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Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Weekly sermons from our Central Lutheran Church preaching team plus quick reflections from Pastor Ryan Braley.
Real talk, ancient wisdom, and honest questions — all designed to help you learn, grow, and find encouragement when you need it most.
At Central, our mission is simple: FOLLOW Jesus together, be a community where you BELONG, and LOVE our neighbors across the street and around the world.
Think deeper. Live freer. Share an episode with a friend and visit us in person anytime — you’re always welcome here in Elk River, MN.
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Phronesis and Other Unpronounceable Miracles with Pastor Ryan Braley
What glasses are you wearing? How we view reality fundamentally shapes everything about our lives – our choices, our relationships, our definition of "the good life." In this illuminating exploration of Philippians 2, we dive deep into the ancient Greek concept of "phronesis" – a way of seeing that encompasses far more than mere thinking.
Paul challenges the Philippians (and us) to adopt a revolutionary lens: the self-emptying, self-sacrificial mindset of Christ. This perspective stands in stark contrast to both ancient Greek values and our modern American frameworks. While the Greeks prized virtue, reason, and reputation, we often define reality through success, comfort, individual freedom, and carefully curated image. None of these perspectives are inherently evil – they're just incomplete and distorted pictures of what's real.
The mindset of Christ – demonstrated through his willingness to empty himself, take on human form, and sacrifice himself on the cross – represents true reality. Remarkably, modern research confirms what Jesus taught: giving to others creates more happiness than spending on ourselves. The self-emptying love of Christ isn't just a nice religious idea; it's how the universe actually works.
This perspective necessarily happens in community. We can't pour ourselves out for nobody – the concept requires relationship. This is why Paul emphasizes "koinonia" (fellowship or partnership) throughout his letters. True Christian community isn't built on shared interests or political views, but on a shared reality that enables us to bear one another's burdens.
Ready to take off your distorted lenses and see the world as it truly is? Join us as we explore what it means to have the mind of Christ and build a community centered on his self-giving love.
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I'm going to let you be seated. Well, good morning. It's tough to top Isla man. She is something boy.
Speaker 1:So we are in the middle of our Philippians series. We're calling it Joy, anyway, and here's what I want to do. I'm going to tell you this too. By the way, sometimes when I preach a sermon, like I'm just trying to share the good news or I want to explain some things, this is one of those sermons where I want to just tell you right from the jump that this is who I want us to be as a church. So this sermon is like a declarative kind of a sermon where I want, at the end, like this is what I want us to be as a community. And so, just know, in the front, I'm going to ask us if we can kind of inch ourselves towards this way of being, and I'll explain it. But and look this, what I'm about to say is really, it's really really hard, if not impossible, but by the Spirit, you know. So the Spirit is the one that enables us to do anything, I believe. And so, if by the Spirit, I would love to ask that the Spirit would allow us to be this kind of a community. It's my prayer for us this morning that we're this kind of a community that we read about in Philippians 2. And oh, by the way, you should have gotten a little card when you came in. On the one side of it is that Philippians 2 passage and you're going to hang on to that. You can take notes on the back or on the front of that and you can underline certain things.
Speaker 1:This is the main focus of our time this morning and here's why when Paul writes this letter to Philippians, it's a letter he wrote. He's in prison in around 62 AD. He writes this letter to his friends at the church in Philippi. He planted this church 12 years earlier. Philippi was a Greek city. It's in Greece. It was the very first church plant in Europe, so it's the first. You know Lydia was the first convert in Europe. It's incredible Christian convert. And he plants this church and then he lets it go and then he leaves.
Speaker 1:But they stay connected, paul and the Philippians, and they send him money, they support him. They find out he's in prison in Rome and they send him a gift to like encourage him and a letter from with a guy called Epaphroditus, so Epaphroditus from Philippians. This is 12 years later. They send him to go encourage Paul and, to you know, give him a gift and just to bless him. And he receives it. He's so blessed because, like, oh man, I just love these guys, the Philippians, they love me. So he sends a thank you card back with Epaphroditus and it's this letter, the Philippians letter, that we read today, thousands of years later.
