Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus— … Philemon 1:8-9

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 13, 2018): Philemon 1

Author Amit Kalantri in “Wealth of Words” remarks that “Politeness is the first thing people lose once they get the power.” I get that, and it might even describe me in certain circumstances, although I hope that I can attribute that to my past youth. But I have also experienced it as the one being on the receiving end of power. When you have power, the temptation to take shortcuts is too readily available, as is the strong desire not to listen to advisors and just command that people do what we want. Sometimes such commands are necessary, but often there seems to be a better way.

For me, I remember two specific times when I felt a command was out of place. Once was when I opposed a directive in an annual general meeting. While the plan had its merits, I felt that there were holes in the proposal and that we had not thought through all of the implications. I decided to take a stand and vote no, or rather wait until we had examined the proposal in greater detail. The vote went heavily yes, in fact, mine was the only no vote. And after the vote was released, my boss decided to call it a unanimous yes vote, looking directly at me as he spoke the words, and at the same time wiping my concerns from the record. I felt belittled and declared to be not important. It left a scar that I still bear decades later.

The second instance was over a song in a worship service. Again, my boss in that situation wanted a particular song to be played. As the Worship Pastor, I had no objections to the song, but the song was not an easy one to play, and in the service that he desired it I feared I did not have the instrumentalists available to the song justice. I felt that there were compromises that we could reach if we were to sit down and discuss it, but instead of a conversation, I received this response “You like Star Trek. Let me put it this way – “Make it so.” In fifteen seconds my sense of worth was compromised, and my concerns were once again declared to be unimportant.

Paul was no stranger to commands. He issued them frequently. But he also seemed to know when to back off and enter into a conversation. Paul knew that there were times when the stronger action was to not command, even though he could, and instead ask for a favor. And this is exactly what he decides to do with Philemon. There is no doubt that Paul had the authority to command a certain behavior from Philemon with regard to Onesimus, but instead of a command, Paul decides to ask Philemon for a favor. And as Paul sets up the ask, Philemon knows that something is coming.

Maybe Paul’s words could be rephrased this way. “Philemon, it is me, Paul. In love, I want to ask you to do me a favor. Let me remind you that I am old and currently in prison. Could you do this for me?” Rather than command, Paul politely asks, albeit with a measure of guilt thrown in. But I am convinced that, while Philemon would have done what Paul commanded, the relationship between Paul and Philemon was strengthened because Paul had decided to ask, rather than command.

Even if we possess the power to command, commands often damage our interpersonal relationships. Making the ask, on the other hand, has the potential to strengthen our relationships. And generally, if at all possible, it is better to make the ask rather than issue a command.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Timothy 1 & 2

I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. – Colossians 4:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 12, 2018): Colossians 4

I love Frederick Buechner description of the grace of God. “The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you.” I think that it is Buechner’s idea that this world was meant to exist with us that impacts me the most. You were not an accident. All of the “stuff” in your life does not in any way take away from the beauty and the gift of you – and of me. The Christian life was meant to be lived, filled with this kind of grace. It is a constant reminder that in spite of your circumstances, you are integral to the party. We are not just invited; our presence is needed.

I am also convinced that this was the idea behind Paul’s closing remark to the Colossian Church. As was the custom of the day, much of Paul’s letters were dictated to someone else. We have no idea who performed the task of being Paul’s secretary, but it was likely one of those who Paul mentions are with him and who send greetings. The introduction to the letter lends some credence that the one who wrote the words might well have been Timothy. Paul’s opening words to the Colossians were “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother …” (Colossians 1:1). So Timothy could have been the one actually writing the letter, but it might have been someone else.

The reality is that these letters often become a hybrid of writing styles. Some of the words would have been directly Paul’s. There were probably moments when Paul would admonish his partner to “write it this way,” but at other moments the personality of the secretary shone through, correcting the way the words were phrased or maybe adding in descriptive elements. This is one of the reasons why there is often some argument over authorship of the letters of Paul. The letters themselves don’t sound identical, probably mostly because of the freedom given to the various secretaries as they wrote down Paul’s words.

But at some point, the letter would have been handed back to Paul for his signature. There might not have been an actual “Paul” written at the bottom of the page, but here the handwriting would change as Paul signed the letter with his final words. For the letter to the Colossians, this is the final phrase written by the actual hand of Paul. “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you” (Colossians 4:18).

