On this harvest Sunday we find ourselves going into the
second half of our series of sermons going through Paul’s letter to the
Christians in Philippi. When we receive
a letter or email, we normally read the whole thing in one sitting, so it might
seem a trifle odd to break what is a short letter up into nine separate
chunks. It does give time, though, to
see how themes develop and to ponder the richness of what Paul is saying.
Paul continues from where he left off last week, as it
were, talking about the narrow escape that has befallen his comrade
Epaphroditus. This man had been sent
from Philippi to find Paul in prison and care for him, but he himself had
fallen grievously ill and had nearly died.
Paul is grateful to God for sparing him “sorrow upon sorrow”, and sends
Epaphroditus home for his health’s sake.
Other sorrows that he has previously mentioned are that he is locked up
in prison and on trial, possibly for his life.
There are rival Christian leaders who seem to be making hay while Paul
is out of circulation, preaching Christ out of a desire to do Paul down.
He continues on a familiar theme, that they (and we)
should rejoice in the Lord. He writes
this, he says, to safeguard them. This
returns to another theme mentioned earlier, that we will all be presented
before Jesus on the day of his second coming; Paul wants them (and us) to be
living lives worthy so that he (and we) will not be ashamed on that day. That will be the true harvest day, when the
good seed is revealed.
You will recall from two weeks ago that we saw that a
rejoicing heart is a trusting heart. The
opposite of this is to grumble and complain which indicates a heart that is not
at rest, trusting Jesus. Paul talks all
the time of the need to rejoice. This is
not because he was of a naturally sunny disposition and everything was going
well. Rather, the more that things went
badly, the more that he calls for us to rejoice.
The immediate context is his concern about religious
people who had somehow missed the truth.
He warns against the dogs, the evildoers, the mutilators of the
flesh. Paul is talking here of people
sometimes described as Judaisers. They
are members of the church, but insist that to be a true Christian one must also
follow all the traditional Hebrew laws, as found in the Hebrew Scriptures. This is an impressive use of the Rule of
Three, which is an old trick used by orators.
First, dogs in the ancient near East were not the pets that we have today,
but were regarded almost as vermin; Jews often described gentiles as dogs. Second, the Jews regarded themselves as
custodians of the law of God, and as naturally living lives that were better
than those of the nations around them.
Third, the defining mark of a Jewish man was to be circumcised, and this
had become almost a badge of right standing with God. Paul brilliantly turns all three of these
around. These people who call others
dogs are “dogs” themselves; these who are proud of their righteous behaviour
are actually “evildoers”; these are folk who cut themselves - they are no better than pagan priests who
slash their bodies as part of their rituals.
Jesus has addressed this attitude when he told the story
about the landowner and the vineyard, and how the tenants rejected the
owner. He was saying that the whole
nation had missed the point of their calling and seemed to have declared
independence. They were very religious
and very sincere. They had allowed their
religiosity to get in the way of a loving trusting relationship with God.
No, Paul says, it those who depend entirely upon Jesus
and all that he has done for us, and is doing in us by the work of his Holy
Spirit, who are truly marked as belonging to God. We worship God by his Holy Spirit, and we
glory, we boast in Jesus Christ. We have
no confidence in our own ability to serve God or please him.
Paul himself has an impeccable list of seven attributes
that should put him on the highest level of being able to please God. He is as Jewish as it is possible to be, and was
filled with zeal to live well. If anyone
could have confidence in himself it was Paul.
But he acts now like an accountant or a liquidator. Here is a list of assets which have now
become worthless. Kodak have amassed all
this stock of film, but no one wants it because they all have digital
cameras. We have all these slide rules
but now everyone uses calculators. It is
worse than that; we have all this stock of frozen fish but someone turned off
the power and all we have is stinking fish to get rid of. We thought we had a container of pure gold,
but it turns out to be full of sewage. Paul
is saying that the very thing that seemed such an advantage before is now seen
to be a distraction and a problem.
Paul returns to an earlier theme. Do you remember that at the beginning of
chapter two he urges us to have the same mind-set as Jesus Christ? Jesus abandoned all claim to any rank or position,
making himself humble and obedient, even to death on a cross. Therefore God raised him from the dead and
gave him the place of highest honour.
From his prison cell Paul writes that he is on the same path. Anything that he might have looked to which
might give him rank or position are seen for what they truly are, distractions
from the real work of following Jesus.
When things seem to go against us, we rejoice in God. We praise him because we are discovering that
beneath the froth of everyday “happy” life there is a reality to be
experienced. You will recall from the story
that Jesus told that some of the seed fell on shallow soil and was fried by the
sun of persecution, and some of the seed fell in weedy soil and was choked by
the cares of this world. Some, however,
fell in good soil and produced a good crop.
How do we get to be that good soil? By living lives centred on Jesus. We allow his Spirit space to work in us, the
Spirit who is known for love, joy peace …
We boast in Jesus and all that he has done for us. This is the path to the true harvest.
Discussion
Starters
1. “If
ye love me, keep my commandments”. How,
in the light of this section of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, would you
suggest that we attempt this?
2. What
parallels can you suggest between the Judaisers of Paul’s time and people
today?
3. What
can you find in this passage which suggests how Christians might respond to the
fact of suffering?
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