Welcome/Call to Worship
Good morning! I’m Pastor Ashley. To those here in the sanctuary and those joining us online: we are so glad you’re here!
This morning, we will sing songs of worship, pray together, hear from scripture and one another, as we move toward the pinnacle of our service: the table of our Lord, where we will take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our most Gracious Host, Jesus. The purpose of our time together each Sunday is to bring our hearts closer to the heart of God, so I invite you to participate in as much or as little in our prepared liturgy as your spirit is willing.
We welcome all sounds and smells from the youngest to the oldest among us. The Kids Corner is in the back for anyone who needs to move around and play to worship God this morning. There is also a nursery available. We know that the energy and spirit of children can be different than adults and we consider that reality a gift.
There are information cards in the pew in front of you—if you are a guest, or if you have moved and have not updated your info with the church, please fill it out and drop it in the offering plate when it goes by later in worship.
For those watching online or for those who would like to follow along, our liturgy for every service is posted on our website before the service begins.
It’s Children’s Choir Sunday! Hooray! We can’t wait to hear what they have prepared.
We invite you to Sunday School at 10 AM every week. There’s classes that meet in the Seekers room and the Parlor. There is also a combined children and youth class that meets in the MUB. Godly Play meets behind the sanctuary for our younger elementary students.
To keep up with all the life we live together here at Azle Christian Church, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Subscribe to our weekly e-blast and monthly newsletter on our website.
We kind of conclude our worship series today: Dear Church: A Study of Philippians. This is our last Sunday to read from Philippians, but next week, our text will be what you have been writing all summer. We’re taking all the little slips of paper you’ve been turning in each week and crafting a letter from Azle Christian Church to Azle Christian Church. But today, we’re looking at Paul’s last word.
Let’s pray to turn our hearts toward God for this hour.
Spirit of truth, open to us the scriptures, speaking your holy word through song, through the bread and cup, and through offering ourselves, and meet us here today in the living Christ. Amen.
Litany of Faith
One: Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle? Who may abide upon your holy hill?
All: Those who lead a blameless life and do what is right, who speak the truth from their heart.
One: There is no guile upon their tongue; they do no evil to their friend;
All: They do not heap contempt upon their neighbor.
One: In their sight the wicked are rejected,
All: But they honor those who fear the Lord.
(Psalm 15)
Pastoral Prayer
The Lord be with you.
Join me in prayer.
God of twilight visits, we confess that we are tired. You have asked us to keep our lamp lit, waiting for you expectantly, ready to receive You when You arrive, having prepared everything for Your visit. But it’s getting late. We go back and forth between playing games to stay awake and worrying that something has happened. Did you return already and we missed You? Have You decided not to come back after all? We seem to be the only ones awake now—everyone else has turned out their light and turned in for the night. We return to the activities that keep our hands busy, our minds occupied.
God of little flocks and a mustard seed kingdom, no one told us that waiting felt so busy. What are we supposed to be doing? we ask ourselves. Establish the work of our hands, the Psalmist prayed, and we pray that prayer, too, as our thumbs twiddle and our foot taps quietly. We think of those who got tired of waiting and went to bed. We think of those who have given up hope that You are coming. We want to believe that You are close at hand. Help our unbelief. Help us wait a little longer.
O Holy One who is just around the corner, God of whom we catch a glimpse every once in awhile, God whose Spirit burns faithfully and persistently like the lamps we have lit, help us to stay alert and awake. Keep our minds on what matters, the poet wrote, which is mostly paying attention and learning to be astonished. Astonish us, O God. Take our breath away.
And so we pray together the prayer that Jesus, our brother and redeemer, taught us to pray…
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
Sermon: Keep on doing the things you have learned
Philippians 4:1-23
1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.
10 I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me but had no opportunity to show it. 11 Not that I am referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. 13 I can do all things through the One who strengthens me. 14 In any case, it was kind of you to share my distress.
