Partnership Sunday

Well today we’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of our partnership with the Christians in Mburi, Kenya. And it all started when David our vicar was visiting a Kenyan friend called David Gitari who was then a bishop, and later became archbishop of Kenya. And he comes from the Mount Kenya region, which is where Mburi is. As the crow flies it’s 20 miles from Mburi to the top of Mount Kenya – although the crow would have to get up to over 17,000 feet because it’s a stunning, alpine mountain with snow on it year-round. Anyway, David Gitari took David Holloway to a fund-raising auction at a place called Ngiriambu and introduced him to his nephew, Mwendwa. And Mwendwa, with his wife Joyce, has been the lynch-pin of the partnership. I’ve stayed with him in Mburi three times and been showered with his generosity. And on this occasion at this auction, Mwendwa showered generosity on David Holloway by buying him a live chicken. David then got back to Newcastle and shortly afterwards received a letter from Mwendwa saying, ‘How about forming a partnership?’ So the moral of the story so far is that he who buys you a chicken may have a hidden agenda.

And Mwendwa’s agenda was to do more to meet both the spiritual and physical needs in Mburi. I said that the auction where David and Mwendwa met was in this place Ngiriambu – in fact, at the church there. And Mburi is in that church’s parish. But it’s a big parish, and it’s a six-mile round walk from Mburi to Ngiriambu and back – so Mburi had already been given its own congregation at the far end of the parish which was about 100 strong when David first visited. And Mwendwa’s vision was for a new community centre in Mburi, where that congregation could meet and through which people could both hear about Jesus and get some primary health care, since the nearest dispensary was a long way to go.

And to cut a 25-year story short, the St Philip’s Community Centre opened in 1992; a well was sunk to provide Mburi with clean water; the clinic opened in 1994; a lab for carrying out things like diagnostic blood tests opened in 1997; and a new nursery school opened in 2004. The partnership has also spun off two other things separately supported by the Jesmond Trust. One is the new Mburi Christian Primary School which opened two years ago. And the other is the training conference I’ve now done three times for pastors in the region.

So we call it our partnership with the Christians in Mburi. And that word comes from the New Testament – from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians. And that’s where I want us to look in the Bible this morning – to help us appreciate our partnership with the Mburi Christians more, and to help us play our part in it better. So would you turn in the Bible to Philippians 1 and look down to v1:

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,To all the saints [‘saints’ is just the New Testament word for Christians] in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (vv1-2)

So Paul had gone to this place Philippi where the gospel had never been heard before. He’d told people about Jesus; people had come to faith in Jesus and this church was born. Paul had then left town to take the gospel elsewhere. But his relationship with the Philippians didn’t end there. Because if you read through this letter, you find it was partly a ‘thank you’ for the Philippians’ latest financial gift to him. In fact you find that ever since Paul had left town, they’d supported him and prayed for him and sent people to visit and encourage him. And that’s why this letter begins the way it does. Look on to v3:

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (vv3-6)

And ‘partnership in the gospel’ is what we have with the Mburi Christians. And Philippians 1 tells us to do three things at our end of the partnership:

First, BE ENCOURAGED BY THE MBURI CHRISTIANS’ WORK FOR THE GOSPEL (vv3-6)

Now when Paul talked about the Philippians’ ‘partnership in the gospel’ he meant two things.

On the one hand, he meant their support of him at his end – giving, praying, visiting. That encouraged him hugely – as it encourages the Mburi Christians hugely that we give, pray and visit. So, e.g., part of our giving to Mburi helps the Christians there to give food aid to the elderly – so that the gospel is both shared and backed up by Christ-like action. And on one of my visits I met an elderly couple who told me they couldn’t have made ends meet without that. And they said, ‘Tell the people at Jesmond that we can see their faith is real.’

But on the other hand, by ‘partnership in the gospel’ Paul also meant the Philippians’ work in sharing the gospel at their end. So just look on to Philippians chapter 1 and verse 27 to see that. Paul says to them:

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. (vv27-28)

So they were working away at their end to tell family and friends and neighbours and colleagues about Jesus. But that wasn’t always well received, because by nature none of us like to be told that we’re not acceptable to God as we are, and that we need to come to Jesus to be accepted by being forgiven – and then changed. But that’s what the gospel tells us. So look on to v29, where Paul says:

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on [Jesus], but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. (vv29-30)

So he was encouraged by their support for him at his end and by their work for the gospel at their end – ie, by the fact that they were involved in the same struggle to make Jesus known.

