ITLOTC
(In The Life Of The Church)
Advent
Lessons in Philippians (by Kieran)
Happy Tuesday UBC! Kieran here. Today I thought I’d try something a little different - most of you only tend to hear from me on the odd occasion via the Newsletter, but of course, my main capacity in UBC is as co-youth pastor!
So, I thought I’d share my most recent notes from Philippians 4 with you all, which I shared with the High Schoolers this last Sunday. So, if you’re a youth reading this, I’m sorry you’ve already hear this; but also if you’re a youth reading this, hey, kudos for reading the newsletter!
I won’t lie, this is partly motivated by the fact that this has been a monster of a few weeks - some of you may know I have a second job at Target, and as you can imagine, the holiday rush has been crazy and incredibly exhausting! As such, I haven’t really had the time I’d like to come up with something new for the newsletter. But that said, I thought this would be a two-birds-one-stone kind of deal - you all still get some newsletter content that isn’t my addled brain pulling at strings, and you also get a window into the kinds of things we talk about during youth group! I often write my evenings in a verbatim way, and then vamp as needed in person, but hopefully it’s still enjoyable to read!
(Note, I’ve also taken out the discussion questions and group conversation parts for ease of reading, as obviously, we can’t really do that in the newsletter!)
So, without further ado; here we go!
So today, we’re in the last part of Philippians! To keep things manageable, I’ll pull a few verses out to talk about. Let’s read Philippians 4:4-9:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Paul is saying goodbye - when you write letters, essays, what do you put at the end? Conclusions, things you want people to remember, a call to focus on what’s important etc.
That’s what we have here. Paul has some thanks, some last thoughts of wisdom, and most importantly, his thesis. He’s talked about humility, community, pressing towards Christ.
Now, he has three final things for them, a reminder that sums up the letter:
+ Rejoice, always;
+ Don’t worry, but talk to God;
+ Dwell on things that are worth dwelling on.
We’re going to unpack those things, especially as some, like the worry one, there’s a lot more to say than just “don’t worry”.
Okay then, first - Rejoicing.
Read 4-5:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
Disclaimer about most of these verses - I don’t think that Paul is saying that in order to do one thing, you have to not do another. Case in point here - he’s trying to be encouraging in this letter, and I don’t think that Rejoicing in the Lord Always means that we can’t also be sad when we need to be, or angry, etc.
These verses don’t just mean “become a robot who only ever feels joy”, because inevitably, we just can’t do that. I think that there’s a significant point to make here about how Paul phrases this - he doesn’t say, “feel happy about the Lord always”.
He says “rejoice”, as in, the verb, the action. We can’t always control our feelings, if ever - we can control how we act, though. Paul is talking about placing ourselves in a position, a behaviour. And that’s hard sometimes, it’s a vulnerable position to put ourselves in - it can open us up to disappointment, to further grief.
I think that’s why he follows it up with the line about gentleness - gentleness is never weakness. It’s a strength to not just close off, and try to rely only on ourselves. It can potentially hurt, and it involves a lot of trust. Our gentleness, our willingness to rejoice in the Lord no matter what is happening, is a beacon to those around us.
Paul ends this section with a reminder - the Lord is near. Trust can feel like a gulf sometimes - waiting for someone to fill the space we leave for love to find us, to catch us. God does that, and he is always so, so near to us, waiting to pull even closer when we let him.
Okay, our next part. Worrying - let’s read.
Read 6-7:
Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I want to propose here that Paul is doing the same thing as before. I don’t have the Greek, and I haven’t looked it up, but for the purposes of interpretation and teaching, I’m going to roll with it.
I don’t think Paul is saying “don’t FEEL worry”. Just in the same way as before, where he isn’t saying “you must FEEL joy”, but do something to act on joy, I think here he isn’t saying “don’t FEEL worry”, but do all you can not to sit and ruminate on our worries - the act of WORRYING.
I am TERRIBLE for this. I’ve suffered from anxiety for years, and I find it so easy when my brain decides to find something worrying, to not just acknowledge the feeling and move on, but to sit and THINK about it. To actively play out scenarios of how it might go wrong in my head, or fixate so much on it that I risk a panic attack.
I think that’s what Paul is talking about. When we FEEL worried, don’t ACT on that worry. Instead, he offers a different response - in prayer and asking and thanking, talk to God. Just as we might talk to a friend or a family member when something is really worrying us, for advice or encouragement or comfort, Paul says we believe in a God who wants us to do that with him. He’s not an aloof, unknowable figure, like many gods from ancient times, but just like a friend, a family member.
I love the next verse, about the peace of God. Not just because it sounds powerful and lovely, but because once again, Paul doesn’t say “hey, don’t feel worry, just pray to God and you’ll feel peace!” Because in my experience, that is just not how it works. He talks about how the peace of God will GUARD our hearts and minds - isn’t that stunning? It’s not some faux platitude about feeling good, but saying that even when we FEEL worry, God’s peace will actively GUARD us, watch over us, helping us to not ACT on our worry.
Last part! Dwelling on things worth dwelling on.
Read 8-9:
Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
What a long list, thanks Paul.
Now, obviously, I don’t think Paul is giving us a laundry list to check off to make sure everything we think about is one or more of these things. It’s also not just ‘hey, think about good and happy things, great!’. I think that can lead us to bury our heads in the sand - if we only think about ‘good’ things, where is the space in our thoughts for oppression, for injustice, for righting wrongs?
