It was the first verse of the letter to the Philippians that answered my prayers this week. What do our congregations need right now? “If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing of the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy” (Phil. 2:1). We could all use the love that accompanies all these right now. We do not have a list of concerns from the people at Philippi, rather, so far this is a joy-filled letter of hope and love that Paul writes from prison.
Verses 6-11 contain a hymn. We know that Jesus could conquer earthly kings, but that was not his kingdom. Instead in verse 7 we have Jesus humbled himself to be “a slave being born in human likeness.” He humbled himself to the point where he was crucified—an execution saved for slaves and traitors in the Roman Empire.
One hymn that restates this is #712, the first verse: “Lord, whose love in humble service bore the weight of human need, who upon a cross forsaken, worked your mercy’s perfect deed.” Christ knew we needed Him to die to take us away from sinning and into service to each other and our neighbors. He says on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1) No one stands up for him, not even the people he called his friends. This death is for our salvation—He saves our lives by giving up his own life.
It is Jesus who shows us how to live the humble life. Find someone who does not matter to others and visit that person, give help to those people who cannot possibly repay you. In verse 3 it says “do nothing for selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.” In your community gather together as servant people. God pours on gifts so “look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others” (verse 4). His gifts from verse 1 are to share—encouragement in Christ, consolation, sharing of the Spirit (healing), compassion and sympathy.
We had a girl from this Parish give away the backpack we gave her because she saw another little girl did not have a new backpack. What compassion that shows us in her action. We receive spiritual gifts from God to give to those who do not yet know God is at work within us. We love to tell the story of how God works through us, letting us work for His will, not to earn our salvation but to glorify God.
In this challenging time we have half of us together to worship. We want to be like the 1st son in the Matthew 21 reading. His actions spoke louder than his words. To reach out is to do the work God shows us, even if it is over the telephone and through the mail. We have to do outreach—it is the mark of the servant church. To the glory of God, not to add personal glory. When push comes to shove we encourage each other, we see each other pitching in to maintain contact with our brothers and sisters.
For us in the sanctuary for worship our seeing each other encourages us. May we find ways to also reach out to encourage and console those at home and others in the community as Jesus wants us to do and the Holy Spirit guides.