Phil Kniss: Showing up with love and hope

Rooted & Grounded in Love
Pastor Phil's Retirement Sunday
Ephesians 3:14-4:6


Watch the video:


...or listen to audio:


...or download a printer-friendly PDF file [click here]

...or read it online here: 

I love the church.

I love this church in particular—

its people, its history, its culture, its way of being.

But more broadly, I love the church.

I consider it a blessing beyond measure 

that I got to spend 41 years of my adult life

doing work I love, 

contributing to a cause I love, 

and walking alongside people I love.

How did I come to love the church?

Well, it was in my family DNA.

There were more ministers and missionaries in my family line 

than you could shake a stick at.

And sometimes you probably wanted to do exactly that.

Both sides of my family somehow instilled in me the idea

that the church was something worth pouring your life into.

I also saw first-hand

the personal toll that church work took on some of my family.

There are wounds some church workers carry through life.

So I don’t see the church through rose-colored glasses.

The three churches I was privileged to serve as pastor,

have all been profoundly beautiful and flawed human communities.

All three are still thriving today, by God’s grace,

but all have gone through some deep waters.

So today is bittersweet.

I realize for the first time since spring of 1983,

I will NOT be investing 

a big chunk of my time and energy every day,

thinking about the daily ups and downs

of a particular congregation and its people.

It’s not that I will care any less 

about the local church and its flourishing.

It’s not that I have no more gifts to give the church.

It’s just that the positions and power I’ve held 

were never mine to hold onto.

My job was to faithfully steward this power,

so I could hand it over to the next steward.

Church leadership is not a sprint, or a marathon.

It’s a long-distance relay.

The church always needs to be led by those

who can help take it to the next place God is leading,

not keep doing what has already been done.

So I am entirely at peace handing off the baton to the next runner,

believing I’ve made a contribution to my leg of the race.

Or to use a vehicle analogy,

I’m ready to take my hands off the steering wheel.

Because you know, the vehicle we need 

to carry the church into the next generation,

may not even be invented yet.

So I wouldn’t have a license to drive it anyway.

I trust the church to find its way down the road, God helping it.

_____________________

So today, for my parting words to you, my beloved church family,

I will not leave you with a summary of my best sermons.

Those are all in the past.

They are archived and searchable.

Instead, I want to offer some words of encouragement and blessing,

for the road ahead,

with maybe a hint of challenge.

What I want you to know, church,

is that you already have everything you need, right here,

to become everything God wants you to be 

in this next phase of your life together and life in the world.

You are a blessed and beloved community,

with all the God-given gifts and resources and vision,

to be who God created you to be.

All that’s needed is willingness, receptivity, courage, and faith.

What PVMC needs

is for everyone to stay engaged, 

be willing to take the next step,

and to keep showing up, with love, and with hope.

Recently, at an Elders’ meeting,

I was asked to provide the opening devotional 

by sharing whatever was on my mind for the church, 

as I prepare to step aside.

So, without a lot of long deliberation,

I came up with a list that I’ll share with you now.

_____________________

First, keep showing up.

This is maybe the best thing we can ever do for each other.

To show up. To be present and attentive.

To each other, and to what’s going on around us.

Our culture encourages us to be ambitious,

but not so much just to be present.

Yet, sometimes presence is enough.

It tells others they are not alone.

It reminds us that we belong to others in community.

Some churches are too focused 

on numbers and dollars and other things we can use

to measure and count and compare.

Some congregations are focused on public performance,

by what goes on up front during a service.

These are temptations for us as well.

Live-streaming, even with all its benefits, 

has the downside of making it seem like 

it’s enough to be an observer, an audience member.

In the life of a church, that is never enough.

So, y’all, keep finding a way, 

even in our fragmented, polarized, 

politicized, and competitive world—

to show up for each other, 

to invest in the life of our community,

and to contribute to the lives of members of our community.

With any church, it’s tempting to decide our level of engagement,

by asking ourselves, what is it doing for us?

Actually, a more authentic question is,

what does the community need from us,

that we are withholding by not showing up?

And please, I’m not just talking about Sunday attendance.

That’s part of it. But only a part.

There are many ways we can choose 

to show up for each other.

