Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 25], rcl yr a
September 24th, 2023; First Sunday of Stewardship Focus
EXODUS 16:2-15; PSALM 105:1-6, 37-45; PHILIPPIANS 1:21-30; MATT. 20:1-16
Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice
“Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice” writes St. Paul in Philippians.
This is an extraordinarily generous moment for Paul. Some are proclaiming Christ “from envy and rivalry,” he says; Paul is in prison, and even though some are proclaiming Christ in a way that “afflict[s] [him] in his imprisonment,” St. Paul will say that “whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice.”
This is how important the simple proclamation of Christ is for Paul, how important it is to say that Christ is Lord, that in Christ God has entered the life of the world in the incarnation, that Christ is crucified, Paul thinks that this simple proclamation is so important that even when people that are afflicting him proclaim Christ, it is a joyful thing for him.
It’s a more radical thought than most of us can manage. I know I’ve been hurt by churches. I know that I’ve been hurt by other Christians. Many churches are passively hostile to people like me. I’m a canon of a cathedral church where I can’t get onto the chancel, upstairs, or anywhere near the altar. I don’t know what else to call that but passive hostility, no matter how good-hearted people can be.
And I know that many of you experience not only passive hostility and kind-hearted exclusion, some of you experience outright mean-hearted hostility and exclusion. Some of us hear the gospel proclaimed in such a way that we are brokenhearted for friends or members of our family.
Paul in prison is experiencing a similar kind of hostility. Other Christians are “insincere,” and this is afflicting Paul. And yet, for St. Paul, so long as Christ is proclaimed, even by his opponents—this proclamation brings him joy. Not the life of insincerity, or of envy, or of rivalry, or of pretense. This is a matter of affliction. But the proclamation of Christ, the proclamation of the incarnation of God in Christ, the proclamation of the crucifixion of Christ, the proclamation of the resurrection of Christ, in this proclamation of Christ there is, no matter the source of the proclamation, there is always joy for St. Paul in proclaiming Christ.
We are embarking today on a series of stewardship Sundays, and I’m so glad that we have Philippians in our Scripture readings for today, and for the next few Sundays. Today, it gives me an opportunity to draw out this theme of joy. That for Paul, suffering and self-offering is not a matter of misery. And that appropriate self-offering—as part of the Christian life—can be a challenge, and it can be difficult, but if there is no joy to be found in self-offering, or some hope for joy, it may not be a Christian self-offering.
Paul does place suffering as central to the life of faith in Christ. God “has graciously granted you the privilege,” writes Paul today, God “has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well.”
Next Sunday we will hear one of the most beautiful, and most provocative, and one of the earliest hymns to Christ: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,” says, sings! St. Paul; “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness … Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name.”
That hymn will need a sermon of its own. But I wanted to give you a taste of that hymn because in it we find one of the keys to understanding the relationship between suffering and joy. Suffering and joy are related in Christ, and if they are related in Christ, they are related in the Christian life. As Christ suffers, so does the Christian in Christ, in the church that is his body; as Christ is exalted (in joy!), so is the Christian in Christ, in the church that is his body.
One of Bonhoeffer’s most central concerns was the connection between Christ’s life and the life of the church. So much so that Bonhoeffer speaks often about the way Christ is represented in the work of the church. Bonhoeffer sees Christ at work especially in mutual forgiveness of sin, and in intercessory prayer for others. But he sees Christ at work, in the life of the church, in the way that Christians offer themselves sacrificially for others. As Christ offers himself for the sake of others, so does the Christian; as Christ offers himself for the sake of others so does the church.
This self-offering can take many forms in the life of the Christian; following the example of the martyrs, and following what Luther says too, it can mean offering your very life; but this is unusual. Bonhoeffer suggests that things like advocacy for others as a kind of self-offering; so don’t underestimate what it means to join your voice with the voice of the suffering, and in the crying out for justice and peace.
Bonhoeffer though writes that offering of your finances is another kind if sacrificial self-offering. One of the ways that Bonhoeffer shared of himself, in a sacrificial way, was through Eberhard Bethge, a friend with whom he shared everything—including his own money. Sharing his money meant that after the Gestapo had shut down the seminary where both Bonhoeffer and Bethge worked, they could still prepare pastors for ministries of resistance, ministries that resisted the Nazi influence over the church. Bonhoeffer and Bethge’s underground training of resisting ministers may not have survived without Bonhoeffer sacrificially offering a good portion of his income to the underground church in Germany.
And if you have any doubt about whether this self-offering was a matter of joy, take a moment sometime and look up the letters they wrote to one another, especially their birthday letters. In those letters Bonhoeffer writes of the joy he experienced during the time of their shared ministry, when they shared all with each other, right down to neckties; the joy Bonhoeffer felt when he was woken by Bethge singing his favourite hymns from the other side of his bedroom door—joys not possible without sacrificial sharing and self-offering.
And so when St. Paul writes of suffering for Christ, this is what it would be good to imagine—not dreariness, or despondency, or sorrow. When St. Paul writes of Christ’s suffering, and the way Christians can offer themselves to one another in the body of Christ that is the church, imagine the ways that things like sharing from our wealth can lead to the joy of things like singing, the joy of things like friendship.
Whether you feel that you can approach the people that hurt you the way Paul was able to approach those who afflicted him, I couldn’t say. This is, however, just how radical St. Paul is here when he speaks of joy. Be reminded that Paul still thinks that subjecting someone to that kind of affliction is the inappropriate working out of the meaning of Jesus’s own self-offering.
And there is power, in telling someone that you can join, with joy, in their proclamation of Christ; but that the ways in which they afflict you is not in the Spirit of what Christ offers. To live into God’s own offering in Christ leads not to discord and the affliction of others, but rather to unity in Christ for Paul.
That is, to really hear the proclamation of Christ—the proclamation of God made human in Christ, the proclamation of Christ crucified, the proclamation of Christ resurrected, the proclamation of Christ at the right hand of God and reigning over all of this—to hear this proclamation is to learn a new way of life, a life of giving from what we have for the life of the church and for the life of the world. And to be part of the life of Christ that arises from this proclamation of Christ is to find a life of self-offering, and a life of self-offering that leads not to affliction; rather, when Christ and his self-offering is proclaimed, Christ is proclaimed above all in joy.
The Revd Canon Preston Parsons PhD
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.