Walking Together

Philippians 3:4b-14

We are pilgrims on a journey,

We are travelers on the road,

We are here to help each other

Walk the mile and bear the load.

These are familiar lines to some of us. 

I can remember singing this song countless times in my parents’ living room on Sunday evenings

when people from the community would come over for Bible study.

What I like about these words is not merely that they describe the spiritual life as a journey,

That’s a helpful metaphor and I’m sure one that many of you have heard before.

But it describes it as our journey.  We are pilgrims on a journey.

It recognizes that I’m not alone in trying to find my way in 21^st century America

towards a life that is free and a love that is genuine, towards a wholeness in God.

One thing I’ve learned about going on a journey is the need to pace myself.  I say I’ve learned this, but that just means I’ve recognized its importance.  Putting this into practice is a lifelong process.

And this is why it can be dangerous for me to read something like what Paul wrote to the Philippians in today’s reading.

“Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

It can be dangerous for me to read something like this because I can easily hear it as “try harder” – like the coach in the locker room giving a pep talk – “you can do it – don’t stop now – keep going”

I hear these words of Paul’s as telling me to keep pushing forward in my efforts to achieve whatever goals I have made for myself.

But the more I have sat with this text, the more I don’t think that’s what’s going on at all.

On This Rock

Romans 12:1-8

Matthew 16:13-20

“On this rock I will build my church.”

Acworth knows how to build a church.

As a community we’ve built three churches and they’re all still standing.

We have become aware of various needs of the buildings and have sought to problem-solve to do what needs to be done in the way that will best use the resources at hand.

In 2006 when it became clear that the steeple was leaning,

We realized that this project would be a whole other ball game.

But if you look up there, you’ll see a steeple standing tall and strong.

Because when the resources of a church membership of 50 people were clearly not going to fund the project, the church received help from the community.

It was important for this community that this building remain standing.

But when Jesus said in today’s gospel reading, “upon this rock I will build my church” – he’s not looking down at good solid slabs of granite and thinking of the possibilities of making or remaking a meetinghouse.

Jesus and the Canaanite Woman

Matthew 15:10-28

Jesus and the disciples have gone into strange territory.  Into the land of Tyre and Sidon.  Tyre and Sidon are coastal cities located on what is now the southern coast of Lebanon.

So Jesus and his disciples were outside of their own home and their own ethnic and cultural community.

I can imagine a different language was the dominant language. 

And the people looked and dressed differently and probably behaved differently than the people they were used to in Galilee.

We don’t know if this was the first time that Jesus and the disciples visited Tyre and Sidon, but still we can imagine that it was not a place where they would particularly feel at home.

And the historic relationship between the Hebrews and the Sidonians was not very friendly.

So Jesus and his disciples very likely had grown up with impressions and judgments of those people – those Sidonians, those Tyrians.  And these judgments would yield plenty of opportunities for them to suspect the Sidonians or to keep from associating with them, perhaps even resent them.