Community life
Series: CREATIO | Bible text: Philippians 2:1–5
A large community experiences many challenges. Everyone, young and old, is needed for good togetherness!
Our hope is nourished when we accept the rough training ground in our everyday life and master it in community with others.
That was the last sentence of Matthias» sermon last Sunday. I would like to take up this sentence this morning.
Welcome to the worship service, the important church event where fellowship is very important! Jesus Christ’s most precious possession is his church. It is as important to him as a bridegroom’s bride. A Christian longs for fellowship. He wants to share his faith with others. He is grateful for a counterpart when afflictions and needs cause us difficulties. Jesus shapes, forms his church, it is to take shape; he wants to bring it to the goal and complete it.
Sharing faith with others. Being there for each other, supporting each other in faith, that’s not so easy. It’s often easier to talk about politics, the weather or a cool film you’ve seen. But the question of how you are doing in your journey with Jesus is almost taboo. Can you share your challenges in faith? in community with others?
Or do you have to confess like the sick man at the Pool of Bethesda: «I have no man»?
It is said that the following story took place a long time ago in America: A primary school teacher asked her class during a religion lesson: «Which of you would like to go to heaven when you grow up?» All the children stretched their arms up in the air without hesitation. Except Charlie! The teacher turned to him in amazement, «Well Charlie, do you really not want to?» The boy answered: «Of course I want to go to heaven, but not with that lot» and pointed into the round!
The question is, are there people here in the church with whom you would rather not share the home in heaven? Jesus builds his church with people who could not be more different. He loves them all. Everyone is important to Jesus! He wants to have everyone with him, grumblers, grumblers, selfish, big, small, beautiful, not so beautiful, sceptics, positive, doubters, optimists, troublemakers, active, passive, sociable, hermits… one could go on and on with this list. Without exception, we all have much, much reason to give thanks that we are allowed to belong to the church of Jesus. Klaus Heizmann has created a song of thanksgiving for God, which contains the following sentences: «Remember, in Jesus he gladly forgives you, you may approach him as you are. He loves you, even if you have caused him grief, he is closer than you ever meant. He has placed you in his church and makes you ready to serve.»
Jesus stretches out his hand and people are allowed to come to him and fall into his hand. Unfortunately, being in a congregation is not always as pleasant as falling into the hand of God! It challenges us. But that is understandable when so many different people come together in a congregation. It can take some time to get to know some people and to trust them enough to share everything with them.
The apostle Paul founded many churches. He took care of them. He prayed for them unceasingly and wrote letters to them.
In the second chapter of his letter to the Philippians, there is a passage in which he shows this congregation what is necessary for successful cooperation in the congregation: «Isn’t it important to you to encourage one another in the name of Christ? It is important to you to comfort one another with His love, to fellowship with one another through the Holy Spirit, and to show deep compassion and mercy to one another?»(Philippians 2:1 NGÜ).
Encouraging each other, comforting each other. Some people can see from a distance that they are not well. Others are good at hiding it. They tend to keep to themselves and don’t like to talk about themselves. They want to deal with their problems themselves. It takes a lot for someone to admit that they are in a crisis. Many are rather reserved: «Maybe I just mean that this person is not well? How should I approach them? I don’t want to offend them!»
We usually have bad experiences with the «all-worldly» question «How are you?», because it tempts the other person into a quick, fake «Thank you, good!». Why don’t you start by approaching your counterpart with a lot of love: «Nice to meet you. I’m glad you’re here too, how was your week?» before confronting them with what you notice: «You look terrible. Are you not feeling well. Have you had a bad night’s sleep?» No, please don’t do it like that! But it is important that we keep our eyes and hearts open to our neighbours here. In a community as big as we are, it is more difficult. But I am convinced that every man and woman can find their familiar people here. Don’t run away right after the service! Go to the bistro and have a drink or a bite to eat. If you are a couple, separate and sit alone at a table. This awakens sympathy among us. As soon as your partner has people at the table with him, move over to him if you are still alone. Join a small group or an interest group, and especially don’t miss the church weekend or the church holidays! I just want to encourage all of us to reach out to others. When Paul writes here in this verse: «[…] to have fellowship with one another through the Holy Spirit […].», then the Holy Spirit will also put the right words on our tongues that will lead to an open conversation!
