The New Testament lectionary readings today seem to have the
theme of “minds”.
The gospel text is a parable of a two brothers asked to do a
task. The first said “ no” but later “changed his mind” and did the work. The
second agreed to do the task but didn’t do it.
The passage from the letter to the Philippians contains the
phrase, “be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of
one mind.” It is here I want to dwell a little.
The thought I pondered this weekend was, what does it mean
for us to “be of the same mind”, practically?
We are not robots. And I, certainly, don’t want us all to
become robots, all saying exactly the same thing. We are human beings and as
such have the ability to think through issues and form individual opinions.
If we started a discussion on various topics, for example, politics,
pacifism, hermeneutics or vegetarianism we wouldn’t all have the same mind.
There would be lots of different opinions. Some of us would claim to be
republicans, democrats, labour, conservative or independent. Each of us would
have opinions on the various current issues. Or, some of us would think wars
are justified others would never espouse violence. Or, some of us would never
eat “anything with a face”, others would think it okay to eat animals. Bible
passages would be interpreted differently depending on the thoughts and life
experiences of the reader.
We would not be of the same mind. I hope we can accept our
difference and recognize and appreciate that there is richness in our diversity.
As our ideas are challenged and we are exposed to new thoughts it will help us
develop and refine our own beliefs.
This may cause us to change our minds. If we think back over
our lives, even to beliefs held deeply we will probably have changed our minds
several times and will continue to do so. This comes with maturity, with
growth, with life experiences. We change and so to do are convictions. This is
part of being human.
So how do we understand the author of Philippians who says
“be of the same mind”? How can we “be of the same mind” when we all have
different viewpoints and opinions in a variety of areas?
I think the rest of the text gives us some clues. As I read
it, it feels to me that the “same mind” is about attitudes and values rather
than opinions, beliefs and issues.
The text talks about love, compassion, sympathy, humility,
regarding the other better than ourselves, regarding the interests of the
others, doing nothing out of conceit or selfish ambition.
I think that is the same mind that we all need to cultivate.
If our common aim is to look out for the other with love and humility then we
can have discussion where we disagree without contention and bitterness.
The world of social media has opened up a new dimension to
discussion and opinions. Too often someone puts an opinion and it is countered
by another but rather than good discussion ensuing there sometimes seems to be
a mean spirit creeping in. One of our “rules” with foster teens is that if they
are on Facebook I have to be their friend so I can keep an eye on what they
say. (Of course, I’m not naïve, I know they can set up accounts with false
names, but you do what you can!). However, many times I have had to jump into a
discussion and say “enough”, the comments were becoming nasty.
Of course, none of us are teenagers who are going to be
putting up nasty comments on Facebook. Yet, I think there is something to be
learned for us all. When we are faced with an opposite opinion, whether online,
in email or face to face it is good practice to ask ourselves are we regarding
the other, are we expressing our view in love, compassion and humility or are
we expressing our thoughts through conceit and selfish ambition.
One of the things I like about our community is the variety
of different viewpoints and the way mostly we can talk about issues without
putting the other down. Long may this continue! This is often a really hard
thing to do. Our viewpoints and opinions are usually well thought through and
held deeply. They mean a lot to us. So, I’m not talking here about just
abandoning them to someone else’s viewpoint. But it is about listening,
respecting the other, recognizing that we are not always right, allowing
ourselves to be challenged, ultimately our (and their) viewpoint may be
unchanged but our relationship with each other will be stronger.
I think this is what the author of Philippians meant by
having the same mind. Let us continue to strive to be a community where we try
to “be of the same mind”.
