Howdy.
Well, have you all heard the phrase,
snitches get stitches?
Yes.
Oh, wait, wait, wait.
Man, someone in the choir was like, yes.
It was like, man, oh, my word, okay, goodness.
I don't want to know who turned against you, okay.
But yeah, it's the idea that, you know,
like, if you squeal on somebody,
then, you know, you're going to get
even worse coming to you.
The thing is, you know,
everyone so while I tell you all about
elementary school and
how it was like the worst time
of my life whatsoever.
And with that is back in second grade,
there was this one day
where some of the kids just,
I don't know what it was I did that day,
but they just did not like me at all.
And the teacher noticed.
And that's like the worst thing
in the world when the teacher notices,
because then the teacher's going to jump in
and try to do something about it,
but it always makes it worse somehow.
And that's the thing,
is that the teacher said that all of the kids
that were involved in it
had to go and write me an apology.
So all of them were just sitting there
for like 20 minutes
trying to write down all this stuff.
And it's like, oh,
I'm really, really sorry.
And oh, let's be really, really good friends.
And yeah, it was a whole bunch of lies.
But the thing was with it
that it became super awkward.
And it also ended up
costing me one of my actual friends.
And with it though,
is it also reinforced
something in my mind.
Is that you can't force
goodwill.
You can't force
friendship.
You can't force
people to actually like you.
And with it is
when we come to our
epistle lesson today
and Paul is telling them,
you'll need to just stop
bickering and get along.
And that's the thing with this,
is that it makes me wonder,
was Paul ever a second grade teacher?
I don't think that he was.
Maybe he should go back and, you know,
he'll get his certification somewhere
along the way.
But the thing is, is that oftentimes
is that picking a fight
is just so easy.
It is just so easy
to be able, whenever you're upset
with someone, to try to look at ways
to not only pick a fight,
but also maybe to keep it going.
You know, it's like there's that one
person that just like,
they just get on your nerves
all the time.
And you're just like, you know,
man, if only I could
just get back at them.
And you catch yourself saying
little snide remarks from time to time.
Little comments
or, you know, as soon as
their back is turned and you're like,
yeah, of course I'm going to do that,
whatever.
And the thing is, is that we can't help ourselves.
It's this desire
that when someone has really
just gotten to us,
we really want to make
sure that they know
we haven't forgotten.
The thing with this is that
we always feel like we're
justified in doing it.
But in so doing it,
it's sort of like
as much as we read
the passage in Philippians
and we think, well, of course
people shouldn't be, you know,
propagating arguments
and bickering and hurting each other.
But somehow we always
think that it's a good idea
when we do it.
Somehow it is that
we are trying to make a point.
I need to make a point to this person.
They don't realize what they've done.
I need to take a stand
because I'm defending people.
Or maybe I need to take a stand
because I'm defending God.
Or even more than that
is just making sure
that someone knows that they've been
put in their place.
And that's the thing
that we see in here
is that in Philippians 2
Paul comes in here saying
if there's any encouragement in Christ
any comfort from love
any participation in the Spirit
any affection and sympathy
there is any part of you
that has the Holy Spirit
in any part of you that cares
at all.
Complete my joy
make me happy by being of the same mind
having the same love
being in full accord
and of one mind
and do nothing from rivalry or conceit.
If you cared all about me
could y'all just
find a way to get along
and agree on something.
And the thing with this
is that in many ways
we hate that.
We hate the idea
that we have to find
ways to agree with
or get along with
the very people that hurt us the most.
It's almost like we think
that if we can make peace
with someone that has hurt us
or annoyed us or frustrated us
that somehow
that means that we are weak.
It's almost like
some sort of weird evolutionary
development sort of a thing.
I read a little piece
that was in
one of Richard Dawkins
writings and
I can't stand the guy but
you know it's like you gotta at least know a little bit
of what it is that a person is
teaching and learning
and it's this whole idea that somehow
we can only look after other people
if we somehow feel like it's
benefiting ourselves.
And so what I wanted to do
is I wanted to
teach you all a big work.
It's five syllables.
I want you to repeat this after me.
My yes,
taught to come.
Let's try it.
My yes, taught to come.
It is a nice big word.
They made us learn it at the seminary.
And the idea behind this
is that Jesus
being both God and man
that every time
Jesus was doing
something divine,
miraculous, amazing.
