Philippians 4:4-7
Advent 3 - Year C
A variety of translations for verse 5:
Let your gentleness be known to everyone - NRSV
Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them - The Message
Let your good sense be obvious to everybody - NJB
May everyone experience your gentle and understanding heart - CCB
Different emphases that would appeal to different folks. The one that makes me struggle the most is the last one. It is the nuances of "experience" that challenge me. Knowledge and clarity and obviousness are also desirable, but the experience of the deep places of life seems to have more power and more fear than the headier words.
I am also struck with The Message that talks about being on the side of another. That is an interesting application of gentleness. You can be seen as "gentle" when folks see you working with them. The difficulty I have is the way in which that can get lost when their "side" or their "work" runs counter to the inclusive nature of G*D and ministry of Jesus. In this case, how do you distinguish between being gentle and being co-opted?
How do you react to the different translations?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/december2003.html
Verse 4 has a word that can be known as "rejoice" or as "farewell." The New English Bible holds these together so it is not rejoicing alone or farewell alone - "Farewell, I wish you joy in the Lord."
CAIRETE combines a parting benediction with an exhortation to cheerfulness.
Ann Reed has a song, "Even in Reunion" on her "Hole in the Day" CD. The refrain is "Even in reunion there is parting." This is a good way of putting this ancient word to use in a modern context.
As we come to the close of the year I pray we might find rejoicing. Our rejoicing is ever so much more poignant when we are reminded of how frail it is. This is part of the bitter-sweet nature of a time of turning from ever shorter days to ever longer ones and from one time marker to another.
Are you "free" now? If you are true to following a way to GOD you will find yourself getting in trouble with those who have settled for less. Imprisonment is coming.
Are you "tied up" now? If you pay attention you can rejoice in everything, even this, and find a way beyond.
Cairete to you.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/december2003.html
Gentleness is a quality I've worked toward for a long time. Many years ago I had an email signature before there was email. It goes like this.
take care
dream strong
smile gentle
and so go well
Now it is framed and hangs by the door in a graphic art form - a gift from a friend. I do sometimes wonder whether it ought to be said again and again. At other times it is clear that it isn't to be spoken again until it has been realized.
From various translations we hear interpretations of gentleness that may parallel this signature:
moderation (KJV)
be on their side (Message)
forbearance (YLT)
reasonableness (ESV)
Gentleness is here seen as an antidote to fear or worry. It is paralleled with prayer as a process of transformation and renewal. Where worry and fear tend to freeze us into repetition of behavior or erratic response flailing around for some escape, gentleness offers an active and intentional way toward a mystery of peace through a gift of being able to fruitfully wait and to see ourselves and the world around us in a larger context allowing us time and space to moderate our fear by being on the side of that which scares us at least enough to forbear our knee-jerk violent responses and find a reasonable path forward.
No Fear is not just a macho response to every situation, exempting one from the worries of life so central to our lives or a requiring all the world to circle one small center of the universe. It is a proactive decision to not have innocent doves and wise serpents be equal, but 60/40 in favor of doves. It is gentleness revealed by being on another's side before they are.
Gentleness is not passivity but spiritual judo to be balanced and willing to be rebalanced as contexts change, to be interior to the fear of another for the purpose of transformation of their sense of balance. If we can get away from a preoccupation limiting prayer to words, this dance with our worries or fears may offer a larger prayer experience and peaceful/joyful responses.
- - -
be gentle with your neighbor
as you are gentle with yourself
in this Law is found beyond law
prophets beyond profits
let this gentleness be made known
as we urge one another to namaste
a Holy One within them
that is kin to our own
intentional naiveté blesses violence
not by outlawing it
but revealing
an unacknowledged option
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html
Rejoicing and Gentleness often feel miles apart. There is a sense that rejoicing and celebrating relate to a specific victory of some sort and is on the edge of turning into a soccer mob. Gentleness, brings a sense of community organizing, being on the side of the injured, working with them and not against them, and has a willingness to fail and not be in immediate charge of the situation.
They need one another and when they draw nigh together it is a sign of the Presence of G*D.
Have you recognized the digital nature of our interpretations? If we aren't rejoicing, we must be mourning. If we aren't gentle, we must know it all.
Now, if we could just delete verse 6 because gentle rejoicing recognizes the flow of life, there are things of concern, and not even thanksgiving can redeem some prayers. Then we might better focus on the Peace-of-G*D Jesus experienced and lived out of. The result will be a bringing together of our hearts (rejoicing) and our minds (gentleness).
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html
Broods of vipers are not only found in outsiders seeking to come in, but within a flock as well. Euodia and Syntyche are archetypes of every church split. Having been so close when some slight difference is magnified into a bright line of division.
Given that such dissension is not unusual and even can be helpful in moving everyone along, who is this unnamed “loyal companion” called upon to assist Euodia and Syntyche? Having inhabited the role of intentional interim minister, I see this anonymous one as a patron saint of interim ministry.
With the work being outlined as the 5 tasks of an intentional interim: returning folks to community through a reestablishment of a common vision [(1)remembering who we have been & (2) determining who we want to be], redefining gentleness [(3)a key leadership trait], practicing prayers of thanksgiving [(4) reconnecting with an experienced antidotes to divisive worry], and having peace stand guard at hearts and minds [(5) preparing space for a next generation]. Intentional interim Ministers do this work of salving distressed congregations through G*D who strengthens and beautifies.
Even as Advent has both a backward glance and forward glimpse of a larger picture than a pointillist’s present stroke, so, with Euodia and Syntyche, we remember past cooperation and look for a more mature consolidation of community.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/12/philippians-41-13.html