power in weakness

This week we took up Philippians 2:1-11. The portion that tells Christ's story in poetic language is regarded by some as a likely hymn of the early church. It is hard to know for sure but what we do know is that this story of Christ's "downward mobility" is the story Paul tells that controls his remarks in this entire letter and, arguably, his broader theology of salvation.

For many, this story presents a Jesus who, for a period of time, humbled himself and because he humbled himself became exalted. The implication is that the way up is down for Jesus; and for us, as we imitate him. This view has been promoted for a long time by those who took the verses, "he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited but emptied himself", as meaning that Jesus set aside his divine privileges (also, attributes?) so that he might become humble, live a humble life and die on the cross. In response to this humble servant-hood and obedience, God has exalted him. There is another way of reading this story, though, that represents the approach we took in the homily. We understand this story not to be about a parenthetical period in Jesus' life where he showed radical humility but to be a story about God and the way he is.

In the cultural context in which Paul wrote deities were understood to regard being god as a matter of exploiting, helping themselves to whatever they would want. Moreover, the despotic rulers of Rome and other ancient regimes branded themselves as gods in their own right and certainly regarded this power and status as privileging them to exploit whatever and whomever they wanted. Also, since Adam, humankind had done a very good job of using power and privilege to our own advantage. Against this attitude of exploitation Paul tells a story not just about Jesus incarnate, as if his servant-hood was a parenthesis on his way back to exaltation, but he tells the story of God in stark contrast to the "normal" way of thinking about deity. New Testament scholar, Michael Gorman, puts it this way: "Jesus' exaltation is not the divine reward for his incarnation and death as God's suffering servant (as this text is normally interpreted), but divine recognition that is his suffering servant behavior is in fact truly 'lordly', even godly, behavior. C.F.D. Moule renders the beginning of 2:9 as follows: 'And that is why (i.e. the fact that Jesus displayed the self-giving humility which is the essence of divinity is the reason why) God so greatly exalted him....." Or, as N.T. Wright puts it: ".... the real theological significance of the hymn.... is not simply a new view of Jesus. It is a new understanding of God."

To put all of this another way we may say this. The omnipotent God, the creator of the universe, in the gospel reveals his power in weakness. What would surely have struck a Roman listener of this hymn of Christ would have been the incredibly absurd idea that God would manifest his majesty in the "downward mobility" pictured in this poem. At the top of the heap in the Roman world was the emperor who was regarded as quasi divine. Near the bottom of the heap were slaves, but at the absolute bottom was anyone who was crucified on a cross. Yet, this is where God revealed his power to save. As someone has said, God is not the God of power and weakness; in the gospel he is the God of power in weakness.

I would suggest that all of this carries with it the strong implication that we are to find God's power in our weakness. Now, I know that is no novel idea but I also think that we don't really understand what this means with regard to our spiritual formation. As we grow we soak in God's transforming grace most profoundly when we are stripped bare of our attempts to make a good show of our lives.

Our friend, Chuck DeGroat, at City Church San Francisco talks about spiritual formation and growth in this way: "the road of downward mobility actually leads to glory..... Now, for some of you this might raise a red flag. Many of us have been taught that faith leads to victory. Popular authors sell books promising blessing to those who commit their way to the Lord. And we buy them, because (truth be told) we’re all looking for something to give us quick relief for life’s pain. I was sitting with Laurie several years ago when it dawned on her that her bookshelves were lined with popular writings on the successful Christian life. She had tried to find the answer to her depression for a decade or more, but she said to me, “I feel like they’ve only set me up to fail, and feel even more low in the end.”

The New Exodus way is paradoxical precisely because it requires suffering. As I often tell my classes, if God wanted the Israelites to avoid the wilderness, he would have given them the miracle of a helicopter in order to fly them over it. But we’re all looking for helicopters. In fact, it’d be strange if we liked pain and craved suffering. Even Jesus said in the Garden of Gesthemane, “Lord, if it be your will take this cup of suffering from me.” This is a natural response for all of us. It’s why a good portion of Scripture is taken up with lament and complaint. The problem is that, despite our complaints, God doesn’t give us a helicopter to fly over the wilderness, but invites us to find Him in and through it."


