† In the name of Jesus Christ †
2 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Philippians 1:2 (NLT)
Form ensures action
It was the reason that I would never make the gymnastics team, or if there was one, a diving team. It was the reason that I would never be able to dance like Fred Astaire, or Gene Kelly, or my dad. My body just didn’t have it, one escapable requirement to be successful in those things…
Good Form. As a child and then as a teen, I was awkward, and gangly, unable to exert the fine motor control required of a gymnast, or a ballroom dancer, or a diver.
Our lives our much like a youth, trying to master, or even be good at a sport. Or perhaps, more like wet cement. Without form, we go all over the place, not quite capable of doing that which was envisioned for our lives. Living joyfully becomes challenging, for there is a conflict, dissonance between how we would want to live, and how we actually do. We may try and find excuses for the dissonance, we may project it onto others, and blame them for it. That conflict, caused by our sin, may cause our relationships great challenge, and rob us from the very joy, that would exist, if we lived in true peace.
Paul picks up on this, in our epistle reading today. He is writing to the church in Philippi – a good church, made up of good people, yet challenged by the dissonance in their lives, especially as those lives intersect with others in their community, who are likewise challenged. He desires to improve their form, the model that their lives are based on.
Our epistle reading describes how Paul envisioned the church living in faith,
It’s people would have similar thoughts about life, thoughts based in the same love and devotion to each other, they would have the same soul-felt reaction to life. Each person would know that others value them, even to the extent of sacrificing their needs, to help each other. And if one person had a concern, all would share in that concern.
Paul writes about this, to the church in Rome as well. There he says,
12 Base your happiness on your hope in Christ. When trials come endure them patiently, steadfastly maintain the habit of prayer. 13 Give freely to fellow-Christians in want, never grudging a meal or a bed to those who need them. 14 ... as for those who try to make your life a misery, bless them. Don’t curse, bless. 15 Share the happiness of those who are happy, the sorrow of those who are sad. 16 Live in harmony with each other. Don’t become snobbish but take a real interest in ordinary people. Don’t become set in your own opinions. with everyone. Romans 12:12-16(Phillips NT)
When I consider my life, and its “form”, I often look at such passages, and get depressed. For it seems that at first, they do not encourage me on, but only show how little I have grown, and how much I need to grow. Anyone else ever have that feeling? The idea of feeling guilty because I see how far short of the standard the Bible sets?
We would cry out, with the people in our Old testament reading today, when confronted by God with their sin. “7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ’How shall we return?’
Malachai 3 – How can we return?
One of the most incredible of passages!
2 Cor 3…
2nd Cor 8
Romans
There is a story about a pastor, a well known speaker back in the 50’s, who was visiting a church. Back in those days, the deacons would seat people, in order to keep the back rows empty. Well this pastor was seated in a row with a man, that we would probably consider homeless today. His clothes weren’t clean, and his hair was a bit wild. His eyes held a vacant stare, and he seemed a bit jittery, as his head jerked around at every noise. During the service, the visiting pastor kept wondering what the guy was doing there, I mean, could he really be getting anything out of the service? Towards communion, the hymn “Just as I am” started to be sung, when the old man asked the preacher, read me the words of the next verse, for I cannot read them. The preacher read, “Just as I am, poor, wretched and blind…” the man broke out with a large smile, saying, “it is my verse! For I am a of these. And God will help me!”
The pastor never sand that song again, quite the same way, as he realized that he too, was blind, and wretched, but that Christ accepted us all, even him.
But that is the key to the return! To look not at the sin God has forgiven, but at Jesus the Messiah, who is our hope and salvation, and yes, even our form.
Malachai 3 – How can we return?
One of the most incredible of passages!
2 Cor 3…
2nd Cor 8
Romans
We begin to get the idea, of how our faith and life is formed, in the verse 5,
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
There are few passages, that are so magnificent a confession regarding who Jesus is, or what He has done. How incredible this passage is! Do we even realize that Jesus was not just a man like us, but God as well? That all that majesty, that all that holiness was laid aside, with one goal in mind? The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that goal – as having been accomplished – He is the author and perfecter of our faith.
He came to serve us. To obediently, and with great joy, obey the Father’s command. To live holy and die, that we could have life and life abundantly!
Here is how Paul described it to the churches in Rome,
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:3-4 (ESV)
Even as awesome as this Philippians’ passage is, telling us what Jesus has done for us, do we realize it sits there, not just alone, but as an example of how faith forms our behavior? Knowing that Jesus has served us, we are free to serve others.
Got a parenting question for you, especially for the ladies, but I suppose the guys can answer too. When you have that little kid before you, and you are changing diapers for the first 500 or 600 times, and that is just the first week from what I hear, do you do it begrudgingly, or is it an act of love? Is the act of serving the little one, something that is oddly fulfilling, or is it only a pain in the neck?
Is it worth the reward, when you first hear him or her call your name, take their first steps, walk in their high school graduation? Or is it just a mess, that you have to clean up? (by the way – anyone feeling nostalgic and wanting to re-live those days, there is a sign up sheet outside my office!
That perhaps is the closest human example I can find, to explain why and how Jesus serves us, cleaning our lives up, in the same way a mother cleans up her baby or her grandbaby. Not necessarily enjoying it, but knowing the love that you have towards the squirming little thing!
In that same manner, in that same mindset, we are called to serve each other, to live out our faith.
The challenge is not the serving, as much as the having the attitude that compels us to serve, because of the love we have for each other. To realize, that the person we are serving is loved by God, and by us.
My friends, let me be honest, this is far easier to talk about, than to do. There is a key, to living life in faith in this manner, a starting place, if you will. It starts to remember what Christ has done for us, in our baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It comes with trusting that we are forgiven, and freed from sin. It comes as we spend time with God, as individuals and as a community, as we share in God’s word and in His sacraments. As we realize this is not just about checking off a religious list of do’s and don’ts, but knowing that together we are welcome into His presence.
Romans 12 and 2 Corinthians 3 talk about this as a “trans-form-ation”, as our lives, are changed by the Holy Spirit. As we realize we dwell in God’s love, as we look to Christ, our lives begin to take reflect His glory, as we take on His image,
My friends, we are given the peace of Christ. We are reminded of it continually throughout the liturgy, it is ours, given to those who trust in Jesus Christ. But it is not just ours as individuals, it is ours, as the people of God.
Let us then, having the same mind, live in that peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, and guards our hears, and minds in Christ Jesus.
AMEN?
AMEN!
