Love's Salvation

 

Text: Philippians 1:3-11

Focus: Love

Function: Advent 2, love brings salvation

³I thank my God for every remembrance of you, ⁴always in every one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy ⁵for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. ⁶I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. ⁷It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because I hold you in my heart, for all of you are my partners in God’s grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. ⁸For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the tender affection of Christ Jesus. ⁹And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight ¹⁰to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, ¹¹having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Good morning!

Well, here we are, the second Sunday in advent and we are on my favorite theme: Love. You know me and you know that I love preaching about Love.

I had a former parishioner who studied Ancient writings and as our church was going through the discernment process as to whether or not we wanted to officially be a church that welcomes people of all races, abilities, both mental and physical, and all the different ways people identify their sexual orientation, he too spoke of the importance of love. Even though he was conservative in his theology his research of ancient writings led him to what they said about John the Apostle in his later years. They said, he, I think like me, could only preach the message to his flock to love one another.

It isn’t a redundant message. Given the spiteful political speech that we all must endure these days, it is easy to fall back into the worldly system of retribution, anger, and separation.

That is contrary to the good news of Christ’s transforming power inside of us through the Holy Spirit.

In our scripture lesson today, we see the love and concern that the Apostle Paul was for the Philippian church. He believes not only in them, but in the power of God through the Spirit to keep them faithful to the end. He thanks them for their own love and support for him and they way that they partner with him in his calling.

And Paul, while thanking them and praising them and encouraging them in the introduction to his letter to them does exactly what the Apostle John did, he tells them that there really is only one important thing for them to focus on: Love for others.

He prays that they may know love more and more. The Greek word Philos, platonic love, is at the root of the name of their city. Philos love is the care and concern that we have for other people.

One of my all time favorite bible stories is Jesus with the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11.

As the accusers are arguing over her fate and trying to entrap Jesus by pronouncing a sentence against the woman that only the Romans could execute, pun intended, so that they can have him killed, he is simply doodling in the sand.

I wonder if he is writing their sins in the sand. It appears the effect is that they see him dismissing their urgent “biblical concerns” for purity. He is focusing on the plight of the woman.

“Do you see this woman?” is my favorite line from the story. When we look at her as an human instead of a sinner, when we see her as the daughter of God, instead of a reprobate, our perspective changes. Imagining the possibilities of God for them changes our attitude toward people. God is able to redeem.

Jesus tells them to look at her and her need. And if they are truly religious and caring about people, loving others as the greatest commandment, they will give up their religious indignation over their purity code and care for her.

When I have a conflict, or some distress, or a disagreement with someone it causes me to regard that other person in a negative light. So, to keep the command of Christ to love them, I remind myself that they too are created in the image of the Christ and the Spirit of the Christ is also working to show them their need for love. Loving is easier when we imagine people as a children of God.

I believe that this call to love others is a universal call to all of humanity. It comes, for me, from loving God and all that God has created.

King Solomon said: God has made everything wonderful in its time. Everything is divinely placed and if we are looking for it, we will see God’s loving and creating hand in everything. We will also see the possibility of God in everyone.

Jesus was looking at the possibility of God in the woman and he offered her mercy and love. His compassion redeems her both from the crowd and from the destruction that has hallmarked her life .

I know that the text today is from the Apostle Paul and his prayer focus for them is John’s theme of Love.

First John speaks a lot of love and it gives a description of love in chapter 4, verse 7-8: ⁷Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

We, as believers, realize that we have the blessing of God’s love for us everywhere. I get that often when black passengers exit my car and leave me with the blessing: “Have a blessed day.” It makes me feel good to know that their expression of their faith is love and concern for others. It is a loving witness to what God does for us.

So, we are the beloved and as you know, our continuing work for Jesus is to love one another.

This love is God’s gift to us, Love is from God.

And then we get to the title of the message, “Love’s Salvation.”

Everyone who loves is born of God.

I believe this. Everyone who loves is responding to the witness and power of the Holy Spirit in their life. God is working in them and through them. They are now born of God because their actions spring out of God’s love for others through them.

Praise God! We are gifted by God with God’s power to be God’s vessel of love toward others.

This is how we know faith. Jesus said it, we will be known as his followers by the way we love others.

I used to be all up in doctrinal precision so that I could be sure that I was perfectly describing what I believed to be the faith. All I was doing was making them table as small as my own imagination.

Then God began to show me how much they, the God, love the world’s people and all of creation.

When we love, we are doing the works of salvation that Jesus said will illustrate what faith in him looks like.