While many of us may welcome this insight with regard to the suffering we experience when we wrestle with illness or the loss of a job, we are not usually encouraged to tie this line of thought to the way we think about our experience of pain as it relates to our depravity. As Christians we wrestle with our depravity until we are made whole in the world to come but too often we imagine the opposite - that we can skip over the wrestling and move right into victorious life, whatever that is exactly. I am going to quote from Chuck again here - this time he is talking about our tendency to deal with our depravity by trying to control it either through denial or behavior modification. Instead, he suggests that we should follow our ache that leads us to sinful behavior (that is sometimes addictive) - follow it until we meet God where our desires are most naked.

Chuck: "We grow and mature (note: stop using the language “we get healed”) as we step more deeply into this ache and find beneath it desire. In this, we find that whatever our drug of choice might be, it is only a false or momentary panacea. One of my drugs of choice is reading. I’ve always hoped to find myself in a book, and I’ve spent hours with dead writers drinking their medicine. The journey has not been futile, as I’ve found that the books or words themselves don’t satisfy, but stir in me something more real. C.S. Lewis said it best in The Weight of Glory: "The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited." What Lewis doesn’t say is that we should give up looking at our pasts, or reading books, or drinking wine, or enjoying sex, though in some cases we know these things can become self-destructive (addictive). What he proposes is that we take a look beneath them. If we do this, our hearts are inevitably broken, as we’ll need to grieve the loss of our false gods. But out of the brokenness, new life will come. Our hearts – constricted from our idols and addictions – will beat stronger and grow larger, longing more freely and fully for real life. Honesty will grow. Hope will grow. Relationships will grow, because we’re no longer looking for final satisfaction in them. Our pasts will stop enslaving us, as we stop trying to re-create our lives in the present (forgiveness). Out of the darkness comes light."


What we must learn to do as Christians is stop pressuring each other to be anything other than works in progress. We must, in our community life, put the emphasis on recognizing in the pattern of our brokenness, a pattern of downward mobility that resonates with God's revelation of his power in weakness. We must learn to count as victory our experience of love and forgiveness in the moments where our deepest pain meets God's restorative love and forgiveness. Our categories of what counts for holiness need redefining in light of God's manifestation of power in the ignoble cross of Christ.


Questions for discussion:


1. It was suggested above that looking beneath the surface will lead us to brokenness, leading us to new life, characterized by honesty and a deeper experience of forgiveness which is transforming. Can you think of struggles you have wherein you are not inclined to look beneath the surface? What keeps you from looking beneath the surface? What sort of encouragement do you need to look beneath the surface? What role does your Christian community need to play to encourage you to look beneath the surface?


2. What do you think Chuck means when he says that our pasts will stop enslaving us when we stop trying to re-create our past lives in the present? Can you think of an example where you felt freedom from your past ? What helped you get to that point?


3. What do you think it means when we say that our categories of what counts for holiness need redefining?

life in community - more Philippians

We continued this week in Philippians, looking again at Paul's call to unity in the face of suffering (Philippians 1:27-2:2). Paul's call to unity depends on - and can only make sense in the context of - a community of Christians who take seriously their commitments to one another. This line of thinking does not often come automatically to many of us today. We often think of church as yet one more experience we dine on in a society saturated with consumerism. Don't like something or someone? Just leave. There is a buffet of options at hand. Don't want to serve others. Fine, just come and consume without giving any thought to giving of oneself. No one will notice. Don't get me wrong: there are seasons of life when one is less involved in Christian community for good reasons and there are all kinds of good reasons to leave one church community and become a part of another one. But when moving around becomes promiscuous and narcissistic, and casual commitment is a life-style it can mean that one has not understood the grand vision of Christian community laid out in the New Testament.

Rowan Williams talks about Christian community in this way: "Breathing the air of Christ, Christ becoming the 'atmosphere' in which we live - to borrow the language of C.F.D Moule - isn't only about being in a state of peace but about being in what some would call a 'dynamic equilibrium'. Our peace is what it is because it is a flow of unbroken activity, the constant maintenance of relation and growth as we give into each others' lives and receive from each other, so that we advance in trust and confidence with one another and God." He goes on to say: ".... a well functioning Christian community is going to be one in which everyone is working steadily to release the gifts of others..... the gift of each is inseparable from the need of each. The giver has to understand both how the gift is to be given into the common life, and has to be aware of what the common life and the obstinate reality of others must give one's own life to be real and solid.... the solid reality of a really functioning Christian community is like that of a good marriage, in which mutual attention, giving and receiving, enjoying and sacrifice are tightly woven together, as both realize that there is nothing good for one that is not good for both, nothing bad for one that is not bad for both, that fullness of life is necessarily a collaborative thing."

