The Lamb saves, not the donkey or the elephant

(Here is my sermon preached on Sunday, October 11, 2020. It was in response to the Epistle reading for the day — Philippians 4:1–9)

I read a commentary this week on the selected passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians that really nailed it. It’s by Ekapurta Tupamahu, who is an Assistant Professor of New Testament at Portland Seminary. Here’s a portion of what he wrote:

“People in the United States are inhabiting two different worlds, watching different news cycles, hearing different radio talk shows, reading different newspapers. Echo chamber discussions with like-minded people are our main mode of political engagement. There is a serious lack of respectful dialogue between people with different views, different opinions, different ways of life. The whole country seems to be divided into two camps: the liberal vs. the conservative, Republicans vs. Democrats, the urban vs. the rural, the South vs. the North, and so on.

The consequence of the partisan politics is clear: people are ready to put loyalty to party above humanity, above morality, above common good, above justice and mercy, above human decency and dignity. That we find it more acceptable that over two hundred thousand fellow humans in this country alone have died from COVID-19 than to cross political lines to find the best way out of this problem, we have hit a new low.”

Frankly I think he’s being generous in his assessment. We’re called the United States, but I’m having real difficulty…