Sermon 12th June 2016

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adrian Parkhouse, preaches. The reading is from Philippians  1:12 -30

Coping

‘Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.” Job 38.4

1.              Complete this quotation:

                  Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. […..]

It is the opium of the people  (Marx 1843)

For Karl Marx, though faith was an illusion, it expressed real suffering;  Marx accepts that it enables real resilience.  We, with Paul, might feel able to explain that this was because its foundation is anything but illusory.

For others faith is a delusion – required to protect us against our fear of dying.  But few of understand that equation.  When death – our own or that of one close to us – comes close, only then do we grapple, like Paul, to find the assurance that faith gives. 

2.              Do you notice that sometimes when something has happened to you, it seems as if it is happening to everyone?  As if you have, quite unintentionally, hit a rich seam of fashion?  Suddenly it is not only you who has broken their arm – everyone is doing it – almost everyone you speak to, has a broken arm or knows someone who has.  You are not the only one to fall off ladders as everyone is doing it.  Every day the news reports another celebrity ladder-faller.  At last you are trendy!

                  Of course it is very unlikely that the incidence of these events has actually increased:  what it must be that you are unconsciously attuned to such things so that when they arise, they grab your attention.

                  “Resilience” is my current vogue, my current trend.  It is a word that I am not aware of having used as part of my vocabulary until the last few months but no sooner did I start to use it (as I did) to try to put in context our experience of that period, than everyone is using the word.  Have you noticed it, or is it just me?  In past week or so, for example, I read a report on the then government’s fears regarding the “resilience” of the population of London in the event of heavy bombing in WWII;  and we have had the moving documentary-study into made by Sian Williams after her cancer diagnosis.  And as a constant backdrop we see images of survivors, in Syria, Nigeria, Iraq, on islands and at border checkpoints:  all getting on with life, either the everyday or pressing towards a new start.  People being resilient, people, we used to say, “coping”.

                  And then today I have a Bible passage where Paul explains how he copes.

3.              Last Sunday, when Cameron introduced our studies of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, he touched on how personal it was.  In some respects it is unique among his letters as being both widely accepted as being by Paul (unlike some of the other “pastoral epistles” where authorship is debated) and a personal note from him.  It is a thank you letter, carried by a mutual friend, giving news on Paul’s everyday circumstances and expressing hopes for the everyday lives of its recipients.  Its purpose is not to deal with theological issues or matters of church practice.  It is from the heart.

                  One feature of the letter is the common purpose and role that Paul sees for himself, the apostle, and the folk at Philippi.  Of course he is the teacher and so advises, but this in the context of their being together, a team.  In other letters, Paul needs to emphasise his credentials and thus his qualifications, including his suffering at the hands of the authorities, are held out as setting him apart as an apostle.  In this letter, we read today, after Paul’s account of his own circumstances, “You have been given the privilege of serving Christ, not only by believing in him, but also suffering for him.  Now you can take part with me in the battle.” (v.29).  Our faith is a team sport:  we face the ups and the downs together.  That is relevant to how we might cope.

4.              That should be a comfort, but because we are going to spend a little time looking at Paul’s coping (what he had to cope with; whether he coped; and, if so, what coping strategy he employed, what resources he used) I think it worth making the point at the outset that being members of a team does not make us all the same.  Each of us has our own background, our own histories, our own personalities.  One of us may find coping easier, some harder, some may find it impossible.  Paul’s experience, Job’s experience, your experience and my experience may have something to say – it may not.  No judgment.

5.              Paul coped with what?  We learn he is in prison, apparently wearing chains;  and what’s more there is evidently deep divisions among the believers.  And his future is uncertain:  martyrdom seems a real, and perhaps unpredictably close, option.  Because we know some of this background, we take it for granted.  However, pause for a moment.  If any of us have ever spent any time in the cells, we know the feeling of powerlessness as the door closes and basic freedoms of choice are lost.  To have worked hard for a cause with love and unity at its heart and to experience division and competition as a result?  To have life or death hanging over you.

                  Did he cope?  It seems so:  consider the positives:  the whole palace guard now knows about the good news!  Other believers actually get greater confidence to preach the gospel!  The motives are irrelevant if the result is that Jesus is being talked about! “I am happy about it/  I will continue to rejoice” (18). 

                  How did he cope?  In some respects – imprisonment and competitive preaching – by reframing “the problem” into “an opportunity”.  Being chained to a guard became a good thing!  We have lots of professionals in church – but Paul was the CBT therapist’s dream client:  look at the good.  But this is not the heart of his resilience:  the heart lies in his debate concerning what could be achieved by his life or his dying.  “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” (21).

6.              “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.”:  these are not even, let alone “just”, easy words.  Contemplating the ultimate existential question, both Paul’s experience of life and his expectation of dying reassure him that either way he will experience Jesus.  Again perhaps familiarity causes us to move quickly over the words – but let’s think more carefully of what it may mean that “to live is Christ”:  living lives that recognise the presence and the love of Jesus in whatever we do, wherever we are, whatever occurs.

                  In the past, I have used sermons to invite you to dance with me.  I explained how in moments of meditation, in worship, I would mentally go to a place that I imagined was the square in front of the Temple and could almost feel the warmth of the sun on my shoulders as I danced before God.  God the Almighty becoming very close – perhaps in the same way as the power of God was brought home to Job in the midst of his frustration and anger.

                  In recent months, I have been going somewhere else:  standing in the streets of the town by the lake as Jesus makes his way through the pressing crowd as in Matthew ch.9:  watching the people who bring the paralysed man, the lifetime bleed and other great needs (I am watching closely the leader of the synagogue; and seeing the blessing of Jesus.  “To live is Christ”.

7.              “To die is gain”.  Such assurance in that statement.  Paul’s assurance that dying will bring even greater experience of being with Christ.  Few of us are facing the imminence or feel ourselves to be facing clear unpredictability of dying that Paul faced:  though some of us are.  Perhaps we share (some do I know) his assurance, perhaps we hope for it, perhaps we envy it?

8.              Our passage discloses much more that gives Paul hope, to help him see that life is Christ. He mentions the prayers of the church, the work of the Spirit and, one senses clearly, the love of “the team” – evidenced by their gift and the individuals with whom he has fellowship.

9.              Resilience is a relative matter:  few of us will stand like Paul – though some may.  However, in tough times we may be able to remember his example.