In 1965 the United Church was booming. Its membership stood at 1.1 million across the country. Another 2 million adherents meant that 16 per cent of the Canadian population had an association with the United Church. That number has declined to perhaps 2 or 3 per cent today as membership has declined to 450,000 and the population has risen. The once shining star, the body formed to shape the nation, has fallen substantially, but so too have the Anglicans, Presbyterians and other denominations.
The Anglican community was already concerned about decline in the early 1960s and asked Pierre Berton to take a critical look at the Church. The resulting publication, The Comfortable Pew, became a bestseller. Berton suggested that the church was locked in a tired vision from the past. He thought that it had failed as an instrument of social justice and no longer served as a conscience for the nation holding people accountable to a high ethical standard. In Berton’s view the church had surrendered to the status quo and was refusing to shake people up by challenging them to live truly Christian lives. Instead there were “comfortable pews.”
There were no “comfortable pews” in Paul’s world, no comfortable pews in Rome or Philippi. Christians were facing opposition. Paul encountered opposition in Jerusalem and as he wrote to the Philippians he was awaiting trial in Rome before the emperor. The death penalty was possible. In Philippi, believers were facing opposition from others in their community and from Acts we know how terribly Paul and his colleagues had been treated by the leaders of the city. Beatings, floggings, and imprisonment awaited any who were perceived as “disturbing the city” and “advocating customs that were not lawful for Romans to adopt or observe.”
In response to opposition, Paul does not come out fighting, nor does he suggest a propaganda campaign. Paul, in fact, wasn’t that concerned about the present because he looked at a much bigger picture, God’s picture, the coming day of the Lord, and eternal life. Paul was more interested in making sure people were ready for eternity than worrying about what he considered the peripheral issues of the day. Belief in God was, of course, important as people ready for eternity, but so too was how a person lived “Christianly” in the world and in particular how a person lived in relationship to others. So he writes to the Philippians, “Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” There must have been a little problem in Philippi for later in chapter four Paul entreats two individuals, Syntyche and Euodia “to be of the same mind in the Lord.”
I was in a church once with a number of strong personalities among the lay leaders. They had all been part of that congregation since childhood and in retirement, they could get very steamed at each other over the direction for the church. I remember in one small group meeting, one man said one thing. Another could not help himself from firing back and before I knew it, we were getting into an uneasy argument. The problem for me as their minister was that there was a relatively new couple there that night who had been coming to the church for a couple of months, a lovely couple; and I was thinking, “Oh no, we’ll lose them for sure after this.” I managed to switch the topic and at the end of the meeting asked anyone who had been a part of the church for more than thirty years to meet with me about the upcoming anniversary. I wasn’t interested in the anniversary, I wanted to ask the older members what was going on. I wasn’t quite ready for the verbal donnybrook that developed, however, but at least this time it was contained among the participants.
Paul calls us to be of one mind and to have the same love. I don’t think Paul meant that we will agree on absolutely everything, but I think he meant that we agree on the core elements of Christian faith and show love and respect to each other in peripheral matters.
We can illustrate that at a macro level, we have had issues of this nature between denominations. When I was studying theology it was at the tail end of what we might term “strong denominationalism.” I attended a Methodist seminary and a key part of our theological training was not just to teach us Methodist distinctives, but to show why we were not Presbyterians and why our interpretation of the Bible was so much better than the Presbyterians. I can recall evenings when Christians of various stripes would be gathered and discussions developed about interpretations of the Bible. A Presbyterian fellow I knew accused us Methodists of being heretics. The Baptists didn’t think that you’d get to heaven unless you were a Baptist. Thankfully, we are over those days, but there’s one group that has been beyond those days for a long time, the United Church of Canada.
Back in the late 1800s the West was opening up and denominations were trying to establish churches in every community. The Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Anglicans, the Baptists, the Congregationalists, the Lutherans, and Roman Catholics were going into small communities vying for the attention of the populous and trying to lead individuals to a higher way of life. It didn’t work. The communities were too small. They could not support five or six denominations and their ministers. At some point, church leaders began to think and they organised a home missions committee across denominational lines. Denominations got together and determined which one of them would go into a certain town in the west to establish one or two churches rather than five or six. It made those churches much more viable in small population centres.
Later leaders began to say to themselves, “If we can do missions together maybe we can do more. We worship the same Lord. He has called us to be one. Maybe we can be one.” A committee was formed in 1904 to think about uniting the churches across Canada formally. In 1908 the committee established a document called “The Basis of Union” with an aim to officially test within their governing bodies what the interest would be on being one. It took some time and discussions were full but finally in 1925 the Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists and Union Churches came together. They set aside their differences, and they had many theological differences,and focussed on the important things they held in common about Jesus and love and the unity that Jesus had prayed for.
That’s what Paul wanted to see in Philippi at a more micro-level. As you prepare for eternity, he said, “Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Sometimes that’s not easy. It challenges us because we can irritate one another, we all like to do things differently. But part of preparing for eternity is showing love, respect, and good will, especially to those with whom we share the faith.
But Paul goes on to say something even more challenging in terms of how the Christian should live, something that pushes the Christian far beyond the “comfortable pew.” He says, “Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.”
There’s something within all of us that helps us in matters of self-preservation and attainment. We all want to live, survive, do well, be successful, have more. Most seem to have a significant amount of self-interest.