And . . . there are many ways we can choose 

to hide ourselves in our own world.

Always lean into the first option.

And, secondly, and closely related,

move toward each other 

when things get hard, or complicated, or awkward, or conflicted.

When you realize the easiest and most tempting choice 

is to withdraw,

that might just be a sign it’s time to move closer.

To listen more deeply.

To wait in patient, prayerful, consideration.

We may not have any words of wisdom or clarity 

to bridge the gap.

But if there is any wisdom to be found anywhere, 

to heal what separates us from each other,

it will only be found in the space that we share together.

Withdrawal only makes our differences permanent.

And I’m going to combine 3, 4, 5, and 6:

express joy…pursue justice…proclaim hope…love the world

We don’t need reminders of how broken our world is,

and of the human ugliness that shows its face everywhere,

from our own neighborhoods,

to intractable war zones.

It is so tempting to simply echo the despair that swirls around us,

to amplify the fear and anxiety and hopelessness

that news media and social media love to amplify, 

because it sells, it gets more clicks.

The church has an alternate world view, 

that needs to be given voice.

God is all about joy.

God is all about justice.

God is all about hope.

And of course, God is love.

Now, over the long history of the church,

we have often made a mess of things in doing mission,

when we tried to give the world

what we thought the world needed, on our terms.

We repent of those collective sins.

And we remain humble.

But now is not the time 

to relinquish our calling toward the world.

Now is not the time to silence the good news 

with which we have been entrusted.

I repeat, God is about joy, about justice, about hope.

And God is love.

And God, for some reason 

always entrusts the word and work of good news

to flawed communities of people like us.

Let’s embrace that.

The world out there has a lot more respect and receptivity

for people of faith, acting on their faith,

when they do so with humility, with joy, 

with hope, and with love.

There is no room for colonialism 

or protectionism or defensiveness in God’s kingdom.

Let’s turn away from any so-called Christian movement

built on antagonism or enmity toward the world.

Because that movement does not resemble Jesus.

Which brings me to my last word.

Keep Jesus at the center.

There are some movements in the church

that seem to quietly downplay Jesus.

And I get why some are hesitant to put Jesus front and center,

when Jesus has been so colonized, and coopted

by American Christians,

so misunderstood and abused,

and frankly, made to be grotesque.

Jesus has been twisted for generations to support slavery, 

and war,

and white supremacy,

and rank materialism,

and now far-right Christian Nationalism.

But let’s not allow that to deter us

from proclaiming the Good News of a Gospel

where Jesus remains at the center of our lives and witness,

and is more than an exemplary human being,

but one who, in union with God,

sits enthroned, with love and power,

in a kingdom of peace and hope and joy and justice,

a kingdom that is both here and not yet fulfilled.

_____________________

In these upcoming several years of transition at Park View,

you won’t be seeing much of me.

But please know, without a doubt,

that I am with you in love and in spirit,

that I am praying for you all,

that I am cheering on your team of pastors and other leaders,

and I truly believe that the best years in the life of Park View

are still to come.

The challenges are great. But God is greater.

The uncertainties are real. But God’s future is sure.

Keep showing up, with love and with hope,

and in the words of apostle Paul,

“walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

with all humility and gentleness, with patience, 

bearing with one another in love, 

making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit 

in the bond of peace . . . 

To God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus

to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

I love you all.

—Phil Kniss, August 25, 2024

[To leave a comment, click on "comments" link below]

Loren Swartzendruber: Well Done Thou Good and Faithful Servant

Testimony of the Spirit
Walking in Love and Light: Reflections on the First Epistle of John
Matthew 22:37-40; 1 Peter 5:1-3; Romans 12:3-8


Watch the video:


...or listen to audio:




[To leave a comment, click on "comments" link below]

Phil Kniss: The work of love

God is Love
Walking in Love and Light: Reflections on the First Epistle of John
1 John 4:7-21


Watch the video:


...or listen to audio:


...or download a printer-friendly PDF file [click here]

...or read it online here: 

Love is work.

I don’t know of any love that isn’t work.

It’s meaningful work.

It’s life-giving work.

It’s worthwhile work.

But it’s work.

