Living in the Spirit

September 18, 2020

Scripture Reading: Philippians 1:21-30

For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.

Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing. For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well— since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Paul may have been in prison in Ephesus when he wrote the letter to the Philippians. Feeling threatened by his foes, he had every reason to consider his mortality. Many did not survive in prison in those days because of starvation or disease. Paul was also a candidate for execution. While my situation is not so dire, being in the at-risk old-folk group who are more susceptible to COVID-19, I, too, am more attuned to my mortality when I hear on the news each day how many have died. One of my more philosophical friends, 25 years my senior, said we all had to die sometime. Of course, he is right. While Paul identified dying as gain, we must not overlook his words living is Christ.

I think most of us would agree that the world is in a big mess, but we are very divided on what we consider constitutes “a mess” and how to fix the problems. I thus was surprised and pleased to know that there is a bipartisan group of congress members called the Problem Solvers Caucus, who are seeking common ground for the Common Good. My Congresswoman, Kendra Horn, is one of them. It is a tough job as it not only involves bringing people together but doing that among those principalities and powers*, mentioned in the King James Version of the Bible, whose success is often based on divide and conquer tactics.

I have long believed that our government, for good or bad, is a direct reflection of we, the people. We are the ones who want to have our cake and eat it too. We are the ones who measure our worth by comparing it to others. We are the ones who want to bury our heads in the sand and not notice the earth is hurting too. So, rather than sit around considering our mortality, it is time that we make the changes in our lives that will then be reflected in our lawmakers’ actions–like loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. Please join me in supporting our lawmakers who are seeking common ground for the Common Good. That includes examining our own lives to see where we may be a part of the divisiveness and work to become a part of the unity Christ envisions for us**. Join Christ in that prayer that we may all be one and mean it.

Prayer: Lord of all, weave us together in love. Amen.

*Ephesians 6:12
**See John 17

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.