Lectionary 26A Pr 21
September 27, 2020
Grace Lutheran Church
Lakeland, FL
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalms 78:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Philipians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32
Grace to you and peace my friends – peace in Christ, peace from Christ, peace with Christ, peace in Christ’s church. Amen.
Now I’m going to ask you a question and it is not a rhetorical question but neither is it one that anyone needs to answer audibly. How many of us have personal or family experience with prison or jail? [pause] Being imprisoned or held in jail or otherwise apprehended is typically associated with some degree of shame. What has THAT ONE done wrong?? Lock ‘em up! Throw away the key. If only it were as simple as that. Many whom we esteem have spent time in jail – some of these imprisonments we know about and I suspect that there are many others of which we have no knowledge, but are nonetheless real.
Let’s turn to our second reading for today. It is a portion of St. Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi – this is one of his most emotional and expressive letters reflecting the affection with which he holds these beloved siblings in Christ, this family of faith so dear to him. Like others of Paul’s letters, this is a response to a situation that is causing discord and conflict within the community of faith – there is no shortage of speculation about what it was. When you read through his entire letter – it’s only four short chapters, you will hear the passion of his words, the urgency of his message, his cutting to the chase of what he wants them to know even as this discord, whatever it was, rages.
You see, Paul is in prison. He has been arrested by the Roman authorities. Now, in those days prison meant total dependency on family and friends to meet even the basic need of food and other bare necessities of life. The prison provided none of this. So, sitting in his cell in Rome, his hovel, the likes of which I cannot imagine, wondering what his future may hold and knowing it may well include martyrdom, St. Paul considered words to write to this community of believers – the Philippians. This is a letter from prison. Ans so it is that we must hear Paul’s words with eager ears – we must lean in to what he urges and proclaims. Turn your ear…
Because of the encouragement we have in Christ, because of the comfort we have from love, because of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, because of the affection and sympathy that we share – live into my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, being fully one with each other.
This could sound like, “Let’s all just get along.” But that is not what Paul is saying. Our life together is based upon and centered around the unity that we have in Christ. Now, the question must be asked what does this unity look like, how is this lived out, how do others see it.
We know from the witness of Scripture and from the witness of the life of the Christian Church over the millenia, that we each are members of the very Body of Christ, knit together in the waters of baptism, joined together to do the work of the Church in witnessing to the love of Christ for the world. St. Paul tells us that we each are a new creation because the old things have passed away. (2 Corinthians 5:17) And as Lutheran Christians, we recognize that we do not live this “new creation” life perfectly – we are simultaneously saint and sinner as Martin Luther teaches.
Now, as your pastor, I must acknowledge the discord, the conflict, the strife that is rampant now in our daily life. We hear it or see it from virtually every news source and every means of social media. Some that we read is carefully analyzed and well-reasoned. And other of it, well, not so much.
This is not an easy time. There are things that divide our country and create factions some of which may run very close to our emotional core, very close to our senses of identiy. As such, they may seem far more significant than do the very things that unite us in the Body of Christ, the Church. And, of course, in the midst of this discord, we are wise to remember that this is not the first time in modern history that the Christian Church has been challenged with discord and conflict and varying opinions.
Just as St. Paul wrote a letter from his prison cell to a challenged church of folks whom he loved dearly, so others have done the same. Deitrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor during World War II was serving in Nazi Germany and then arrested in April 1943 because of his resistance activities. He was imprisoned until he was executed two years later, a bare month before Germany’s unconditional surrender. Brother Bonhoeffer was fortunate to be able to communicate some with his dear ones – and in these letters from prison, secret codes were sent, codes intended to bring about the death of the curator of some of the deepest evil this world has ever known.
Another letter from jail was written nearly 60 years ago. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been arrested on the charge of parading without a permit, parading as a protest against the racial segregation in Birmingham that was rampant and overt and legal, clearly an evil of modern times. While he was in jail, eight white clergy wrote an op-ed letter to Dr. King which was published in the Birmingham newspaper. These white clergy had criticized the so-called “untimeliness” of the demonstration. “Not now – why don’t you just wait a bit until things quiet down.” “You violated a court order; you were wrong.” “Some may get angry over your words, tamp it down a bit.” Yet, in a letter of 6000 words (longer than any sermon I have ever preached) Dr. King persuasively made the argument that neither he nor the Church could permit a grave injustice to continue in our country without direct and express and non-violent opposition.
A letter from jail. And, even today, no doubt many more letters from prison have been and are being written – by people like St. Paul and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr – people suffering under the weight of the Gospel, people who have counted the cost, people for whom the waters of baptism become the waters of justice rolling down in mercy and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream for all of God’s people
As we are in the midst of dire need in our country -- suffering under natural disaster of hurricane and fire -- and around the world that is dealing with a deadly pandemic, as we are bombarded with words of rancor and insult and bullying, as we with white Minnesotans are told that we are people of “good genes,” as a result of the “racehorse theory.” "Breed the best to the best and hope for the best." So it goes in the breeding of horses and so was espoused this week when referring to people. In the midst of all of this, we must shudder.
And as we fall to our knees in prayer, as we refuse to turn our face away from the realities that surround us, in the face of all of this, the words of St. Paul in our text today take on perhaps even more importance –
Because there is encouragement in Christ, consolation from love, sharing of the Spirit, compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete; be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. …Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.
Unity in Christ; indeed, unity with Christ. And, you know, I can’t do this by myself – none of us can. We need each other even as we are at a safe distance from each other. We need each other even as we may have different opinions about matters facing us today. We need each other because we are the Body of Christ. In our unity, may our joy be made complete. So that we may bear the kingdom of heaven into the world around us, a world that needs it so.
May it be so. Amen.
