To Be Right or To Be In Relationship (Philippians 1:2-6, 12-27)

image: "Queer Pieta" (Michelangelo x Amy Courts)

This sermon was originally preached on June 9, 2024 at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Hopkins, MN.

The livestream of our service may be viewed here.  Today's scripture text is Philippians 1:3-6, 12-27 . It serves at the first of a four-sermon series through the letter to the Philippians on "Finding Joy in the Ordinary."

A preface: This sermon did not come easily. In fact, it didn't really come at all. After literal days of mulling and chewing and writing all the notes and ideas and plans, and spending eight focused hours into the wee hours of Sunday morning when I finally gave up, I still showed up to worship with maybe five of the paragraphs you read below. So I invited the Spirit to move as She willed, to speak as She wished, and this is what came out.  For this reason, it's longer by a lot and doesn't read the way my typical sermons might. But it is precisely what was needed, and even garnered applause at the end -- which never happens. Thanks be to God and the Spirit!

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So good morning! I wasn't kidding when I said that Louis could preach today because it would probably be better than what I came up with in the last 20 minutes. The reality is this week has been a mess, I have been way too in-my-head, trying to find exactly what I needed to say and find --  There's a lot of verses on this page! Where, what am I looking for?! What am I going to find?! That has been the stress, along with like driving to and from other states, so I am here, we are here together, and that is the good, that is the good beautiful, joyful thing that I am clinging to right now, even as I beg the Spirit to come and be with us and breathe through whatever it is that comes out of my mouth. Amen. 

So today, we do begin our sermon series through the book of Philippians on Finding Joy in the Ordinary, and I get to start us off by simply acknowledging that joy is often hard to find. Pastor John mentioned a couple weeks ago -- last week?  -- we did this Enneagram thing. How many of you know the Ennea- Anybody? There's like three of you and half of you are staff. It's this personality thing that kind of shows you where your passion is, where your focus can be, and kind of what drives you internally. And for me, I am an Enneagram 4: I am the Individualist. I am the Creator. I want everything I say to be perfect and special. And I love sad things! I love feelings, I love big feelings, I love getting really deep -- really deep -- in the yuck and pulling it apart and going, “Where is the life here?” So that's what I get to do today. We'll see if it actually gets done! 

The reality is that especially within the the Queer community, of which I am part, in the United States we know deep in our bodies and our bones how hard it can be to find joy and to be full of joy in a world that so often hates us and wishes that we would just not be this. Paul knew it too. The people that he spread the gospel to and who took that gospel and spread it further -- they knew this in their bodies and their bones. And so I am going to begin at the end of Paul's teaching here, in verse 27 where he says, “Only live your life in a manner worthy of the Gospel, so that I will know you are standing firm in one Spirit, striving side by side with one mind, for the faith of the gospel." And I start here because this is the instruction, the commendation, that anchors everything else that Paul is going to say to the Philippians in the coming chapters. And it can anchor us as well, as we move into the rest of it, and as we move into our days.

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