PARTNERS IN THE GOSPEL
Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 27)
November 12, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now.
Philippians 1:3-5 (ESV)
There's a word that we like to use a lot in the Church. The word I'm talking about is fellowship. I'm afraid we've gotten to a point where we short-change this word. When we say "fellowship," we're usually talking about some kind of social gathering. But Christian fellowship is a much deeper and wider concept than that. In this morning's Epistle the Holy Spirit, through the pen of Saint Paul, hits the nail on the head when He speaks of Christian fellowship as our "partnership in the Gospel," because that's what Christian fellowship is: our partnership with one another and with the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This partnership in the Gospel that all of us share is a wonderful thing--something for us to rejoice in and to celebrate. Notice the things that Paul says in our text about his fellowship with the Philippian Christians: He thanks God whenever he thinks of them; he prays for them and considers it a joy to do so; he appreciates being one with them in the proclamation of Jesus' love and forgiveness. These are feelings that we should all have whenever we think about one another and, in fact, whenever we think about anyone in the world who shares our faith that Jesus Christ has fully atoned for human sin. This is what real Christian fellowship is. This is what our "partnership in the Gospel" is all about. Our text has a lot to teach us about this fellowship--specifically about the source and the meaning of the fellowship that we share.
What is the source? Paul tells us that our partnership is "in the Gospel." This refers, of course, to the entire body of Christian doctrine. This is the only thing that we all have in common: God’s love in Christ, which has redeemed us from sin and death and in Baptism has made us His own. Some of us may have similar interests. We might like or dislike some of the same things. There may be physical similarities among us, or common age groups. Maybe our political views are similar or we watch the same things on television. But none of this has anything to do with our "partnership in the Gospel" of Jesus Christ. These other things that we have in common cannot unite us, and neither can the differences that we have in these areas be allowed to separate us from one another and disrupt our partnership. Our oneness is in Christ and in Him alone. He is the Common Denominator. We have all been loved with the same everlasting love of the Father. We have all been redeemed from sin, death, and hell by the same blood of Jesus, shed on Calvary's cross for us. We have all been called into this "partnership in the Gospel" and united in it by the same Holy Spirit, working through the same means of grace. That means that when we look at one another or think about one another it should not be our appearance or interests or personality or status or behavior that we dwell on, but our common faith in Jesus Christ--our "partnership in [His[ Gospel."
Jesus Himself set the standard for this fellowship. As the time drew near for His departure from this world He was keenly aware of the challenges that His followers would have to face without His immediate presence. He knew that Satan would be busy until the end of time trying to destroy this fellowship from both within and without. We know all too well that Jesus' concerns for His Church were well-founded. Satan just loves to see Christians confused and divided, and one of his most effective tools in making this happen is the unholy alliance of false doctrine and doctrinal indifference. On the personal level he carries out his work by inciting Christians to criticize one another, betray one another, talk behind one another's back, pass judgment on one another, and in general not treat one another as the brothers and sisters in the Lord that they are. And believe me, we certainly give him plenty to work with. If you really want to get a feel for our Lord's greatest concern for His Church and get some encouragement as we try to be the fellowship that He wants us to be, I'd suggest that you read carefully the seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel. This is Jesus' prayer for His Church, sometimes called His "high priestly prayer." In it the Savior prays that those who He has saved from sin may always be kept together in Him and in His truth.
The "partnership in the Gospel" that we share involves a lot of practical, down-to-earth things. It says a lot about who we are in relationship to one another. It means that when one of us is hurting it is the obligation of Christian love for all of us to share that hurt. It means that when one of us has a problem it is the Christian responsibility of the rest of us to "bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2). It means that when one of us stumbles and falls and is overcome with guilt it is the Christian duty of the rest of us to speak and demonstrate the Word of forgiveness and to encourage him or her to walk again in "newness of life" (Romans 6:4). It also means that when one us has reason to rejoice and celebrate Christian love should move the rest of us to join the celebration and not be jealous of our fellow Christian's good fortune.
Neither Jesus nor Paul ever said that this partnership in the Gospel would be easy. As long as we live in this world we are still under the influence of selfishness and sin. We often catch ourselves asking some selfish questions: Why should I share the hurt of others? When I'm hurting I have to bear it alone. Nobody else cares about my problems, so why should I care about theirs? What's all this nonsense about forgiveness and encouragement when somebody messes up? When I mess up all I get is condemnation. And why should I be happy about someone else's good fortune? When am I gonna get a piece of the pie or a moment of glory? It's true that you won't always be treated in a Christian manner by fellow Christians--at least not in this world. Christians or not, we are all imperfect people living in an imperfect world.
But we have the opportunity and the strength to be partners in the Gospel with one another. You don’t have to look very far to see that all around you there are people hurting who need someone to be with them; people with problems who need someone to help them shoulder the burden; people who have not always lived as they should and need the Savior’s Word of forgiveness to put the past behind them and go on from here; people who have reason to rejoice and want someone to share their joy with them. And maybe not all of these people have always treated you the way you think they should have. So what? If we all just sit around looking at each other suspiciously, waiting for someone else to make the first move, what does that accomplish? Our fellowship--our "partnership in the Gospel" of Jesus Christ as it comes to us in Word and Sacrament--enables each and every one of us to reach out to all of our brothers and sisters in the Lord to share the love of Jesus that we have received--the love of Jesus in which we stand--the love of Jesus that we proclaim. That "partnership in the Gospel" is something to celebrate! It’s a wonderful gift of grace and the source of our unity, as Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians: “There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call--one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.