Love, Working Through Faith

 

Text: Philippians 3:17-4:1

Focus: Endurance

Function: to help people see the power of the Spirit to keep them focused

¹⁷Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. ¹⁸(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: ¹⁹whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) ²⁰For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: ²¹who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

4:¹Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

Good morning beloved of God. I love the way Paul calls them the beloved of God and then his own beloved. He has what is called a Pastor’s heart. In other words, he is in touch with that side of him that is empathetic and intuitive to people’s suffering. I believe he was in touch with his nurturing, feminine side.

Generally, when I am picking my passage from the possible lectionary texts, I try to avoid the passages that appear to be judgmental or negative.

But, this is Lent and it’s a season for us to re-focus our hearts toward how we live this Christian life in a world that tries to distract us by telling us it is okay to be selfish, greedy and refuse to share our blessings from God because its the American way.

Not really the American way, but the way of the world.

In contrast, John implies that if we have the means and we see someone in need and do nothing to help, we are not walking in the love of Christ.

The way of Christ revolutionized and upset the social order of the first 3 centuries. It was a radical shift from class oppression by wealthy to the collective empowering of the poor when they learned to share and to help each other survive.

It was so radical that the Roman authorities tried to stop them by executing them in the arenas as public spectacles.

In order to bring about a system whereby everyone was included, some of our early fore-fathers and fore-mothers gave their lives.

So, our Lenten sacrifice, or our Lenten focus on the suffering of Christ, which leads us to the celebration of his resurrection on Easter Sunday, is a reminder of the suffering of generations of believers who have born witness to our faith with their lives.

Our sacrifice remembers the sacrifices of others.

Christ himself, in faith and the hope of the resurrection, suffered the agony of his murder for us in order to deliver us from the fear of death and restore us to God through our own living by faith.

We cannot adequately do that except for the resurrection which for us means that when we die, we die in faith that the Lord himself will redeem our lives from the grave into our reward.

Lent looks forward to the resurrection and there can be no resurrection without a death. In Lent, we symbolically die to ourselves.

I’m not sure what to do with the phrase from our passage in verse 21 when he says he will change our vile body.

When I read Genesis 1, I read that God created both male and female and God called both male and female: “good.” When I read Romans 1, I read that God created different genders as well.

God calls Creation Good.

And yet, in this passage, Paul calls what God created as vile.

The scriptures do say that when God created us, we were good and then we became corrupt.

And it is true that there are people who have cut off their conscience, or have had their consciences severed by abuse or neglect as is the case with many of the residents I get to know during a Kairos weekend.

And in order to keep society safe and to protect the weak from the strong, we are forced to incarcerate those who violate the rights of others.

And although I believe that non violent offenders need a better solution for rehabilitation than our prison system, I agree that societies need to ensure justice. Some people aren’t safe to be around others.

I get the fact that there are evildoers in this world and God desires that we protect the weak from those who would exploit them.

But I don’t see prison resident, or the Uber passenger, or the Wal-Mart clerk and especially any of you as vile. I see humans whom God loves. I see us as created in the image of God and I know from scripture that God is seeking to redeem us by faith working through through love.

It takes faith, or trust, in God to be able to make a sacrifice because we believe in God’s reward for obedience.

But again, it is Lent and we take this time to acknowledge that corruption has crept into humanity and we direct our focus on what God wants from us as we live the rest of our earthly lives for God’s glory and purpose.

So let us focus on the rest of verse 21.

Or, let us focus on the fact that God knows that there is brokenness in this world.

We take comfort in the fact that not only does God’s all-knowing isn’t just from God’s throne in heaven, but also by the fact that God became human and experienced human suffering.

God can relate to our pain.

So, the Love of God works through faith to help comfort and restore us in our pain.

And again, Easter Sunday proves the power of God over the evil that is present in this world.

In verse 23, Paul focuses on the fact that God is all powerful and will indeed transform and redeem us from this corruption through the power of the Spirit.

Through God’s Spirit we find a better way of living and responding to evil. By faith in the resurrection, we feel the power of God’s love.

We feel the power of the Spirit giving our spirits understanding and mercy towards others because we are experiencing God’s love and mercy ourselves.

I love the way those who choose the lectionary text included verse 1 of Chapter 4.

It is the conclusion to Paul’s point about us living by faith for the Love of God toward others.

He recognizes the distractions, as we have seen in the text, and he reminds us to be steadfast.

I suppose the Lenten sacrifice symbolically reminds us of our devotion to God.

And I see the faith giving us the power to continue to love. So be it.