Phil 2:3-4: “Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves. Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others.”
Last weekend, I was driving through the Parkdale area in Toronto. For many years Life-Spring sent teams down to Parkdale to serve the community there. Being in Parkdale brought back fond memories of visiting International Christian Centre (ICC) all those years. I remember pulling a stool up outside the door of the church, and doing worship right there on the street! Although ICC isn’t in Parkdale anymore, I still have fond memories of that area.
Our teams would host a little barbeque for the community, and there were people who we’d see regularly when we visited every month. We had opportunities to have conversations with people we’d never meet otherwise. Some of us even had a chance to pray for people or share the gospel with them. As much as I hope we blessed the community, we were always blessed by being there as well.
I think there’s another reason those visits were such a blessing for us: we were caring for people living in a marginalized neighborhood. Philippians 2:3-4 pushes us to go beyond looking out for ourselves and look out for others. In the midst of sharing food and having conversations, we were caring for a community and a people who were pushed to the margins. What brought us to ICC all those years was a love and care for that community. It’s that same care that we hear about in Philippians when Paul says, “watch out for what is better for others.”
Last Sunday, Rodney and Peggy shared about another community that for years was oppressed and pushed to the margins by the government and the church. For decades, First Nations children were taken from their families and forced into boarding schools run by Christian denominations. As we’ve been hearing about in the news, many of these children never made it home.
At the end of his message, Rodney shared three ways that we as a church family can respond to this: we can pray, educate ourselves, and live out the grace of God in our daily lives. But it all begins with caring. It begins with caring for others who are suffering or hurting. We need to choose to not turn a blind eye to injustice. We need to choose to love others like we love ourselves (Matthew 22:36-39).
As a church family, we are called to care for others this way. As we continue to practice listening well and obeying quickly, may God transform us into people who truly think of others as better than ourselves, and care for what is best for others.