It is not hard to imagine this moment when it comes to the Letter to the Colossians. Paul is under house arrest. The letter is handed to Paul, maybe through a window of the house. A guard stands close by, guarding his prisoner. Paul is wearing chains to make sure that he stays imprisoned. The individual links clang as he reaches toward the window to receive the letter, and they clang again as he tries to get the letter into a position where he can add his personal greeting, written by his own hand. He writes the opening line “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand” and again the links send out their music. “Remember my chains.” Not a plea for sympathy. Some have argued that it was a statement of authority. But it might have been simply a statement of reality. And then he adds the last line “Grace be with you.” Grace be with you as it has been with me. Recognize that God’s hand is on you as it is on me. Remember whose we are and the importance that God places on our lives, regardless of our situations.

Remember that you are not just invited to the party, but that the party wouldn’t be the same without you.            

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Philemon 1

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. – Colossians 3:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 11, 2018): Colossians 3

I have a dream. My dream is not far removed from Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream spoken so eloquently over fifty years ago. I have a dream of a world where color and gender are simply unimportant. I dream of a world that may not be rich, but where we have learned to be fiscally responsible, and therefore we have the money to spend on the important things like education and healthcare. I look at the things that divide us and wish that they could be removed. I dream of a day when people of different faiths can sit and just have a conversation with each other about important things. I am not saying that we need to find some kind of universal religion that fits us all, but rather we need to recognize that we are all people seeking God.

I am sick and tired of bullies who try to push their weight around to get their way. I am tired of narrow-minded people who carry a message of hate into everything that they do. I have a dream of a world where we stand up together and say no more to these things. I have a dream.

But then reality knocks on my door. Race matters because we give it the power to matter. Fear is very real. And when we are scared, we don’t make the best decisions. Guns matter because they become the instruments of fear, either to instill it or to try to escape from it. This is the real reason why we have such a strong relationship with our guns. They have become our path to security and power. I have a dream, but as I look out the window at my world, the possibility of my dream ever being fulfilled fades in the light of my reality. Almost fifty-five years ago, Dr. King spoke the words -

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I am not sure that his words are any truer today than they were when he first spoke them. We still judge each other according to color. We still have not learned to embrace each other in spite of our differences. It is not a “Black” problem or a “White” problem. It is our problem.

Paul instructs us to set our mind on things above, and not on earthly things. Too often our response to the challenge is to say that heavenly things are good and earthly things are evil, but that isn’t quite true. Some earthly things are evil. When a nineteen-year-old walks into a school with a gun and starts shooting, that is evil. When a fifty-something-year-old man holes up in a hotel room and starts to shoot at an outdoor concert taking place across the street, that is evil. Whenever we judge the value of each other based on color or religion, that is evil. But not everything on earth is evil. But everything on earth is tainted with a sense of powerlessness. How often do we look at the world and say “this is just simply the way it is – it cannot be changed.”

“Things above” set out the ideals that we should be stretching for, whether we think they are possible or not. “Things above” should always press us toward love and equality, knowing that we are the children of God. “Things above” remind us that, with God, nothing is impossible, and that even our impossible dreams for this world can come true.

Dr. King understood. He warned not only of the need of equality for the black people but also for the white and every color in between. He reminded us that –

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

We must continue to move forward, with our minds set on things above.             

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Colossians 4

Personal Note: Happy Birthday, Dad, I hope you are having a great day!

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. – Colossians 2:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 10, 2018): Colossians 2

In February 2018, Canadian Conservative politician Andrew Scheer vowed that, if he were elected Prime Minister of Canada, he would follow President Trump’s lead and declare that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. The Canadian Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, abstained from a vote in December 2017 that resulted in more than a hundred countries condemning the United States because of President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The problem is that the issue is complex. Understanding Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, rather than Tel Aviv, is the traditional choice. It is also the emotional choice. Many Christians hold a special respect for Jerusalem. We expect that, someday, there will be a new Jerusalem and that it will be there that God will set up his forever throne here on earth. So I understand the temptation. But on the other side of the equation I also believe that, as Christians, we are called to messengers of peace and love to the world. I reject that God is only the God of the good. He is the God of the world that all people are important to him. I believe that Christ, if we dared to let him, could unify us, binding us together. And here we find the problem with Jerusalem. While tradition and emotion declare that Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel, such a move would destabilize the area. Jerusalem is divided, and there is still much work that needs to be done before such a declaration can be made in favor of the city.