15 You Philippians indeed know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone. 16 For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs more than once. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that accumulates to your account. 18 I have been paid in full and have more than enough; I am fully satisfied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 In return, our God will fulfill all your needs in Christ Jesus, as lavishly as only God can. 20 To our God and Creator be glory forever and ever. Amen.
21 Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me greet you. 22 All the saints greet you, especially those of the emperor’s household.
23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
This week, NASA released the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, and I’ve spent the better part of the week stunned with wonder. Language is inadequate for what these photos depict and the effect they have had not just on my heart, but the world’s. They have captured the imagination of many. If you’ll indulge me for a second, we’re going to look at a few of the pictures together.
First, there is this picture of a planetary nebula, which I learned is clouds of gas and dust expelled by dying stars. Can we just sit with that sentence for a second? Clouds of gas and dust expelled by dying stars. WHAT.
And then there’s the photo of the five interacting star galaxies. Sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and regions of fresh star birth. That is a real sentence on the NASA website. How does a human heart comprehend fresh star birth?
Then there’s the picture of the star-forming region in the Carina Nebula known as NGC 3324. What looks like a mountain range is actually the edge of a giant gaseous cavity where stars are born, also known as a star nursery. This picture is capturing something 7500 lightyears away, which means what we see in this photo happened 7500 years ago. Again I say, “WHAT.”
I’ve been staring at these photos for the past 5 days.
As I’ve tried to wrap my own head around these pictures, I’ve shown them to Annie, too. We’ve talked about what a galaxy is, what a solar system is, and we’ve used fruit to illustrate how our planet orbits the sun, and how there are other planets that orbit the same sun. We talked about gravity, and how a gravitational pull to the sun keeps us all orbiting around and around.
Galileo Galilei, the famous astronomer from the 17th century, was the first one to conclude the sun did not revolve around the earth, but rather the earth, along with the other planets, revolved around the sun. He was led to this conclusion after noticing that Venus changes places in our night sky—a tell that its orbit is around something else. By noticing a peculiarity about one orbit, he was able to see how all of the known planets in our solar system orbited the sun, how his planet, our planet, orbits the sun.
If you know the story of the astronomer Galileo, you know that the Roman Catholic Church did not take kindly to this view and punished him until the end of his days, forcing him to recant and imprisoning him for life.
Centuries later, the Catholic Church issued an apology, nearly two centuries after more scientists confirmed what Galileo had suspected. But Galileo’s boldness in naming that the universe worked differently than the world, than the church had proclaimed, had serious consequences.
Many centuries before Galileo was imprisoned, the apostle Paul was imprisoned for his views about the way the world works. We’ve been reading his letter from prison to the church in Philippi this summer, and today, we wrap up this piece of mail.
Paul concludes his correspondence with the Philippians by addressing a couple of things: an inner church conflict, some final reminders, and an acknowledgement of a financial gift he received from them.
So he calls out two women in the church: Euodia and Syntyche. If you remember, we assumed at the beginning of our study that their particular beef along with the beginnings of the church in Philippi was evidence that this was a woman-led church. That Paul is calling out two church leaders for some conflict they’re having. We don’t have the details. The church knows what Paul is talking about, but we have no idea.
But before we just shrug our shoulders and dismiss this mention as irrelevant, let’s remember these letters from Paul were read out loud to the assembly. It’s reasonable to assume that these letters were read in worship, as part of worship. Paul does not seem to regard such matters of church leader conflict as private, to be settled outside of church. No, in Paul’s view, this is precisely the nature and function of a congregation as partners in ministry. Being in a covenant community such as a congregation, means belonging to one another, being each other’s business, which necessarily involves laying before one another your joys, your sorrows, your burdens, and issues needing to be settled.
According to Paul, hard conversations are essential to the life and health of the church. Working things out is the business of the church. For him, a healthy relationship is not the absence of conflict or disagreement, but rather the commitment to one another through the conflict.
