Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday October 1 (Worldwide Communion Sunday)
Scripture: Philippians 2:1-13
(Note: This sermon builds on what we have been discussing the past two weeks
– I’ve tried to link through to those reflections and readings in case you
missed them the first time around!)
I’ve warned you the past couple of weeks that Jesus spends a lot of time
talking about money this fall, but we get a couple of weeks’ break from talking
about money – this week for worldwide communion, and next week for
Thanksgiving. But I do think that there
might be a connection between what the Apostle Paul is saying to the church in
Philippi and what we were talking about last weekend!
Last Sunday, we read a story that Jesus told – a story about farm workers, where every worker was given a full day’s salary, regardless of whether they had worked all day or just for the last hour of the day. We talked about how Jesus presents us with an alternate economic system to the systems of the world we are living in – Jesus shows us a way of being where things are given rather than needing to be earned. Jesus gives us an example of an economy of grace, where grace is any unearned gift. Jesus tells us that this is what the kingdom of heaven will be like – the world isn’t like this yet, but our faith tells us that some day it will be like this.
I also suggested both last week and the week before that here in the church, we can start to live, in a small way, the kingdom of heaven right now, even before the whole world is like this. A good example is Ida’s Cupboard, where food is given based solely on need, no strings attached. The kingdom of heaven can break in to our every-day lives, and we can begin to live in and by this grace that Jesus teaches us about.
After last Sunday, a couple of people shared their thoughts with me about this economy that is grounded in grace. And even though their specific words were different, the underlying concern was the same – “But this would never work in the real world.”
And this is where I see the connection with this week’s reading!
I agree, that this economy of grace would never work in this so-called real world. We, as humans, are flawed, and so every human-created system is going to be a flawed system. We can’t swap out one human-created system for another human-created system and expect it to be perfect, because humans aren’t perfect.
But what if there was a world that was even more real than our real world? A real-er world?
Humans aren’t perfect… except for one, and he was God in human form. And that human, the one named Jesus, is teaching us not about a human-created system, but a God created system.
And Paul, writing to the very early church in the city of Philippi – he writes to them, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ.” We are to be Christ-like. We are to have the same heart and the same mind that Jesus had – we, as the church, are to have the heart and the mind of God. And so we will be able to live in a God-visioned system of grace, because we will be able to set our flawed human nature aside.
Hearing myself say that, I’m now going to start arguing with myself over this sermon – I’ll take over the job of telling myself that what I’m saying is impossible!
We’ll never be able to do everything that Paul suggests that we should be doing – to never do anything out of selfish ambition, to always be looking out for the best interest of others rather than to our own interests, to be perfectly obedient to God. We are human after all; we aren’t Jesus.
But then if you turn right to the end of the passage, Paul answers this conundrum for us. The very last verse in the reading that ______ shared with us goes, “for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.”
We don’t have to do this perfectly because it is God working in us that allows us to do all of these things. The name that we give to God working in the world is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is working in us, transforming us so that our hearts and minds can be more and more like the heart and mind of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is always working in us, but there are certain moments that infuse us with the Holy Spirit, moments that give us an extra little boost of Holy Spirit. Today, one of these moments is communion. I don’t know how God works, but I know that God works through the bread and through the cup that we share. One of the things that communion does for us is to transform us to be closer to who God created us to be.
God is working in us. I agree with everyone who told me last week that God’s economy of grace would never work in the “real world,” but God’s economy isn’t of this world – it is of that real-er world that is the kingdom of God. And it is God working in us – the Holy Spirit – who transforms us so that we, as the church, can participate in this radically transformed way of being.
Today especially, on Worldwide Communion Sunday – think about all of the faithful people in all of the churches, large and small around the world who are sharing the bread and the cup. Think of people of different languages and different creeds, different ages and different skin colours, different gender identities and different sexual orientations, all coming together to share the bread and the cup right now. Think of God’s transforming power at work in the world right now, at this very moment, at all of the communion tables around the world. Think of God’s world, the kingdom of heaven, breaking into our right-now world all around the globe. This isn’t our forever way of being yet, but it can be real in small ways as we wait.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.” Amen, and amen!
A Transformative Meal
Photo Credit: Torrenegra on flickr
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