This high view of community is why Paul can talk the way he does in chapter two about making his joy complete. Otherwise, his appeal would sound self-serving and condescending (The notion of an apostle saying "Do this for me!" might also imply a condescending sub-text: "since you damn sure won't do it for yourselves!).

Again, Williams: "The apostle, the public witness of Jesus' resurrection who directs the thoughts and prayers of the church, is the one in whom the porous boundaries of life in Christ are most pronounced, the one who senses most acutely both the joy and the pain of other believers..... Being a Christian.... minister..... isn't about managing religious technology for an uninstructed public but about witnessing to the distinctive character of a common life in which each depends on all".

This robust vision of Christian community then is what must come first before any of Paul's appeals and exhortations can be properly heard, whether in Philippians or in his other letters. Indeed, he indicates as much in his grammar in verse one of chapter two. As New Testament scholar, Gordon Fee, reminds us, the clauses beginning with "if" fit into the overall grammar not as suppositions but as presuppositions of the conditions God has wrought in their midst: "encouragement in Christ", "consolation from love", "sharing in the Spirit", and "compassion and sympathy". The verse could be translated, "since there is encouragement in Christ", etc. So, based on what God has built, a dynamic community in Christ, Paul can say, "make my joy complete - be of one mind" and say it as a member of the community who needs the other as much as he needs himself.

Questions for discussion:

1. A colleague of mine wrote a very thoughtful post in his blog (see below for link) about suffering with others and repenting of our obsession with self-protection. But then he said something quite important about the complexity of living with others in Christian community: "Of course, there would be much to spell out as to what this looks like and how it manifests itself, particularly among those who have been abused (…because self-protection would not only be the wise thing, but the most godly thing to do)." Taking his important point as a jumping off place, I would expand (not that this is novel) and say that healthy boundaries between people are necessary for a community to be healthy. Can you think of examples of how healthy boundaries are important for a community to flourish? How is one to go about caring interdependently while maintaining healthy boundaries?
http://drchuckdegroat.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/theosis-and-neurosis/

2. Can you think of an occasion when someone in your Christian community served you in a profoundly meaningful way? What kind of mark did this leave on you?

3. "Nothing bad for one that is not bad for both, nothing good for one that is not good for both". Do Williams' words (see above for the context) help you think about the foundation, purpose and shape of moral instruction in the church?

More on suffering from Philippians

We continued this week in our study of Philippians. Last week we noted that Paul found hope in the midst of his suffering in prison not by starting with himself and his circumstances but by locating his suffering in the larger story of what God is doing in the world to bring redemption. In quoting from the book of Job when he says that he is confident that his suffering will "result in my deliverance" he is speaking not so much to certainty that he will get out of prison but that he and the gospel will be vindicated. Caesar can invoke the power of the cross and create terror among his subjects but Jesus' death on the Roman cross breaks its power, along with every force of evil and the power of our sin. The resurrection is God's proof that Jesus' atoning death is vindicated in the face of those who mock God's demonstration of power in Christ's humble and loving spending of himself into sacrificial death.

In the portion of Philippians following on this, through to the end of chapter one, Paul continues to talk about suffering but he switches his focus to the sufferings that the Philippian church is entering into. Because he identifies their suffering with his suffering and the sufferings of Christ he is talking specifically about the suffering that one undergoes when one is opposed or abused for one's confession of faith that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.

Philippi was a Roman colony and there was a great deal of civic pride associated with that status. The advantages to being a Roman citizen were immense in the empire and it was expected that citizens would give at least tacit support to the cult of the emperor. Caesar worship had a strong presence in Philippi and Caesar was hailed to be savior and lord, the great benefactor of the pax Romana, the peace of the empire (a peace that was kept through oppression and totalitarian rule). For Christians to refuse to confess Caesar as savior and lord (soter and kyrios) and to attach these titles to Jesus Christ was, of course, political dynamite and would raise the ire of the state and many of its citizens: the state for obvious reasons but the fellow citizens of the Philippian Christians would have reason to oppose their Christian neighbors because of the fear of guilt by association and because of the expectation that a crackdown on the entire colony might be Rome's response if Christians grew in number.