Speaker 1:And in this letter, unlike many of other Paul's letters, he doesn't really develop a single idea from beginning to end. That's not what he's doing in this letter. Rather, he sort of arranges these beautiful short reflective essays or thought bubbles and he kind of gives them to the church, but he arranges them around this sort of center of gravity, if you will like this hub, and that's Philippians 2, which is this beautiful poem in Philippians 2. So it's on your sheet here, and so the whole book sort of hovers around the center of gravity which is Philippians 2, this poem. And in this poem Paul, beautifully and artfully, he unpacks the incarnation, god becoming a human. He unpacks the incarnation, the life, the death, the resurrection and the exaltation, like the uplifting of Jesus.
Speaker 1:And for centuries theologians and pastors and scholars have unpacked this chapter of Philippians. It's like one of the main ones, because people for centuries have tried to understand. What does it mean that Jesus is both fully God and fully human? Those words, by the way, are not in the Bible, but we have this idea and this is one of the places we pull it from. How is Jesus both divine and also human? How can that be possible? How is it possible that God, the ineffable, the transcendent, the unholdable, the ground of being itself? How can that ever become a material human being who walks on the earth? Well, paul beautifully and artfully describes it a little bit, so I'm going to unpack it quickly for you guys.
Speaker 1:But here's what he writes in Philippians. Oh, by the way, my title is called Phronesis and Other Unpronounceable Miracles. All right, good, I got the laugh. I was hoping for Wonderful here. Here's philippians 2.
Speaker 1:Uh, paul writes hey, look in. In your relationships with each other, have the same mindset as christ, jesus who. And then here's the. Here's the poem. It's beautiful how he's describing the, the incarnation, the life, death, resurrection, and in an exaltation of jesus. And've got the whole thing on your paper there.
Speaker 1:But he's like hey, like Jesus, who didn't use his power to his own advantage, jesus certainly had power. If he was God in the flesh he had all kinds of power. As a rabbi, a first century rabbi, jewish male he had lots of power but he never used it, for he was and also in your you'll notice, he says he was one in nature with God. So, as God in the flesh, he has this power, but he never uses it for his own advantage. Also, jesus, he makes himself nothing. Your version might say he pours himself out, he empties himself. The Greek word is the word.
Speaker 1:So here's another unpronounceable miracle it's kenosis. Everyone say kenosis, it's K-E-N-O-S-I-S. Kenosis means like a pouring out or an emptying. So God, when he becomes a human this is what scholars suggest. By the way, for the fancy theologians in the room, this is called kenotic Christology or kenosis so he empties himself. So God empties himself of all the things that are incompatible with being a human, in order to become a human. So, for example, god is omnipresent. Like God is the ground of all being itself. Right In him we live and move and have our being In Jesus.
Speaker 1:Though Jesus is not omnipresent, he's only in one place, at one time. He's like located, you know, in first century Palestine. He's not everywhere. So that part of God that is everywhere, god empties that part of himself and and like, leaves it. You know, with the Father and the Spirit, and then goes into Jesus and he's located. Does that make sense? Okay, other things like omniscience, like God knows everything Many scholars, kenotic, christologists, they think that Jesus didn't know everything.
Speaker 1:Or omnipotence, that he couldn't do anything. He wasn't Superman, he only did the things that the Spirit empowers him to do. He only knows things that the Spirit tells him, the same Spirit, by the way, which is also in you. This is why John, in John 14, says that you will do even greater things than I've done, he tells his followers, because the same Spirit in me is in you, which is great. So, anyway, point is God empties himself and pours himself out. There's this act of kenosis. Also, there's this he becomes a servant. Yeah, this God becomes a servant to the world. He humbles himself.
Speaker 1:By the way, this is incredible, the Greek word for humble, or humility. It did not exist in the Greek language or wasn't prevalent at all before the Christian era. No self-respecting Greek would have ever thought humility was a virtue. They shunned humility because humility, for the Greeks, was very similar, if not the same, as humiliation, and they didn't want to be humiliated. For them, their reputation and honor and their display was of utmost importance. So they would put their deeds on display. They wanted you to recognize them, to honor them, to venerate them, to commend them. So they would put all of their deeds, their actions on display so that the public could see them Like oh, that's a good man, that's a good woman. So you would never secretly give something to somebody, like in private. You would never do something like. You would never lower yourself or humble yourself, because that's the same as humiliation. You would put all your works on display. This was not even a thing until the Christian era.