Paul calls us also to comfort one another: «It is important for you to comfort each other with His love.» Comforting the sad is even more difficult. Sometimes we struggle to find the right words, whether it’s a death or a serious illness. Comforting others is something we should actually learn from a young age. I remember once in religion class I gave a class the task of writing a short letter to a classmate who had lost a parent, for example, to express their sympathy. I expected sentences like: «This is so hard for you. I feel sorry for you! I am sad for you! I think of you!» But everyone stood as if in front of a mountain. There was only embarrassment. The notes remained empty!
It is important that we read carefully how Paul writes here: «It is important for you to comfort each other with His love.«You don’t have to spend hours struggling for words. God’s love in you will guide you to the right, appropriate and helping words.
He writes here «to show each other deep compassion and mercy!«Anyone who has ever received and tasted this knows how beneficial it can be! It feels good! You really soak up love like that!
There has never been an October as warm as this year, and yet the world is getting colder. Not because of the energy crisis, but because loneliness is spreading. Being there for each other, encouraging each other, comforting each other – thank you Paul for pointing this out to us, and we don’t have to squeeze it out of the tube, God’s love and the Holy Spirit are pulling the trigger!
We come to the second verse: «Well, then, make my joy complete and stand resolutely together! Do not allow anything to set you against each other, but meet everyone with the same love and focus entirely on the common goal»(Philippians 2:2 NGÜ). Jesus and his church are opposed. Jesus has an adversary. He does not like it at all when we stick together! Satan is determined to divide us, to destroy our fellowship. He wants to set us against each other. But he shall not succeed.
This is where God’s love in us comes into play again: meet one another with this love! Agape, divine love, is meant here! «and focus entirely on the common goal.«Here we go again with Charlie! «I’d like to go to heaven, but not with this lot!» When I look at you like this, I have to say that I’m really looking forward to being with you in heaven! Look at each other in this room and look forward to heaven! Paul mentions a lot more in these first 5 verses of chapter 2. There is not enough time to go into everything.
In the 5th verse he writes in summary: «This is the attitude that should determine your dealings with one another; it is the attitude that Jesus Christ exemplified to us»(Philippians 2:5 NGÜ). After reading this list of 5 verses, two things moved me.
On the one hand, it saddened me that Paul seems to have found such shortcomings in the churches he founded on his missionary journeys and then visited again: Unkindness towards each other; lack of encouragement, comfort, compassion and mercy. There is division, quarrelling, etc. On the other hand, I was really happy to sense from this letter that it is Jesus Himself who makes this beneficial togetherness possible in a congregation. To deal with each other in this way is not an illusion, but it is possible! Thanks to Jesus it is possible! In verse 13 of the same chapter 2 Paul writes: «God himself is at work in you and makes you not only ready but also able to do what pleases him.»(Philippians 2:13 NGÜ). (Other translations: gives the will and the accomplishment.) God Himself empowers us and equips us for this.
This frees us to be truly together! That binds us together! This is how we as seetal chile become a family, a place where you can at home can be.
We, as individual members of this family, must not think disparagingly of ourselves and of others, because God has a different standard! God sees everything very differently! «In reality, it is often the seemingly weaker or less important parts of the body that are particularly necessary. In this way, there is no division in the body, but all members care for each other in the same way. If one suffers, all the others suffer with it, and if one is honoured, all the others rejoice with it. In this way you together form the body of Christ, and each individual belongs to it as a part»(1 Corinthians 12:22–27 NLB). Paul clearly says: There is nothing useless in the spiritual body of Jesus Christ. The smallest cell is needed; the smallest detail is needed for a perfect body! In conclusion, I can only say: Good that you exist and good that you are here!
Amen!
Possible questions for the small groups
Read the passage Philippians 2:1–5 together!
- What do you think, is it possible to implement this advice? What do you think is the most difficult thing to do?
- How do you manage to keep your eyes in the service not only on familiar faces, but also on unfamiliar ones?
- Do you approach strangers? If yes, how?
- Do you relate to other generations in the community (younger or older)?
- «All members care for one another in the same way.» (Is this an illusion of Paul)
- Have you entered your names in the Advent calendar? As guests and/or as hosts?
- Pray that new visitors to seetal chile will find their way into the community quickly and well!