In the face of this nascent persecution Paul says to the church, "in no way be intimidated". The Greek phrase he uses that is translated by that phrase uses a word that was commonly used to talk about horses being spooked. So, Paul is saying to the church, don't be spooked or scared - stay on your mission, for you have been given the privilege to suffer for Christ as well as to believe in him. Their suffering for Jesus was a sharing in his mission; their demonstration of the gospel in word and deed is what has brought on the opposition they are feeling just as Jesus was opposed for his message of the coming of God's kingdom. The worship of idols, of power, and of self do not go away quietly and when the circumstances are right the power of evil that is at work in idolatry will seek to kill or at least abuse those who embody Jesus in the midst of this broken world. Paul's main point here is that there is no surprise in this persecution, for it is an aspect of fulfilling the mission of Jesus. But, how should the church respond to this persecution?

Paul gives us a clue in his admonition that they conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. In this phrase the word that the NRSV translates, "conduct", is from a Greek word which can be translated something like, "civic duty". It is from the same word group that we inherit the word politics in English. Paul only uses it here and one or two other places in the New Testament. Since Paul often talked about the life of the Christian using a word which is translated, "walk", one takes note that he uses the word for political, or civic, life here. Why does he use this word? Commentators are divided with some emphasizing that his use of the word is simply to challenge the Philippian Christians to demonstrate in their Christian community what a true polis, political society, should be. Others, however, argue that Paul's use of this political metaphor is for the purpose of encouraging the Philippian Christians to NOT disengage from their socio-political setting in the face of their persecution but rather to continue their living out the gospel in and through the social/political community in which they live. To engage in a manner worthy of the gospel means, among other things, to refuse to allow opposition to define the identity or mission of the church. The Christians at Philippi are to continue defining their mission according their identity with Christ and his mission to bring the love of God in word and deed to those consumed by their sin; those in need of salvation; those opposing the church. Fred Craddock's words are helpful: "They cannot assume that outside opposition in and of itself will create internal unity. Even if it did it would be a unity defined by the opposition. Therefore the church must struggle together for the 'faith of the gospel'. If they cease to act and simply react, then it is no longer the gospel but the culture that gives the church its identity." Or, as Miroslav Volf puts it: "Only those who refuse to be defined by their enemies can bless them".

Questions for discussion:
1. I suggested in my remarks leading into communion that occasions when we experience suffering and opposition often produce in us a reaction that takes us away from the gospel. In Paul's remarks to the church in our passage this Sunday he is talking about a unique suffering because of one's beliefs. Yet, there are some transferable concepts that work well for us when experience suffering and opposition in our lives. Here is a question: if it does - how does suffering distract you from believing and applying the gospel in your life circumstances? Paul was concerned with unity around the mission of the gospel in the face of the Philippians' opposition. Do you struggle with remaining on mission as a Christian and being united to your Christian family and loved ones when you suffer? If suffering always drives you to unity with your Christian family is it a unity defined by the opposition or is it a unity shaped by the mission of the gospel - what is the difference between the two?

2. In an important essay, "Soft Difference", Miroslav Volf explores the relationship between the Christian community and the non-Christian social world into which it has burst, as the first-fruits of the coming kingdom of God. I am going to include a lengthy quote form this essay in order to ask a discussion question based on it:

"The question of how to live in a non-Christian environment, then, does not translate simply into the question of whether one adopts or rejects the social practices of the environment. This is the question outsiders ask, who have the luxury of observing a culture from a vantage point that is external to that culture. Christians do not have such a vantage point since they have experienced a new birth as inhabitants of a particular culture. Hence they are in an important sense insiders. As those who are a part of the environment from which they have diverted by having been born again and whose difference is therefore internal to that environment, Christians ask, 'Which beliefs and practices of the culture that is ours must we reject now that our self has been reconstituted by new birth? Which can we retain? What must we reshape to reflect better the values of God's new creation?'" - Volf

Now, here is my question: Do we think prayerfully, earnestly and imaginatively about when to work to retain, when to work to reshape, and when to reject? Can you give some examples of how to flesh this out in circumstances with which you are familiar?

Philippians - God Vindicates because of Jesus

This week we continued our study of Philippians (1:12-26). We met Paul again meditating upon his imprisonment. The last couple of weeks we lingered over his response to the news that there were those preaching the gospel from bad motives - some in such a way to attempt to try hurt him personally while he remained in prison. We noted that his response to this news went way beyond magnanimity. Surely, some of his response is because of a generous spirit but the real treasure trove lies in realizing that Paul had come to view the gospel as being more important than the messenger (see the last couple of recaps for more on this).

