First we have to go to Acts 16 for an interesting story about Paul’s stay in Philippi. There was Lydia a wealthy merchant and possibly Paul’s first convert in Europe. The slave girl who was used by her masters to tell fortunes and the civil servant who was a Roman jailer. Three people who represent a cross section of ancient life. Lydia was from Asia, the slave girl was a native Greek and the Jailer was a Roman citizen. From all over the empire people were coming to the Christian Church. Think about this. Not long ago and it still may be so, the current “buzz” word was inclusion. All kinds of programs and encouraging articles were written about how the church needed to be more inclusive. Paul had no program or written words about the need for inclusion, the all-embracing faith which Jesus Christ brought to men and women spoke to all peoples and that was all he needed. The Holy Spirit, faith and love of all people couldn’t be constrained in written words, it was best understood in life changing actions. Read Acts 16 for a better understanding of this part of Paul’s ministry, now Philippians.

Philippians is a special letter because it is just that. You get the feeling right off that this is a letter to friends. Paul does not, as he does in other letters, feel the need to state his position or why he has the right to write to them. Paul knows they will read, listen willingly with love and respect. This is a letter from a friend to his friends. A lot of information is here in just the first two verses. Paul does make one claim for himself and Timothy, they are slaves of Jesus Christ, but interestingly enough he expands that to include the people of Philippi who belong to God because of their relationship and acceptance of Jesus Christ. He makes it very plain that he is there to serve them also in their faith walk; I am your friend because you are my friend. There is an important difference here between a servant and a slave.

-A servant could pretty much come and go but a slave was the possession of his master forever.

-He makes note of the fact that he is the absolute possession of Jesus Christ. Christ bought him and paid a price for him and he could never belong to anyone else. Just as a slave has no will of his own, he too has absolute obedience to the will of Christ in his life. To be a slave to Christ is not a matter of cowering subjection but an honor of the highest order. As Paul is known to have written and I paraphrase, to Die for Christ is to Live. “To all the saints in Christ Jesus”as found in the Revised Standard Version could be a bit misleading. The word saint is translated from the word Hagios and the Hebrew equivalent Kadosh usually translates as holy. As a layman I can easily get confused and in this case I am reading three references trying to get this right. So…to keep it simple, to a Hebrew it all washes out to mean set apart. That which is holy is different from other things. The word Holy is often affixed to the Jewish Nation. They had been called out to be different and they were different for they had a special place in God’s purpose. Paul refers to the Philippians as saints in Christ Jesus. If you live a Holy life, strive to be a saint in Christ Jesus you are to be different from other people. You are different because of your special relationship to Jesus Christ – and that is what every Christian should strive for.

PAUL’S greeting to his friends is: Grace be to you and peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ

These being the normal greeting phrases of two great nations, we are reminded of the weaving, binding or could we say, inclusiveness  of the power of Christianity to bring together God’s people, Greek and Jew. Grace and Peace, Paul’s prayer for his people. The joy of knowing God, being reconciled to God and having a grace and peace in their life that can come only through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Quite a revelation for just two verses. Hope you come back next week as we look closer at Paul’s love and friendship for the Church at Philippi.

Life is Good

Getting back to the gospel is always a good thing. Philippians is a book I have often wanted to look at closer. In this first segment we will introduce ourselves to the book of Philippians. I hope you will return each week to the Pew and if there is a particular section or verse we could explore together email me at kcarp4211@gmail.com

We start on a happy note, Philippians is undoubtedly an authentic letter of Paul. You can say that Paul was a man that chose his ground carefully. Always being aware of God’s will, the direction of the spirit and he looked to places that were key to the area and provided the opportunity to preach the word to as many as possible. Philippi was one of those places. It had become a great commercial center of the ancient world due to the gold and silver mines that had once been there. Philippi was founded by Philip, the city being named after him and he was the father of Alexander the Great. The city was so situated that it commanded the road from Europe to Asia. A great battle was fought there which decided the future of the Roman Empire. One result of this battle was that soon after Philippi was raised to the status of a Roman colony. There is a lot of interesting facts that give us a bigger picture of the Roman Empire, that impacted Paul’s ministry in Philippi but for now lets just look at one that stands out more than the rest because it confronted Paul the most in his daily ministries there. These colonies were like little Romes, and their pride in their Roman citizenship was their dominating characteristic. The Roman language was spoken; they wore Roman style clothing; observed Roman customs and those who ruled there did so under Roman titles. Their ceremonies and procedures were the same as those carried out in Rome. 

