A Resilient and Unified People

 

Scripture

 Philippians 4:1-9

4 ¹ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

² I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. ³ Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵ Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Devotion

Today's scripture reading is about resilience during times of conflict and danger. The Church in Philippi was embroiled in some kind of deep disagreement.  The details of the disagreement have been lost to time.  It could be anything about how the Philippians should respond to persecution to some kind of personal issue.  Whatever the dispute was about, it was clear that Euodia and Syntyche are on opposing sides...and they weren't playing nice.  This conflict is deeply upsetting for Paul, because he knew how fragile the Early Church was.  He also knew the depths of Euodia's and Syntyche's faith and how hard both of these women had worked to help him build up Christ's Church in Philippi.  Paul, though, can't go in person to help settle the dispute, because he is sitting in a Roman prison cell.  The best he could do is send a letter.

Paul's letter did not take sides in the dispute or reference who "won."  Instead, he focused on trying to get the Euodia faction and the Syntyche faction to let go of their fear and anger.  If they can but offer up their worries to God and try to be gentle with one another, then God will help them move forward from this time of bitter disagreement.  That way, they can get back to focusing on working together to do what is good, honorable, commendable, and excellent...just as Jesus taught them to.

It takes a special kind of resilience to let go of our anger and begin moving forward in a spirit of trust.  This is especially true when we are bitterly divided on issues surrounding people's rights, responsibilities, and identity.  The hurt goes deep, and its hard to trust people when we believe their position puts people's lives and futures at risk.  When some sort of decision is finally reached, it is easy for the winners of the conflict to write off the losers as people who are just going to have to 1) do whatever they say or 2) get out of their way.  Meanwhile, the losers are tempted to dig in and try to find new ways to subvert the winners' efforts.  Both sides are tempted to keep  calling each another ignorant, mean-spirited, out-of-touch, etc.

The problem is that the longer we hang onto our anger and tear each other down, the less time we have to focus on doing God's will.  None of us is perfect.  We need the wisdom that God has given to one another if we are to truly do what is good, honorable, commendable, and excellent to the best of our abilities.  Therefore, we must trust God help us struggle side-by-side in the work of the Gospel...even when we have fundamental disagreements with the people standing next to us.

So how do we find the inner resilience to work together despite our deep misgivings?  Well, we find it by casting our worries upon God and allowing love and peace of Christ to fill us.  Trying to work together does not mean that we compromising on our beliefs; it simply means that we trust God to work in all our lives.  It leaves room for God to transform that hearts and minds of both our "enemies" and ourselves so that we can build the world that God inspires calls us to help create.

So just how spiritually resilient are we?  How willing are we to set aside enmities and trust God to help us do good work together...to come to the table (again and again and again), close our mouths, and learn to listen to one another?  The work may be hard, and there will certainly be times when we need to get up and walk away when someone becomes angry or hate-filled.  But sooner or later, God will bring each of our tiny voices together to make a mighty, justice-and-mercy-filled roar.

 

Prayer

 Spirit of Wisdom and Compassion, you know that your people are currently wracked with many fundamental disagreements about how to live into your Commandments to love God and neighbor.  Make us resilient enough set aside our distrust of one another and begin to heal our relationships.  May the work you inspire us to do together be pleasing in your sight.  Amen.