And actually, I think that’s why Paul doesn’t use the word good, despite this verse often getting summarised like that. Truth. Honour. Justice. Purity. Pleasing. Commendable. Excellence. Worthy of Praise. That’s what Paul says to think about - I think he’s asking us to find God in the things we think about, but maybe more importantly, to once again orientate our hearts and minds to see these things in the world.
Let’s take an example. I have a pretty poor relationship with my Dad, and an even worse relationship with my brother. I often get caught up in cycles of thinking about the ways they’ve hurt me, the ways they’ve taken advantage of me, or not seen me, the harm they’ve caused. Does Paul think I should think about those things? I think that might be the wrong question. Does Paul want me to think about those things, in this way? That is to say, where I let my anger and hurt burn within me, and my thought patterns just stoke those flames, letting them burn brighter and hotter. It doesn’t help them - it doesn’t help me.
Rather, I think Paul is challenging us to focus on the WAY we think about things, not necessarily WHAT we think about, though that is a different conversation. In my own example, what would happen if I spent more time thinking about the truth in my feelings? The justice? What was commendable, or excellent in it? Now, please let me be clear - in the case of emotional abuse, or any kind of abuse, I’m not saying “find the silver lining and live with it”.
What I am saying, is that, how can I think about the hurt and harm done in a way that prioritises truth? Maybe I can think about telling them exactly how they’ve hurt me before. How can I think about it in a way that prioritises justice? Perhaps I can write them a letter, explaining how I feel, how I experienced what they did and have done, and ask them to be accountable for their actions. How can I prioritise what was worthy of praise? Maybe it was about how I acted. How I was able to establish boundaries where I could, how was I strong where I could be, how has it made me the person I am today?
In doing this, suddenly, my attitude has changed from letting my anger continue to burn inside me, and ultimately, continue to harm me; into a place of healing, and repair. To reconciliation, even if the people in my life don’t want to pursue that, at least I know I’ve tried, and I’ve been able to reconcile those things within myself.
This is just an example, and a very personal example. What I think Paul is recommending is an adjustment of the way we think - once again deciding to think about something in a different way, the same action-oriented advice as in the previous two sections.
In the same way, when we think about pressing concerns in our world - systemic and generational racism, climate change, economic injustice, violence against women and minority groups, to name but a few - I think Paul is asking us to find the truth in these matters. To think about them in ways that are honourable, and seeks justice. These things lead us to action, not just to despair, or anger, or sadness. It spurs us to DO something about it, instead of just filing them away somewhere in our brains.
Christmas Eve Service
UBC will have a parking lot Christmas Eve service on December 24th at 6:00 P.M. We will have more details to come next week, but if you plan on attending this service please know that the building (read bathrooms) will not be open. To that end, we can say that the liturgy will likely be 20-30 minutes. We hope you can make it and would love the chance to worship with you through windshields. Also, we will not be distributing candles, but are encouraging parishioners to bring a device that can illumine: perhaps a candle, the light on your cell phone, whatever you feel comfortable with, for the singing of silent night at the conclusion of the service.
Advent Candle Liturgy
Each week we’ll be posting a candle lighting liturgy for Advent. You can read through this alone, with friends via zoom, or, if you have an in-tact bubble of people you’ve been seeing throughout lockdown, together (hopefully practicing 2 of these 3: outside/masked/distanced). If you want to order some advent candles, that’s great. If you have some random candles, that’s great. If you just have matches or a lighter, that’s great too. And if you have none of those things, but have an imagination, behold, your candle. You can find the Peace liturgy here.
Thank You for Your Generosity?
Friends. The staff would like to say thank you for all your generosity. In the last month UBCers provided over 300 baked goods for Hillcrest doctors and nurses, provided 105 gift cards for Caesar Chavez faculty and staff, provided 25 presents for foster kids in central Texas and partnered with the Holiday family resource pantry to provide gift cards and essentials for families in need. We are very proud of everyone and grateful for the seemingly unending generosity of our community.
baked goods for Hillcrest
Cesars gift cards 105
foster kids presents 25 presents
holiday food pantry 20 families
ITLOTC Break
ITLOTC will be taking a two week break. Our last newsletter for the 2020 year will be sent on December 22nd. On the 29th and on January 5 there will be no newsletter. For the most up to date information from UBC please visit this blog, check facebook, or follow us on twitter &/or instagram.
Fun Christmas Carol Quiz
Parishioner of the Week
Taylor Watson for completing her rigorous fire fighter training and becoming a world class firefighter. We are grateful.
Work is Worship
Greeters: No Greeters this week
Coffee Makers: no coffee makers this week
Mug Cleaners: no mug cleaners this week
Money Counter: no money counters this week
Leadership Team
If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members.
Chair: Kerri Fisher: Kerri_Fisher@baylor.edu
Luci Hoppe: lhoppe@gmail.com
Jeremy Nance: Jeremy.J.Nance@L3T.com
Joanna Sowards: jo.sowards@gmail.com
Kathy Krey: kathykrey@gmail.com
Jose Zuniga: jzgrphix2002@yahoo.com
Taylor Torregrossa: Taylordtorregrossa@gmail.com
Student Position: Davis Misloski
Student Position: Maddy O’Shaughnessy
UBC Finance Team
Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.
Catherine Ballas: catherine@refitrev.com
Jen Carron: jen.carron78@gmail.com
Mike Dodson: financeteammike@gmail.com
George Thornton: GeorgecCT1982@gmail.com
UBC HR Team
If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.
Erin Albin: erin.albin1@gmail.com
Sam Goff: samuelgoff92@gmail.com
Rebekah Powell: rpowell671@gmail.com
Kristen Richardson: wacorichardsons@gmail.com
Craig Nash: Craig_Nash@baylor.edu