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At our contemporary worship service this week we looked at Philippians 1- the start of a 4 week chapter by chapter exploration of the letter. It is really extraordinary to read the joy and love that Paul clearly has for the community in Philippi. His genuine exuberance even from jail is confronting. Paul is still bearing witness and spreading the Gospel from inside jail, and more than that he is not put off whatsoever by his current circumstances.
Paul gives us a great example of how to bear trials, most definitely, but he also gives a model of discipleship that transcends situation- and I think here lies some of what Philippians 1 has to say to a contemporary audience. To follow Paul is would seem to me that we might need to find our prisons. In the service we looked at what status is about, what objects and things keep us locked up. Using some of the popular philosophical work of Allan de Botton, we looked at our own loot/prison and the secondary prison of the status the loot can affords us. Sometimes we can be slaves to our societal rank or to the perceptions of others about us, or our stuff. The good news, from our focal letter to Philippi, is that these prisons mean very little to us. If Paul could not be contained by bars, we cannot be contained by our “stuff”. We can reveal some of Paul’s joy and exuberance in ourselves and glimpse the real freedom Christ offers.
Sophie (Student Minister)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
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