So I struggle as a person of faith. There is Jesus and the wonderful things that Jesus has done for the world. The truth of the New Testament is powerful in a world so in need of healing and a moral compass. I was raised in this stuff. That is the truth. But the struggle is the transition to how life then can be lived.
In other
words, here is what Jesus did, what Jesus said, what Jesus brought to us. How
do I make it real in my life?
Then Paul gives
us almost a throw away line in his letter to the Philippians: “If then there is
any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit,
any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete…”
There is a
reading guide to Philippians in the November 1 posting to the blog that can
provide more background in this letter.
These four
things clicked. There is something in Buddhism called the four-fold path, which
I am not trying to connect or synchronize to Christianity, but which serves as
a useful memory device (I am remembering it from Seminary and comparative religions
classes).
So, lets
break out the four statements. "If there" implies to me the possibility that Paul is considering there may NOT be.
If there is
any encouragement in Christ.
If there is
any consolation from love.
If there is
any sharing in the Spirit.
If there is
any compassion and sympathy.
“If there is”?
That implies that Paul is not seeing it, that Paul is hoping for it, that Paul,
in the grief and depression of the imprisoned situation that he is in, that he
is questioning the basics of his faith.
If there is
encouragement in Christ… That cuts to the quick. Christ shall have dominion,
over lands and sea. Christ, whose glory fills the sky. Christ, the true and only
light. Jesus, who has promised that all who follow him, that where Jesus is in
glory, there shall His servant be. These promises and assumptions are a sample
of what we sing in worship to Jesus’ Name. The Name that Paul will assure us is
raised, by God, above every Name.
Obviously
Paul believes in the encouragement of Christ. Philippians 2: 5-11 is arguably
the defining description of Jesus as God and Human. He knows it in the words of
the gifted Rabbinic teacher that he is, but seems like there is leakage of
conviction in his heart. He’s looking for something in this among the Philippians.
The amazing
person that is Jesus, that much I get, good head knowledge, strong foundation
to heart knowledge. But Paul gives us more, things that many people of faith
will understand implicitly in the encouragement of Christ.
Is there
consolation in love? The biggest shaker to my faith these days is when I look
around at what is called “Christianity” out there, and Christ is invoked, but
there is a willful disconnect from love. If anything, the name and title of Jesus
Christ is wielded in deliberate disregard for love. Oh, there is often some
twisted rationalization that uses a crowbar to force “love” into every equation
in which Christ is a factor. But that’s the same kind of lie that an abuser
uses as their love ‘justification’ where they inflict pain on another ‘for their
own good’. Or worse, ‘because the Bible says so’.
Christ
without love makes for the very worst kind of hypocrisy. There is also a
disconnect for myself. That ability to love totally and completely. Not quite there yet. There is a
bit in the bible that God is love. That is the supportive piece when people say
things like “see Jesus in the face of another”. It is to trigger the love of
neighbor that we are called upon to go looking.
Is there
sharing of the Spirit? The reality of the Holy Spirit can be a hard one to wrap
my heart around because I have biases against the more expressive forms of the
outpouring of the Spirit. I am born and raised in the Frozen Chosen. The more
enthusiastic outpourings of religious expression are not in my wheelhouse. So I
lose something fundamental about the Spirit.
The Spirit is
the binding that holds the church together. The indwelling of Jesus is something
Jesus promised in John 14, it is something we see developing as the early church
develops in Acts. If I am to see the face of Jesus in every other person, as
the leading edge of love for that person, I need to see the Spirit in the heart
of those who are my community of faith. I say my community of faith because not
everyone who attends a church is a “faithful” member when faith is defined as
relationship to Jesus and not an attendance policy.
The power of
the Presbyterian system is in the committee. It is in the gathering of people
in a room to decide and make policy. That rests on the sharing of the Spirit,
that the Spirit’s voice speaks through the life and faith experiences of those
gathered together. It’s how God’s inspiration works in the writing of the
Bible.
Is there any
sympathy and compassion? I think that is what Paul is truly looking for in his
trying circumstances. Is anybody there? Does anybody care? It is the most basic
function of humanity to care for our fellow humans. To express the law of love
of neighbor. The context of sympathy and compassion from with Christianity, as
opposed to a world of sin, that is another consideration.
Peace, Pastor Peter
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