I couldn’t believe what happened at church last week! I think most of us left the sanctuary that day in a state of shock! Someone said, “Ain’t never witnessed anything like THAT in church before!”
If you weren’t here last Sunday at the other service, here’s what happened. We had received a letter from the bishop with instructions to read it in the worship service in place of the sermon. This isn’t something that usually happens here at our church, but it is a tradition that goes all the way back to the early Christian church. The letters of Paul, for instance, were not mailed out to all the church people to read for themselves. Instead, the one letter would be read aloud in public as the sermon for that week. So last Sunday, at the other service, we read the bishop’s letter.
And it was a fine letter – a beautiful letter – a sermon about joy and love and how proud the bishop is of us for all the Christian good we are doing in the world. The bishop patted us all on the back. Well, all except for Sara E and Shannon M (insert the names of two female church members)! I couldn’t believe my ears! In the letter, the bishop called them out by name for this ongoing spat they’ve been having for a while now. And the bishop told them to cut it out! And if they couldn’t get over it on their own, he wanted ME to get involved and straighten them out – as if ANYBODY could straighten out those two!
Well, frankly, I’m surprised the two of them are back in church this week after being publicly called out like that. I hope you’ve worked out your issues because I don’t want to get any more letters about you from the bishop!
Now I know that YOU know that the scandalous little story just told didn’t really happen. But you’re wrong. It DID happen. It just didn’t happen here at TVCC last week. It actually happened in a church service in the city of Philippi a long, long time ago. The bishop was St. Paul, and the contentious culprits called out by name in the sermon that day were two members of the Ladies Guild named Euodia and Syntyche. We don’t know what it was they were quarreling about, but they were acting like the badmouth bears, carrying on some grudge match, arguing about something we are not told. And they were causing quite a stir.
So St. Paul interrupts his beautiful sermon about love and peace and joy to perform a pastoral intervention:
“Euodia and Syntche! CUT IT OUT!”
And then Paul switches gears.
He says:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, ‘Rejoice!’”
Now I can only imagine how embarrassed these two women must have been, being called out publicly like that! Actually, I know exactly how they must have felt because long ago, when I was in seminary, I was sitting in a Church History lecture right after lunch. Oh, what a foolish thing – to have a Church History lecture right after lunch! I found myself drifting off to the beauty of la-la-land where life was good and things were happy…until I heard a loud voice say, “SINGLEY!”
Well, I was up like a shot and ready to stand and answer the question – if I could figure out what the question was. But just in the nick of time, the guy sitting beside me poked me in the side and said, “Relax! He said ZWINGLI, not Singley.” That would be Ulrich Zwingli, one of the important theologians of the Reformation, not SINGLEY the sleepy seminarian..
So I was saved. But I was embarrassed!
Euodia and Syntyche must’ve been embarrassed, too.
So why would Paul do such a thing – publicly call out people for their misbehavior, even something as small as the disagreement these two women were having?
Well, I think it has something to do with the times they were living in and the kind of world this little Christian church was facing. It was not easy being Christian in a Roman colony, and many Christians during that time found it difficult to integrate with the rest of society and get jobs and make a living. To be a Christian in the pagan world of the day meant having to make moral choices that oftentimes were not popular, and to suffer the consequences. It was to live in the face of great stress and economic difficulty without giving in to the things that destroy us.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
How are we to live in times of stress – when the economy tanks – when the future looks bleak – when our security is taken away – when the world is confusing and we are not sure anymore what to do or even think?
And St. Paul is quick to point out that, while we can’t control the world around us, we CAN control how WE live within it. And HOW we live as individual Christian people makes a difference in our ability to successfully navigate within the world as it is.
There is nothing you or I can do individually to turn the economy around. We don’t even know if the Fed’s latest billion interest rate increase will be enough to tame inflation. We all know how helpless it feels to open up a quarterly statement from our investment firm and see how our retirement nest egg has dwindled. Some of us know the bewilderment of being ready to close on a home refinancing only to be called by the bank at the last minute to say there will be no closing, and their commitment has been withdrawn. Many young people today are experiencing the shock of not being able to find a lender who will write a college loan.
These things are all beyond our control, and it would be easy to react to them by going out of control ourselves. So our faith speaks into times like these even with the words,
“Euodia and Syntyche…STOP FIGHTING!”
The greatest tool we have for facing the uncertainties of life is our faith. It is not our anger, not our self-righteous indignation, not our fear, and certainly not our need to blame other people.
The greatest tool we have for times like these is our faith.