Which by definition

takes energy,

takes intentionality,

takes persistence,

and can be deeply challenging.

_____________________

And there’s a lot of talk about love in 1 John.

1 John is a general epistle,

a letter that reads more like a sermon than a letter.

We believe it was written at a time of extended

pressure against the church,

which was still a primarily Jewish movement,

scattered around the Roman Empire.

And it was also a time of turmoil from within.

External pressure came from both the local Jewish synagogue,

which in some Roman cities

had already expelled followers of Jesus from the synagogue,

and it came from the Roman Emperor cult,

which was actively and violently coming for those

who refused to bow to Caesar

and participate in Emperor worship.

And this extended pressure campaign was taking its toll.

The church suffered within its own ranks,

as some members left,

recanting Jesus to rejoin neighbors at the synagogue,

or compromising their faith in Christ as One Lord,

by also participating in emperor worship,

thus avoiding the wrath of the Empire and staying alive.

So . . . the pressure was real and great.

The church was divided as to how to respond to the Jewish community,

how to respond to the Empire,

and how to live with each other . . .

how to navigate their vast theological and cultural differences,

as Jews and Gentiles in one small fellowship.

The early church was a setting in which

it would have been especially challenging to do the work of love.

Perhaps, it’s no less challenging for the church today,

in our context,

with external and internal pressures on a variety of fronts.

How to do the work of love . . . ?

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God;

everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

—verses 7 and 8.

When it comes to love, the rock-solid starting point

for the early church, and the church today,

is our identity as a people bound in relational covenant

to the God of the universe, who IS love,

who embodied love in the person of Jesus Christ.

The love to which we are called is not an emotion.

It is a work to be done.

And it is work that can best be done,

within a sturdy commitment to each other,

within covenant.

In a little bit, we are going to be celebrating together,

the decision that Lewis Yoder has made

to enter into covenant relationship, through baptism.

I’m sure that ritual will be accompanied by some feelings,

some emotions, on the part of Lewis, and his family, and us.

Those feelings are wonderful,

but they are only tangential.

They aren’t the substance.

The substance is

the choice Lewis is making to do the work of love,

and the choice we make to partner with Lewis in that work.

_____________________

In recent years, I’ve come to appreciate the angle taken by

author Scot McKnight, in his book Fellowship of Differents.

Scot defines “covenant” as the “rugged commitment to love.”

There is nothing casual about covenant.

We enter into covenant with resolve and trepidation.

We assume it will be hard work.

We assume we will change in the process.

There will be disappointment, pain and struggle,

but the covenant will survive,

if we are willing to be transformed by it.

God’s covenant, or “rugged commitment” to love us—

is the main story of scripture, highlighted here in 1 John.

We human partners in the covenant fail—

miserably, and repeatedly.

But God keeps faith, keeps covenant,

keeps reaching to close the gap.

McKnight came up with a rubric that I like,

which I’ve shared here before,

and in my sermon at the Mennonite Church USA assembly

in Orlando some years ago.

McKnight says God’s covenant love

shows up in three movements in relation to us.

First, God promises to be WITH God’s people,

to move into our space, join us in our messy lives.

God came and walked WITH Adam and Eve in the garden.

During the exodus from slavery, God was WITH Israel

in a cloud and in fire.

God promised Israel, “I will never leave or forsake you,” Deut. 31.

God is first and foremost WITH God’s people—

in the tabernacle, in the ark of the covenant,

in the prophets, and ultimately, profoundly WITH us,

in Jesus of Nazareth,

who was even named Emmanuel, “God with us.”

God WITH us is the heart of the Gospel.

Second, God is FOR us.

God’s presence is not neutral.

God forms an alliance with God’s people,

in order to bless the world,

to bring about God’s saving purposes for all creation.

In Christ, God shows ultimate solidarity FOR us,

as he bears our sin and suffering on the cross.

God says “I am FOR you.”

I will be your God, and you will be my people.

I will send my Spirit to be an advocate,

to be FOR us, and FOR God’s mission in the world.

Third, God’s love is directed TOWARD transformation.

God’s love is a transforming love,

intended to move us TOWARD a particular end.

Love has an aim, a telos.

It points us in the direction TOWARD Christlikeness.