This week we find Paul building on this idea when he reflects on his imprisonment, realizing that regardless of the outcome - whether he is released or martyred - that it is his "eager expectation and hope" that he and the gospel will not be "put to shame". Indeed he says that he is confident that the outcome will "result in deliverance".

Interestingly, this passage is often read in very individualistic terms with a lot of pious observations of an almost sentimental nature ("oh, may it be that each of us is always longing to die and be with Christ for that is so much better, but if we must remain here let us work hard in ministry"). Well, there is a kernel of truth in the notion that each of us should cultivate a longing to be close to Christ whether here or beyond the veil but this is not what Paul is talking about here. He is talking about something that is 180 degrees in the opposite direction of that kind of individualistic focus on personal suffering. The meat of what Paul is saying here is that his hope lies in his situation being located in the bigger picture of what God is doing in the world. Here is why we know this is what he is up to.

1. The phrase "result in my deliverance" is a direct quote from Job 13:16 from the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagent). In this passage, Job is contesting the claims of his critical friends who have said to Job that his suffering must have been brought on by his sin. He responds to them in the presence of God by insisting that one day he will be delivered and that his life will be vindicated. In spite of all of the "evidence" to the contrary, Job stays the course and insists that God will vindicate his life one day (Job 13:18). Somehow, deep in his bones, Job knew better than to let others say that he is evil and deserving of punishment when he knows this is not true. Though not claiming to be perfect, Job claims in the narratives in the book bearing his name that he is faithful to God. Perhaps in Paul's quoting of this passage we find a clue to what his enemies were saying about him being in prison. Perhaps they were saying, you must have done something to end up being treated like this by God. Regardless, Paul, by turning this phrase with an inter-textual echo from Job at its heart, is saying that he is not worried about how he or the ministry of the gospel will be judged. God will always vindicate the righteous who suffer because God has promised to right all wrongs in the shalom of the world to come.

2. The phrase "eager expectation" is an example of Paul quoting himself from Romans 8:19. This Greek word, which some think Paul may have coined, is used only twice in the New Testament. It is translated "eager longing" in the NRSV and is translated, "eager expectation" in Philippians. Clearly, Paul sees his suffering as part of the big picture of God's cosmic plan of redemption in the world (see fuller context of Romans 8).

3. Because of his eager expectation of God's promised redemption he hopes (and I think we are to hear in this an eager and expectant hoping) that he will not be "put to shame". Again, Paul borrows language and categories from the Old Testament to invoke the big picture of God's redemptive promise for the world. Throughout the Psalms and Prophets the cry of the righteous is that the poor, the oppressed, and the powerless will result in God not letting them be "put to shame". Living on this side of the resurrection we know that God answers this cry because of what Christ has achieved in his life, death and resurrection from the dead. This brings us to our summary.

Paul is expressing confidence in the midst of his suffering in prison not by starting with himself and his circumstances but by understanding his plight against the larger backdrop of God's redemptive work in the world. He can find hope in the story of his life by locating the story of his suffering in the story of God's redemptive work in the world, replete with OT echos of redemptive hope to fill out the picture. This model of locating our suffering in the bigger picture of God's redemptive promise is surely the comfort that we are to turn to when all of the circumstances in our life point towards despair, the opposite direction of redemption and hope. When circumstances make it appear that God is against us or, when we are tempted to think that God does not exist, our hope lies in God's vindication of Jesus ( the fulfillment of Job's hope and the reason that all those who trusted in Yahweh would not be put to shame). For, in Jesus' life he shares our suffering, and in his death he shares our feelings of being abandoned by God. Moreover, his death appeared to be the end of hope, presenting circumstances that appeared to final and hopeless. Yet, Yet!, there is vindication in the resurrection. This is the gospel. We are invited to share in Christ's story, to locate the story of our lives in his story. We share in Christ's resurrection and are confident that we will not be put to shame because Jesus has not been put to shame!

Questions for discussion:

1. As discussed above, vindication for Paul could occur as a result of either dying a martyr's death or being found not-guilty and being returned to ministry. In your own words talk about what Paul thought vindication consisted in. How can this help you think about situations in your life where you feel that you are being unjustly accused of something? What should your goal be in the midst of that sort of suffering?

