Philippians 1:28-30

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Together we have been exploring Paul’s letter to the Philippians, looking, verse by verse, at the grace and peace that is already ours. I don’t know how your week has been, but if you’ve been feeling bruised, grace and peace to you. If you’ve been wrestling with thoughts and voices that say you aren’t good enough, grace and peace to you. And if you week has been great and it feels like you’ve been walking on sunshine every day, grace and peace to you too.

If you have a Bible with you, I’d invite you to open it up, for the last time, to Philippians chapter 1. If you don’t have a Bible and would like one, please let us know and we will get one to you. During the week I hope you’ll take advantage of our guide to prayer and study. Every day on Facebook we post a daily reading, thought, and prayer that all ties back into our conversation this morning and if you visit our website, gracedesmoines.org you can find the Sunday recap. Speaking of our website, I need to give a shout out to Ben Campney, Ben maintains and updates our website and as we’ve navigated this transition into being online, I know we couldn’t have done it without Ben.

As we look at Paul’s words in Philippians I want to share with you some words from the scholar Gordon Fee. If you think I have been making a big deal about Paul’s word choice as we’ve studied this letter, Fee sometimes have footnotes that take a whole page. Paul writes, “Your faithfulness and courage are a sign of their coming destruction and your salvation, which is from God. God has generously granted you the privilege, not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering for Christ’s sake. You are having the same struggle that you saw me face and now hear that I’m still facing.”

Gordon Fee writes of this passage, “The whole is a single, nearly impossible, sentence in in Greek, which probably assumes this form because Paul tires to include all the urgencies of the letter…”

Not only did Paul, much like myself, miss the lesson on run-on sentences that never seem to end, Paul is writing with an urgency that encapsulates the energy and the hope of this letter. This passage is Paul at his most caffeinated, he is writing no longer about his own struggles and sufferings, in the last few weeks we’ve looked at the uncertainty and fear and depression that Paul wrestles with in this prison letter, but now, Paul is shifting from his struggles to the struggles that are taking place in Philippi.

But before we get to what those struggles are, let’s admit that on the surface, our text for today doesn’t make a lot of sense. Paul writes that our faithfulness and courage are a sign of their (someone else’s) destruction and our salvation, but at the very same time Paul writes that our salvation is linked to the privilege of suffering for Christ’s sake.

For the Philippians and for Paul, there is a struggle that could look like destruction but is actually salvation.

This is one of those passages in the Bible that would be easy to write off and ignore, but right under the surface there is a whole new world that we can enter into, and when you see it, it can change everything.

So let’s have some fun.

As we begin to understand what’s going on in Philippi and the context of this letter, we’ve got to look at a couple of other passages in the Christian Scriptures where Paul’s travels are discussed. In Acts, Chapter 12, starting in verse 11, there is a brief note about Philippi. It’s written, “We sailed from Troas straight for Samothrace and came to Neapolis the following day. From there we went to Philippi, a city of Macedonia’s first district and a Roman colony.” (CEB)

In the ancient near east, to say that Philippi is a city of the first district is to say that this city is a big deal. It’s New York, it’s Los Angeles, it’s Johnston, home of the 2020 4A State Baseball Champions because when a city is a part of the first district you know they can be heard singing, “We are the champions”. That is for the Hoffman family, well done Sam.

As a city of the first district, Philippi is a center of arts and culture and politics.

Philippi might have a lot going for it, after all, it’s the kind of city where citizens could say to one another, “you know, we’re kind of a big deal aren’t we” but Philippi was far from perfect.

In one of Paul’s other letters, 1 Thessalonians, Paul writes in chapter 2, starting in verse 2, “We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you [God’s] gospel in the face of strong opposition.” (NIV)

This starts to paint a picture of Philippi, right? We know that Philippi is a city of the first district, that it is a center for life and politics in the ever expanding Roman Empire, and this Empire didn’t appreciate Paul’s gospel.

As we’ve talked about before at Grace, the word gospel or good news in Greek is εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion). In modern English, we’ve come to know εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion) as evangelize or evangelical. It’s a churchy word that can conjures up cringe worthy memories. My first negative experience with evangelism was in elementary school at a Cedar Rapid’s Kernels baseball game.

I grew up, for the most part, in Cedar Rapid’s Iowa and our family often went to Kernels games because minor league baseball is still major league fun. As a kid, I had a lot of fun at those games and I even got to be a batboy once.

Anyway, I have this visceral memory of being a child just old enough to go to the bathroom by myself at a Kernels game. It was a big deal, I was growing up and gaining my independence by going to the bathroom by myself.

I stood at the trough, because that’s what the men’s room was like in the Cedar Rapids minor leagues, and, out of the corner of my eye I saw what looked like a twenty dollar bill. I was ecstatic, but nervous, because if I noticed it someone else was bound to notice it too and what if they finished before me?