Speaker 1:When Jesus starts doing these kinds of things, he empties himself, makes himself humble. Isn't that amazing? There wasn't even a word in the Greek language up until this point. He was obedient to the cross, even to the point of death on the cross. The cross was a humiliating way to die. It was sacrilegious, no pun intended. It was inhumane, it was scandalous. It was like one of the worst ways you could die was death on a Roman cross. But here we go, god does this and through that lowering and emptying and humbling himself, god exalts him. This is sort of the Christ pattern. It's lowering so that then he can, through God, be exalted.
Speaker 1:So Paul writes in your relationships with another, have the same mindset as Christ. Who then paints this picture of what Christ is like. The crucified Christ. Make sense, are you with me? So far? All right, kelsey and Peter, let's go, the three of us, paul. By the way, the word for mindset here is the word phronesis, and so everyone say phronesis, that's P-H-R-O-N-E-S-I-S and phronesis. Mindset doesn't just mean like thinking. So Paul doesn't have the same mindset as Christ, who does all these things. He's not just saying think the same as Christ, he's saying it's more like.
Speaker 1:Phronesis means like understanding or thinking, sound judgment, wisdom. It could also mean this. It could also mean a way of thinking that shapes your character and your conduct. So it's like wisdom that leads to action. This is what phronesis is. So Paul writes hey, have the same phronesis as Christ. You could also word it this way it's a pattern of thinking or acting and feeling that engages the whole person. So we in the Western world we love like cognitive thinking, with our brains, reason. But Paul's not just saying, hey, think the same things that Christ thought with your brain, he's saying, no, like it's this pattern of thinking, of acting, of feeling, that engages the whole body, that shapes how you see and think about everything. It's practical wisdom, for sure, it's what phronesis is, but it's like this discernment about what's good and right so you can live a good life. By the way, paul uses this word 10 times in this tiny short letter. It's probably an important thing that I pay attention to that Paul uses he uses it a number of times phronesis, it's this way of like.
Speaker 1:What does it mean to live the good life? This is a question that the Greeks would ask all the time. So the Greeks including one of the famous ones, aristotle they asked what does it mean to live the good life? So they would think okay, how do we need to think in order to live and shape our lives around, whatever this thing is, in order to live a good life? So the philosophers, aristotle, the Greeks, these people would all wonder aloud what is the good life? How do we live it? This is part of phronesis how do we shape our lives around and make it a good life? And I would ask us the same question, right, because I told you, I want this sermon to be like hey, this is who we're going to be, this is what we're going to be about.
Speaker 1:How do we know what the good life is? What does the good life look like? What does it mean to flourish, to have joy, to have happiness, these kinds of things? What does true well-being look like? And how do you know? How do you know? That's what phronesis is. Phronesis is like this thing that you kind of it like, frames everything in order that you can see what is the good life. And so, for Greeks, they would ask this question what is the good life? But I would ask us the same thing. See, for the Greeks, phronesis, which is a very prominent word in the Greek thinking. See, for the Greeks, phronesis, which is a very prominent word in the Greek thinking. Phronesis really is just how you see reality and what is real life. What is real reality and how do you know what it is and what does it taste like and feel like, and how do you frame it, how do you talk about it? It's wisdom that leads to how you act and engage the world in a deeply good way. Does that make sense? Okay, phronesis. So what is the good life? And because how you see things, by the way, shapes how you live.
Speaker 1:I learned this a couple of months ago, me and the family were out to dinner out in Chicago and there was a bunch of us at this dinner, at this restaurant, and we're hanging out getting ready to have food. I was ordering off the menu and as I'm ordering the menu, like you know how at night they'll dim the lights to make it extra romantic for everybody. Well, like I can't see the menu, I'm like looking at the menu, I'm like I can't see the menu. It's so dark in here. I was getting like I was getting disgruntled in my heart. I can't why. Certainly everybody else around my table must be having the same experience. So I'm going to look up and then complain about it with everybody else and commiserate together, right? So I look up, I can't believe, and I realized not everybody was having the same experience.
Speaker 1:There was a certain subset of our table that didn't have a problem seeing the menu. These people you might call them well, you might use like the language you might say, you might describe them. You might say they were like younger people that didn't have, and it was in that moment I shook my fist at God. I said no. You said this would never happen, to which God said no, I didn't. You said that right. And so we are on the table. The folks you might say that the folks, maybe you might describe us as the words, maybe, like the older folks are on the table Couldn't see. So I've resisted this idea that my eyes not me, but my eyes were getting older. I was like, well, that's not really you know.
