I love to get letters. I love writing letters. I love holding letters. Which is why I always print off long personal letters I get on e-mail. So I can hold them. Sometimes I won't read a letter right when I get it. I like to imagine what it says. Because I like looking forward to reading it. I love just knowing that a letter is there. Waiting to be opened. Waiting to reveal what this good friend wants to tell me.
I have this notebook that has special letters going back to 1980. Letters friends have sent that were so full of love and risk and honesty that I had to keep them. Copies of letters I've sent that I wanted to remember. Taking the time to write a deeply honest letter to a friend, or receiving such a letter from a friend — for me, life doesn't get any better than that.

Paul's letter to the Philippians is all about friendship. Paul loves the members of the church in Philippi. And even though he is in prison, he promises he is still with them. He can assure them of his love for them. He says he struggles with them (1.27; 4.3), rejoices with them (2.17, 18), receives with them (4.3), shares with them (4.14), and he is formed with them (3.10) (from Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1986, p. 342). Where does Paul get this deep love? Paul's love comes from the Holy Spirit. He says to the Philippians, it is "the Spirit of Jesus Christ" who is at work in me and in you (1.19).

Paul's friendship with the Philippians grows out of the friendship Paul shares with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It might sound strange to us to talk about having a friendship with a Spirit. But the love Paul felt from the resurrected Jesus Christ was just as real as the love I felt when I read these letters. He listened and talked to the Spirit of the Risen Christ. He knew Christ loved him. He knew that. And so he could face whatever life brought. He could face imprisonment. And he faced his own execution in Rome. All because of the friendship he had with Jesus Christ. And the love that friendship filled him to overflowing was the love he shared with churches he created. The love he received from Christ washed over into his love for these churches. And he calls them to let that love wash over each other. Be extravagant in loving, Paul tells them. Be extravagant in friendship. Love means serving each other and serving the people around you. And serving means friendship. Be friends with each other, Paul says. That is how you witness to the love of Jesus Christ. By doing for each other what friends do.

Paul has learned that there is conflict among the members of the church in Philippi — which is in northwestern Greece. Envy has reared its head. People are jealous of each other. When they preach they draw attention to themselves, instead of focusing the church's attention on God. Some members of the church have forgotten that the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about friendship. The Spirit of Christ blows through the congregation and fills the congregation. But the congregation isn't letting that Spirit heal their conflict. They're not letting that Spirit fill them with the love they need to seek the common good and look out for the needs of each other. At the beginning of our reading for today, Paul mentions two strong women in the church whom he knows are caught up in envy and jealousy. And he asks the other members of the church to help heal them. Paul says all of you need to commit yourselves to keeping the church body a place of love and deep friendship. That's how you witness to the love of Jesus Christ.

Which is why the church exists in the first place. To help each other live our lives like Jesus would live them. To love and support each other so much we know the love of Christ is real. When we receive such love and support, we are changed. We start to believe Christ's friendship for us is a strength and force we can count on. And trust. When life hits us hard. We trust Christ to catch us. Because the church has caught us.

Listen for the Word of God.
My dear, dear friends! I love you so much. I do want the very best for you. You make me feel such joy, fill me with such pride. Don't waver. Stay on track, steady in God.
I urge Euodia and Syntyche to iron out their differences and make up. Children of God should not hold grudges. And, oh, yes, Syzygus, since you're right there to help them work things out, do your best with them. These women worked for the Message hand in hand with Clement and me, and with the other veterans — worked as hard as any of us. Remember, their names are also in the book of life.
Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in God! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditation on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious — the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into her most excellent harmonies.

May God help us hear and live this Word. Amen.

Given the financial news that continues to rock this world, I don't know how you hear the words, "Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray." It might sound like Paul is being a bit simplistic. Anxiety pours from the ink of the headlines. And fills our conversations. We are afraid and uncertain and deeply worried.

But remember Paul wrote these words from prison. He had no idea what his future held. At some level he may have know that eventually the way he witnessed to the love of Jesus Christ would lead to his execution. Yet he still can say
Let God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Remember that when Paul writes these words, he's been building a friendship with the Risen Christ for 20 years. He's been praying hard. He's been listening and talking to God. He has come to trust the Spirit. Because he knows the Christ's Spirit fills him with love. He knows he and the Spirit are good, good friends. That friendship with Spirit assures Paul that the Spirit will never abandon him. But the Spirit is always with him. To give him what he needs. And free him for life. For Paul, Christ's Spirit is his rock, his breath, his hope.

So he can tell the Philippians that a friendship based on this kind of love can free them from the envy, jealousy, and competitiveness that they're going through. Each of you has gifts to share, Paul says, so don't compare your gifts to those of others and feel superior or inferior. Christ needs all your gifts. So in the love and friendship of Christ's Spirit, support each other in all the seasons of your lives. So the church can let Christ's love flow out of you to bring healing and joy to this world.

Our draft mission statement proclaims that we are a church that does what Paul calls on the Philippians to do. We are a church that witnesses to the love of Jesus Christ. When we talk about witnessing to the love of Jesus Christ, we are talking about friendship. When we witness to the love of Jesus Christ, we are talking about treating those inside and outside this church as friends. Not casual friends. But one-souled, one-spirited friends. We care for each other. We show each other the same kind of love Jesus Christ showed us. We serve each other. We look out for each other. We share possessions with each other. We see in each other the face of Jesus.

In days of deep anxiety and stress, we need to imagine how to be better friends for each other. Some of us might lose our jobs. Some of us may face deep financial burdens. Some of us might have to make hard decisions. Some of us might feel overwhelmed and alone. As a community that witnesses to the love of Jesus Christ, we are held together by the Spirit of Christ. We are held together by a friendship and a love that no power on earth can destroy.
More than ever, we need to open ourselves to that Spirit that fills us and loves us. More than ever, we need to be for each other and for those around us rock, breath, and hope. So the friendship we have with Christ, the love we feel from Christ, is as real and saving as the friendship and love I felt when I got these letters. That is what times like these call out of us. To respond to the Spirit of Christ that forms us and fills us. And make real that love and friendship that no power on earth can overcome. Amen.