Philippians 1:3-11

I have decided to take a different preaching direction during the remaining

Sundays of December. I will continue to examine the appointed texts, just as

before, but I will do so in search of a theme that addresses every day

Christian ministry. And, in particular, the relationship between pastor and

people as they minister together.

This morning's text from Paul's Letter to the Philippians is an excellent

place to begin. In fact, when asked to select a bible verse for the

"Endowment Fund" brochure, the Scripture I chose was, coincidentally, taken

from this very text---although a slightly different translation:

    "I thank my God for you all, every time I think of you; and, every time I

pray for you, I pray with joy, because of the way you have helped me in the

work of the gospel, from the first day until now. And so I am sure of this:

that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is

finished."  (Philippians 1:3-6)

An underlying theme, of the text before us, that I wish to highlight this

morning is:

"Connectedness!"

While Microsoft Word's "spell-check" insists that "connectedness" isn't a

real word, whether a real word or not,  "connectedness" seems to best

describe the relationship between members of a congregation when they are

"getting it right," "making progress," "moving forward."  "Connectedness" is

what you see among church members of a congregation you would like to belong

to---as long as you too can feel connected.

Let's, for just a moment, take a closer look at "connectedness" within the

context of EVANGELISM---Sunday morning evangelism to be even more specific. 

I've been around here long enough to be able to make a fairly accurate

estimate of how well we do prospective and new member

evangelism---one-on-one.  We don't do it very well! Sometimes we do better at

it than at other times but, for the most part, "connectedness" is apparent

only as "old timers" gather with "old timers" and maybe a few "old timers"

with a few "fairly-long-timers." 

We do not welcome the stranger as we should and consequently, the stranger,

who may very well be a "member prospect," doesn't feel the "connectedness"

they felt somewhere else and, would like to feel again. 

Have you ever known someone who has an extraordinary sense of "connectedness"

with his or her fellow human beings---no matter how long they've known them?

. . . a connectedness that seems to come naturally? Such "folk" may not even

think of what they do in spiritual terms or may even scoff when others praise

their openness. Such a woman was my Aunt Tora. 

Tora was a jolly, Rolly-Polly cook in a Benton Harbor, Michigan high school

cafeteria who spent a good deal of her work-day-hours out in the cafeteria

line talking to the students and faculty. I don't think she ever saw any

living thing as truly separate from herself. She couldn't stand in a

supermarket line two minutes without getting to know the people in front and

in back of her, as well as others further down the line. Her activities

within the community were so broad and varied that her friendships seemed

never ending. Furthermore, much to her husband Oscar's dismay, she loved

keeping in touch with hundreds of friends and acquaintances by telephone.

 

One Thanksgiving, the Danielsons, together with a few of their Upper Michigan

relatives, traveled to Lower Michigan. It was a two day trip in those days

and we arrived late Thanksgiving Day morning to discover that Tora had the

dinner pretty well in hand.  My mother and her sisters all gathered in the

kitchen while the men sat around the living room talking football; talking

about the afternoon's Detroit Lion/Green Bay Packer "Holiday Classic." Dinner

preparations were of course quite elaborate and everyone was, eventually,

assigned a task---even the men and the children.

Just as we were about to sit down to a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner, the

phone rang. Tora picked it up. We could tell immediately that whoever it was,

was in a different time zone, had two children, and beagle that wouldn't stay

in the yard. With the phone cradled between her shoulder and chin, Tora

continued stirring and tasting and directing everyone with clear hand motions.

Each of us listened in on the phone conversation and tried to guess whom the

caller might be:

"It's got to be that neighbor, who had that little beagle pup and moved to

Cleveland," guessed her brother Roy who lived over in St. Joe.

"No!" said her son Melvin, "Its probably that Italian woman from Boston she

met last year at the county fair."

"No," Uncle Oscar said, "It's our daughter Lois in Denver. She and Leon were

thinking about getting a new dog."

Well, as you might expect, the guessing went on and on. A half-hour later,

when the conversation wound down and ended with Tora's giving her address, we

were all really puzzled. "So who was it?" we all exclaimed, when she hung up.

"Oh, that?" Tora said, surprised by our question. "Oh, that was just a wrong

number."

Tora was obviously "cut from a very different piece of cloth" than most of

us. And yet, she was an inspiration to her family when she was alive and even

now to us, more than 30 years after her death. Congregations need their

Tora's and others who, although are probably not in her league, are prepared

to become as "connected" to other human beings as they can be.

I have said it before and I will say it again. We need to declare a

moratorium on embarrassment or, whatever it may be that keeps us from seeking

out and engaging the stranger in our midst. I have long thought it would be

fun to return, in disguise, to Lord of Life Church, the congregation Sally

and I developed in Darien, Illinois---33 years ago. We could mingle freely

with the people and observe first hand whether or not their "connectedness"

included the stranger.  I just might try that here a few years down the road.

I suspect it would have to be a pretty good disguise but, if I could get away

with it, what would I learn?

-That you, as a congregation, have become more connected with each other

 or less connected?

-That you welcome the stranger at least as freely as before or more so?

-That St. James is not only growing in actual numbers but in real

  connectedness---old members with long time members and both with

  newer and prospective members.

In an era in which Christian congregations tend to be more fragmented than

unified, church members ought to be looking hard for ways to become better

connected. In Philippians, Paul thanks God for the Christians of the city of

Philippi and expresses gratitude for their "connectedness" in the gospel. He

expresses his confidence that God, who began a good work among them, "will

bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ" (1:6).

In a later portion of the same letter, Paul sees this Christian community as

one being built by God, living stone by living stone, like a farmer's "field

wall," one stone upon another, connected not by the perceived cement or glue

of a pastoral presence but rather, by Divine "spiritual gravity" pushing and

holding the congregation together. What's more, Paul predicts that a

congregation built in this manner will stand strong until the end of time and

the return of Christ.

The cement or glue of a single individual or single group of "old timers"

just doesn't work when you are building for eternity. The truth is that the

church is stronger when its members, both old and new, can "settle in,"

together like the stones of a sturdy field wall. 

A Christian community is more likely to last until the end of time if it's

members strive to become "connected," than if they are always searching for a

better and stronger glue. If we are going to be a church shaped by God, it is

clearly more important, in the long run, that we be a "connected people," in

Christ, than a people "cemented" by a few decades of history---as marvelous a

story as that history may be.

The focus of any church must be on living the faith into each new generation.

And, strangely enough, when you truly live the faith, harmony is experienced.

Our challenge, then, is to simply trust God, the Master Builder, who shapes

us and brings us together as living, connected stones. AMEN.