Speaker 1:So like about a couple weeks later I'm reading a book at night and I couldn't see the book. It was dark in our living room. I'm like I gotta put the lights on in here and Katie goes hey, here, try these on. I'm like I'm not doing that, try them on, try them on. So I put these on. I'm like we'll all be darned. What kind of sorcery are these? What is this? I've never even what is happening. And where do you buy these? Like, where do you find these? So I put them on. I could see.
Speaker 1:That's what glasses do. By the way, glasses help you see things. They bring things into focus, at least the right ones. The wrong ones can make things distorted, they can make things blurry or fuzzy or bad for you to see, but glasses frame what you see. They help you see or not. These are my Clark Kent glasses, by the way. And glasses will help you see things properly. They help you see reality as it really is or not, and it really depends on the glasses and which pair you're wearing.
Speaker 1:See, we have a variety of glasses that you can pick up and wear. There's a variety of ways to see the world. There's a variety of ways to see the world. We know this because we all have different ways of seeing the world and, believe it or not, we all have different ways of seeing reality. We all have a phronesis, we all live from phronesis, but we all do it differently because of our different lenses that we have.
Speaker 1:These are my Friday night. I'm feeling funky lenses. I hope you're laughing with me, not at me. I hope you're laughing with me, not at me. These are Katie's Calm Down Leopard print. Where did you even get these Leopard print glasses we all have? How do I recover from this? We all have different lenses, right? And glasses that we all see and a variety of ways. These are my I'm too cool for school glasses, but they help us see reality. And glasses that we all see and a variety of ways. These are my too-cool-for-school glasses, but they help us see reality.
Speaker 1:Now, many of you have inherited a certain pair of lenses from, maybe, your parents or your upbringing. These are my actual glasses that I'm looking at now through my contacts then through the glasses, so it's not a good deal. You might have picked some up along the way. Maybe you're at a certain college and you pick up some glasses oh, I'm going to try these babies on and a certain way of seeing the world, a certain way of having a phronesis or doing phronesis. So you try them on and maybe swap them out. Maybe you change and you grow. You read a book I think I've tried them all on here and you try that, yeah, and you try on these new glasses, but we all have one. You have a phronesis. You have a way of living and seeing the world, viewing reality, a way of thinking, a mindset, an attitude, a lens through which you see everything that shapes how you behave in the world.
Speaker 1:Now for the Greeks. They had their own phronesis, their own way of seeing the world and what it meant to live the good life. For the Greeks it was this. This was their lens, their frame. It was virtue. The Greeks loved virtue, and the four virtues that were most prominent were courage, temperance, wisdom and discipline. So if you did those things, you were living a good life. That's what framed their reality. If you do those things, you'll be good. They also had this, as is one of their frames reason If you were, if you could think and reason, that led to the good life. So if you had a problem, just reason it out. That's how you lived your life. So this is your phronesis. They also thought about reputation Again. If you did good deeds, you want to put them on display. Let everyone see your deeds in display, because that's what makes you a good person and lives a good life. So your honor, reputation this was an honor and shame culture.
Speaker 1:Lastly, there was this the will of the gods, their frame, one of their frames, like, hey, you know what? The gods control everything. We're at the whim of the gods, we're at the mercy of the gods and they don't really have a lot to do with us other than you know we're kind of like bystanders. Often their stuff pours over into our. So you know, they would go visit oracles, they would have sacrificial rituals and prayers and these kinds of things. They lived with a certain level of anxiety because they didn't know what the Greek gods were up to, but it was all fate. You couldn't escape your fate. That was the way that they saw the world. Their reality was you couldn't escape fate. Now, this is ancient Greece.
Speaker 1:Now we also, in modern day America, have our own lenses. Are you ready for some of the ones I suggest we have? Buckle up, I don't know, maybe we like to view our lives as a good life through success. If you're successful, you kind of have done the right thing, you're a good person, you live the good life. Success. So we drive, and we're driven to success and to achievement. And so we want to achieve more, because if you achieve more, you kind of win the game.
Speaker 1:How about this one? Individual freedom, oh, any libertarians in the house today? No, this is part of the fabric of our culture, here at least, in America too, because we love individual freedom, like, don't tread on me these kinds of things, so my own authority, I can make my own decisions. We love these kinds. It's the lens through which we see reality in this country. Comfort, oh, we love our comfort. Don't mess with my comfort. How about this one Image, especially on social media?