2. In the midst of your mundane, day to day life can you think of any examples or occasions when you lose sight of the big picture of what God is doing in the world and how it should inform the way you think of your life against that backdrop? What can bring you back to seeing your life in the context of God's big picture?

3. Do you have a hard time sensing that things will be OK when you are in the midst of adverse circumstances? Are you inclined to doubt God's existence in those moments, or, at least, his goodness? What sort of exercises can we do to build our trust in God for when times get very tough?

the foolishness of the cross

Texts for the Homily and Worship Service
I Corinthians 1:10-17
I Corinthians 1: 18-24
Philippians 1:12-18

This week we continued our study of Paul's letter to the Philippians. Last week we talked a bit about how Paul could come to say what he did about those who were preaching the gospel from sinful motivations. Some apparently were preaching in such a way as to hurt him while he was in prison. To this scenario Paul responds (see text address above) What does it matter? If the gospel is preached that is what matters. See last week's recap for more on this passage. This week we turned to I Corinthians where we find Paul laying the theological foundation that enabled him to always recognize the importance of the gospel being preached regardless of the motives of the messenger. The Corinthians passage underlines that Paul's statement in Philippians - "What does it matter, as long as the gospel is preached" - goes way beyond magnanimity; what he is pointing to is that the gospel must be understood as transcending its messenger and when it is not understood in this way there may be trouble brewing.

In Corinthians Paul is speaking against a factionalism that had grown up in the church around human personalities. At least part of the reason for this factionalism had to do with a corruption of the gospel message in some quarters of the church. Some had apparently co-opted the message of the gospel into the category of human wisdom and philosophical inquiry. Paul speaks against making the gospel into a message of sophia, or Greek wisdom, consisting of eloquent rhetoric and thoughts about Christ and God based on human reason. He is saying that the gospel is supra-rational on the one hand and, on the other, does not depend on rhetorical eloquence in order to be preached or grasped.

There is much to be unpacked from this passage in Corinthians but here is what I would like us to think about.

* if we are experiencing the gospel in its power it is because we are meeting the gospel in our weakness, acknowledging our profound need for salvation

* there is a way to speak about and engage the gospel so as to rob the power of the message for oneself and others

* the gospel must be thought of as transcending its messengers and also transcending, in some sense, those theological summaries its messengers attach to it


We'll start with the third point. The gospel is the good news that Jesus has inaugurated his kingdom through his life, death, and resurrection. The blessing of the kingdom, including forgiveness of sins and newness of life, come by participating through faith in Jesus' life, death and resurrection; the image and words associated with baptism offer a useful summary: Romans 6: 3.... "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life". Different theological traditions offer differing theological explanations, or theories, for how God forgives our sins and conquers evil in the death of Christ on the cross, how and when certain aspects of newness of life become a part of our being, and how much our wills contribute or don't contribute to our new life in Christ. When these summaries and theological explanations are regarded as equally important to the gospel itself one runs the risk of robbing the gospel of its power by turning it into a putty of ideas that must be shaped in accordance with one's understanding of systematic theology. The problem is that our understanding of theological truths is not the same as God's understanding of the truth; our fallen condition effects not only our behavior but our knowledge (sometimes referred to as the Noetic effect of sin). Our minds are fallen. Our theological reasoning is imperfect. Paul's argument about the message of the cross reminds us that God has invited us to partake spiritually, by faith, first and foremost in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection - not a theory or set of doctrines about how it all works. This is NOT to say that endeavors to do systematic theology are unimportant or superfluous but they play second fiddle to the gospel itself.

Now to the first two points. The cross of Christ is where God has dealt with the cosmic problems of evil and sin. Though human efforts to deal justly and mercifully with the effects of evil and sin are important and often commendable we must not confuse these efforts as holding the same sort of redemptive promise as the gospel of the cross of Christ. To confess that the problems in the world are ultimately irremediable but for the salvation that comes through the cross of Christ is as unpopular with the wisdom of the world today as it was in Paul's day. But this is the message of the cross. We meet its power of when we acknowledge that the line between good and evil runs through each and every human heart and that the only lasting hope lies in dying with Christ and being raised to newness of life.