And then Paul goes on to say things that I like to classify as needlepoint Christianity. You know, the stuff you see embroidered on pillows or in frames. Things you might see plastered on a something in Hobby Lobby. You know what I’m talking about.
Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say rejoice!
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the best for last:
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
They can seem quaint, trite even.
But what if I told you that this verse, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable…” is actually not a Christian thought. It’s pagan.
This cute little saying that we may have up in our house right now or have used to admonish ourselves into a better state of mind, would actually have been known to be a pagan concept.
This line is a well-known list of ethical concepts developed not by Jesus or Jewish religious leaders or Paul, but by the Stoics. They are virtues prized in Greek culture.
Now perhaps that doesn’t seem scandalous to you. But for a fledgling religious movement that is fighting for its life and longevity, the idea that we can learn from philosophies and religions broadly classed as pagan is kind of revolutionary. Imagine that I have brought in wisdom from Buddhist thought or the Quran, and said, “Take this to heart.” For some of us, we would be like, “Cool, yeah, let’s do it.” But, for others, it might be hard to see what relevance they had in our lives, or perhaps, for others, it might be heretical to do that.
But for Paul, the idea that God created all things, helps him be open to the ways and works of God whenever and wherever they appear, even in religions and philosophies that are different than ours. Here’s some early interfaith work.
Paul quoting this Stoic concept and opening us up to the wisdom outside our own interpretation of Christianity, of the Divine, illustrates how much bigger our world is. How much longer the table is.
But I’ll come back to that in just a second. First, we need to finish this letter.
So Paul finishes his letter in a weird way. When we’re reading Paul’s letters if we can just think that he is kind of weird sometimes, it helps.
So Paul talks in a roundabout way about this financial gift that the church sent him. We’re not sure why he doesn’t just simply say thank you, which seems like the logical and polite thing to do. Perhaps he can’t talk much about it because the government officials reading his letter may try and rob him. That’s a valid concern.
Or we know from other letters that Paul doesn’t like to receive financial gifts because it makes him feel beholden to a group, and he likes his independence. Solid theory.
Or maybe he’s just being weird about it. I’m not saying that every incomprehensible thing in scripture can be chalked up to odd human behavior, but humans behave oddly and in nonsensical ways a lot, so statistically, there’s bound to be some human error here somewhere, and maybe this is one of those times.
Really, it doesn’t matter. What we can see from here is that though he knows how to be hungry for Christ, how to be well-fed for Christ, that he can live all circumstances in Christ—it’s a nice sentiment, it really is— he feels cared for by the church in Philippi. That’s the thing to take from this section.
And this is in part because of the financial gift, but also because of all the reasons he has listed already in his letter. Their partnership in the gospel, their solidarity with him in his suffering, their practice of mutual reciprocity with one another and with him. I really feel like this is a “Aww, y’all. You shouldn’t have!” kind of moment.
So this whole chapter, these three things that Paul addresses here as he’s wrapping up, bring us back to the table.
And perhaps we always bring it back to the table because we’re just cutie pie Disciples and we can’t get enough of the table. Or perhaps it’s because Diane Clark got to preach on communion when my family had COVID and I still feel sad that I missed that opportunity to talk about my favorite thing in the world. Or maybe it’s because it’s always about the table.
Hear me out.
The table is a point of gravity for us in this text, not because Paul talks about the Lord’s Supper at all, he does not. But because it is a practice for us that grounds us, that brings us back to our center, that is always informing our lives away from the table.
I like to call the way the table influences our life “thinking Eucharistically.” The Eucharist is a fancy term that some denominations use for communion. And I like it because it sounds more elegant than “thinking communionly” or “thinking Lord’s Supper-ly.” So to think Eucharistically means that we are always working the perimeter of the table, we’re always circling it, assessing it from all angles. The idea is that it is our center.
This all going to come together, I promise. Trust me, we are landing this plane.
So if the table is our point of gravity, how does it interact with these three issues that Paul addresses—the conflict, the pagan saying, and the financial gift.
