For Such A Time as This May 27, 2020 – Dennis Lohr

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,

Joys and Concerns

If you have a joy or concern you would like us to share and pray about, please call, text or email it to me.  If you would like it included in our Sunday Worship sharing and prayer time, please share it with me that week by Friday morning.

Pray for:

Cindy Weatherholtz’ son-in-law’s, Tim’s, two uncles:  Bud, who is at the end stages of cancer, and Dave, who suffered a stroke on Monday night.  Dave is expected to have a long, but full, recovery.

Thank You: 

To all who call others to check in on them and share our emails and devotions.

Today’s Devotion:

I have written today’s devotion.   I’m finding Paul’s letter to the Philippians to be a helpful place to wander around in this week.  It is one of Paul’s more joyful and optimistic letters, one where his challenges are backed by a deep confidence in what God can do through us.  I hope you find this devotion to be both challenging and encouraging.

Shalom,                                                                                                                                                                                    Dennis

Scripture – Philippians 2:1-5

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…

Thoughts:

“Be of the same mind.”  Are you kidding, Paul!  Do you know how many different perspectives there are out there?  Do you know how much people like to debate and argue and defend their own positions?  Do you know how easily folk can get defensive if someone doesn’t agree with them or see things their way?  Have you watched the news lately?  Have you attended any church conferences lately?  Do you monitor Facebook and Twitter and other “social” media platforms?  Some days the people I live with, and love deeply, don’t see things my way.  “Be of the same mind.”  How is this possible?

Perhaps verses 3 and 4 are more helpful.  “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”  And then you point to the example of Jesus.  This is a tall order!  But, if I get this, being “of the same mind” is not about convincing others to see things my way, but about me changing the way I see others, especially those who see things differently than I do.  It doesn’t mean I have to agree with others, but I do have to show genuine humility, respect and care toward others. 

I watched on the news this morning a video of a man dying as someone held him down on the ground with a knee on his neck, preventing him from breathing.  It is horrific!  I think this kind of thing will keep happening as long as we think mostly about our own interests, however distorted or righteous they may be, and not about the interests of the other person.  I don’t say this as judgment, but as confession.  I preach to myself most of all.  I may not hold someone down physically, but I can get so focused on my own rights, interests, thoughts, ideas and feelings that I stop considering what others may be experiencing.

 Maybe “being of the same mind” does not mean agreeing with each other, but making the effort to understand and value each other.  Huh!  That’s something I can actually work on.

 Prayer:

Gracious God, guide us in your ways, that in so living, our world may be healed.  Amen.