Speaker 1:I'm not bagging on social media, but I will for a minute. This is all you see on social media most of the time is image. It's not a real image, it's something, it's a facade, it's something promoted, it's produced. But we love image. If you have a good image, you lived a good life, pleasure. We love pleasure. If it feels good, do it. We're often told this in many ways, either overtly or covertly. But how about your political identity? This is the new religion these days, if you haven't noticed, but politics is our new religion.
Speaker 1:You might have heard, like my truth, this is how we Americans are going to see the world. It's the lens through which we see reality. Now, here's the thing. These are not bad. Okay, they're not bad in and of themselves. The problem is they're incomplete. They're not showing real reality. They're a little bit distorted, they're a little bit fuzzy. It's not real, true reality. It's something distorted, it's part of like. It's not really the full thing.
Speaker 1:So Paul says this to the Greeks hey, have the same mindset. They immediately knew what he was talking about. Oh yeah, I know what he's talking about Phronesis. I know what that is. So I will frame my reality in a certain way. The twist comes when Paul says hey, your mindset shouldn't be. Let me go back here. It shouldn't be these things. This shouldn't be your frame, your reality. Oh sorry guys, there we go. Usually we have two services, so I can get like all the kinks out of the first one, but not this time. Don't put on these lenses.
Speaker 1:Paul says have the same phronesis, live from the same phronesis as and, by the way, not these ones either as Christ, as Christ crucified. This would have been an absolute curveball for the Greeks. What are you talking about? We don't even speak about humility in our, in our language. You don't have that word in our language.
Speaker 1:Being humble, a god who lowers himself, pours himself out? No, no, thank you. One who trusts that god will exalt him, but in the meantime he just lowers himself and pours himself out for other people? No, thank you. My job is to put my own works on display so everyone can see me. I'm not going to lower myself, I'm going to raise myself up.
Speaker 1:Paul's like no, no, have the same phronesis as Christ. Let your lens be the self-giving, self-sacrificial love of Jesus on the cross, the self-emptying and pouring out. Adopt this way of living and thinking and seeing the world, because this is the real reality. Everything else is incomplete or distorted or blurry or fuzzy. Let this be your real reality. So Paul redefines a number of things in this text. He redefines humility and honor and image and community and success. What is the good life? Yeah, he redefines it. Success the good life looks like pouring out yourself. Now I said this is hard. I didn't say it was easy. This is really hard, if not impossible. But check this out, this idea of the good life being like a self-emptying, pouring out of yourself, self-sacrificial, lowering it kind of works.
Speaker 1:So there's a study done in 2008 by a woman named Dr Dunn I think Elizabeth Dunn is her first name. It's published in Science in the Science Journal and in 2008, she does a study with her colleagues and they go out into the public realm and they give people either a $5 bill or a $20 bill and they tell them randomly. They have two different groups. One group like hey, spend your money on yourself. This is like the self-spending condition. And the other group is like hey, spend this money on other people. They call this the pro-social condition, and they have to do it today. You spend money right now, here, today. This is the pro-social condition and they have to do it today. You spend money right now, here today. So one group spends money on themselves and one group sort of gives the money away and they go back and check in on all of them and this is published. You can read this article. It's incredible, read this data and they try to discern who was happier at the end of the day and the next day and the week later and guess who it was? Yeah, the people who gave it away, to which we're all like, oh yeah, for sure, for sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. How fun is Christmas? It's pretty great, right? Mostly because I think we get to give stuff away Now. Little kids aren't there yet, but they'll get there one of these days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's something about like what Paul is tapping into is the fabric of reality itself. So when he says, hey, adopt this as your reality, it's because it really is real. It's the way the world works, it's the very fabric of the universe and how you were created and made to be. When we empty ourselves and give ourselves away, sometimes it hurts, but that's what the good life really is all about. Paul is saying the self-emptying, sacrificial love of Christ that he puts on display on the cross. So for Paul, of all the lenses you can pick up, and there's lots of them, and we have our own, you have your own. But of all of them and now you might have to like keep reminding yourself and taking those ones off but of all of them, adopt the lens, the reality of Christ on the cross. So when he says, have the same mindset, he's not just saying hey, think the same thoughts as Christ. He's not just saying just say a prayer or sing a few songs.
