3 I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart,[d] for all of you share in God’s grace[e] with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:3-11, NRSV
I was asked if I would share my closing message preached today at the Pickens Ministerial Association Lenten Luncheon. I have added a few pictures to help illustrate this brief message. May it be a blessing to you.
You may have heard through the last few weeks that Ashley
and I will be moving at the end of June.
In the United Methodist system, a bishop appoints pastors to churches,
and our bishop is sending the two of us to the Greenwood area. Ashley will be the pastor of two churches,
much as Pastor Kevin has been the pastor at two Seventh-day Adventist churches (Pickens
and Anderson.) I will be pastoring a
different congregation a short distance away from her.
With this reality in mind, I recognize that today will be
the last opportunity to speak with many of you. We have made our home in
Pickens County for the last 13 years, and we will miss you. I especially appreciate the other pastors and
churches of our ministerial association. You have always accepted me just as I
am and made me feel a valued part of the Pickens Community. I ask that you offer the same hospitality to
my successor, Rev. David Taylor, who will be with you starting in July.
Because of the time…the season we are in…I wanted to share
from Paul’s letter to the Philippians.
Traditionally, scholars believe that he wrote this letter while in
prison in Rome – knowing that he would never be free again – knowing that he
would never see this church that meant so much to him any longer. I understand his sorrow mixed with hope…
I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with
joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the
gospel from the first day until now.
(Philippians 1:3-5, NRSV)When you share days in mission and ministry together – it’s easy to
share in the fond memories of the days we have had…joy and thanksgiving flow
easily.
I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you
will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to
think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart for all of
you share in God’s grace with me.(Philippians 1:6-7, NRSV)
Was the work of the Philippians finished? Had Paul accomplished everything he had hoped
in the community of Philippi? No – God
had begun the work…but it was not complete.
I don’t know about you, but when I work, I often make a
mess. I start with a clean table, all of
my tools carefully put where they belong, my thoughts organized, and a picture
of where I am headed. But, how does that
expression go…”If you’re going to make an omelet….you have to break a few eggs.
For example, I have a project here. I started with bunches
of strings of what some would call Mardi Gras beads. They were perfectly fine…that is, until I cut
them.
I utterly destroyed this whole
batch of necklaces. To anyone who looked at things at this point, it looks like
a mess. It appears that all of my time has been wasted in an effort that led
nowhere.
“God who began a good work in you,”
says Paul, “will be faithful to complete it.” God isn’t finished with us
yet. We are a work in progress. How do I know this? because we all share in
God’s grace together. God, by the power
of the Holy Spirit, uses seasons like Lent to take us and shape us. God uses
seasons of change and even the grief that we share to form us and mold us.
As you can see, the apparent mess is
beginning to change. God who began a good work in you will be faithful to
complete it.
I am not naïve enough to think that God’s work in Pickens
began when I moved here. How absurd
would that be? God has been at work in
Pickens for 150 years – as long as Pickens has been here. Nor do I believe that a single season of Lent
will have every one of us suddenly living every day exactly like Jesus. This season changes us, but we recognize that
God’s work is not finished. If we trust that God, the ultimate artist
in the world, has begun a work, we believe that God will be faithful to complete
it.
Even when we do not at first recognize the creativity in
the process, God works all things for good who believe in him.
I believe that God who began a good
work in Pickens will be faithful to complete it. We will miss each other. We will think of each other with love and
fondness. We will lift one another up in prayer.
We will not lose our hope.
God’s hand continues to work and build and grow. I know that as we are open to the leading of
the Holy Spirit, that God will produce something beautiful in our midst – even if
at times it seems like things are a mess.
I leave you with these words from Paul, as they become my
prayer for you:
“this is my prayer, that your love
may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to
determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and
blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through
Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-11, NRSV)