Questions for discussion:

1.Read the Corinthian passages listed above. Why do you think they (and we) like to identify our faith with human personalities in a way that can produce factionalism and rob the gospel of its power. What's in it for us when we do that sort of thing?
2. Why is it important to acknowledge that our theological summaries of the gospel and our broader systematic theologies are imperfect and provisional?
3. Why is it a worthwhile effort to do the work of systematic theology anyway?
4. Does acknowledging that the line between good and evil runs through each of us challenge our thinking about how we ought to respond to evil when we see it at work in others (friends or enemies)?

more from Philippians

This week we returned to Paul's letter to the Philippians 1:12-18. We focused on Paul's attitude towards those who were preaching the gospel out of insincere motives. We cannot be sure who these people were and why on earth they would have wanted to bring Paul hurt, especially while he was in prison. Assuming a Roman imprisonment, some have suggested that these insincere preachers were from the church at Rome. Paul had, after all, unsettled a few apple carts because of the letter that he had written them. Much of the letter to the Romans focused on getting Jewish Christians to be sensitive to Gentiles and vice-versa. Showing charity, patience, and open-mindedness when it came to cultural customs and food laws were no little things and Paul probably made some people mad. Maybe those who were irritated with him were stepping up their preaching of the gospel and putting Paul down in the process since he could not readily defend himself. This theory is plausible but not provable. What we do know is how Paul responds.

Essentially Paul says of these people, "I am not going to worry about it. The gospel is being preached and that is more important to me". Wow, is the first word that comes to my mind. I don't know if I could have said that. I really might have been more inclined to say my Philippian friends, "hey, can't you do something to shut these people up!?" They are driving me crazy and the gospel should not be preached by people who are motivated in this way." This raises an interesting point. Is Paul some kind of super-Christian who can do things this way because of a hidden super-power? I fear that sometimes we approach statements like this one in the New Testament and push them into that super-Christian category which make them not something for us to do much with except admire the super-power and perhaps wish that maybe, just maybe, we will have the super-power one day. One way that people do this is by saying, "look, Paul is a minister and he is to be expected to say things like this - these are the sorts of things ministers say." I think this is the wrong approach.

A better approach understands that Paul's life, like our lives, was a life filled with struggles, temptations, suffering, confusion, joy, etc. His ability to write the words, "What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true; and in that I rejoice", comes from a life where one learns slowly but surely that the gospel is more important than the things that we often place so much importance in. In other words, Paul was able to write such words of grace and truth for the same reason a married couple seeks reconciliation rather than truce or separation - because the gospel has taken hold of their lives and enabled them to see that forgiveness is what God desires; or, for the same reason why someone struggling with a recurring sin knows that the only and life come from the gospel. In other words, I find it more plausible to understand Paul's view of the preaching of his adversaries within the context of a life shaped by the gospel - the same kind of life you and I can live, where we find ourselves believing the gospel in spite of ourselves, sometimes when we have painted ourselves into a corner and have come to see that the gospel really is more important than the passions and beliefs we often place in front of it.

Questions for discussion:

1. Do you find yourself thinking of categories of Christians - really good Christians who are saints and then you and the rest of everyone? What is the difference between thinking in that way and simply acknowledging that (a) people are gifted differently from each other and that (b) each person is at a different point of maturity along the way?

2. How does Paul's emphasis on the gospel in this portion help you think about how you should regard Christians who, though they believe the gospel, espouse other theological views you regard as erroneous?

3. Paul, at some level, did not care too much about what people thought of him (in a good way). This passage at hand highlights that uniquely. Do you worry to much about what others think of you? Does this get in the way of your confidence in the gospel? Does this cause you problems in your relationships? How can the gospel help you grow to not care too much about what others think of you?

love and knowledge

We continued this week in our reflections on Paul's letter to the Philippians. We focused on his prayer for this young church, particularly on this portion of it: "And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best." We noted that God's word reveals that there is a dynamic interplay between love and knowledge. Knowledge needs love in order to be full, robust and play its role in offering us guidance in living. Love, of course, is not just any old love but the love at work in a Christian community - the love the Holy Spirit brings to us through one another (Romans 5 - the love of God is shed abroad in us). This is the love that God has revealed in the the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This interplay between love and knowledge is said here to give insight, moral wisdom, which will help us make good decisions about what we do and how we live. We can't really talk about this, though, without butting our heads up against the question that so many well meaning Christian people always want to ask of these verses and other like them: "How can I know God's will for my life?".