His human side
was also doing it too.
So the idea is that
his human side was glorified
because he's also God.
So there's another side to that though.
And it was a teaching
that wasn't always
necessarily embraced.
And I don't want you to repeat this part
after me because it's a controversial one
and I'll explain why.
They called it the tupping not a con.
And the reason why
it was controversial
was the idea that, well,
what about the other way around?
Doesn't that also mean that
being God, God
is participating
in human things.
Suffering, frailty,
struggles,
temptation.
And the reason why it was
so controversial
is because some people
thought that that meant that Jesus
was emptying
himself
of his godliness,
of his divinity.
They called it kinosas.
And they thought that if that were the case,
then does that mean
that Jesus somehow
let go
of being God
while he was a human?
Now I'm going to ask you,
does that sound right?
No. And that's
the trouble with it, is that
leading toward this idea
that somehow
allowing people
to make him suffer that way
was somehow losing his divine side.
The trouble is
is that we do
the same thing
in our own lives.
We somehow think
that if we allow ourselves
to seem weak,
or somehow
that we have to deal with
the ones that we don't like as much,
if somehow we are showing
that maybe we're giving in,
does that mean that now
I've lost
a piece of myself?
Does that now mean that I'm no longer
as strong? Or for us guys,
does that mean we're no longer manly
because we had to apologize?
And I don't mean the whole,
yes honey, you're right, I'm sorry
that you're supposed to memorize when you first get married.
It doesn't always work.
But the idea that somehow
if we acknowledge that
maybe we don't have it all figured out,
and maybe we do want
to restore things with this person
that we've been frustrated with,
that somehow
it takes away from us.
And that's the problem
with this teaching about Jesus,
is that we keep seeing
the same thing ourselves.
There was an episode of
Friends,
okay?
For the kids,
that was a TV show.
Your parents will probably
quote it from time to time.
If they ever say pivot,
just go with it.
But in it, one of the characters,
Ross,
was trying to find a nanny
for his daughter,
his and Rachel's daughter.
It's been like two decades,
three decades. If you haven't seen it by now,
I'm not really spoiling anything.
But with it though,
is then they had a guy come in
who was the perfect nanny.
Would play on a flute
to get their daughter to fall asleep,
baked the perfect
Madeleines,
always knew exactly
what to say and how
to care for a child
in any situation,
making Joey feel better
about himself as well.
But Ross could not
stand the idea
of a man being a nanny.
Back in the days,
I'm sorry,
you just can't be the nanny.
And he said, is it because I'm a man?
He was like, well yeah.
And then ends up finishing
the episode by showing
that Ross himself was afraid
of being weak.
And that that's why he was so afraid
of a man being the nanny.
And Ross ends up crying somewhere
in there and everybody
laughs.
But the truth is, is that we do that also.
We somehow think
that if we do not stand up
against anybody and everybody
that has ever harmed us,
that somehow it takes away
from our strength.
And that's the thing about this,
is to pause and say
what is God
working in you?
See the truth is, is that
I could come up here
and just tell you, you know what?
If there's some sort of a
conflict happening, get over it.
God demands you to get over it.
You've got to get over it.
Yeah, that's only going to go so far.
But the scary part
is the fact that God does want that.
And every moment
that we continue to say,
no, I can't let myself
be weak is another moment
of telling the Holy Spirit
I don't want to listen to you.
That's kind of scary.
Is that this isn't just
a matter of ego or pride.
It's actually even getting
to a moment of saying
God is saying this to you.
And you don't want to hear
the Holy Spirit.
And that's the hard part about this,
is that Paul
is here
not as somebody just
lecturing them, but as somebody
who is willing to be
imprisoned.
Paul is not the person
to sit there and then
basically say, okay, now I need you all
to come in and bring some money
and bribe these guards to get me out.
I need you to come with a hacksaw
and get the back window open
for me so we can run out.
This isn't, oh my goodness,
could you believe what Timothy
and Epaphroditus said
and blah blah blah and they got me arrested
over here if they could have just played
it cool for a little while.
No.
This is Paul
in prison
now
talking up Timothy
and Epaphroditus who are
on the outside.
Two people who are not
having to sit with him in prison,
Epaphroditus coming from
Philippi, Timothy
over there having been with him throughout
all of this and what does he end up spending
verses 19 through 30 doing?