So there is love in three movements, God WITH us, FOR us,

and inviting us TOWARD a transformed life.

_____________________

Now, 1 John says our love for each other,

should mirror and reflect the love of God,

that love which abides in us.

So I think we can assume our love for each other

is most authentic when it has these same movements:

WITH, FOR, and TOWARD.

Or we could also say,

presence, advocacy, and direction.

But . . . kind of like I said in a sermon a few weeks ago at the park,

the sequence matters.

Love is like a well-composed concerto.

There is a first, second, and third movement.

Only after I am willing to be WITH someone, for the long haul,

will I have any credibility when I act FOR them,

and claim to be their advocate.

If we don’t make the effort to be truly WITH,

then our advocacy will be experienced

more like being patronized.

Only after the powerful combination

of being radically WITH and FOR someone,

can they experience my love as authentic.

Then, when I do offer DIRECTION, as the spirit leads,

they can receive it as an act of genuine love,

even if I might challenge them in a direction,

in which they haven’t yet shown a willingness to go.

But sadly, the temptation is always there

to jump straight to giving direction, and call it love . . .

before we ever establish our being WITH and FOR.

A parent cannot shape the moral direction of their child,

without having first established a relationship of love and trust,

by being WITH and FOR their child.

Giving direction,

without prior, long-term presence and advocacy,

will not be experienced as love, but as coercion, as violence.

I think, to a large degree, we have all been guilty of that.

I’m not talking here about extreme emergency,

like grabbing a stranger and moving them out of the way

of an oncoming train.

On occasion, quick and forceful action is compassion.

No, I’m talking about how, in our ordinary lives,

we practice this work we call love.

Do we love with integrity?

By respecting the worth and dignity of everyone,

and being with them and for them,

without condition, giving them agency.

That is our continuing challenge.

This is hard work!

It takes rugged commitment . . . in other words, covenant.

It’s hard to be truly WITH someone,

especially when they inhabit a world

that is strange or foreign or distant to us.

Sometimes, we need to travel a great distance,

emotionally, culturally, or otherwise,

to be with someone.

But that is our calling, to be WITH one another in love.

It’s even harder to be FOR someone,

to truly be an advocate for the wellbeing of someone

with whom we have significant differences, or tension,

or even outright enmity.

In this fraught political season,

I’ll be looking for examples of where a politician or candidate

demonstrates genuine empathy toward a struggling opponent,

instead of exploiting every vulnerability

as an opportunity to attack.

I’ll look, but I won’t find.

We witnessed it in the Olympics, multiple times.

But it won’t be repeated on the political playing field.

And the most difficult is calling others TOWARD transformation.

And no, it’s not difficult to tell someone to change.

We do that at the drop of a hat.

I mean, calling for real transformation,

without sacrificing the integrity of the relationship,

without causing the other to doubt our love.

The work of love requires extreme humility.

Our call is not to fix the other.

Our call is to love each other into Christlikeness.

And we can only do that in the context of a sturdy covenant,

and mutual commitment to one another.

God give us the courage and strength we need.

_____________________

And right now,

may God give us what we need to enter into, and participate in,

a new baptismal covenant

between Lewis Yoder and his God, and his people—

most specifically, this congregation.

Baptism is a joyous ritual of the church,

and it is a solemn and weighty one.

Lewis will soon declare his loyalty and identity,

as a child of God in community with us.

And we, in turn, will declare our loyalty to and identity with Lewis.

It’s been a joy to meet several times with Lewis

in preparation for this morning.

I got to see first hand, and clearly, and explicitly,

what I’ve been observing for a number of years,

and which you have observed as well.

We have seen Lewis mature in body, mind, spirit, and faith.

Lewis trusts in Jesus.

He trusts in the goodness of God.

And he trusts in this community

that seeks to be faithful to God’s call.

So, he is ready to go all in with God, and all in with us.

Baptism is not a sign of our achievement

or even a test of all that we know and believe.

It is rather a declaration of loyalty to the way of Jesus,

as lived out in community.

Lewis is ready to say yes to us and God.

I trust we are all ready to yes to him.

—Phil Kniss, August 11, 2024

[To leave a comment, click on "comments" link below]