I love Tod Bolsinger's comments on this from his blog:"when most of us talk about God’s will, we couldn’t be further from the truth. Most of us think of God’s will as a clear, step by step blueprint or map for living. That God has every detail of our lives completely and utterly mapped out and that our job is to find out what that will is and live accordingly. We think of life like as an Amtrak training heading from “this world to heaven” And that God is the conductor of the train and our job is make sure that whenever we have to change trains or make a decision that we are on the right train so that we never get off track. Getting on the wrong train or making a decision outside of God’s perfectly mapped out will is a tragedy, leading to missing what God wants for us. So then, we spend a lot of time fussing over the perfect decision. If God has every part of my life mapped out like a cross-country train track then there must be one perfect will of God for which school I attend, which person I marry, which job I take, how many children I have, when I retire and so forth, right? I mean if we miss the will of God in these decisions we are doomed, right? We might eventually make it to have eternal life with God, but we won’t experience the blessing of living God’s will here and now, right? Wrong. There is absolutely no place in the Bible where we are told that God’s will is about figuring out every single detail in your life according to some master plan. Indeed, there isn’t one master plan. Not one place in the Bible are we told to discern the will of God as we make decisions in our lives.In fact, the Bible says that God’s will for us is really just one thing and is the same for all of us: To make us more like God. To change our lives so that we are in every way like Christ. This is what it says in 1 Thessalonians 4:3: For this is the will of God, your sanctification… or as it says in another translation, “God’s will is for you to be holy…” You see God’s will is that we would be changed, transformed, become more like him. And when we make decisions in life, when we pray for God to be at work in our lives, God’s concern is that we would be transformed people, sanctified people, holy people. God’s will is not in the details of the journey but in the end point, the goal.

Some of you are going to be troubled by this. What? Some of us say. You mean there ISN’T God’s perfect will about which school I attend, which church I join, which career I enter? There isn’t one perfect person to marry, one perfect will to live as a Christian following Jesus? Doesn’t God love me and have a wonderful plan for my life? Yes. That plan is that you would become like Jesus in every way. That your life would reveal God's saving work to the world in every aspect. That you would become sanctified. (Romans 8:29, 1 Thes 4:3)."


Great we may say. That sounds weighty and freeing all at the same time but what does it look like to live that way? Here are a few suggestions:


* That your life would reveal God's saving work to the world in every aspect can be an intimidating prospect and invites those with perfectionist tendencies to abandon ship or become terribly self-righteous in their desire to look "right". It is important to remember that revealing God's saving work is by believing the gospel in obvious and observable ways in our failures and our successes.
* In evaluating decisions, especially complicated ones, we must remember that love and knowledge must work together. For example, a parent who has shown little love and grace to a child over her formative years will want to think very circumspectly about what discipline means when the child acts out in her teenage years with drugs and alcohol. Or, in a marriage relationship, if one spouse imagines that all of the problems of the marriage lie with their partner it is usually the case that the "innocent" spouse is not allowing knowledge to be shaped by love. Or, in the case of some who are single: the constant complaint that "no one will be my friend" often betrays a character trait of selfishness wherein one demands to be befriended without wishing to be a friend - here again, one's knowledge in evaluating a circumstance is not shaped by love.


To elaborate on Bolsinger's quote above we might say that God's main purpose for our lives is that we become better at reflecting the love of Christ to others as we come to a deeper understanding of Gods' character as revealed in Jesus' life, death and resurrection.


I had the privilege of interviewing Rick Bayless at Frontera Grill a few years back. He spoke enthusiastically about the longevity of the average tenure of their employees. He said something to this effect: Profitability is important; you can't keep things going unless you are in the black. But we also measure success by whether this is a place where people can flourish for, if they wish, their whole work-life. If we are not sustainable in that way, we are not profitable (please note, this is my paraphrase of Bayless from memory - if you want a PDF of the article email me and I will dig it up). Back to the point: I know, all of my finance, business and econ friends are either shouting Yeah! or Nay! right now but the point is this: Bayless' way of thinking through decisions offers us a stimulating example of how life's decisions should be approached from multiple angles; for the Christian, life's decisions must be informed by the dynamic interplay of knowledge and love.


Questions for discussion:


1. It was suggested in the homily that our approach to decision making is often so wrong-headed that we don't even ask the right questions, much less find the right answers. What is an example from your life or a general example of not asking the right questions?


2. If you obsess over finding God's perfect will in every decision you make (see Bolsinger above) how might this approach impact negatively on your community of friends and loved ones?