Personally, I wonder if I will see Jerusalem as the capital of Israel during my lifetime. But then again, I never thought that I would see Poland as a member of NATO, or a unified Berlin and Germany. Somehow, these things have worked out. So I hold out hope for Jerusalem and the Middle East.

Paul tells the Colossian Church to be careful not to be deceived by hollow or deceptive philosophies or traditions. Do not allow emotion to sway you away from the move of Christ. It is not that tradition and emotion are not important. They are undeniable forces in our lives. But the dictates of Christ must always come first. Moves like the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel are not far from the political ideals that Jesus rejected in the first century. Capitals are never more important than people. Jesus did not come to earth to serve a political ideal “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). If we follow him, this becomes our purpose as well. The rest is just more hollow and deceptive philosophies that we need to reject. Our actions must be centered on Christ.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Colossians 3

You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf … - Colossians 1:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 9, 2018): Colossians 1

Sue Monk Kidd in “The Secret Life of Bees” comments “If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.” It is maybe the greatest secret of a good leader, but maybe one of the hardest to deliver on. In a world where resources are stretched, some of the most obvious ways to empower someone, by giving them the resources to achieve, simply are not available. So we have to find other ways to empower them and to teach them how to succeed and deliver the things that we expect from them. And, sometimes, that is just by making sure that they know we believe in them, and setting an example of what it means to think outside the box.

Several years ago I served with a leader who seemed to lack any leadership imagination in the tasks that he performed. One day, I brought him into my office to work on a promo I had been developing. I still remember his face as he walked into my office and saw my laptop set up with a green towel placed over the keyboard, a picture of the swamp of Dagobah on the screen, and a Yoda bobblehead sitting in front of the screen. I had heard him voicing Yoda as a joke with some other members of the team, and so I handed him a script for the promo and asked him to voice Yoda while I filmed the bobblehead. It was not something that he had ever done before, or even dreamed that he could do. But after that day, he presented me with a number of great outside the box suggestions, and he delivered exactly what we needed from him in his position in the church.

We know very little about Epaphras. It appears that his hometown was Colossae. It has been suggested that Paul converted him, and then that it was actually Epaphras who planted the Colossian church. He had become the main teacher of the faith in Colossae. So as Paul reaches out to the Colossian Church, he makes sure to mention Epaphras. Paul does two positive things with this brief mention of Epaphras in his letter. First, he raises the status of Epaphras in the church. He calls him a fellow servant, or co-worker, in the task to which Paul had committed himself. Epaphras was not a follower of Paul; he was an equal. Both followed the same master, and both had been selected by God to serve the church. At this point in his ministry, this idea of a co-worker with Paul was rare. But Paul trusted Epaphras enough to say that the teaching that they heard from him was equal to the words that Paul would have spoken in their midst. Epaphras may have been a local boy, but he spoke with the authority of the Apostle Paul because he was Paul’s equal. And second, he makes this endorsement with strength. Paul knew that the future of the Colossian Church most likely laid in the hands of Epaphras. He expected Epaphras to lead the church well, and so he endorsed him in the presence of the church. Paul gave Epaphras the empowerment that he needed to do the task and deliver exactly what Paul had expected of him.

Sometimes, we seem a little too concerned with our personal empowerment, and we forget that each of us has someone we need to empower. There is someone right now who needs to hear you publically say that you have faith in them. And until those words are delivered, they will never be able to give you what it is that you need from them. It doesn’t matter the arena or the age of the person. They need to know that you trust them and that you expect great things from them. And once they know that, the sky is the limit as far as their potential to succeed is concerned. But the first step in that success is always knowing that someone believes that they can do it.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Colossians 2

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. – Philippians 4:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 8, 2018): Philippians 4

I am captivated by the poet Nayyirah Waheed’s thought that “if the ocean can calm itself, so can you. We are both salt water mixed with air.” Of course, the ocean and us have actually very little in common. But it is true that, for the ocean, both the agitation and the calming action of the water arises from within, or more specifically from the temperature change in the water itself. Climate change and the warming of the earth’s oceans are important because it is essentially this warming that agitates the winds and causes the disturbance. If the core temperature of the water continues to rise, then we should expect that storms will continue to increase both in frequency and in amplitude or violence. And because of what is already in the water, the calming effect of the ocean will be minimized.

