“We don’t need them”: A tale of two congregations

Rev. Marvin Bublitz

by Marvin Bublitz

Picture for a moment two congregations. One is doing well and can stand on its own. The other is struggling to provide Word and Sacraments to its members. How should they view each other? Should the stable congregation say “We don’t need them”? Should the struggling congregation say “There is no hope for us”?

I know of one pastor who, when a neighbouring congregation was vacant, said to his congregation, “We don’t need them, but they need us.” In a financial sense, it was true: the healthy congregation didn’t need support from the struggling congregation. But in a deeper sense, all members of the Body of Christ need each other. In true Christian love for their brothers and sisters in need, his congregation therefore paired with the vacant congregation as a dual parish.

Every year when the reading from Philippians 2 comes up in the lectionary, I think of that pastor’s words: “We don’t need them, but they need us.” The Holy Spirit inspired St. Paul to write in Philippians 2:3-8: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

In the world there is so much done out of selfishness. The first question often considered when one is asked for help is “What’s in it for me? If I get nothing out of it, why should I help?” Such is the way of the sinful world. But in the Church things are to be different. We are to have the mind of Christ among us. And what does it mean to have the mind of Christ? St. Paul spells it out: in humility we are to look to the needs of others, not only our own. In Christ-like fashion, we are to sacrifice for the sake of others.

But because we are sinful, we tend more often to be like Adam and Eve. We reach out and grasp whatever we want, when we want. We, like Adam and Eve, want to be the gods of our world. So we set aside the wants and needs of others for the sake of our wants and needs. Sacrifice is all well and good if someone else does it for us, but don’t expect me to sign up to do it.

“We don’t need them, but they need us.” I encourage every congregation who is in vacancy and every circuit that has a vacancy to consider their neighbouring congregations and ask: “Do we need them? Do they need us? How might we work together in humility, having the mind of Christ among us?”

I encourage every congregation which is in vacancy and every circuit that has a vacancy to consider their neighbouring congregations and ask: “Do we need them? Do they need us? How might we work together in humility, having the mind of Christ among us?”

Such thoughts, talk, and actions do not come naturally to us. Rather, the Holy Spirit works this mindset in us as we are baptized into the family of God, as we gather to hear the Word of God, as we gather to receive Holy Absolution, and as we take and eat and take and drink our Lord’s true Body and Blood. Then, He who in humility put us first and sacrificed for us, will empower and equip us to be Christ-like in our care for each other, in our works of service to each other, and in our financial support of each other. Then, as we hear in the book of Acts that the early Christians did, we can use the blessings the Lord gives us as Christ-like stewards, distributing to any as they have need.

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Rev. Marvin Bublitz is Regional Pastor for Lutheran Church–Canada’s East Region.

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