Epistle: Citizens of Philadelphia

Andre Kersey
4 min readAug 2, 2017

Greetings and Peace be unto you Philadelphia. May God The Father of Lights, and He whom I swear my allegiance towards, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom for me, was that very light born unto the world, so that One such as myself should be born again as a brother amongst many brothers & sisters. I declare: May this light give peace to such a city as yours, The City of Brotherly Love.

I write unto you so as to express a love and concern for the city in which I was born, but not raised. In Truth I am a Son of the countryside, who prefers its creeks and rivers as opposed to any one’s Concrete Jungle. A weighty reputation it seems, which many boast. For I suppose that in such boasting there is Naming, in naming Identity, and in identity Purpose, through purpose, Character; for it is written “Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.”(Gen.17:5–6) and in another place “And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of thee”. So you see brother’s and sister’s, weighty is a Name both given or received. For if by a good name one can bring forth good fruit, then what of a bad name? For even the Poet says “What happens to a dream deferred?”.

Lord Forbid.

Philadelphia I worry of you. Why you may wonder? The answer, I’m afraid, lies in the blood. One has many aunties, uncles, cousins, brothers both congregated ,and scattered among the the many blocks of the metropolis. When I use to visit the city as a teenager I would wonder, and revel at the freedom, yes this Philadelphia Freedom, that brings forth such a Carnival of Indulgences. At the time, much thought wasn’t given to billboards that read “Philly this Bud Light is for You!” or Billy Dee Williams’s familiar grin on a few Colt 45’s , but “when I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought as a child, when I became a man I put the ways of childhood behind me.”(1Cor.13:11). Let me be clear. I make no nostalgic paradise of the past as the old men do, for every cause there is an effect, and children are raised by their parents. Even so, there is a Darkness that has taken root in the City, and it is your name ,and consequently your children, who suffer.

The wages of sin is death. That is something I had to learn as an adult. But what is Sin? Is it murder, envy, jealousy, adultery, or corruption? No, for such are the branches thereof. Rather, sin is unbelief; an unbelief in life, camaraderie, fidelity and justice, for it is written “As a man thinketh in his heart,so is he”(Prov.23:7) Therefore, let every citizen take account of themselves and be transformed by the renewing of your mind’s. For as sin has one root and many branches, Freedom is justified by her Children. The son of freedom is power, and with great power ( I use the military maxim here:) greater accountability and responsibility.

Citizens of Philadelphia, I digress. Though all of us must seek our “own salvation with great fear & trembling”(Phil. 2:12), it is enough to bear one’s own wages than to have to bear the extravagant wages of those appointed to leadership above you ( civic or religious).Does not the Prophet Jeremiah says in his Lamentations “Our necks are under persecution: we labor, and have no rest”? For when a ruler sins before God it is the people who suffer, or have you not read the story of David’s Census? Is in not written “Where there is no vision the people perish”(Pr.29:18)? Yet citizens how can there be Vision if there be no Word upon which to act? It is the Word who says “Cast your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some”(John 21:6). Further, it is this same Apostle who when leaning upon the Word in Patmos, wrote to the Church of Philadelphia “I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem”(Rev.3:12). I apologize not for hoping that your city and every city on planet earth become a New Jerusalem, for there is an echo in the Word, a call and response, preparatory command and command of execution, for the lover calls out to the beloved. What are the sum of these matters?

My friends, weighty is a Name.

It is a good name that is to be chosen rather “than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold”(Prov.22:1); For in a good name we have even better faces, lest we look away in shame and ignore the situation which is facing you as a community & body politic. Your young men speak of bricks and blocks, but there is a Chief Brick & Chief Block whereby we have a good name eternally and faces that radiate as the Sun. Brother’s, sister’s & citizens; I wish to brief and not bore you before the cares of this world demand its attention from you, for (I use a folk proverb here) “first revelation, then the laundry”. I am as One on a mission so as to present a Name to you, a Name best expressed in and through me ( as best I can), for by no means Philadelphia am I perfect, for it is written “None is righteous, no not one”(Rom.3:10). My friends, I have much to write unto you but until then, keep yourselves from idols.

--

--