Our internal temperature also has a lot to do with how we react to the world. And our internal temperature, unlike the temperature of the oceans, is something that we have a measure of control over. Admittedly, each one of us is made differently, and our genetics and upbringing or history exercise a measure of control over how we react to the stimuli of the world. Yet, it would be foolish to argue, although many do, that we have no control over how we react to the experiences that our world brings to us. And there are certain “practices” that can assist us as we react to what is happening all around us.

Paul argues that our journey to calming ourselves begins with where we choose to focus our minds. Each element carries a story that we should understand. Whatever is true (admittedly, truth sometimes seems to hide its face from us, and yet we should learn to recognize that which is truly true), noble, just or right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy, focus and meditate on these things.

Too often we believe the lie, we regard nobility to be beyond our grasp, we think that justice is found only in the pages of comic books, that purity is impossible, that what is lovely is fleeting, that there is nothing that is admirable when we really get close, that there is no virtue and nothing that we can find is worthy of our praise. But we are wrong. And, in the Star Wars world, these thoughts are nothing more than the path to the Darkside.

Your reactions to the world will be governed to a large extent on where it is that you decide to place your mind. And this is not just a fleeting thought of Paul, but one that he repeats in his letters to the churches. To the Romans, he stresses that they should not “conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). To the Corinthian Church, he instructs them to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

We are more in control of our reactions then we have come to believe. The solution to calming ourselves is not easy, but it is present. It all hinges on where we choose to place our mind. For Paul, the solution is to “think on these things.”

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Colossians 1

Nayyirah Waheed’s poem is maybe better broken up like this.

“if
the ocean
can calm itself,
so can you.
we
are both
salt water
mixed with
air.”

-          Nayyirah Waheed

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— … Philippians 3:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 7, 2018): Philippians 3

When it comes to faith, the intangibles weigh more than the tangibles. You can’t prove your faith by pointing to some aspect of your life.  True faith is wrapped up in the things that no one will ever see. If you think that your worship or your church will prove your faith, you are wrong. Faith is different. It has to be.

This is the message of Paul to the Philippian Church. Paul’s detractors had pointed at circumcision (what Paul calls a mutilation of the flesh) as an outward sign of faith. But as far as Paul was concerned, their eyes were fixed on the wrong spot of the body. Circumcision was proof that a piece of skin had been removed from the male anatomy and nothing more. It was not a symbol of Paul’s faith. (And all of this in spite of the fact that Paul had been circumcised. Even Paul’s circumcision meant nothing.) True circumcision, and therefore true faith, lay elsewhere.

And Paul doesn’t leave the church hanging on wondering where. He quickly lists three characteristics of true faith. And the first is that we worship God in Spirit. True faith is not what you do in a worship service, but rather it is found in the dance of your worship when no one is watching. All of us can worship in the presence of other people. Every Sunday there are thousands of church services that prove that point. And all of the services look oddly similar. We go through the dance of Christianity in the sanctuary, always being careful to follow the local norms (Do you say amen or not? Do you lift your hands in praise, or in the international language of “touchdown,” or leave them hanging loosely at your side? The answer is never far from you. Just watch what the others are doing.) But the true dance of faith happens when you are alone, or when your faith is challenged. It is our spirits that worship God, and the spirit inside of us never bothers to ask what everyone else is doing. It already knows how to worship.

Second, Paul says that true faith points to Christ. It can’t do anything else. The reason for being, for getting up out of bed, for going to work, the reason that we behave the way that we do is all because of Jesus presence in our lives. We are not perfect, but any perfection that can be found in us is because Jesus has stepped into our lives and made a difference. So if there is any good, the praise goes to him, not to us.

And, finally, Paul writes to his Philippian brothers and sister that we have no confidence in the flesh. We don’t point to circumcision, or to our favorite tattoo, as the reason for why we are good. Our faith has nothing to do with our achievements, no matter how numerous the accolades might be. It has nothing to do with where studied; it has nothing to do with us. It is only Jesus.

And these are the marks of our circumcision, and the marks of true faith. These are the things that the world will never see, and only we know if they are in place in our lives.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Philippians 4