You’ve probably heard the myth of Narcissus. Narcissus was a hunter, known for his great beauty. He was the son of the river god, Cephissus and the nymph, Liriope. Narcissus was proud. Because of his beauty, many fell in love with him but he disdained them and left many broken hearts behind. The god Nemesis determined to teach him a lesson. Nemesis brought Narcissus to a pool where he saw his own reflection and fell in love with it. Hour after hour, day after day, he stared into the pool overcome by the beauty of his own image. He was not able to hold on to the image, however, and lost the will to live; and depending on which version of the myth you read, he died heartbroken or committed suicide.
From this myth we have developed the term "narcissism". Narcissism is a condition in which individuals think excessively highly of themselves and are completely sefl-absorbed. A narcissist focusses so much on themselves that they never see others or how their actions affect others. To a degree, of course, we are all a bit self-absorbed and have moments of narcissism, but normal ranges of behaviour predominate and most people do have some consideration for others.
Paul, however, pushes harder and says “as the Christian makes ready for eternity, we need to get past selfishness altogether. “Count others better than yourselves,” he says, “put the interests of others in the foreground of your thought?” Then he pulls out the trump card, Oh this makes it challenging, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
Paul goes on to write one of the most studied and significant theological passages in the New Testament. He speaks of the incarnation. In becoming human, Paul says, “Christ emptied himself.” Though he was God, he did not seek equality with the Father, he emptied himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. What Paul does here is use the incarnation to paint a picture of Jesus. He sets before us the idea of de imitatione Christi. “Basic to all Christian living,” he says, “is doing what Jesus did.”
Now that raises the bar! Or perhaps that is a poor metaphor because we talk of “raising” bars and people being upwardly mobile today. Jesus, however, appears to have been downwardly mobile. Jesus humbled himself. Jesus loved others and helped them even when it cost him. Jesus thought so much of others that he died for them. And Paul says, “Let the same mind be in you that is in Christ Jesus.” So much for the “comfortable pew.” That’s an extremely tough calling. That calling us to be like Gandhi or Mother Theresa; “Nay, a call to be like Jesus!”
I remember one of my professors in seminary, Bob Lyon. Bob was one of the few professors who had time, quality time, for students. Every lunch hour he’d sit in the cafeteria and talk at length with one student one day, another the next. He was always looking out for others and helped me a great deal. I played in the Graduate Soccer League for the seminary and during one unfortunate game against another university, I tore up knee ligaments and wound up in surgery. Over the next couple of days in hospital, friends came to visit, and so did Bob Lyon; the only professor I had who came to visit (not that I expected them to). Later, when I was moving to his alma mater, the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Bob helped. He put me in touch with people I could rent a house from. He was a professor who cared for his students.
Bob had a newsletter he sent out every so often to some of his students and former students. It was like an early blog and I looked forward to Bob’s newsletters for they always had something deep to say, something encouraging, something challenging. At the end of his newsletter he always signed off with the same complimentary close, the curious words, “Peace & towels, (comma), Bob.” For a while I wondered what those words meant but then I remembered the story of Jesus laying down his garments, wrapping a towel around himself, and taking a bowl, washing the feet of his disciples and drying them with a towel. Bob took those words seriously in his own life and with the words, “Peace and towels,” he was encouraging all of us to be Christian leaders who would not only lead but serve. He was encouraging us not to go out into ministry to become a great preacher alone, or to build the biggest, strongest church to glorify ourselves. He encouraged us to be like Jesus. Success may come but we should always be willing to get down on our knees and wash the feet of our disciples.
That’s not an easy way to live in this success-oriented world. It’s not an easy way to live when we are so programmed to elevate self, get ahead in life, push ourselves, and strive for personal success and gain. But think for a moment of what living like Bob would do to our workplace environment or in our schools. Think for a moment what living like Jesus would do for our marriages and our homes.
You may remember the television drama, Touched By An Angel from the 1990s. I will never forget one episode in which the young angel, Monica, is tasked with helping a homeless man, Pete. Pete has lost everything, he has turned to the street, he has turned to alcohol, and over time his body deteriorated. He had been walking around in old shoes that didn’t fit properly and his feet became blistered and covered in sores. Ugly, foul, disgusting might be words that describe Pete’s feet. Monica, the young angel, had been given the task of helping Pete but when she saw his feet the compassion she felt for him could not overcome her revulsion. She could not possibly bend down and care for those feet. In a discussion with Tess, the senior angel, she realised that she must help, however. She must overcome her disgust and help Pete. Tess says to Monica, “This isn’t punishment for you, this is your lesson in pride. It’s not to bring you down, true humility will lift you up,” and there is a very moving scene in which Monica overcomes her fears and through tears and anguish, apologises to Pete, bends down and with a bowl and towel washes and cares for these blistered and damaged feet. That action, through tears, changed both of their lives.
“Peace and towels.” Jesus’ willingness to wash the feet of his disciples is a metaphor for Christian living. Paul writes, as you prepare yourselves for eternity, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” Yikes!
I don’t know where the idea of a comfortable Christianity came from but it’s not from Jesus or our primary sources. May God give us the wisdom to understand, the grace to experience forgiveness, and the power to go out and make a difference, to the glory of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.