Thankfully, no one else was as excited as I was to touch the floor by the trough. I reach down and plucked up that twenty dollar bill, and in that moment I felt robbed. What at first looked like a folded in half twenty dollar bill was actually a damp piece of paper that said on the reverse side of its counterfeit currency, “Disappointed? You wouldn’t be if you knew Jesus!”

I know Jesus, and I was disappointed, because my hand was wet and it wasn’t worth it.

Some of us might have cringe worthy thoughts about the words evangelism and evangelical today. Those words can conjure up images of street preachers with megaphones and signs of condemnation that have nothing to do with Jesus. Christians have given evangelism and evangelical bad words and we have no one else to blame, but in the first century, εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion) evangelical wasn’t a church word, it was a term for military propaganda.

Every time the Roman Empire would conquer, kill, and destroy a new territory to welcome it into the Empire, they would send out a εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion), an evangelical announcement to spread the good news of their military victory. A popular military phase throughout the Roman Empire was peace through military might, and I guess to can call it peace, but it depends on what side of the sword you find yourself on.

What the early Christian did was take this term and turn it on its head, because death, destruction, and decay, oppression, coercion, the boot of the empire on anyone’s neck is not good news. But sacrificial love, coming to a common table where everyone is welcome and everyone has enough to eat, that’s good news.

And because these early Christians were inspired to know the depth of what is truly good news through the life of Jesus Christ, they started to take couple other terms and use them to speak of Jesus.

By the time the letter to the Philippians was written, Nero was Caesar. I don’t know if you remember much about Nero from middle school world history, but Nero was not a great leader. Nero became the leader of the Roman Empire at 16 and a couple years into his reign he had his mother murdered for reasons that one historian said are, “not fully understood.” It’s almost like teenage angst and unchecked power shouldn’t go together.

During the reign of Nero, there was economic decline, high unemployment, widespread disease, and the great fire of Rome, a fire that Nero possibly started himself and, according to legend, played his fiddle as Rome burned around him.

Can you imagine a national political leader that would devote themselves to personal hobbies in the midst of that many tragedies?

Anyway, Nero had two titles that they loved to be called, they were, in Greek, κύριος (Kyrios) and σωτήρ (Soter). κύριος (Kyrios), in English, is Lord, and σωτήρ (Soter) is savior.

Nero, like each of the Caesars before him, believed that he had been sent by the gods to bring about a universal reign of peace and prosperity, but the odd thing about the peace and prosperity that all of the Caesars sought is that it was only for people like them.

In our text today Paul writes to the Philippians, “You are having the same struggle that you saw me face…” can you start to understand why?

The first creed of Christianity was simply and directly, “Jesus is Lord”. As the Jesus movement grew and expanded we knew that good news was never found in anything that disparaged or destroyed the dignity of another. Good news is not found in greed or exploitation or fear. For Christians, good news is found in grace and peace in this movement of love that is unleashed among us.

The struggle that the Philippians and Paul faced is found in the the questions who is Lord and what is good news? Is Nero Lord? Does a savior push others down to attempt to cling to their power and privilege? Or is good news, is the savior, does the Lord, humble themselves, reach out to those that have been pushed to the margins and welcome everyone to their table?

What sounds more like peace to you?

Which is good news?

Who is Lord?

Paul writes in our text today, “That way, you won’t be afraid of anything your enemies do.” Just a quick note on that word enemies, because, at the core of our faith we don’t find adversarial relationships, we find grace and peace, which means we have to carefully consider what we name an enemy. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 6, Paul writes in verse 12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age…” (NJV).

For Paul, our enemies are not people, we are not in this struggle against one another, rather we struggle and strive towards grace and peace which means we must stand up against every ideas, action, or systemic evils that stain our souls.

When we resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, there’s going to be some push back and retaliation, which is why, when Paul says don’t be afraid in our text today, the word that Paul uses for afraid is πτυρόμενοι (ptyromenoi) a word that was commonly used to describe horses being startled and surprised.

Standing strong and firm in the midst of injustice, not being startled or surprised with the push back that will inevitably come as we continually seek grace and peace for all people, it looks like this.

Paul writes in our text today, “Your faithfulness and courage are a sign of their coming destruction and your salvation, which is from God.”

She stands there, peacefully, gracefully, yet firm, planted, grounded, for the sake of dignity and justice. And yet, she is met, with force, by riot gear.

In this image, salvation looks a lot like destruction.