Speaker 1:When he describes the Christian community, the Philippian church, what it means not just thinking, it's no, adopting this vision of reality and living from this, it's a for many of us it's a brand new reality. It really is like being unplugged from the matrix. You know like, oh, now here's the kicker. I love this. This is what Paul goes on to write. Paul suggests and actually the nature of the word is that this happens in community. You can't pour yourself out for the sake of nobody. It doesn't work that way. The calculus is bad. It has to happen to other people. There are other folks involved. So, church, the self-emptying, the lens of reality is community-oriented. It's a community enterprise. It's emptying for others, phronesis, is never a sole endeavor, it's not.
Speaker 1:So Paul writes us right before he says that beautiful poem you have in your hands. He's like hey, look, guys, philippians, hey, make my joy complete by being like-minded. Guess what word that is? Phronesis, having the same love. So he's like hey, have the phronesis which he's going to explain in a minute, which is the cross. Have the same love. He knows that love is the meaning of everything Paul writes. If I do all these things, these wonderful things, but don't have love, it's meaningless is what he writes later on, and he explains in Corinthians what love looks like. So, have the same love.
Speaker 1:Being of one spirit, it could say. It could be rendered one soul, or being one souled. Remember, aristotle described friendship as having one soul. It's beautiful, actually. So, have one soul, be of one soul and one mind. Guess, with that one mind, what word that is? Again, phronesis. Everybody say phronesis.
Speaker 1:Good, in case I was losing you, I'm going to draw you back in by making you talk out loud. Okay, like mine, good, awesome. So, by the way, note this this is awesome. Hey, this is what makes his joy complete. Hey, if you guys do this, I will be full of joy. Church, if you could do this, it would give me joy. Joy not if you grow and you get big and you have four satellite campuses and an online streaming service. It's the top notch, and where you know where you have all these con. No, what makes him full of joy is if you are of one mind, if you adopt the same reality and you love each other and you're one soul. That will give me joy. I love it, but, like Sonia mentioned, this does not mean, though, that we have to have the same interests. This is vitally important.
Speaker 1:I know this is not rocket science, but raise your hand if you love tacos in this room, yes, okay, look around, good, awesome, great, you're my people. Just so you know. Raise your hand if you'd prefer a hamburger in this room, okay, look around. How dare we worship in the same room with all you people? Okay, hold on, hold on. Raise your hand if you're a Vikings fan in this room, okay, okay. Careful, ryan, careful, okay, raise your hand. If you're a Packers fan, grace, it's all grace. Okay, yeah, raise your hand. If you're neither, raise your hand if you don't like football. Who doesn't like football? How dare we all be in the same room together? I can't believe that we're doing. Raise your hand if you're a morning person. Yeah, my people. All right, let's go Raise your hand.
Speaker 1:If you're a night owl, okay, listen, unity community does. Oh, by the way, who did you vote for in the last? No, I'm kidding, I'm not going to do that, but I'll tell you what. If I did, it would not be unanimous, just so you know. I'm telling you. So what?
Speaker 1:The foundation of our reality is not what you like to eat. It's not when we gather around this room. It's not gathering around who you voted for, it's not. There's a reason why we don't get into partisan politics. Now, everything's political and I get it, but like, because it's not, it doesn't. That's not what we're. We're not unified around that. My identity as who I voted for, or my identity as a sports fan those are tribal identity markers and fine, but we don't. We're not a tribe. It's not tribalism in here. We. What unites us is adopting the same reality, or at least trying to. We're all aiming at the cross. We have the same lenses on. Does that make sense? We're trying to share the same realities, all we're trying to do in this room. So I love this. Yeah, okay, I said that already, but this is the next one. At the second gathering. I got that right, okay so.
Speaker 1:And relationships are vitally important. So one scholar says hey, entering into friendships is not simply an added benefit to the Christian life, it is the Christian life. You can't have a phronesis by yourself. No man or woman is an island. We're not. We're not in almost every way At the macro level, even at the micro level. You, we're not in almost every way At the macro level, even at the micro level. You cannot live in an organism or a system of organisms without affecting it or impacting it. We're meant to be in friendships together. And that does mean, because we're not the same interest, you might have disagreements.
Speaker 1:So what Paul says we all look at the world through the lens of Christ, which means that friendships are not for your own pleasure at this level. Now, some levels they are like, you know, it's fine. This is also why I won't say that I'll skip that. But like Paul uses the word, here's another unpronounceable miracle. This is the word koinonia. Everyone say koinonia. He uses it 19 times in the New Testament, 13 times in all of Paul's letters.
