Sermon: I believe in the not so holy local church

SERMONS

FROM RIVERSIDE

I BELIEVE IN THE NOT SO
HOLY LOCAL CHURCH

"I beseech Euodia, and I beseech Syntyche s
that they be of the same mind in the Lord, "

(Phil. 4:2 )

Dr Ernest To Campbell

February 1, 1970

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I BELIEVE IN THE NOT SO HOLY LOCAL CHURCH

"I beseech Euodia, and I beseech Syntyche s
that they be of the same mind in the Lord."

(Phil. 4:2)

"I beseech Euodia, and I beseech Syntyche s that they
be of the same mind in the Lord." The acid test of a great
idea is its ability to go local. Abstractions make less de-
mands upon us than concrete life experiences. It's easier
to believe in civil rights than it is to work with a committee
established to promote civil rights . It's easier to believe
in motherhood than it is to be a mother in the home. It's
easier to believe in justice than it is to serve on a jury
It's easier to believe in theological education than it is to
be a member of a seminary faculty ■ It's easier to believe
in the holy Catholic Church than it is to belong to a not so
holy local church.

St. Paul stands at the top of the list of ail -time in-
fluential Christians, because he went to such painful lengths
to tie the gospel to particular places and specific situations*
Oh s he had the larger view all right I No one ever out-
vis ioned him on the stature of Christ, the invincibility of
divine love 5 the primacy of faith, the mystery of the church.

His writings scaled the heights. "Though I speak
with the tongues of men and of angels . . . ." "who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? „ . . ." "Therefore
being justified by faith we have peace with God. ..." "Stand
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you
free."

But his letters are also peppered with the names of
the obscure 5 people like Urbanus 9 Nympha, Archippus 9
Quartus. Erastus, Oaesiphorous, Claudia; and those two
names that appear in our text — "I beseech Euodia. and I
beseech Syntyche s that they be of the same mind in the Lord t

Who were Euodia and Syntyche anyway ? They were
charter members of the Christian Church in Philippic It is
likely that they made their homes available for gatherings
of the congregation there. Their work and witness were
very much appreciated by the apostle Speaking of them he
writes , "They have labored side by side with me in the gos-
pel , together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers ,
whose names are in the book of life." (Phil* 4:3)

But Euodia and Syntyche had had a falling out. What
it was that gave rise to this tiff and the exact nature of the
quarrel are not known to us. Suffice it that the facts were
known to those who read the letter. What happened between
them was not very serious by worldly standards , but within
the churchy especially so fine a church as the church at
Phiiippi, it was a flaw that cried for immediate correction.
However noble , however exciting, however revolutionary our
gospei s it can be seriously depreciated when the people of
God are divided.

And so St. Paul bends to the task of exhorting Euodia
and Syntyche to make up. He urges one of his most depend-
able colleagues, referred to in the letter as "true yokefellow,
to do his utmost to bring these women together.

*TT *v m 'T* *T* *!*

The local congregation is the basic unit of the Chris-
tian enterprise. Within the local congregation we learn to-
gether, grow together, work together, rejoice and suffer
together. To the question, "The local church, who needs
it?" the answer is: "We all do."

The New Testament knows nothing of Christians at-
large, or Christians in isolation. There's irony in an inci-
dent that Shailer Mathews reports in his book The Church
and the Christian: "I remember once, as I was traveling
down the Wady Kelt, which lies between Jerusalem and
Jericho, I asked my guide what the collection of shacks up
on the side of the hill might be. s That„ ' he said, ! is a colony
of hermits. l " 1

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The local congregation is the basic unit of the Chris-
tian enterprise,, But let us not be slow to acknowledge that
it is the local church that frequently offends us c It is such
an effort to relate s blend in, put up with, wait for D Co So
Lewis senses the heart of the matter in his well-known
Screwtape Letters when he has the devil steady Wormwood,
who feared that he would lose his client because the man was
going to churchy by saying: "When he goes inside, he sees
the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face
bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a
liturgy which neither of them understands , and one shabby
little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious
lyrics , mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets
to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of
his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided M 2