Elsa Tamez writes, “Salvation and destruction are complementary terms, for if salvation means ‘victory for justice,’ then it is achieved by the ‘destruction of the machinery of injustice and evil.’…Paul’s recommendation is a way of life that comes from the gospels and is the practice of love, justice and care as well as the rejection of personal ambition, instead, finding joy in everything. Seeking salvation means serving everyone without making distinctions of gender, culture, social status, or religion. This way of life is radically different (Phil 2:15) in the midst of a discriminatory and exclusionist society. Unity within the movement of the Resurrected One would show the Romans and the city around them that the community in Philippi takes salvation seriously (Phil 2:12) and doesn’t just speak of it in abstract.”

Give it up for Elsa.

When salvation is taken seriously it is not an abstract ideal absent from the tangible aspects of our lives, rather it is integrated and ingrained into the justice and joy, the grace and the peace that we seek for all persons because God is seeking grace and peace for all persons.

Sometimes our salvation will look like our destruction and in those instances, we are being blessed.

Paul writes that in our text today that, “God has generously granted you the privilege, not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering for Christ’s sake.”

The word for privilege in Greek is ἐχαρίσθη (echaristhē). The root word here is χάρις (charis) or grace.

Grace, the absolutely free expression of the Love of God finding it’s only motive in the bounty and benevolence of God, comes to us, every now and then, through a struggle that to some might look like destruction but at the core of our being we know it’s salvation.

I went to seminary in New Jersey and as a student I’d hear stories of folks that used to work on Wall Street, they’d show up at 9 and leave the office at 5 and one person had a boss that said to them after a couple months, “I can’t help but notice that you come to work after me and leave work before me, that’s not how you get ahead here, you’re never going to climb the corporate ladder that way. Now that you know what’s really expected of you around here, I hope to see you more often.” When they quit that job to go to seminary, to the boss it looked like their destruction because who in their right mind would every take on graduate school debt to be a pastor, but to my classmate, that moment was their salvation.

This is why sometimes students will figure out exactly what they want to do with their life. In an instant their spirits soar and they come alive with the realization that this path would get them out of bed every day with joy. But when they tell their family about their hopes and dreams they are met with dead eyed stares of confusion.

Sometimes what looks like destruction is actually salvation.

When Paul writes that we are blessed with this suffering that leads to our salvation, the word that Paul uses for suffering is πάσχειν (paschein). This word for suffering in some traditions came to be associated with Christ, calling him the paschal lamb. In Greek, in the Christian scriptures, πάσχειν (paschein) is always associated with struggles that redeem and renew. It is the salvation that to others can look like destruction.

Paul writes, “God has generously granted you the privilege [the grace], not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering [of being redeemed and renewed through the ongoing work towards grace and peace] for Christ’s sake. You are having the same struggle that you saw me face…”

That word for struggle, in Greek, is ἀγών (agón). Add a Y to it and you’ve got our word agony.

We know that agony, we know the struggle and the suffering, and what to others may have looked like destruction, we’ve found grace and peace, we’ve come to know salvation and liberation.

As Gordon Fee puts it, when we have been blessed and graced with this struggle we come people that, “cannot be intimidated by anyone or anything since [we] belong to the future with a kind of certainty that people whose lives are basically controlled by Fate could never understand.”

You belong to the future, to the every unfolding love of God, as, together, we strive and struggle towards grace and peace.

Maybe this is why when Christianity, when our faith, is stripped of the struggle, when the agony and suffering is polished away and following Jesus is turned into a message of say this prayer and everything will be ok for you, we all cringe because at the core of our being we know that that’s not what this is about.

How many people have been turned away from the church because someone once told them, just give it an hour of your week and you will be blessed, your life will be great, and then that person started coming to church but in the rest of their life they still struggled?

Maybe what we should do instead is say to others as they join us on this journey, let’s devote ourselves to following Christ and living with grace and peace so that we can struggle and bleed together. We don’t need to bait and switch people, let’s just be honest from the start, there will be struggles, there will be agony, and through it all there will be a blessing, you will know grace and peace because what to some may look like destruction is actually your salvation.

Is there a Nero that is demanding your allegiance, that is trying to tell you that something that actually is destruction is good news? The movement of the Spirit, grace and peace, is never found in acquiescing to that which demeans, denies, or dehumanizes, rather, it’s found in the struggle, in the ways that we work together united in hearts and minds towards this salvation that to some might look like destruction but is our salvation because in this agony we know the blessings of grace and peace because we are children of the future, striving headfirst into the future of hope, justice and joy that God has for us and for everyone else. Let’s pray…

Courageous One, nurture in us the seeds of faith you have planted. We believe in the transformative power of love. We believe in each other. We believe in your creative presence in the world around us. But God, we struggle to live our beliefs. Jesus, inspire us to take heart. Though evil works to limit our sense of possibility, And injustice threatens our dreams of collective flourishing, the Spirit of God remains as close as our own breath, making the impossible possible among us. In community, we have what we need to love each other and our neighbors well. Let us live what we believe as we continually become grace and peace. All this we pray through Christ who taught us to pray saying, Our God (Father, Mother, Creator) who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.

