The Path of Partnership

Philippians 1:1-11

 

            Many of us were subjected to a father as we were growing up who had the illness MDD.  MDD is a genetic disorder found only in males…oh, I guess  I should tell you what MDD stands for: Male Driver’s Disease. MDD makes one unable to ask for directions, particularly when lost.  Those who suffer from MDD send the message to the world (not to mention to their frustrated families), “I can do it all by myself!” 

 

Some of these fathers who had MDD also had another genetic disorder found primarily, although not exclusively, in men: PPD.  PPD stands for Pathetic Patient Disease.  PPD makes one unable to do for oneself when suffering with the flu.  Those who suffer PPD send the message to the world (not to mention their beleaguered caregivers), “You do it for me.”

 

These two messages of “I can do it all by myself!” and “You do it for me” remind me of conversations a parent has with their three year old child.  The parent will see their child start to put on their shoes and ask the little one if he or she needs help.  The immediate response is always, “No, I can do it!”  After a few minutes of trying alone, the child will become frustrated and say, “Daddy (or Mommy), you do it!” A wise parent will resist the temptation to solve the child’s problem for them.  A wise parent will respond, “Why don’t we do it together.”  This response of “Why don’t we do it together” is the path of partnership.

 

A parent with a child tying shoes is often like our relationship with God.  God asks us, “May I help you,” for God wants to live with us, live in us and live through us.  God wants to be our partner in this great journey called life.  We might logically think, “This is wonderful.  Who wouldn’t want God’s companionship?”  However, as human beings our response to God is not always logical.  Often our response is, “No, I can do it!”  But this is not the path of partnership.  Or sometimes the pendulum swings the other way and we say, “You do it.”  But neither is this the path of partnership. 

 

Most of us know the poem “Footprints in the Sand.”  It is a lovely sentiment in which a man looks back upon his life and sees two sets of footprints in the sand, his own and those of his Lord who walked with him.  But during the toughest trials of his life the man sees only one set of footprints.  The man inquirers of the Lord, “Why, during the toughest trials of my life, did you leave me.”  “My child,” responds the Lord, “those places where you see only one set of footprints, that is when I carried you.”  Like I said, lovely sentiment.  Truly lovely.  But there are some Christians who get a little confused on the subject and start to believe the Lord is around in order to carry us always.  For these folks, “two sets of footprints” quickly becomes “the Lord’s footprints.”  Their response says to the Lord, “You do it.”

 

I like the parody of the Footprints poem that I read a while ago.  It says this:

 

One night I had a wondrous dream,

One set of footprints there were seen,

The footprints of my precious Lord,

But mine were not along the shore.

 

But then some stranger prints appeared,

And I asked the Lord, “What have we here?

Those prints are large and round and neat,

But Lord, they are too big for feet.”

 

“My child,” He said in somber tones,

“For miles I carried you alone. 

I challenged you to walk in faith,

But you refused and made me wait.

 

“You disobeyed, you would not grow,

The walk of faith, you would not know,

So I got tired, I got fed up,

And there I dropped you on your butt.

 

“Because in life, there comes a time,

When one must fight and one must climb,

When one must rise and take a stand,

Or leave their butt prints in the sand.”

 

“You do it, Lord,” is not the path of partnership. 

 

But neither is “No, I can do it” the path to partnership.  My colleague Ted Frost tells the story of going hiking with his young son.  They stopped for a rest in a place with a large rock in the middle of the trail, and Ted’s son asked him, “Daddy, do you think I can move the big rock?”  Ted said, “Sure, if you use all the strength you have.”  So his son pushed and strained and…the rock did not budge an inch.  “Daddy, I thought you said I could move the rock if I used all the strength I had?”  Ted replied, “I did, and you can.  But you didn’t use all the strength you had.  You didn’t ask me to help you.”  Together they pushed the rock aside.

 

*****

      The path of partnership is a theme of life.  Consider.

 

V       Any couple married fifty years will tell you that a good marriage requires a partnership, and not just a 50-50 partnership but a 100-100 partnership in which both spouses are giving everything they have.   

 

V       Any good military commander will tell you that battles are won by units and not be soldiers.  When a group of soldiers work together in partnership, they keep each other safe; without partnership, if the soldiers are only out to safe their own skin, the entire unit is doomed.