At times the pettiness , the impurity and even the
heresy of the local church generates in us the urge to purge .
We s d like to see the church cleaned out so that more of the
right people — which is to say, more people like us — could
make up its constituency,. I can understand the feelings ex-
pressed by Dr. Francis E c McMahan, former President of
the American Catholic Phiiisophical Association, who open-
ly lamented the neo-modernism creeping into Roman theol-
ogy,, In a speech in Chicago he said: "We say to the imma-
nent apostates s get out. You are sowing confusion among
the faithful, you are thereby weakening the faith of many,
and you are seriously crippling the work of God " 3

Every year in my ministry, wherever I have been,
I have toyed with the wish to declare the rolL of that congre-
gation dead, making it necessary for those who really meant
business with God to join again in a fresh act of faith. Sure-
ly this would guarantee a pure and dynamic church,, But
Paul was there at the beginnings in Corinth and Philippi and
Ephesus, and it wasn't long before the mix of wheat and chaff
set in,

John Calvin had it right when he said: "It belongs to
God alone now to know them that are his, (2 Tim ii„ 19, ) and
to separate at least the lambs from the kids, but it is our

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part to reckon in charity ail to be lambs who in a spirit of
obedience submit themselves to Christ as their shepherd,
who betake themselves to his fold and remain there con-
stantly,, It is our part to set so high a value upon the gifts
of the Holy Spirit, which he confers peculiarly on his elect,
that they shall be to us as the seals, as it were, of an
election which is hid from us " 4 Travel the whole world
round, cover its length and breadth, and you will never find
a perfect local church,, "I beseech Euodia, and I beseech
Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord."

As we prepare to draw near to the table of our Lord
in the celebration of Holy Communion I should like us to be
aware that though we be many in number, though we be
blessed with a spacious and handsome edifice, though we
are heirs of a unique and illustrious history, Riverside is
still essentially a local churcho We have a street address
and a zip code, a telephone number and a constituency of
ordinary people. Our power does not derive from any of
our endowments., or the scope and beauty of our facilities.
Our power derives from our unity in the Lord, our ability
to gather with durable loyalty around a common purpose
And all because we have been warmed by a love that goes
out in equal measure to each one*

We need the ability to say we instead ofj^ To say
us instead of them . I am not suggesting that we ought to
enthrone passivity as the primary virtue of the church* If
all the church sextons in America should decide to write
their memoirs, what interesting reading it would be I re-
call hearing of a sexton in a small church who was forever
being asked by this member and that member, not to men-
tion the minister, to do one odd job after another „ The man
seemed to be virtually unflappable and always composed*
When asked what his secret was he replied, "I just put my
feelings into neutral and let people push me where they
want."

It isn't this that I am enjoining upon us. We are not
a congregation of clods , thank God c We are a vigorous peo-

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pie and we are here in the yeastiest of times . I am suggest-
ing that we ought to iearn how to contend with each other in
the Lord . Rather than expect the church to be a fellowship
free of controversy , we should demonstrate to the world how
to strive for what we believe in in love. The world needs a
model, a demonstration point, where differences can be pre-
sented, heard and hopefully, in time, compos ed* In all of
our discussions and deliberations on such crucial issues as
the program, the direction, the policies and financing of
this church, let us not lose sight of the figure in the carpet
whose name we bear

"I beseech Euodia, and I beseech Syntyche, that they
be of the same mind in the Lord M Learn to cherish the
unity of the churcho It is without question the most valuable
asset we have c In an activist age it is well to keep in mind
that what we are as a congregation matters every bit as
much as what we do„

FOOTNOTES:

1. Mathews, Shaiier, The Church and the Christian.

p„ 144, The Macmillan Co , New York, 1938

Lewis, Co So, The Screwtape Letters. pp„ 15-16,
Fontana Books , 1955

McMahan, Francis, "The New York Times ,"
December 29, 1969

Calvin, John, Commentary on Philippians, p 115
William Bo Eerdmans Publishing Co c ,
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1957

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