“TOGETHER”

Psalm 100; Philippians 2:1-13

November 13, 2011 - Rev. Janet Duggins

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Barb and I spent most of a day making applesauce. It took most of the day because we started with about two bushels of apples, twice as many as I had last year. When we were done, we had lots of delicious applesauce for our families to enjoy this winter. After Barb took hers home, I ended up putting just about the same number of containers in our freezer as last year. But here’s the funny thing. Last year, I cut and cooked and mashed the apples myself, and although I did it over several days rather than all at once, every time I ended up with an aching back and a sore arm, my feet tired from standing, feeling just exhausted, and wondering why I ever introduced my family to the pleasure of homemade applesauce. This year, though, even after working all day, I didn’t feel at all tired and sore. In fact, I felt pretty good. I’m not sure just what made the difference - taking turns with different tasks, being more efficient with two people than one, or just having companionship and conversation… but the difference between doing this project alone and doing it together was remarkable.

Well, it was just applesauce. But it was a great reminder to me about the difference between alone and together. If even making applesauce is easier, more enjoyable and meaningful, and healthier when the work is shared, then certainly that’s true of other endeavors as well. It seems obvious, doesn’t it?

And yet… it also seems as if we have to constantly rediscover this truth, in little things and bigger things. It keeps escaping us.

I guess this is because we are so immersed in our culture of individualism.

We are used to hearing that we have to look out for ourselves because no one else will look out for us. We are often reluctant to ask for help because we believe we “should” be able to handle things on our own.

The sign outside the beauty salon says, ‘It’s all about you.”

The commercials say, “Because you’re worth it!”

Voters refuse to support taxes and bond issues for schools, for no other reason than that they themselves have no children in the schools.

All around us people declare what they do or don’t believe in, without reference to any knowledge, wisdom, history, wider perspective, or in fact to any authority other than their own feelings or the limits of their own understanding.

Marriages flounder because spouses can’t learn to say “we” instead of “I.”

We talk about success in life with expressions like “getting ahead” and “keeping up with the Joneses” - it’s a competition. The “American dream” has more to do with individual pursuit of a lifestyle and real estate than the things Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about.

Our consumer culture goes hand in hand with this individualistic outlook. The assumption behind a consumer culture is that you should get what you want – exactly what you want, in every customized, particular detail – whether we’re talking about a latte, or a house, or a spouse, or a church. The corollary, of course, is that when you don’t get what you want, when your expectations aren’t met, you shop elsewhere. You find a new coffee shop or a new husband, and that will solve the problem, or at least make you feel better about yourself.

You don’t have to look very hard to see that discontent and dissatisfaction drives this engine. Or that there is no end to it.

And nearly every time I have attended a church-related conference over the last ten years – whether the topic is preaching or leadership or theology or whatever – at least one of the speakers has identified the individualistic, consumer culture we are enmeshed in as a tremendous challenge for the church today.

To some extent, that challenge has always been around. Otherwise Paul probably wouldn’t have bothered reminding the Christians at Philippi that part of what it meant for them to belong to Christ was that they also belonged to each other. They were supposed to love one another, have a common purpose and values, and to look out not for their own individual interests, but for each other’s. That may not have been the way of their culture any more than it is the way of ours, but according to Paul it is the way of Jesus.

Paul uses the Greek word koinonia - translated as “fellowship” or “sharing,” in verse 1. There’s no single word in English for everything that koinonia means. It can be translated as partnership, community, communion, common bond, common interest, unity, and contribution. It carries the connotations of intimacy, trust and depth of caring. Koinonia essentially means “together.”

I learned that koinonia embraces a Greek idea which in English we might express as “good and good.” It refers on the one hand to something good happening within – a striving for wholeness or oneness with God, say – and on the other hand, to something good happening externally – the building of community, working with others for a common purpose.

Koinonia definitely has as part of it’s meaning the implication of action, as well as

being and relationship. It’s about living a whole life, attentively, together, engaging the world. It’s who we are. It’s also what we do.

If we are just another non-profit business, raising money to meet the demands of each one of us and other potential consumers - for a certain worship or social experience, for religious services, or activities, or programs or whatever it is – we

aren’t touching the deeper needs that go along with being human in this world. We aren’t really offering anything that will provide more than temporary satisfaction of all those never-ending desires. We aren’t offering any real alternative to “alone.”

The challenge for the church is that we have to be careful we don’t get drawn into that mindset, which pulls us away from the mind of Christ and from community. It’s easy to get sucked in, since we live surrounded by a culture that encourages us to think that way.

But we don’t need to be merely a spiritual marketplace in which everybody’s just trying to get their own needs or wishes met… because we have something better, something more satisfying and lasting. We have koinonia - with each other and with Jesus. We are part of something bigger than our own interests and purposes. We have experienced what it is to be “in Christ,” to belong to Jesus and to each other.

It’s what makes the witness of the church so vital in our world today: We understand the power of “together.”

It’s a real privilege that you and I and all of us have – to be part of this adventure of discovering who we are in relation to God, and to one another, and to all the people Jesus has called us to love. It’s a privilege to receive the benefits of being in a community where other people care about each one of us and our needs. It’s also a privilege to be part of making that caring happen for others. It’s a privilege to give our energy, intelligence, imagination, and love to the ministry and to the koinonia of the church. It’s a privilege to make commitments – of time, of service, of resources - to the future of that ministry and koinonia. The commitments we make aren’t about “buying” services or paying for anything; we are sharing together in the work of Christ in response to God’s gift of grace, which comes to us entirely without strings or cost. Our commitments aren’t a burden but a joy, not draining but energizing, not trivial but deeply meaningful… because we make them… together.

It’s who we are. It’s what we do.

Amen.

Resources: Feasting on the Word, Vol.