The man who is in prison
who has any and every reason
to complain
is spending it all talking
up his companions.
Because at that moment in time
what was most important to him
was everybody else.
And that's the thing with this passage
is to come back
to this idea is
are you looking only to your own
interests
or do you care about the interests
of others?
You see that's the
piece with this.
When
all of these other issues are coming up
is that instead of looking
to something that makes us great
is instead
we're looking to
what makes others great.
And the truth
be told is that
we also are called to do that
for the ones that
have hurt us.
We're also called
to do that for the ones
that bother us the most.
You see that's the hard part
is that
we as a church
we're still
not too far out of COVID
and we're still
making sure that we can bring back
the people who had been here previously
but also bringing in new people
and truth be told is that
it is scary
as a church
to not seem strong
and confident and bold
because what is the rest of the world
going to think of us?
But the problem is
is that a church that spends
so long trying to be strong
and confident and bold in themselves
is no church at all.
See that's the thing about this
is that rather
being strong in weakness
being empathetic
being loving
being compassionate
being able to acknowledge that the very person
who may have harmed us the most
or maybe didn't even harm us
as much as just didn't even care enough
the one who
just maybe wasn't even emotionally
invested in us in the first place
but also by being willing
to love them
and to go the extra mile
and that if they ask us
for a cloak to give them a second
and if they ask us to walk a mile
we walk a second
is that it ends up allowing
the spirit to do work through us
that God can't do
if all we're doing is looking at ourselves
you see in the midst of empathy
we
are called
to be like Christ
two weeks ago we talked about Cory Ten Boom
and the truth is this is that at that moment
the very person who had come
and harmed her and her family
she could have
marked him
for the rest of his life
and made sure that everybody in that room
knew who he was
and gotten her revenge
but what did she do
the thing is is that this isn't easy
we're not going to get it right
on the first try
but we are called to try
you see with this is that
these examples of empathy
and compassion
are actually the only things
that are going to make a difference
and the thing is is that as I'm bringing
this idea
to a head
I want to bring to you three examples
one
is Samson
see in the Old Testament
Samson was a strong man
and you read most of his story
and most of his story is him doing things
where he's making sure everybody
realizes
he wins and they do not
whenever he is being taken advantage of
by a future father-in-law
and he ends up destroying crops
with fire
tied to fox's tails
whenever he is able to go in
and prove that
he can kill a lion
but then come in
and have a riddle
and stump everybody
whenever he wants
to end up showing that he can get any woman
that he wants
but one's ends up happening to him
is that all that pride ends up leading
to a downfall
where he loses his hair
and he loses his strength
but in the midst of being blind
and weak
that is when God
is able to use him
to bring down
the Philistines
or even looking to Luther
Luther's kind of a pain in the butt sometimes
let's just be honest
but at the same time
he was also a man called by God
and being in Germany
Germans, whether you know it or not
sometimes
pick fights with each other
I know there are always a peaceable
group of people but
sometimes Germans can be a little bit
stubborn
rumor has it
but with that is that
Luther would have back and forth arguments
with a man named Carlstadt
and the two of them disagreed time and time again
but when the peasant war
came up
and Carlstadt was being accused
as inciting violence
Luther took his
adversary
and hid him in his home for eight weeks
and gave him a chance
to write an apology
and when I say apology it's more of an explanation
but
letting people know that he had
nothing to do with inciting the violence
and so Luther gave his enemy
a chance to speak for himself
so that he wouldn't be killed
by the authorities
and more than that is the third example
hopefully is the obvious
how many times did Peter
want Jesus to assert himself
but at the moment
whenever Jesus could
have let his disciples take on
the guards
and he told Peter to put away his sword
is that that was the very time
when his weakness
was used to bring about
salvation for us all
so the truth is that as much as we're
often times afraid of looking weak
by making nice with the people
that cause difficulty in our lives
is that the truth is that that is the very
time when God does
his greatest work
but more than that
it also means
that we get restored with another person
and just like a brother
and his sibling
sometimes
even though they may still be annoyed
with their sister
which I have absolutely no idea
what that's like
is that sometimes by the end of the day
you just gotta let it go
because that's your playmate
and who really wants to sit alone
in their room with nobody
to play with
so in your life
may you find
the strength
to be weak
and to have compassion
not on an enemy
but on a future friend
thanks be to God.