One day a young girl came home from school in tears because she had only been given a small part in the school play, while her classmate and best friend had received the lead role. After drying the girl’s eyes, her mother took off her watch, put it in her hand, and said, “What do you see?” The girl replied, “A gold band, the watch face, and two hands.” Then the mother flipped the watch over, opened the back, and again asked her daughter, “Now, what do you see?” The little girl looked closely at all the internal watch mechanisms and saw many little wheels, springs, and other small pieces. The mother explained, “This watch would be useless without every part — even the tiny ones you can hardly see.” The young girl always remembered her mother’s lesson to realize that all must work together to make any operation function well.
The lesson the young girl learned from her mother is an important lesson for all of us who seek to follow Jesus, our leader in the faith. As the various components of the watch — some large, others small, some seemingly important, and others of lesser importance — must all work together for the watch to function, so too, must the Christian community work together as one, under the leadership of Christ, to further his message and to bring his peace to an oftentimes troubled world.
As with the second lesson last week from 1 Thessalonians, today’s lesson is taken from the “thanksgiving” section of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Saint Paul speaks of the need to work as a team, headed by Christ, to bring Jesus’ message to people of the region. He speaks generally of the mutuality of love and care that must reign in the community; he urges the people to remain pure and blameless in God’s eyes. Yet, he goes much further, raising another highly significant concept, the idea of sharing through Jesus, the central figure of our faith. Paul is thankful because the Philippians hold him in their hearts as he does them. He longs for the community and wants to be an integral part of their life of faith. Yet, while this is important, he says it is secondary to sharing in God’s grace. Paul wants the Philippians to be a community but only with Jesus as the hub, the central figure.
Clearly Paul, from his own conversion, understood the necessity of the centrality of Jesus in his life. When he heard Jesus’ voice on the road, he knew the rest of his life would be centered on him. He had no idea at the time what this would mean and how much he would have to sacrifice, but he fully knew there was no way he could conduct his life without Jesus as his central guiding figure. Thus, for Paul, finding our way to life eternal is not only the goal, but Jesus is the way to achieve that lofty pinnacle.
The gospels, both the synoptic writers and John, affirm what Paul was telling the Philippians, namely the need to center our lives on Christ, his message, and his way of life. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenges his followers to follow the narrow, rougher, and less-traveled path, but the only one that leads to life,
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. — Matthew 7:13-14
Saint John is unique among the gospel evangelists in the many titles he gives to Jesus. He describes Jesus as, “the way, the truth and the life,” “the Bread of Life,” the “door,” and “gate.” The powerful image of the vine and branches well illustrates the centrality of Jesus: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Scripture clearly shows how Jesus is the central figure for our personal lives and our community of faith. Too often, however, Jesus is forced to take a backseat to people and ideas that compete for our attention.
The need for a central figure in our lives of faith is made quite obvious when we see the absolute need for a unifying part, person, or ideal that serves to hold together things without unity. Take, for example, the hub at the center of a bicycle wheel. Each of the spokes of a wheel has importance, giving structure and strength, yet it is the hub that holds the spokes and thus the wheel together. Similarly, sports teams have many players but there is always a central figure or goal to hold a team together. Teams have managers and head coaches; they have goals such as the World Series in baseball, the Super Bowl in football, and the Stanley Cup in hockey. In families, while there are many members, it is the parents who stand at the hub and hold the family together, whether that is a nuclear or extended one.
As with other institutions of society, our churches also must seek unity and centrality. We have our pastors, bishops, and other central figures. These people are very important but only to the degree that they help lead us to the ultimate central figure who is Jesus Christ. The Bible is very clear about what Jesus asks of us and how he must be the central figure of our lives; yet we somehow believe we know more or better and seek another figure. When this happens we soon become lost.
The consequences that come to communities that refuse to have a centralizing ideal or person are quite obvious; they are manifest in varied ways in our world. If the spokes of a wheel do not have the hub there would be no central strength and the wheel would not function. In sports and even in families, when one desires to move out on one’s own, breaking unity, disaster is not far off. In families this can be manifest through lack of discipline. It may be children who “do their own thing,” parents who are unfaithful, or individuals who seek solace in things that lead nowhere — drugs, alcohol, and gambling. The list goes on and on.
In our churches we live in a fragile belief system or at least so it seems! Our churches have certain rules and regulations; there are certain ways of operating. Yet, individualism seems to have such a strong pull on our loyalties that we feel free to believe what we want and basically to do what we wish. Self-autonomy trumps the community. Such attitudes are present on all fronts. We can see it in individual parishes, local dioceses, and even our international communions. We have moved away from the centrality of Jesus, the door, the gate, the rough and narrow path, and have chosen to take alternate routes. But, as certain as the wheel does not function without the centrality of the hub, or the watch without all the parts working together, so too, our faith communities and our churches will not function well without our common focus on the centrality of Christ. The created world seeks unity; the parts of the watch must work together. Similarly God’s greatest creation, the human race, must not only seek but find unity. We must work together to produce the desired result we seek.
A simple yet humorous story well illustrates our need for each other. A world-renowned organist was giving a performance at a local church using a huge, antique organ for his concert. It used a bellows for its pipes. The bellows was hand-pumped by a boy who was behind the screen, unseen by the audience. The first half of the concert, which featured the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, was well received by the audience. All in attendance were thrilled by the organist’s ability at the keyboard of this beautiful instrument. After taking his bows and accepting the ovation of the audience, the famous musician walked triumphantly offstage by a side passageway. As he passed by, the boy who was pumping the bellows said, “We played well, didn’t we, sir?” The famous musician rather haughtily replied, “And what do you mean by we? I was the one playing the music. I was the one whose ability was recognized by the audience.”
After intermission, the organist returned to his seat at the impressive five-keyboard console and began to play. But nothing happened; not a sound was heard. Then the organist heard a youthful voice whisper from behind the screen, “Hey, mister, do you know what we means now?”
Let us, therefore, as individuals and a community of faith take Saint Paul’s advice and follow the road to unity and find our life in Jesus our leader. Such obedience will place us on the train that leads to God and life eternal. Amen.