Confidence through Connection
The bible text for this week’s sermon can be found at https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=520327158
As we prepare to say goodbye to one another, perhaps we have a closer connection to Paul’s intimate, affectionate, and bold letter. Perhaps as we look back and yet look forward (as we have been doing so much these days) we can take stock of the many things we have shared and how it shapes us for the future…
Paul and Timothy speak of gratitude, recognition, joy, and holy imagination. Perhaps we can reflect on these things together as well. I wonder…
What are we are grateful for?
and who we are grateful to?
We can reflect on what has not gone as planned…
and how was God and goodness in our midst even in those moments?
What makes this community special?
One you’ve chosen to be a part of or near or at least curious about?
What makes our connection special? The ways we share our being together?
Perhaps it inspires you to imagine where God is leading you next?
This sacred reflection of gratitude, recognition, joy, and imagination is powerful because it’s not just about what they accomplish, but who they are and how they are and where that comes from.
In the letter I shared last week as I announced my leaving +KINDRED in a few weeks, I said that I do not worry about your future as a faithful community because you know who you are deep at the center of things. It’s a knowing that remains even when the details are messy and uncertain. It remains because none of you are expected to carry it alone. In fact, it is forged by your connections, your relationships, your care for one another. It is the kind of connection that makes us bold.
People, leaders, windfalls and crises come and go, but there is something bigger that is woven in and through and beyond you. There is something palpable among you that creates such a deep experience of belonging. When people come among you, it’s not just a generic expression of belonging but a belief and an experience that you belong TO one another, AND TO God, always. When we come together we know what it is to hold and to be held - not just because we’re nice people, or are so committed to authenticity, it’s what we share…
our tables, the chores of grocery shopping and washing dishes,
the stories of that time we did something embarrassing,
the memories of the first tape cassette we bought at Soundwaves,
the hugs and high fives when you’ve made it a whole week sober
the hugs and and encouragement when you didn’t,
the invitations you extend to others to come and experience this strange life-giving community you’ve found.
The Good News mingles among you as you share of your souls…
the things that matter, your daily rhythms, your dreams and your heartaches,
the promise that we can share these truths about ourselves and still be loved,
by each other, but especially by God.
We do this all under the banner of God’s love,
going beyond situational goodness to offering sacred significance to what we share.
Certainly we’ve had our share of mistakes, false motives, and ego…but God continues to shine through. The Gospel is forwarded BY but not dependent ON people. God continues, in and through circumstances where such a claim seems absurd.
Paul and Timothy build faith communities on this wild shore. God is still doing the same thing here. Like the apostles, may this wild and liberating truth fuel us with confidence. May having a community to whom we belong and are beloved gives us even further Gospel confidence. Even as we move, closer to and farther from one another, the Gospel and Jesus remain constant. That is, they remain alive and breathing, and expanding. Somehow we experience as divine and life-giving even situations that feel like it shouldn’t be. It’s both humbling and empowering. And in that, we can rejoice.
It is this knowledge which the Spirit has given you and the holy connection that you share between one another that will help you to determine what will be best. Just as Paul and Timothy write this letter to the church and leaders at Philippi from a distance, perhaps this wisdom and possibility will be newly explored and even blossom in new ways through the space created by distance and fresh faces.
I am confident of this because I have experienced your knowledge and wisdom and full insight. That doesn’t mean I think you always know just the right answer to everything. I definitely don’t always have such answer. And I don’t think that’s what wisdom and faithfulness means. But I am confident that you know how to pay attention for God’s presence and voice and movement, even in absurd and contradictory places and people. In fact, I find that you are particularly gifted with such insight in ways that are not common elsewhere. You know how to follow that wild God to try new things, and fail, and yet still continue…knowing that God is with you and beyond you. May it be so. Amen.