We Can!

(This is an abridged version of a sermon preached at Epworth Chapel UMC, Baltimore, MD on July 3, 2011)

"I can do all things through him who strengthens me…" (Philippians 4:13)

A reflection on the work of God throughout history indicates that God has remained active and evident in creating all that is the world today. God is a God not only of being, but of doing. In the beginning of time God was busy doing - creating the heavens and the earth, creating the moon and the stars, creating the sea and all living things. It is clear that God has been busy over the course of history doing that which is necessary to get us to this place in time.

This should give all of us hope and promise for the living of these days and for the future. For if God has been so active and busy in creation in the past, it begs us to believe that the same God will work on our behalf in the days that are ahead of us in order that we might accomplish the things that God has set before us.

The fact of the matter is that when God created us, God created us fearfully and wonderfully with the expectation that each of us could and would accomplish extraordinary things in this life. Each of us is more brilliant and beautiful than we tend to think. We are more creative and caring than we know. We are far more gifted and gracious that we realize.

We are more powerful and prophetic, more insightful and intuitive, more capable and courageous, more helpful and hopeful that we realize.

This is the essence of what Paul was affirming here in writing to the church at Philippi. Paul said, “I can do all things through him - Christ - who strengthens me.”

Paul here makes this bold declaration within the context of his own background and experience. Paul was Jewish – and a part of the sect of the Pharisees. He was also a Roman citizen. And he was one who had become a follower of Christ as the Lord had touched him and turned his life around. Now as Paul writes, he finds himself locked in a Philippian jail – imprisoned for his efforts in bringing persons to belief in Christ.

Through all that Paul had gone through, he knew that he had not arrived at the place where he was in life alone. He declares that I’ve had much and I’ve had little – I’ve had good days and bad days, but through it all – Paul knew that there were those in the community of faith who were praying for him and working on his behalf. Paul says, “I can do all things through him – Christ – who strengthens me.”

What Paul really knew is that his affirmation of faith here was really not just about what he could do alone in Christ, but what he could do within the context of the community of faith. What Paul was really saying is that I can, because we can!

We should be encouraged today, to know that we can. We can reach out to the impoverished, both locally and around the world. We can feed the hungry, house the homeless, comfort victims of disaster, soothe the sick, walk along-side the lonely and the sorrowful, visit those in prison, and minister to even more children. We can!

And so how can we? First, the fact of the matter is that we can because we are stronger together than we are as individuals. That’s the nature of the church - the body of Christ. It is like the difference between a single chord rope and a triple chord rope. The single chord can be very easily broken with a relatively light amount of force. While the triple chord is woven – knit together and designed in a way that in order to break the triple chord rope you need more than three times the force that it would take to break the ropes if we sought to break them individually.

African theologian, John Mbiti, put the communal nature and power of our faith and life into perspective when he said, “I am because we are, and because we are, therefore I am.”

An African proverb says that “a finger can’t pick up a grain – it takes all the fingers of the hand.”

We can, because we are better, stronger, and more powerful together than we are as individuals.

And ultimately, we can, because God can!
• We can because God walks with us and talks with us.
• We can, because greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world.
• We can, because with God all things are possible.
• We can because God can do anything but fail!

We can because we are in this together, and because God is in it with us!