Today in our sermon and this week in our prayer diary we focus on St Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi.  It is a very personal letter where Paul gives away a lot about his own feelings of joy in the growth of this church and also his frustration at how some people seek to lead folks away from their first calling as Christians.  His main emphasis in the letter is for his readers to strengthen their commitment and their faith by becoming more Christlike.   

Historical Background 

The city Paul knew as Philippi is in modern day Greece on the mainland of Europe.  Paul’s visit to the city is recorded in the Book of Acts, Chapter 16.  He preaches to a group of women and the first to convert is Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth.  Purple was the imperial colour, the colour of monarchy.  It was incredibly difficult to dye clothes in this colour and very expensive so Lydia, we assume, was a woman of means.  The city itself was a social and ethnic mix of Macedonians, Greeks and Romans.  It had a Jewish population too but almost everyone Paul mentions in his letter had Greek, not Jewish names.  This means the congregation was made up of Gentile Christians – though some may have become Jewish first.  Like all the early churches it would have met in people’s homes – possibly as house groups, possibly for more formal worship if the house was large enough.  Paul visited around the year 50 and this letter was written a few years later.  Some scholars think he wrote whilst in prison in Rome in the 60s but most modern scholars think he wrote in whilst either in prison or under house arrest in Ephesus in the mid 50s, just a few years after he first visited.   

We know very little about Lydia.  She was Paul’s first European convert and worked as a merchant who dealt in purple-dyed goods. (Purple dye, made from a certain mollusc, was extremely expensive. One use of it was for the stripes in the togas of Roman senators.  Lydia's occupation suggests that she had considerable wealth and independence; her husband isn’t mentioned.) She and her household were baptized, and she invited Paul, with Luke and his other companions, to make her house their headquarters whilst on their mission to Philippi.  It is probable, therefore, that the church met in her house and she may have even been the leader of the church in that place.  But, like so many women in Christian history, we don’t know much about her as the men who wrote the story didn’t add many details.  It’s probable that in those first exciting exuberant decades of the spread of the gospel women were used in leadership much more than they were when the church became more established.   

Problems in the Church 

Paul wrote to the church to strengthen its faith and resolve in the face of a hostile world and in the face of internal difficulties.   

The pagan world didn’t have much time for Christianity.  They saw us as anti-social as we wouldn’t take part in the imperial cult by offering prayers and incense to statues of the empire.  No one really thought the emperor was divine, but one proved one’s allegiance to Rome and the fact of being a good citizen by taking part in the cult.  It was rather like swearing the pledge of allegiance to the American flag or singing the National Anthem – it made one Roman, a part of society.  Christians believing only in one Lord and believing that Jesus was Lord, not the emperor were marking themselves out as being anti-social.   

Then there was a problem with the Jewish people.  Alone amongst all the peoples of the earth the Jews had won concessions from the Romans allowing them to believe only in one God and not take part in the Roman imperial cult.  They were a relgio licit – a legal religion.  At first the followers of Jesus were all Jewish and saw themselves as Jewish believers in Jesus as Messiah.  Gradually through the ministry of St Paul and the vision of St Peter non-Jewish people were admitted to the Church.  Over the next few decades tensions arose as the Jews felt that these Christians weren’t really Jewish at all – especially if gentiles were involved.  They didn’t want their hard won status as the only legal religion outside the imperial cult endangered so they started to expel Christians from their synagogues.   

And then there were internal fights between those Christians who felt that one had to become Jewish first and then Christian and those who felt that Jesus accepted us just as we are.   

These were powerful social and religious factors that the early church had to contend with.  Added to that the churches were far away from each other, small in number, had no trained leaders and the apostles were a long way away and you start to see how valuable these letters must have been to those fledgling congregations. 

As they met in each other’s homes the letter, or bits of it, would be read out, listened to, discussed and argued over.  Paul even tells two women in the church who were having a massive argument to “agree in the Lord”.   

Problems Now 

One of the problems that the Church has had to deal with from its inception is its dual nature.  It is the body of Christ, the mystical bride of Jesus, Christ’s hands and feet and presence on the earth, and at the same time a human institution made up of sinners who crave power and status, of argumentative people who like to dispute and gossips.  Just as Jesus himself was a fusion of humanity and divinity so the Church is a mixture of very human features as well as the power of God.   

We know from our own experiences in churches how difficult this can be.  The Church communicates to us the Gospel of Christ, through the Sacraments we meet Jesus and are fed by him, through the fellowship of believers we find our lives strengthened, our burdens shared and our ability to influence our world enhanced.  Yet also in the church there are those who want to be “big fish in little ponds”, petty minded folks who want to interfere, gossip and pry, those who want to argue or catch us out, and those who see the church simply as a social organisation.  We see these paradoxes in churches we have been involved in before, in our own congregation and, most alarmingly, in ourselves. 
 

Being Like Christ 

We can, however, take some comfort from the fact that St Paul tells us the way to cope with this dichotomy in becoming like Christ.    In the reading we heard earlier we see Paul tell us that our attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ.  He spells this out in very simple instructions: 

• Be one in spirit and purpose
• Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit
• Consider others better than ourselves
• Look to the interests of others

This is difficult but it’s the only way to grow as Christians and as a church.  We are united in our purpose as a congregation – to fulfil the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and to make disciples – particularly amongst the lgbt nation of Manchester.  Everything we do is designed to help with this one overarching aim – having a stall at pride, welcoming people each week, the social activities, the form of worship and songs, the mid week services and groups and our social action are all well thought out, planned and very deliberately designed to help us become and grow as disciples of the Lord Jesus.  Yes we have a social dimension, yes we get involved in social action, but our purpose in all these things is to be mature disciples, not to be just another lgbt social group.   

We try hard as individuals not to do things out of selfish ambition.  Here we seek to be ourselves and to serve the Lord not to lord it over others.  All of us share in the work of this church from cleaning the loo to giving in the collection.  We seek not to “rise to the top” but to see every aspect of the church’s ministry as being equally important.  None of us are too important to do a certain job or talk to a certain person. 

Considering others as better than ourselves is problematic for lgbt folks who have often been told that we are the worst of the worst!  This does not mean that we have to have low self esteems, that we have to believe what the homophobes say about us, but it does mean we don’t have to get over inflated views of ourselves.  Many of us battle with having a realistic view of who we really are – and learning to see the goodness and value of others can help us see ourselves more truly. 

And finally St Paul tells us to look to the interests of others.  We need to learn to be more selfless to find ourselves serving Jesus by serving others, by looking out for their needs, seeing how we can help – whether that’s donating some time or money, signing a petition or writing to a minister, helping someone move home or offering a shoulder to cry on – all are helping to look out for others.  And if we do it for each other then others will look out for us! 

Conclusion 

The church at Philippi was not that different from our own.  They had problems both internal and external, they were learning to be church in their own culture without many ideas of how to do it well.  Yet they learnt, through the Holy Spirit, that if they modelled themselves on Jesus and his attitudes then they wouldn’t go wrong.   We too won’t go wrong if we model ourselves on Jesus and his attitudes and message.  The city of Philippi is long gone but the Gospel Message that Paul preached there has spread to the rest of Greece and to the world.  We too tell and show others the Gospel knowing that our lives have been forever changed by Jesus and his love.