‘You are a colony of heaven’ (Authorized Version), Paul wrote to the Philippians church (3:20). Just as the Roman colonists never forgot in any environment that they were Romans, so the Philippians must never forget in any society that they were Christians. Nowhere were people prouder of being Roman citizens than in these colonies; and Philippi was one such colony. (DBS W. Barclay)

One result of this kind of Roman pride is best recorded in Act 16: 20-21. After Paul’s vision of the man of Macedonia (Acts 16: 6-10) he set sail from Asia Minor, landing in Europe, then made his way to Philippi. In the coming weeks we will meet Lydia, a slave girl, a Roman citizen and a member of the Roman middle class who was a jailer; the top, the bottom and the middle of society are all represented. Paul would eventually have to leave Philippi due to persecution and at one time suffering an illegal imprisonment. Paul was a proud man who boasted he had never taken anything from any individual or from any church but there was a strong bond of friendship between him and the Philippian church. He would at a later date accept a gift from them.

There would be more gifts to Paul over the years from the Philippians church.This letter we are reading is a letter of thanks to the church and written by Paul in prison in Rome. We will also be introduced to Epaphroditus whom the Philippians had sent as not only a bearer of their gift, but also to stay with Paul and help with his needs. It is also intended to be a letter of encouragement to the Philippians during the trials they are going through. This letter also is an appeal to maintain the unity of the church. Philippians is a personal letter and includes many of Paul’s thoughts about the church and the people of Philippi. There are parts that change the tone and direction of the letter as new information from Philippi arrives and gives us an insight into the things on his mind as he wrote the letter. The letter has had other titles, Epistle of Excellent Things and Epistle of Joy.

Next week we will take a closer look at this interesting letter from Paul to the church in Philippi.

Life is Good

jk

Part 2

Returning to Bishop Wilke’s article I was taken aback by this paragraph containing the words I have underlined.

So I began my own journey. I reached out to other families with homosexual members, and I listened to their stories of struggle in the church. And I began a more in-depth examination of the Scriptures that address the issue of homosexuality. You may be surprised to know I hadn’t fully done my homework here, but the truth is, if you have a big-picture grasp of the Bible as I do, then you will understand just how insignificant these few passages are. (Bishop Wilke)

As a layman my theological knowledge of scripture pales and most assuredly lacks much when compared to that of the Bishop. Throughout this whole issue, I always focused on scriptural integrity and never considered it a problem with those people. There are some things in this paragraph that deserve our attention. God created us with the best of intentions and from that day in the garden till now,  we have excelled in not living up to them. From the article I understand that his daughter is living a very productive life of service to others and the church and remains to this day in a loving and faithful relationship and they as a family have learned to live with the constraints of the church and society. In the paragraph before he seeks to address the real concern of the issue facing the church.  

I needed to reconcile my commitment to scriptural authority with loving and accepting my daughter. (Bishop Wilke)

To me scriptural authority is the one area that has been avoided as the church deals with this issue. It is for this reason that I disagree with the statement that anything of scripture in the Bible could be considered insignificant. I believe every word is of importance to the whole. My belief is shared by many people in the lay community. When it comes to the theological side of this issue I like many in the lay world find our simplistic interpretation of scripture inadequate to defend our belief. Theology is the study of religious faith, practice, and experience and the study of God and of God’s relation to the world and sometimes it does result in creating a systematic response to biblical translation as to meaning. Take note of what Bishop Wilke does here. He throws all that aside and turns to love and compassion and acknowledges the possibility that he needs to look at himself as well and then turns to scripture for direction. I have struggled with this blog, both last week and now, because of what is at stake here. There is something more important than the Methodist Church, or for that matter any denomination. Oh, how we have woven a web of confusion with the assistance of many different agendas and yet in all of this Bishop Wilke has found an important part of the Christian faith. From his article and in his words:

Again and again Jesus placed kindness and acceptance over custom and social norms. “Love one another,” he commanded, “as I have loved you.” He also emphasized hospitality: “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And you will be blessed.”(Bishop Wilke)

So what have I learned from this journey? Bishop Wilke is right. It would be an injustice to split the church over this issue, in fact that is the easy way out. The real issue to me is that of living a holy life, as we have been commanded to do. What does living a holy life entail? While you work on that consider this. Sin separates us from God and that is not a debatable statement. There are many sins and man wrote that list through his disobedience to God. The Methodist Church welcomes everyone, OPEN DOORS, OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS. I may not have them in proper order but the last one needs some work. I could continue to write about this article but it would only be redundant. From the Methodist Book of Discipline:

The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.

