Grace Lutheran Church 19th Sunday after Pentecost, September 25, 2005

The Rev. Evan Gaertner

19^th Sunday after Pentecost "Unity"

September 25, 2005 Philippians 2:1-5

Today I want to talk with you as people looking for answers. The question that is being asked is rooted in the fact that we are believers in Christ and yet struggling to see what difference this makes in the lives of people. During the Los Angeles' riots Rodney King asked a question that at the time was mocked for its naivete. "Why can't we just get along?" That question became a punchline for comedians and sampled by musical artists.

But nevertheless it remains a question that has stuck with me and I saw that St. Paul thinking of that question when he wrote to the people of Philippi. Paul wrote to report his own circumstances. I preached last week about his imprisonment really serving to advance the gospel and the brothers and sisters in the faith became more bold to speak the word of God without fear. Paul also wrote to the Philippians to encourage them to stand firm in their faith in the face of their own persecutions. Today the lectionary, the appointed readings for the day, share with us Paul exhorting the people to humility and unity.

Getting along, unity, is tightly connected to humility. I heard one person tell that he was married by a justice of the peace but since then he has known neither justice nor peace. In marriages working together is essential. We need unity. I need unity. To have a successful business the manager and the workers must be able to work together. To have a successful church we must all be working together towards the same end.

Our National Archives beautiful display a copy of the Declaration of Independence. But when it comes to success in the church we need a declaration of dependence. We are dependent upon one another and most importantly we are dependent upon Jesus Christ. When things are not going positively in a congregation the first thing we need to ask ourselves is, "Are we one in the spirit, like-minded, working in mind of the same purpose?"

Competition, conceit, criticism, and lack of consideration for others are road-blocks to being like-minded. I don't think anyone wants to be in a dead-ended marriage. No one enjoys working I a business that is more busy with internal attacks rather than external growth. Nor do we want to be in a congregation that is always running into the roadblocks of competition, conceit, criticism, and empty consideration.

But rather then becoming dead-ended by any of these road-blocks I encourage you to consider our unity in Christ, gain comfort from his love, togetherness in our mutual fellowship with the Spirit, and hold one another with the tenderness and compassion of Jesus.

When you wonder, why is that I don't get along with so and so? Are you still dealing with the roadblocks that Jesus has knocked over?

Why is it that some marriages instead of being wedlock have become deadlock? Why do some families instead of knowing each other as brothers and sisters, know one another as enemies to be defeated?

Brothers and sisters too often we let these roadblocks get in the way of the unity we have in Christ. Paul knew that these roadblocks were destructive to the community of believers that were being built up by the good news of Christ. So in chapter four he calls out by name Euodia and Syntyche saying, "I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord." This disagreement is serious enough to be mentioned in a letter that was going to be read publicly. But Paul seems confident that these women will be reconciled. With tact he exhorts them through this letter to live the unity they have in Christ and not the disunity that they are brining into the assembly of believers in Philippi.

To bring alive the unity of the body of Christ, we need to repent and turn away from building these roadblocks.

Defuse competition. The need to be better than someone else drives us to put down one another. Have you ever found yourself evaluating someone else and figuring out some negatives about that person that makes you feel better about yourself? Paul writes, "Do nothing out of rivalry." Rivalries are fun for sports. It is kind of fun to make fun of the fish from Miami when the Dolphins come up to play the Bills. But would anyone think it right to attack a Dolphins fan in an Orchard Park parking lot after the game? I hope not.

So why do we allow our sense of rivalry to overtake our sense of community. The motive of rivalry is destructive to a Christian community. Jesus broke down the need for us to compete against one another, because he is already victorious. He called us to be of one flock with one shepherd. We don't need to compete over how is going to be the top shepherd. Jesus is our shepherd. We are the flock that follows him.

Besides defusing competition we are encouraged to delete conceit from our motives. Personal vanity is the cheap desire to boast and be noticed. Conceit is that wicked motive that prevents us from calling a friend because it is her turn to call. Vanity is the ugly look in a mirror of having to be right instead of being together. What is your ultimate desire? Don’t get sidetracked.

As a congregation we need to embrace that Jesus brought his good news of salvation to everyone. The tax collectors and the prostitutes were familiar with being looked at as less than mud. Jesus looked with his eyes of grace and mercy and lifted them up to the kingdom of God. Jesus broke down our personal desires to be better than and reached out to the pushed down.

Though Jesus is God and has the full heavenly treasures of glory and might, he became flesh and dwelt among us. He certainly could look at each one of us and evaluate an infinite number of reasons why he is more important and special and grand than us. Without a doubt Jesus is the perfect, holy, righteous Son of God. But that is not the only perspective of his redemptive work on the cross. He gave himself into humanity and died upon the cross. He died for you and me. He did not look upon you and me as our sins deserved but on account of his grace. We no longer need to look to each other as we may deserve but rather to see one another as people that Jesus died to redeem.

To be the body of Christ we discover that we are many different parts with each different gifts. Decrease criticism. We could spend all our time discounting the importance of each one of us, but it comes down to the reality that we are together brothers and sisters in Christ.

As we defuse competition, delete conceit, and decrease our criticism we also need to be about demonstrating consideration for one another. We not only look to our own interests but also the interests of others. Consider a late evening and the dinner is on the table. The wife is sitting at the table fuming. She looks to the empty seat and the phone that hasn't rung. Then the door opens and in walks her husband. She stands up and her arms are crossed against her body. He looks around and looks down at his feet. He then says, "I am sorry honey I had no consideration of you when after I work I only thought about myself and went out with a couple of guys to relax." I think that if your husbands were that honest that some of you wives would be floored.

We need to be honest with ourselves and the people we love.. I need to not only consider the interests of others but to demonstrate that their interests are important. If that becomes the view you have to your marriages, your workplace, or our congregation then things will change.

All of this encouragement to get along would be empty if it were not for the power and strength that is ours through Jesus Christ. Life in the body of Christ is rooted in a spirit of repentance and faith that there is forgiveness and the power to live through Jesus. The experience you have in Christ Jesus is the springboard over the roadblocks that get in the way of unity with others. Jump on that springboard.

Soli Deo Gloria

Grace Lutheran Church

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