And we should be encouraged (not to say challenged) by the way the Mburi Christians are working for the gospel. So, e.g., I think of the persistence with which their church visiting team keeps going to people in their homes to challenge them to think about the gospel and respond. There was one elderly woman at Mburi called Marianne, who died just recently. And for many years she did a roaring trade in brewing illicit beer and was quite alcoholic herself. But church visitors never wrote her off: they kept visiting her even if she didn’t make them feel welcome, and very late in life she came to faith in Jesus and changed completely. And I wonder: how does that compare with our parish visiting? Or with our persistence with people we know?

And then I think of the church growth they’ve seen in Mburi. 25 years back, the congregation was maybe 100 strong; it’s now more like 200 – and has planted another congregation that’s growing towards that kind of size. Then Simon Chomba, who used to be the evangelist at Mburi, is now vicar of two churches just down the road. One of those was started only 10 years ago; its building is now full at 100 people and they’re putting up a new one which will seat 300. So they’re thinking about church growth and praying and working for it just as much as we are.

So that’s the first thing: Paul says: ‘I thank... God... because of your partnership in the gospel.’ Now there are plenty of organisations providing partnership in other things. E.g., the charity Wateraid is about partnership in safe water. And that’s good. And the last time one of our children had diahorrea and vomiting I thanked God that safe water meant we had no more than a bad night – whereas in many places, that’s a killer. So I’m all for Wateraid – and, as I said, we helped to provide that well at Mburi to provide clean water. But as a Christian you have to say there’s an even more important need. In fact, I was on the train once and got talking to someone who worked for Wateraid. And he said to me, ‘It’s so satisfying to know you’re involved in meeting the most fundamental human need.’ So I said, ‘But you’re not.’ And he was very taken aback and said, ‘What do you mean?’ So I said, ‘Well, if this life was all there is, and there was no God and no judgement and no need to sort out where you stand with God before you die, I’d agree with you. But I’m convinced there is actually a God, because he’s been here in the person of Jesus. And I believe Jesus came because we do actually need forgiving and putting right with God before we meet him – and that’s why he died on the cross. And I think that’s the fundamental human need.’

Your most fundamental need, and mine, is to be forgiven and accepted by God, on the basis of Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins. And if you’re unsure about that, can I encourage you to get a copy of this booklet ‘Why Jesus?’ from our church Welcome Desk and give it a read. But if you are sure about that, can I encourage you to be thoroughly involved in partnership in the gospel?

So, be encouraged by the Mburi Christians’ work for the gospel. Then,

Second, BE CONCERNED FOR THE MBURI CHRISTIANS AMONG ALL YOUR OWN CONCERNS (vv7-8)

Look at Philippians 1, verse 7. Paul says:

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. (vv7-8)

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to our mission partners – in Mburi or elsewhere – part of me wants to say, ‘Look, I’ve got enough on my plate personally, without adding from elsewhere to my concerns.’ But just stop and think what Paul had on his plate personally. Verse 7 says he was in chains. Most likely he was in Rome, on trial for his life under the accusation that his work in spreading the gospel was subversive to the Roman government. And later in this letter he weighs up the possibility that he might well die for the faith – which he did soon afterwards. So he had an awful lot on his mind, personally. And yet he also had the Philippians on his mind among all his own concerns – there’s no trace of self-centredness or self-absorption in Paul. Half way through v7 he says:

I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace [ie his all-forgiving love] with me. (v7)

So Paul is saying, ‘Since God has shown his grace to me and since he’s shown his grace to you as well, we’re part of the same spiritual family; we’re brothers and sisters in Christ. So you are my concern; you can’t not be my concern.’ And the challenge for us is to have the same attitude as Paul – and when it comes to this partnership, to be concerned for the Mburi Christians among all our own concerns.

