Balmy January

"Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." 

- Paul's letter to the Philippian church

So today has brought a nice reprieve from the past couple of weeks. Instead of snow or cold rain, days in the 20s and 30s (okay, sorry to everyone back in MN dealing with negative 50 windchills), today was a balmy 40 - 50 degrees fareinheit. Likewise, this week brings a change from the past couple of weeks for United Life, where we've been talking about the sixteenth chapter of Acts, where Paul and Silas come to Philippi. 

In the past two weeks we've talked about what their church has to do with our church, and how their decision to "become members" (i.e. get baptized along with their households in the name of Jesus Christ) is a decision that all followers of Christ must make. In other words, we who call Jesus our Lord must decide at some point to declare that publically, and live it out as active members of his body Specifically, I called our congregation to enroll in a four week membership class, and I must admit I've struggled a bit with that. After being here for five months, this is the first time I've really asked my congregation to do anything specific. I'm far more comfortable just proclaiming the Good News and letting people do what they want with it. Yet the word is clear: those who follow Christ do so not only personally, but together. 

This upcoming Sunday, however, United Life will jump with Paul several years after Acts 16 to his encouraging letter to the church in Philippi. Often called "The Letter of Joy" due to its lack of rebuke (especially relative to the other Pauline epistles), Paul's letter shows just how well the Philippian church is doing. That doesn't mean, however, that he doesn't have something more to teach them, and, by extension, us. 

I think many of us who have been in a church for at least a few years can easily see the problems that develop. Sure, many ministries start off with a bang, growing quickly with the influx of new people and ideas that fresh ministries naturally attract. Yet it doesn't take long for the honeymoon to end, and the problems to start bubbling up. At those moments it's easy to see why Paul got so vitriolic at times. 

Philippians is a different story. Due much to the way the church there came together, the followers of Christ in Philippi seemed to have a much better idea of how to be a body together. They appeared to know that it was the Cross that held them together, and nothing else. Yet Paul still has something more for them, and Philippians 2 ends up being one the most beautiful things he writes (so beautiful, in fact, that many scholars believe that this may have been a hymn first written by a poet or song writer, then quoted by Paul). 

"Let each of you look...to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." 

The believers in Philippi were pretty faithful, perhaps the most faithful, yet even they needed the reminder to love their neighbors as themselves. I think this is a testament to just how hard it is to be the Body of Christ. We can do everything else as believers and churches right, but if love isn't there, then we are not really being his body, we are not really acting in concert with His heart. 

His heart (or mind, if we take Paul's language) is to be others focused. Yet it isn't only that we are unselfish or even that we think about what other people want. His heart manifests itself in an even more intense and radical way. What are, after all, the interests of others? The ultimate interest of each of God's creations is to be reconnected with their Creator despite the occlusions caused by our sin and brokenness, and Jesus was willing to go to the cross to make that connection possible for each of us. 

In light of this, there are a number of questions that we should be asking: Is this what love means to us? Do we as followers of Christ follow him here? Are our churches communities that are characterized by this kind of radical love? This is the essence of being members of Christ's body and believing in the mission of his heart.