What You Can Do!

I have discovered through some recent scholarship that among the communities that St. Paul established in his harrowing career as an apostle two, in particular, are outstanding: Philippi and Thessalonika.  Both of these fledgling communities are in northern Greece (Macedonia).  They were commercial centers, located along the Egnatia Road (Via Egnatia), a trade route between Rome and the East.  Two attributes about these two communities stand out in his mind: (1) they remained faithful to the message of Christ’s redemptive death and resurrection for them, and (2) they were generous.  These two communities basically subsidized Paul’s ministry, for instance, when he was in Corinth, and they were generous donors in support of the Church of Jerusalem.  The Christians in Jerusalem were particularly poor (some things don’t change even after centuries!).  What is more stunning, the Church of Jerusalem was always at odds with Paul over theology. They disagreed with the apostle about what was (or was not) necessary for inclusion in the church of Jesus Christ: the Jerusalemites were convinced of the necessity of obeying all of the Jewish Law (particularly the dietary requirements [kosher eating])—Jesus had not expressly denied that—whereas Paul’s experience led him to believe that this Law no longer applied to believers because, through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, God established a new and novel access to Himself.  Baptism and a life of consistent dedication was sign enough of connection to God and salvation.

Every Christian community can apply the two attributes as a measure of how well they embrace the faith.  The fullness of faith is not a matter of being “legally correct”, much less “politically correct”, but of discovering the tremendous gift of redemption and living it.

So it is well to ask: how well do I understand and appreciate the mystery and power of redemption in my life?  This is a challenging question because we at St. Paul are a rather socially and intellectually sophisticated.  How often does sophistication shield one from seeing or admitting weakness or flaws?  Denial does not make the weakness or flaw any less real and I am subject to its potency to expose me or embarrass me by a momentary slip in behavior.  Christ, however, desires my renewal, and he has ‘the stuff’ to change me, called grace.  My access this grace is an open, humble heart.  I do not think my way to such a heart.  A potent avenue toward this is a retreat or working through a crisis situation.  Reflect a little on this.

And how generous is this church?  Well, we have surely responded to the Haiti tragedy with open pocketbooks (see the number in the bulletin)!  Another marker is our response to our mission as a university parish: campus outreach, mentoring the teen youth, care to the homebound and grieving, supporting persons in crisis, welcoming members from other countries.  Such response needs time investment (volunteers) and financial support.  These resources are still on a shoestring basis; the shoestring is not reaching far enough (more report to come).  There are enough members to supply the need, just the heart to participate.  How generous is each household be toward this goal?  Surely each household in Philippi wondered how much was enough to help to support their home community and Jerusalem besides.  Somehow they exemplified generosity enough to be an emblem of grace.

Today, would Paul add us to his list of most respected communities, noted for our conversion and generosity?  What do you think?