Now you can’t be genuinely concerned for everyone in the world, or even every Christian brother and sister. And God knows that. As C.S. Lewis once said:

It is easier to be enthusiastic about humanity with a capital ‘H’ than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular. (quoted in The Epistles of John, John Stott, IVP, p143)

And that’s why, in his sovereignty, God gives us particular people to love – the particular people in our families, in our church, in our workplace and so on. And in this church he’s given us this particular partnership with Mburi to help us in the discipline of being un-self-centred, un-self-absorbed, un-self-important. Because it’s very tempting for a church like ours to be self-important, isn’t it – because of our size and because of our potential for influence in the schools and universities and professions represented here and so on. And then you think of the Mburi Christians in rural Kenya and you ask, ‘Which church – ours or theirs – is more important?’ And the Bible says that question is an ungodly one – because if you ask God the question which church is more important to him, the answer is: they’re equally important, equally loved by him and equally significant to him as witnesses to a whole world in need of his Son.

So let’s learn to be concerned for the Mburi Christians among our own concerns. And can I say: they certainly are concerned for us. E.g., this time last year, the phone went and I picked it up and a voice said, ‘Ian, it’s Lazarus here!’ And my mind went blank – the only Lazarus I could think of was the one Jesus brought back from the dead in John 11, and I was fairly sure it wasn’t him. And then he said, ‘Lazarus from the conference at Mburi.’ I’d met him once. I don’t know how he found my number. But he was over visiting his brother in London and one of his first priorities was to phone and ask how I was and how the church here in Jesmond was. They certainly have us in their hearts.

So, let’s be encouraged by the Mburi Christians’ work for the gospel. Let’s be concerned for them among all our own concerns. Then, to end with:

Third, PRAY FOR THE GOSPEL TO SHAPE THEIR LIVES – AS THEY DO FOR US (vv9-11)

Look on to v9. After talking about his love for them, Paul says to the Philippians:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (vv9-11)

So Paul had already been on the receiving end of their love as they’d supported his work. And that showed that the gospel had already begun to shape their lives – they saw that hearing about Jesus is peoples’ fundamental need, so they were prepared to put time and prayer and money into supporting Paul as well as into being a gospel-sharing church at their end. And Paul basically prays for more of the same in their lives. He prays that they’ll see and do what’s best (v10) in the light of what he calls ‘the day of Christ’ – ie, the day when everyone will meet the risen Jesus as Lord and Judge. And in the light of that day, what’s best now for someone who’s not yet a believer is that they hear the gospel and put their trust in Jesus. And what’s best now for someone who is a believer is that they live flat out to please God and to be partners in sharing the gospel with others and building up the church.

So you can keep in touch with the news and needs from Mburi through the mission information at the back of church, or through the monthly Mburi prayer meeting on the first Sunday of the month (details of that are in the notice sheet). But you can always pray this prayer from Philippians 1 for them – that the gospel and gospel priorities will shape their lives.

And they pray that for us. For example, last time I visited, I had a long conversation with that person Lazarus and some others. And they were asking me about how things were here in Britain – about the materialism and the secularism and the high profile atheism and the hostility there can be to the gospel. And as we were saying our goodbyes, Lazarus said, ‘We’re often wondering whether we’ll have enough, so you can pray that we trust him for that. And we live in a place where everyone calls himself a Christian, so you can pray that we challenge that as we share the gospel.’ And then he very perceptively said, ‘And we will pray for you in all your dangers of having plenty; and in all your temptations to be ashamed of Christ.’

So the last thing is: let’s pray for the gospel to shape their lives – as they do for us.

The first time I went to Mburi was to do the first of the pastor’s training conferences I mentioned at the start. And at the end of the conference Mwendwa got up and said to everyone, ‘Before you leave, we’d like to get some feedback from you.’ Now here, that would be the cue for sheets of paper to be circulated and filled in. But there, they just stand up and let you have the feedback, face to face – whether it’s praise or criticism! And for me, what stood out was the person who got up and said, ‘We’re grateful to Jesmond for many things – for our well, for our centre, for our clinic, for the help when harvests have failed. But I am most grateful for the help of this conference, because what we need most of all is to know the Word of God better.’

Which was a wonderful reminder that this isn’t just a partnership in safe water or community building or primary health care or famine relief – although it’s all those and more. It’s a partnership in the gospel with people who love Jesus and mean business for him, and who have as much to give us as we have to give to them.