 

V       In sports, teams when championships.  The saying goes, “There is no “i” in “team.”  Michael Jordan was known as “Michael and the Jordanairres” until he learned to incorporate his teammates into the game.  Not coincidentally, it was then that the Bulls began to win their championships.  Look at Kobe this year, he wanted to show that he was “the Man.”  Well, he’s now the Man in L.A…and the Lakers are a .500 ball club.

 

*****

 

            Over the next few months we are going to take a look together at Paul’s letter to the Philippians.  As we read Philippians we hear Paul elevate the spirituality of partnership.  Here in chapter one, Paul talks about finding joy because of the partnership in the gospel he shares with the Philippian Christians. But the theme of partnership is everywhere throughout this letter in the way Paul talks about the Philippians and their walk with God. As we listen to Paul talk about the Philippians walk with God we hear about being partners with God.

 

V       We hear about being partners in purpose – “To live is Christ” (1:21). 

V       We hear about being partners in peace – “in humility, consider others better than yourselves…have this attitude in you that was also in Christ Jesus” (2:3, 5). 

V       We hear about being partners in power – “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you” (2:12-13). 

V       We hear about being partners in purity – “Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ…not having a righteousness of my own…but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God” (3:7, 9).

V       We hear about being partners in perseverance – “Forgetting what is behind, straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (3:13-14). 

V       We hear about being partners in prayer – “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (4:6-7). 

V       We hear about being partners in perspective – “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (4:12-13).

 

*****

 

In our life with God, we need partnership.  Did you know that according to the Gallup Poll organization 96% of Americans say they believe in God. According to the same poll, only 13% say they have a deep and transforming faith, and 82% say they desire spiritual growth. Tragically, 67% of Americans polled say most churches are not effective in helping people find meaning in life.  What these figures tell me is the following:

 

V       There is a deep hunger in our country for God.

V       The modern church is doing a poor job in helping to feed that hunger.

V       The modern person is doing a poor job in seeking to have that hunger fed.

 

Notice that I did not place all the blame for the great disconnect on the church nor on the individual person.  It takes three to tango: you, me and God.  In our life together with God, we need partnership: you, the church and God.

 

            In my last newsletter cover article I encouraged us all to read Paul’s letter to the Philippians once a week for every week of this sermon series.  I hope you will do it, for you will find that as you open yourself to the Word, and allow that openness to remain, the Word will enter into your heart and mind in fresh, exciting and disturbing ways…and you will experience God.  As we journey together through Philippians – my preaching, your reading and God’s Holy Spirit – we will walk the path of partnership.

 

            Let me encourage you also to pray in new ways over the next few months.  When listening to the choir sing – DON’T! Whatever you do, please do not listen to the choir sing!!!  Instead, pray with the choir as they sing.  There is a very real difference.  To listen to the choir sing is to say, “Choir, you do this part of the service.”  But to open our hearts and minds and allow their words to sink down into our souls; to allow those words and the music to dwell within us and then offer the words, the music and our own thanksgiving up to God as a prayer, THAT is the path of partnership.

 

            The Presbyterian Church, with churches, synagogues, schools and governments around the world, is collecting aid money for the Tsunami victims in Asia.  Bringing relief and restoration to the Muslims of Indonesia and the Hindus of India and the Buddhists of Thailand is not something that we can do alone.  But it is something we will do together.  For our part, our motivation, we will do it because we share a common humanity.  We will do it because we are followers of Jesus.  We will participate because it is the path of partnership.

*****

 

            Sally Foulks shared with me a devotion she had heard about the word “guidance.”  The writer talked about how she kept seeing the word “dance” at the end of guidance.  When dancing, we all know that when two people try to lead, nothing feels right, nothing flows.  But when we allow one person to gently lead with subtle cues given and received, when the leading and the following take the form of care, attentiveness and mutual surrender, then the music and the dancing flows.  Oh, how it flows.

 

            The women who wrote the devotion talked about how, when she sees the word guidance, she notices the “G” and thinks of God; she notices the letter “U” and the letter “I” and thinks of the words “you” and “I”; and then she completes the thought.  Guidance means: “God, you and I, dance.”  That’s the path of partnership.

 

            And when that flows…oh, how it flows

 

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