And look at how St. Paul guides not only these two cantankerous women, but the whole Philippian congregation toward a way of life that can face up to the changing challenges of the times in which they lived.
First, Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord!”
And then he says it again! “Rejoice in the Lord always!”
Now why in the world would anyone rejoice when it seems as if your life is coming unraveled at the seams? Is faith about living a life of cockeyed optimism, ignoring the problems and singing, “Don’t worry, be happy!”?
We don’t see that kind of unrealistic faith in the lives of the early Christians, and we certainly don’t see it in the life of Jesus. Facing the cross, Jesus wept tears of blood and prayed that there might be another way. He did not stick his head in the sand and pretend everything was okay. So it’s not cockeyed optimism that causes us to rejoice.
No, St. Paul tells us that we can rejoice because the Lord is NEAR.
The bible says the Lord is near to all who call upon him. The Lord draws near to us in our distress. The Lord is near in times of trouble.
When the great Worcester, MA tornado of 1953 roared through my neighborhood, my mother gathered us children in the musty-smelling cellar of our house. The roar of the wind was deafening. The only light came with lightning strikes and the explosion of transformers on electric poles. But mostly, it was completely dark, pitch black.
Yet, huddled there in the cellar, we children could feel our mother’s arms around us, holding us tight, reassuring us that we would be okay.
Our mother was near.
Her presence did not change what was going on outside, but it did transform what was going on inside the hearts of her children. She was our anchor in the midst of the storm.
Today, even in these troubling times, the Lord is near. The Lord cares about you and what happens with you. The Lord is with you.
Then St. Paul goes on to say, “Don’t panic!”
In times of crisis, the worst thing you can do is to let your anxiety become the primary motivating force in your life. That’s one of the reasons we will often tell people who lose their spouse to not make any quick decisions about moving or selling property…or even about getting married again! We suggest at least three days waiting on that! Only kidding! But it is important to take some time to let things settle out so that good decisions can be made not out of emotion, but out of wisdom.
And so Paul tells us to temper our panic with prayer.
Yes, talk with your broker! Converse with your spouse! Become as well-informed as you can about the realities you face and the options you have. But also, bring God into the process.
Pray.
When I have turned to prayer during the various crises I’ve faced, I have never once heard God give me a distinct word on exactly what to do. But the way God seems to work with me is in forming an intuitive sense of what seems to be the right way forward. And often, along with the intuition, comes a sense of peace that this is what I need to do.
Here’s how Paul describes it:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, that passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
And then, finally, Paul advises us to lift our thoughts.
You see, the problem with Euodia and Syntyche is that they are so focused on what they don’t like about each other that they have lost complete sight of what they want out of their relationship. As Christian women, called to love one another, they will never get to the love so long as they think the other is an idiot – or worse!
Now, many of us have similar situations going on in our lives. We have a relationship that has gone sour – an illness that is dragging us down – a problem we can’t handle – and all our attention and energy is focused on the hurt, the injury, the fear, the indignation that life would have the audacity to treat us so cruelly.
My boyhood pastor played trumpet for the Sammy Kaye orchestra. Over time, he found his life being dragged down. Night after night, he would play his horn. Afterwards, there were alcohol and drugs. George could sense his life slipping away from him, and yet the more he thought about how miserable he was, the more miserable he became.
Then, early one morning, he pulled his car into the driveway of his house. He didn’t even have the energy to open the door and get out. Instead, he just slumped over the wheel and gave in to the despair.
When George opened his eyes, the sun was just peeking up above the tree line. There was a mist in the air and the shafts of early morning light seemed to be coming from heaven itself. The dew on the field behind the house glistened like a million diamonds.
George saw beauty.
And that’s when he made the decision to leave behind his unhappiness and to step into the world of serving people through the love of God.
Ultimately, the doorway that leads us out of misery, is beauty – and goodness – and nobility – and excellence.
“Euodia and Syntyche, stop looking at each other through the eyes of your failures, your anger, your hurt, your fear. Start looking at each other for what you want your relationship to be. See the beauty of what can be! See the wonder of what God can accomplish with you!”
Success is never driven by negativity. Success is born in the vision of something better.
So in times like these, think about what you want to find at the end of the journey you’re on. Think about good things – beautiful things – lovely things…and then GO FOR THEM!
So Sara and Shannon…here’s a true way to find your way through the current crisis:
Rejoice that the Lord is near.
Don’t panic, but do pray.
Focus in not on what life has taken from you, but on what you want out of life from this point on.
I don’t know about you all, but I’m glad the bishop didn’t call ME out last week.
Or maybe he did!
Maybe you were called out, too!
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