Speaker 1:Three times in this letter it's describing what that community looks like. It's a sharing, a partnership. We share everything. We share life, faith, resources, mission. We sacrifice and we share those burdens. This is what unity and community looks like. We share these things, not sharing our same interests or who we voted for, or what kind of car we drive or our looks like. We share these things, not sharing our same interests or who we voted for, or what kind of car we drive or our bank accounts. We might have some rich folks and you might have some poor folks. Fine, what coin in the air looks like is that we all adopt the same reality and we share each other's burdens. That's what it means to live in Christian community.
Speaker 1:So my dear friend Kim, who was a part of my house for a long time, one of my great friends, she's not here. Is Kim here? Okay, love Kim. She would frequently, at one season of her life, needed a lot of prayer and she kept asking us for prayer and she kept feeling bad about it. She's like I'm so sorry to burden you guys. I'm so sorry to burden you guys. Finally, I said stop, kim, look at me. You are burdening us, but that's what we're doing here. We want to share your burdens. Great, we're sharing each of those burdens. That's what Christian community looks like. I don't mind that you bring your burdens to me. I don't. I have another dear friend who was just diagnosed with cancer and I can't fix it. But I'm like, hey, I just mean I'm with you. Whatever I can do to help, I'm with you. I want to share that burden however I can. Now I can't do it, for I know I'm the pastor I can't do it for everybody, so we do it for each other. You don't really need me in this way. When Paul's in prison, the Philippians don't just say, hey, thoughts and prayers, no, that's fine, that's not a bad thing. Okay, they send Epaphroditus, they send one of their own to Rome with a gift to sit with Paul while he's in prison. That's koinonia. They're sharing in Paul's burdens.
Speaker 1:I've told this story before, but I love this story. I've got to get out of here. Oh, my gosh, I do. I'm sorry. I'm going to tell it, then I'll get out of here. Okay, let's do the end.
Speaker 1:So years ago I was tubing with my son Gavin. He was five at the time and if you know, casey Stanley, casey's dad was the boat driver on Casey's lake up in Twigg and he was the boat driver, and Casey's dad's a maniac and I go. His name is Bomber. I go Bomber. His name is Bomber, he's a maniac. So I go Bomber. Gavin's never been on a tube before he's five years old. Just go easy. No problem, ryan, I got you, he didn't get me.
Speaker 1:We're on the tube, gavin's under me, I'm on top of Gavin and we start start going. Fair enough, the beginning starts pretty mild and pretty low, key, low speeds. But then after about he must have gotten bored because after about a few minutes Bomber cranks up a notch. I'm like, oh, and Gavin has no idea. He's laughing, he has no clue what danger awaits us, you know. And so Bomber keeps ratcheting it up even more. I'm like, dude, I told you to slow down, but he didn't. He couldn't hear me. Finally, at one point we're teetering and I'm like 200 pounds.
Speaker 1:I'm going to flip this thing over because I'm so heavy and I knew if I flipped it over or if I flew off, that Gavin would probably fly off the other way and end up 20 feet from me. By the way, I was sharing this story with Gavin last night, and Gavin's going to be an engineer. And he goes oh, actually, dad, because of the physics and the laws I world, nobody cares about that Gavin Physics and all that. I'm like if I fly off, he's going to fly up the other way and be miles away from me and I was like I was scared for him. So I'm like, what am I going to do?
Speaker 1:And as he kept ratcheting the speed up, oh my gosh, we're going to flip. All I knew to do is you know what? If he's going down, I'm going down with him. So at the last minute I let go of the tube and I grabbed him. He had a life vest on and I rolled over and we fell into the lake together. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And the minute we hit the water I could feel his little arms. You know what I mean? Katie said maybe it was you grabbing onto him, right, and we came up and he's like screaming. But I wanted him to know I'm with you, I've got you, we're in this together and I'll absorb some of that burden of yours. That's koinonia, that's our job together, and we don't have to have voted for the same candidate or eaten at the same lunch place or root for the same team in order to share koinonia.
Speaker 1:Central Lutheran Church. May you indeed have the mindset of Christ. May you adopt the same reality as Paul did the self-emptying, self-sacrificial, lived-out experience, embodiment of Jesus on the cross. May we share in that together and this morning. May the Spirit enable each of us to do that. Amen.
