We having been hearing from Paul’s letter to the Church at Philippi all this week. Philippi was an ancient city in Macedonia in the northeast of Greece, founded 4 centuries before Christ’s birth. This city was named after Philip of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great. It later became an urban center in the Roman empire where many veterans of the Roman legion lived. St Paul founded a Christian community in Philippi on his second missionary journey. St Paul was imprisoned when he wrote this letter, but he heard about the disunity of that community and wanted to write them a letter of encouragement and advice.
St Paul holds himself up as an example for the Philippians to follow on their journey of faith. That Paul is writing them this letter of encouragement while he is in prison is a testament to his strong joyful faith. Paul saw some in the community as false imitators of Christ, clinging too much to the things of the world and not keeping their eyes focused on our true homeland, God’s heavenly kingdom.
When I was serving as a missionary in Ecuador, one of the Peace Corps volunteers in the area came looking for me in the mission site. One of the villagers told him – Brother Lincoln is not here – he has returned to his home. The Peace Corps volunteer thought, Lincoln didn’t tell him he was going home to the United States to visit his family. The villager explained that I had not gone back to the US, but rather what they saw as my home village here in Ecuador, the small village of San Francisco de Onzole, where I went every weekend and where he has so many projects going on. It was an honor for some of the villagers to see me having a homeland there in Ecuador, where I definitely put a lot of my heart and soul. Where would others see us having a homeland? Is our homeland in God’s kingdom, or is it in the things of this world?
No comments:
Post a Comment