So is gluttony, drunkenness, adultery, cursing and a host of other things that can be found to be an abomination is God’s eye.  The fact is that all sin separates us from God, and that can’t be said enough! Like it or not we are charged to bring people to Christ, all people. How can we minister to the sins among us if we turn people away? Who among us has the mind of God and to borrow from the words of our Lord, let him be the first to judge.

In conclusion…..The Church can legislate doctrine and church law but until it can change what’s in the people’s heart, it has failed. Until the leadership of the church can discern God’s will without social and cultural pressures of the day, it has failed. What would Jesus do? Well, I don’t think he would kick the can down the road again by taking the easy way out. It might be wise to take some time to consider Compassion, Love and The Authority of Scripture.

Life is Good

jk

(A Two Part Series)

First Peter 4:8  “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

The above Verse is one of ten important bible verses on love according to the writer, Jack Wellman, from an article he wrote in Patheos. As a matter of trivia Jesus’ commanded us Five times altogether, according to the New King James version to love….

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 13:35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

John 15:17 “These things I command you, that you love one another.

The number of times that love is mentioned in the Bible depends on the version of the Bible. In the King James Version, love is mentioned 310 times, 131 times in the Old Testament and 179 times in the New Testament.  I will be using the KJV as a reference point in this blog. There are figures available for other versions. As the Methodist Church continues to vote and then vote again I believe I my have found some hope in an article in the latest Methodist publication of, The Call, written by Bishop Wilke. I will post the link to the article at the end of the blog. To quote the Bishop, “ Thirty years ago our daughter Sarah shared with Julia and me that she is gay and that she had entered into a committed relationship. She came out to us when she was 27 years old. We never imagined this was anything that would touch our family.”

Most articles about the same-sex issues facing the church are fueled by talking points and are agenda driven, peppered with social and cultural reasoning and here and there a scriptural reference. I have no doubt that years ago when this first became a discussion among well meaning lay and clergy members that they were attempting to find a way to minister to those who were truly not being encouraged to come to the table. I do feel that what started out as a journey to discern God’s will and bring the church together was hijacked by social justice warriors. Rainbow ribbons, hastily lettered signs, slogans and disrupting legally convened meetings to conduct church business does not speak to a spirit focused search for the answer to this issue. It should also be noted that pulling certain scripture and not considering the context in which it rests is also a habit many of us have adopted over the years. Bishop Wilke goes back to scripture but with and open mind, open heart, and hopefully may have opened a door to a much needed healing. The first step to healing this wound will be to admit all have sinned and fallen short of their calling. Having said all of this I found Bishop Wilke’s article pointed to the need to consider context, and the need we all have to better understand the scripture as written. While it didn’t change my mind about the intent of scripture it did open my heart to that which is most powerful….I believe the love of God is a powerful thing and right beside it is the love a parent has for their child. So before I go too far, some points to list taken from this part of the article.

-Context is important

-One or two verses do not a story tell

-The written word is best understood in its entirety

-God is Love

Let’s look at some scriptures found in or alluded to in the first part of the Bishop’s letter. The Bishop presents not an argument but a scriptural reason for all of us to consider the power of love as a factor of value in this issue. I will start with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah has over the years always been used to point to homosexuality as a sin. Bishop Wilke puts forth another reason for God’s anger at these cities. Ezekiel 16:48-50 requires me to ponder a moment the rest of the story so to speak.

Ezekiel 16: 48-50

48 As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.

49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.(KJV)

Here plainly is a compelling reason, scripture based, that deserves prayerful consideration. The abomination the Lord speaks of is no  doubt in my mind, the demand that the men be sent out for the pleasure of the crowd gathered there. In these verses the Lord plainly lists the actions of the people that he found wrong and punishes them for their actions and lack of compassion for others. Context, context, exactly how does this fit contextually with the account in Genesis? For years Chapter 19: 1-13 has been used by people to condemn same-sex practices. It has been noted that it was this activity on that night that was the reason for God destroying these cities. Give this some thought. It has been said that the Bible never contradicts itself but over and over scripture does validate itself in other scripture, adding proper context that we may miss simply because we want so much for the scripture to validate what we believe and works for us.

I am going to rest here awhile, be back in the Pew next week with more of the Bishop’s letter. Please take time to read the scriptures we looked at this week, pray and re-think the importance of LOVE between God, his people and you and others.

Life is Good

jk

Reference Notes:

Bishop’s Letter:

https://www.umnews.org/en/news/bishop-gay-daughter-sent-him-back-to-scriptures?

https://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question112529.html

https://www.reference.com/art-literature/many-times-love-mentioned-bible-f8eb228f4fe0a4