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Heart Conditions – The Refreshed Heart

Part 7 in the series, Heart Conditions    

Philemon 4-7

August 22, 2010    

Pastor Graig Flach

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INTRODUCTION

We are in the middle of a sermon series called “Heart Conditions,” full of variety and depth. I was so blessed by Bob’s insights on 1 John last week. This week we turn to one of the shortest books in the Bible: Philemon.

I got back from this year’s Zambia trip a couple of weeks ago, and I’m anxious to tell you about it, and it fits with this text, as we hoped it would. But I need to confess something to you right up front, about Zambia, and it is this: Over the years I have harbored a kind of masochistic pride in being one of the leaders of the Zambia Partrnership, due to the fact that it is our farthest-flung ongoing partnership. (I should add that I’m just speaking for myself; I don’t know how the other Zambiaphiles feel.) Some years, we have had to travel for as long as FORTY-FIVE hours by way of as many as 5 airports, just to get there, one way. (This year was easy – it only took 31 hours.) There are times when I have asked myself, midway through that long journey, “WHY DIDN’T I SIGN UP TO LEAD A PARTNERSHIP IN DOWNTOWN PORTLAND??” 

But you need to know this, too: the rigorous, physically-draining trip to the other side of the world in Zambia ends up being a time of refreshment. It’s true for us Americans, even though we are jet-lagged and culture-shocked and over-stimulated during our few days in the bush. And I believe that for our World Vision and village hosts (who work equally hard preparing for our one work-week visit) the same is true, they are refreshed by our visit. When the week is over, we are all exhausted and refreshed at the same time. Refreshed in spirit. Refreshed by the Spirit. Refreshed in a lasting way.

And Paul’s letter to the slave owner Philemon gives us clues about why this happens. Listen to God’s word for us today:

Philemon 1:4-7

4 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your love for all his people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. 7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord's people.

PAUL’S LETTER TO PHILEMON

Paul’s letter to his friend or protégé named Philemon was written around 60 A.D. while he was in prison, probably at Rome. Philemon, whose name means something like “affectionate,” was one of Paul’s converts who had grown in grace and had now taken over leadership of a house church in Colossae. It is thought that this short, personal letter – the third shortest book in the Bible – was sent along with the letter to the Colossians, to be delivered separately to Philemon. It contains Paul’s personal request to Philemon to extend grace to his former slave, Onesimus, who apparently had stolen from Philemon and run away. Paul’s request is based on the fact that a big change has occurred in the life of Onesimus: he has become a Christian, and is therefore Philemon’s brother in Christ. Paul wants to help Philemon adapt to the new situation.

And within the context of this private letter with a very personal purpose, Paul utters some general guiding principles that relate not only to his relationship with Philemon, but to other Christian relationships as well, including mission partnerships like our church develops with mission groups near and far.

RELEVANCE AND APPLICATION

Is it legitimate to apply a private letter that’s 2000 years old to our own current situation? Yes. Why? Because it’s been included in the Scripture and it has apostolic wisdom. But beyond that, there is this: This passage applies, without any alteration or special explanation, to some of our own partnerships. For example, I could write these words – and I have written words like these – but I could include these exact words in a letter to our Zambian partners in Sinazongwe, and they would be absolutely true and appropriate. World Vision manager Betty Mbewe could write them to us – and she has written words like these – and I might not even recognize that she was quoting Scripture. These words are organic to our partnership and for any healthy Christian relationship. They are eternally true for God’s people, and they are just as fresh – and “refreshing” – today as they were almost 2000 years ago. You don’t have to bend over backwards to demonstrate their relevance.

Let’s take the passage apart to make sense of it. I am organizing it according to three guiding principles. (You may want to glance at the passage as I mention these):

• partnership prayer (vss. 4-5)
•  partnership purpose (v.6)
•  and partnership love (v.7)

Let’s take a look at each one of those, and as illustrations I’ll try to share some verbal snapshots from Zambia, along the way.

Before we do that, let me share heartfelt greetings from our good friends in the World Vision Zambia national office, in the Sinazongwe Area Development office, and from our current partners in Siabbeula, and from our former partners in Siabaswi. They send their love and assure you of their prayers, which is a perfect lead-in to my first point.

THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP PRAYER (verses 4-5)

“I always thank my God as I remember you in prayer, because I hear about your love for others and your faith in Jesus.” You have heard me talk about this dynamic before. I’ve called it “the triangle of life” in all its fullness. It’s this phenomenon that occurs when I extend love to you (“horizontally”) – do you a favor, give you a call, drop you an encouraging word – and you express gratitude not only to me, but also to God (“vertically”), Who in turn continues to bless us and to give us opportunities to bless one another, and the love never runs out and it has a supernatural dimension because God is the source of it and the end of it, and it is a beautiful thing. There’s almost nothing I’d rather hear than the words, “I thank God for you.” Expressions of thanks to me are fine and courteous, and appreciated. But I’m glad when the credit goes to God Who enables me to extend His love to you and others.

We experienced this in Zambia again this year. You have amazing partners in the Siabbeula Food Security Project – five villages on the shores of Lake Kariba. And they are motivated to work hard on their community development, comprised of new fields with new fences and new irrigation strategies from treadle pumps to drip irrigation to solar-powered boreholes and irrigation canals – they work hard not only to improve their own lives, but partly because they know we pray for them. They say, “Somebody who lives on the other side of the world, who has no need or reason to care about me, DOES care. And they not only send a development booster shot in the form of financial support, they also pray for me, and they even send a few from their number to come and see me personally. There is no human explanation for this – it has to come from God!” And so, like the Apostle Paul, they thank God for you as they remember you in their prayers, because they hear from your GoTeam about the love you have for them which demonstrates your faith in Jesus Christ. And the reciprocal prayers of partners on opposite sides of the globe reach the same God Who is glorified and blesses with renewal of confidence and a kind of spiritual refreshment that gives our hearts a lift. If you have ever prayed for Zambia or given a dollar to this church’s ministry, you are a part of that.

Our mutual prayers have power!

THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP PURPOSE (verse 6)

In the next verse, v.6, Paul says that he prays that the partnership with Philemon will lead to a deepening understanding of the good things they share in Christ, part of which is shared ministry. I am calling this “the power of purpose” between partners. The combined efforts of the partners in our Zambia Partnership are bringing about transformation in Sinazongwe. Who are the partners? In our Zambia Partnership there are three:

• the local people in need, the citizens of Sinazongwe
•  
• the facilitating organization, World Vision
•  
• the donors, in this case Lake Grove
•  

By visiting every year, we truly “deepen our understanding” of the good things we are doing together in Sinazongwe. Let me mention just a couple of those good things.

HIV/AIDS - Mrs. Christine Hazunga, a World Vision trained volunteer, visits eight AIDS patients on a weekly basis. She guided us to visit three of them one afternoon. I’ll just tell you about one of them, Julia. Julia’s disease had her so weak that she had to crawl from her tiny ramshackle house to the latrine outhouse, something that embarrassed her because she feared it was traumatizing her three grandchildren, for whom she has to care – even though she is deathly ill – because her daughter’s new husband declines to take them in. With the anti-retroviral drugs available to her because of the generosity of the United States and other entities, Julia grew stronger until she received a second whammy: a cancerous tumor behind her eye, visible to us even behind the colorful eye-patch she wears. She is grateful for Mrs. Hazunga, the volunteer caregiver, who helps her obtain her ARV drugs and also makes sure she is eating. “Without her,” Julia tells us matter-of factly, “I would be dead.”  

And this plainspoken willingness to talk about the disease is evidence of a welcome change in Sinazongwe: the stigma against AIDS victims is diminishing. And with World Vision’s help, churches and individuals like Mrs. Hazunga are rallying around suffering folks like Julia. Surely this is one of the “good things” (v.6) we are sharing in for the sake of Christ” with our Zambian partners.

Here’s another example of the power of purpose:

Rural Pastors - We got to meet with two groups of pastors this year, first from our current partner villages near Siabbeula and then from our former community partners in Siabaswi. These communities are at opposite ends of the region, 40 miles apart. But both groups shared something similar with us that refreshed our hearts. They told us that when we began visiting eight years ago, neighboring churches were like rivals, vying for the loyalty of village citizens, but that when we had called them together to hear about their challenges, they began to realize that they had a lot in common. Aside from the fact that they claimed to serve the same Lord, they shared responsibilities and problems that they were approaching in various ways. They began to learn from each other. They began to share resources that we provided and to fellowship together. They have experienced the truth that we shared with them from the Apostle Paul, that some of them wear on their wrist like I do: that “in Christ there is no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free, no male nor female”… (no Pentecostal or Baptist or Presbyterian)… “in Christ they are all one” (Gal 3:28). And these pastors and their communities are stronger for it. They support one another now, and their churches are growing like crazy. What a boon this is to my spirit, what an encouragement that should be to all of us, what a refreshment to our hearts! Surely this, too, is one of “the good things we are sharing” with our Zambian partners “for Christ”! (v.6) The power of partnership purpose.

THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP LOVE (verse 7)

Verse 7 is packed with lots of good stuff: “love,” “joy,” “encouragement,” “refreshment”… I’m calling it “the power of partnership love.” It’s the kind of love that makes people of different cultures and ethnicities on opposite sides of the globe feel like family… So that I feel real joy just at the sight of Betty Mbewe or her assistant Charity Chinonge or the staff –Reverend Clifford or Papa Kingsley or Mr. Everything Nasser Shomo or Geoffrey Kamanga, who is like a father to all your sponsored children.

Let me stop for a moment to talk about sponsorship, to reflect on Geoffrey’s team of associates who are in personal touch with your sponsored children. Since over 300 of you sponsor children in Sinazongwe, I need to reassure you about the quality of the staff that look in on your kids on a regular basis. Geoffrey has a team of about a dozen that keep track of almost 5000 children in the program. They are divided into five zones, teams of two or three WV staff in each zone. These are men and women who take seriously the fact that you are not only committing $400 per year but that you actually care about these kids. You write to them and you pray for them. And these World Vision staffers, with names like Isabel and Yvonne, Mandanda and Doreen, Malessy, Everess and Ackwell… they put in miles and miles every week to look in on these children. Yes, I know sometimes the letters we receive sound like they are written from a template. But I can assure you that there are real children on the other end, children who cherish any word you send, and that they are overseen by real people who really care, Christian men and women who extend the love of Christ to these children and their families on your behalf, trying to get those kids in school and keep them there, and making sure those kids get medical treatment when they need it. When drought or flood reduces the food supply and relief nutrition is necessary, your kids are among the first to be cared for. Your commitment of love triggers a complementary commitment of love on the part of our partners. And the love of Christ in this partnership is ensuring that children survive and thrive.

Oh, there are so many other examples of the power of love in this partnership, and how it encourages and refreshes… It’s the kind of love that means a simple pat on the back from a Lake Grove GoTeam member will encourage a World Vision staffer or a school teacher or a local pastor for days, weeks, maybe longer.

It’s the kind of love that motivated a Zambian mother who gave birth to a daughter right after the GoTeam’s visit last year to honor that team by naming her baby after the team leader’s wife, Baby Laura, the second Baby Laura in Sinazongwe, by the way. That’s encouragement that brings joy!

It’s the kind of love that causes these desperately poor people – who know that this year they will run out of food in October or November because the floods devastated their harvest – they look into the eyes of us benefactors NOT to ask for help but ask us not to worry about them, they are going to be fine, as Mackswin, their remarkable project leader told us with words like these:

“We are confident because people are growing in understanding of the project and in commitment. The program is growing. Last year we had 110 co-op members, this year there are 180! This program will not die. It has the support of all five headmen and the committee members, some of whom are pastors in constant prayer about the project.

“Thank you for the trainings, the fencing, the treadle pumps and drip irrigation equipment, and the boreholes. This project has vision. Don’t worry about us being discouraged. Another bad harvest will not beat us! We are not facing down, we are looking up high! We’ve got dreams, and with God’s help, we will realize them!” 

Surely this confident hope is evidence of “the good things we share in Christ” (v.6), and the village’s desire for us not to worry about them is a sign of love from extraordinary partners.

And all this, the mutual prayers, the shared purposes, the two-way love and joy and encouragement – all of these mean that in the arid, dusty landscape of Sinazongwe there is “refreshment” shared in the family of God. I am always the recipient of a refreshed heart because of my time among God’s people in Zambia – with the World Vision staff, yes, and the villagers of course, but also with God’s people on this end when we travel to Zambia, the World Vision staff here and in Federal Way, AND the remarkable teams you send to Zambia.  Among all these partners, this Christian family working together, there is a mutual refreshment that occurs amidst the hard work going on.

I thank God for His goodness in forging these unlikely partnerships. I say “unlikely” because it hasn’t happened naturally; it’s supernatural – there is no earthly reason for us to travel that far at considerable expense unless God has orchestrated it. We are involved in something very special in Zambia, and I pray that my inadequate words have somehow conveyed to you at least a little breath of refreshment, because if you have ever prayed for Zambia or given even a dollar to this church’s ministries, you are a part of it – you are one of the partners, and so…

I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I’ve seen your love for all his people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that this partnership in the faith may be effective in deepening our understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love gives great joy and encouragement, because you, brothers and sisters, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord's people.

Muzina Lyataata – in the name of the Father – alyamwana – and the Son – alyamuuya usalala – and the Holy Spirit.   Amen.