July 13, 2020

July 13, 2020

Good morning,

" If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:  circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;  as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. "       Philippians 3:4-6

Paul, the early church leader, is angry here at the church of Phillippi. Not with everyone, but with the leaders who are making the new believers get circumcised. Paul wants people to have deep faith, and not put their faith in outward signs. He wants the church to do away with rituals that do not uphold the faith. Paul grew up in the Jewish tradition, and says that he is the best of the best. He says he is a Pharisee. Pharisees were seen to be the holiest of Jewish believers. They knew the Law, and they followed every dot and letter.  He was good !

Paul had persecuted the church in an earlier part of his life. For some in the early church communities he was always suspect. They thought he would turn on them. They saw him as a spy for the Temple, and they could never quite trust him.  In many of his letters, he is trying to prove to the new believers in Christ that he was indeed one of them.

" But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ " .  Phillippians 3:7-8

Paul gives up everything for Christ. All the power he had in his previous life is "garbage" for him. He is indeed born again, everyday. His writings to the early church change over 20 years, as the Spirit of God leads him to new places and new communities. It is amazing that a person with such power gives it all up.

I have changed over the years, from when I began as a minister in 1987. I am not the same person when I preached the first sermon at Bethel in Lancaster. I take the Bible as the Word of God, but I hold it much lighter than I did before. I look for the story in the text, rather than look for hard principles in the words. After all, the writers of the books of the Bible were real people, telling real stories to real communities of faith who were struggling with real issues of life and death.

How is God going to change me now that I am full-time at Poole ? I have faith that I am open to be born again, day after day after day ! How has your faith been changed in Christ over the last year or the last 20 years ?

Prayer

Dear God,

I would rather stay the same,

It is much easier,

to believe what I did in 1977,

And hold fast,

but,

You reveal yourself in creation, and in your Word and in your people,

That I see you more clearly, sort of, in new ways.

Continue to mold me into something new

out of a garbage heap of life, faith, death and egad, circumcision.   AMEN

Fred

 

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal           Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church