand most well known art forger.

In one interview he gave there was a list of well over fifty famous painters whose work he had forged. They were the ones he could remember.  He came to notoriety in the mid 1980’s when he was convicted on forty charges of forging Goldie and Petrus van der Veldun paintings. He was fined $1,000 and made to paint the Foxton town hall and public toilets as part of his 200 hours community service. Not paint a picture of them but paint the buildings physically themselves. He changed his name to Carl Feodore Goldie so he could legitimately sign his Goldie paintings without fear of prosecution. When he moved up to Orewa an antique dealer bought his Foxton flat and made it into an antique shop called Goldie’s Junk n’ disorderly so that Goldies memory would live on in the town. In one of his last Orewa shows there was a rather well-done Mona Lisa signed by C F Goldie.

It’s interesting that copying great artists and their works wasn’t considered a crime until art work became such an expensive commodity. It was rather seen as a way for budding artists to learn their craft. To learn the technique and brush strokes of the masters and so get better. When they tried to  pass off their copies as the real thing  it stopped being learning and became fraud. However George Bernard Shaw says “imitation is not just the greatest form of flattery it’s the sincerest form of learning”. In the last section of Chapter three Paul tells his readers new believers in a fledgling church to imitate him as the way to forge ahead to Maturity in Christ.  To join together in following his example…his model.  AS he clarifies in 1 Corinthians 11:1 you should imitate me as I imitate Christ…

Paul sets his life out not as an example of being perfect, he is the first to acknowledge that he hasn’t yet made it, he has not yet obtained. But rather that his life was focused on Christ, and was lived out of the Hope that Christ was at work in him, and focused on the Kingdom of God, now and in its future fulfillment, not on earthly things. He calls us to do the same.

We tend to think of Paul as this great spiritual giant, but you have to realise at this stage he wasn’t really seen as a great success, He was in prison in Rome, he was facing possible death, he was having to be supported by the churches, and he was also under attack from people like the judisers, who were trying to discredit him. His example is hat faithful adherence to the gospel, to the hope that can be found in Christ alone.

The judisers may look like they are successful, but putting their faith in their own achievements and religiosity and what they do rather than in what Christ has done for us, may bring them some measure of prosperity and success in this world, but in the long run it will lead them to destruction. Paul rather focuses on Christ trusting that we are citizens of his Kingdom know amidst the suffering and hardship and that he can be trusted to transform us and bring everything under his control.

People let us rejoice in the Lord. It is because of Jesus Christ, his life death and resurrection that our sins are forgiven and that we have been bought into a new relationship with God. It is Christ alone. People let us rejoice in the Lord, let us find our meaning and purpose and goal and prize in the surpassing greatness of knowing and being known by Christ. Let us rejoice in the lord, by forging ahead to spiritual maturity, allowing Christ to do his work in us… lets pray.