Let’s think of the table as a place of sharing, as sharing ourselves, our resources, the love of Christ.
If we agree with Paul that the church is a place we stick around and work things out rather than quietly ignoring our differences, then we believe something radical about the table. The table of Christ is not merely a place for us all to get along. It’s main purpose is not for us to set aside our differences or agree to disagree. It’s not meant for us to put aside who we voted for, what we believe about heaven, or which worship style is best.
The table is much deeper than sameness. It’s much deeper than polite conversation.
If the table is not a place for us to forget our differences, then it is a place to celebrate them, to wrestle with them, to run our hands over the fractures and the cracks and the ruptures and the brokenness of Body of Christ, which lucky for us is the very sustenance we are given.
And when we do this, Christ is revealed, and we find ways to re-member what was dismembered. We find ways to put ourselves back together in a unity that is stronger than before. We discover a gentleness as we tend to the breaches with great love and attention.
And at this table, this long, long table, that we cannot see the end of, we cannot where it begins or where it ends, we are guests of our most gracious host Christ. That is who brings us to the table. We say every week with conviction, “All are welcome here. Because it’s not our table. It’s God’s.” And in this conviction, we practice an inclusivity that goes beyond even Christ.
It may seem innocuous that Paul includes this nice little pagan saying in his letter, but it’s important for us to note that the practice of eating around the table to worship and celebrate and lament and gather is something shared by many major religions in the world. It is a crucial part of those with faiths different than our own and those with no faith. We don’t own this table. We’re not the bosses f it. We don’t get to see the guest list. And we worship a Christ who is still very much a mystery to us.
And this table calls us to the sharing of ethical, spiritual, and moral work with those around us, an ecumenical and interfaith movement as exhibited through this little phrase, “whatever is true, whatever is noble…” It prompts us to consider what we can learn from those different than us. Who live differently? Who worship differently? Who pray differently? How do we already benefit from their generosity and care, and how can we share with them?
And finally, this financial generosity that Paul dances around. This is perhaps the easiest for us to get. But it reminds us that no work of solidarity, no matter how small, is inconsequential. We see by the mere fact that we are reading Paul’s mail millennia later, that radical sharing and generosity of love and resources and spirit, reverberates across time. Its ripples are felt beyond us.
It is precisely for and because of our work of solidarity with one another that we tend to the broken places. It is for and because of the way we interact and share with those in the world who are very different but perhaps not so different than us that we tend to the broken places.
Because we believe in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This final chapter in Philippians reminds us that our faith is not about us. It’s not some privatized, individualized endeavor. To echo Galileo Galilei, “We are not the center of the universe.” Our faith is communal, it is one of mutual reciprocity, of radical solidarity. We are in each other’s business. We are each other’s business.
We are circling around, perhaps orbiting around, the most Holy One of whom we can only catch glimpses. But we can see that Christ is our center in how the church takes care of itself, how the Big C church keeps connected, how faith is so much bigger than what we can see. These are overlapping orbits remind us of our center of gravity.
Who is Christ, who keeps drawing us around and around, pulled as if by gravity toward the One in whom the universe holds together and expands and stuns.
These closing remarks by Paul are our beginning. They are a glimpse of something beautiful that began thousands of years ago. And it is as beautiful as fresh star birth.
In just a moment, we will fill out our last prompt as Nicole plays music for us. You’ll be able to drop it in the offering plate as it goes by after communion.
May your final remarks for ACC be a prayer as you write.
Sharing Our Resources
There are many ways to support and resource the ministries of Azle Christian Church. You can give online on our website, on Venmo, or in the offering plate as the deacons come by during our final song.
Invitation
If you’d like to become a member of this faith community, or if you’d like to become a disciple of Jesus, please talk with me after service or sometime this week.
Benediction:
Please rise in body or spirit for our benediction, the final song, and the Doxology.
Our benediction for this series comes from the first chapter of Philippians. Receive this benediction:
This is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. Amen.