Welcome to the final part of our sermon series on St Paul’s letter to the Philippians, the final chapter, literally. It’s tempting when you reach the final chapter of one of Paul’s epistles to sprint to the end like a runner in a race who has reached the final stretch. After all Paul in the final chapter is just doing the washing up, saying ‘hi’ to various people, dealing with practical matters, signing off. This is all true but final chapters are no less interesting for all that, though perhaps interesting in a different way. Here we find the incidental remarks which can tell us so much about the world of the first Christians, although this final chapter also contains some of Paul’s most memorable lines.

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord:

Very familiar words to any Church of England member – they are the words of the blessing from the old prayer book communion service which we also use in our communion service at St Mary’s – and they come from Philippians 4.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.

Rejoice, the Lord is King:
Your Lord and King adore!
Rejoice, give thanks and sing,
And triumph evermore.
Lift up your heart,
Lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!                                          Charles Wesley

And now my favourite. It’s so easy these days to spend a lot of time thinking about depressing things, especially with the news being so grim, so perhaps we should make conscious effort to follow Paul’s advice:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

But now back to incidental remarks which can tell us so much about the world of the first Christians. You have no idea how hard it is to resist the temptation to go for hours about this – but discipline – I will restrict myself to just one thing. Today that thing is the women in St Paul’s life. A rather neglected topic so let’s unneglect it today.

I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

The true companion is presumably Epaphroditus whom Brett talked about two weeks ago but it doesn’t actually say. He is the one who apparently delivering the letter to the Philippians. Euodia and Syntyche have fallen out. That’s not the interesting part people - fall out all the time. The interesting this is: Euodia and Syntyche contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. We can continue this theme in another final chapter, this time from Romans. This is how the chapter begins:

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.

It looks like Phoebe is the person delivering and introducing the epistle, the longest and most influential of Paul’s letters, to the churches in Rome. Phoebe sounds like Lydia, who was, according to the Acts of the Apostles, the first convert in Philippi, and indeed in Europe as far as we know, who Olly mentioned in his sermon. Lydia: with whom Paul’s companions stayed, including Luke, the writer of the Acts of Apostles. You can tell when Luke was personally present at the events he describes in the Acts. Like all the gospel writers Luke is very shy, if that is the word, and he never says anything about himself, neither do the others, but you can still tell. When Luke is present he switches from using the pronoun ‘they’ which he uses when he describes events where he was not present, to using the pronoun ‘we’ instead. But more importantly the description suddenly becomes more detailed, which is the real giveaway, and which is why get these details about Lydia. She was a dealer in purple cloth and presumably wealthy, head of her own household, and it was at her house the church first gathered in Philippi. Looking at the pronouns it looks like Luke spent some time in Philippi and so must have known the church there very well. When Paul leaves Philippi the narration goes from ‘we’ to ‘they’ and then when Paul returns to Philippi some years later it goes back to ‘we’ again. You can do the math yourself. That’s a bit of a tangent but it’s a useful one because you often get people saying, ‘well, the gospels, it’s all just like Chinese Whispers isn’t it. The story got passed on from person to person and was changed until it became unrecognisable; you can’t rely on it.’ But as you can see here, the evidence shows that it was not remotely like Chinese Whispers or even Greek ones. People who say that sort of thing should really look at the evidence instead or relying on hearsay don’t you think.

Paul continues:

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house.

… Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was …

… Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.

… Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the Lord’s people who are with them.

As promised, back to Priscilla and Aquila. As Luke tells us:

²⁴ Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. ²⁵ He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervour and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. ²⁶ He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. (Acts 18)

So, alongside Aquila, Pricilla was a teacher.

Now don’t take this next bit too seriously. It just some thing that historians like to argue about. It gives them something to do. It’s one of the great historical mysteries, just like: what happened to the princes in the tower; where is Lord Lucan; did Shergar end up as horse meat; and why did Billy Bonds never play for England? In this case the mystery is: who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews in the New Testament?

In 1900 famous and influential German historian and theologian Adolf von Harnack in proposed that the author of the Epistle was Pricilla and others have also suggested this since. Why?

Hebrews is the only book in the New Testament which is properly anonymous. As we have noted the gospel writers are very shy and never identify themselves, but you can’t really say that the gospels are anonymous. Why is Hebrews anonymous. Well, if the writer was female, that would certainly explain it.

Other reasons are:

• Only anonymous book
• Paul’s circle but not Paul
• Written in Italy
• Pricilla had the capability

Now I know what you’re thinking. Yes, Philip, but that could apply to a number of different people. It’s true. There’s a list of possible candidates and you can make a case for them all but it’s an interesting idea.

The New Testament is a male dominated book. But it comes from a male dominated world so that’s hardly surprising. If you look, though, at the ends of chapters and other places which you might easily overlook, another story emerges. As Paul also puts it:

So, in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:26-29)