Philippians 1:28-30

That way, you won’t be afraid of anything your enemies do. Your faithfulness and courage are a sign of their coming destruction and your salvation, which is from God. God has generously granted you the privilege, not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering for Christ’s sake. You are having the same struggle that you saw me face and now hear that I’m still facing.

Aug. 10 – 15

Click on the day to expand the guide.

Monday

Read – Matthew 16:24-26

Notice – Jesus says any who want to follow him must “take up their cross”. This would have been a visceral suggestion, comparable to saying take up your electric chair. In our reading from Philippians on Sunday, Paul wrote, “God has generously granted you the privilege, not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering for Christ’s sake.” Have you ever experienced suffering as a privilege? When have you, as Jesus says in our reading today, lost your life only to find it?

Pray – God, suffering as they sign of salvation seems counter-intuitive, and yet instead of abandoning us in our times of loss and struggle, your presence and power redeem and renew us. Help me to take up my cross and lose my life to your grace and peace. Amen.

Tuesday

ReadLamentations 3:18-26

Notice – The writer of Lamentations lived through the destruction of Babylon. Everything they had was gone and in the reading today they do not deny or hide the pain of their experience. In verse 23 it’s written that God’s love and compassion “are renewed every morning.” Perhaps, we experience this renewal every morning because we have to learn to live one day at a time, especially in times of loss. In grief, we often begin to doubt that things will ever get better. But the painful sense of loss we call grief is not a reason to abandon hope; it is why we desperately need hope. What losses are you feeling most sharply today? Where do you long to find God’s love and compassion renewed?

Pray – God, your love and compassion are continually renewed. Help me to live with hope and expectation for your deliverance each and every day. Amen

Wednesday

Read Romans 5:1-5

Notice – The apostle Paul sketched the spiritual process through which every Christ-follower can have a character that meets life’s dark twists and turns with hope and trust, not despair. Have you ever experienced the progression Paul described bringing you to a powerful sense of God’s love being “poured out” in your heart? Later in Romans, Paul wrote, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). How close to “overflowing” is your inner supply of hope today in this crisis time? How can you open your heart and to let God fill you to overflowing with hope?

Pray – Jesus, I like the image of overflowing with hope—but, many days, my reservoir gets pretty low. Keep me attuned to your power. Shape me into a fountain of hope for myself and those around me. Amen.

Thursday

Read Luke 9:1-9, 18-50

Notice – In answer to Jesus’ penetrating question, Peter said Jesus was the Christ (Greek for “anointed one,” like the Hebrew Messiah). Jesus did not reject the idea—but did say bluntly that being the Christ meant suffering, not earthly power. Peter, John, and James probably expected Jesus to descend the mountain, call in the cavalry, and drive out the Roman oppressors! They couldn’t yet grasp that greatness in God’s kingdom often looks very different from the world’s idea of greatness. Jesus, far from pursuing status or power, served others, trusted God fully and gave himself to save the world. How do you define greatness? In what ways do God’s ideas of greatness differ from human ideas?

Pray – Humble Jesus, like Peter I can say you are “the Christ sent from God.” But keep me from thinking that following a king like you is always easy and comfortable. Build in me the backbone it takes to serve you faithfully. Amen.

Friday

Read – Romans 8:19-22

Notice – For much of human history, most people thought of the earth as “a given,” assuming that the air or the rivers and lakes would remain clean no matter what we put into them. But 2000 years ago, the apostle Paul understood that not just human beings but “the whole creation” was suffering from the effects of departing from God’s path. Yet he didn’t write in despair. His phrase “breathless with anticipation” was “a dramatic image of hope.”* Economic and political factors have made scientific understands for the causes of more intense storms or the disastrous wildfires in California and Australia controversial for some. But no matter how you understand causation, it’s hard to deny that these conditions and others fit Paul’s phrase that “the whole creation is groaning together.” How can God’s people be actively involved in relieving the suffering in our world? One recurring theme in the Bible, especially in the story of Jesus, is that of setting captives free. In what particular ways does it appeal to you to imagine not just yourself, but all of creation, “set free” by God’s power?

Pray – Jesus, help me to care about your creation the way you do. Show me how I can better care for your world and help me encourage the people in my life to do the same. Amen.

* Michael J. Gorman, study note on Romans 8:19-21 in The CEB Study Bible.

Saturday

ReadMatthew 14:22-33

Notice – Jesus says, “Do not be afraid”. It is one of the most common phrases in the scriptures, but it’s not always easy for us to not be afraid. The Sea of Galilee sat in a kind of geologic “bowl,” and was always subject to sudden, severe storms. The strong wind and waves were frightening enough. But when the disciples saw Jesus walking to their aid on the lake, these experienced fishermen “were so frightened they screamed.” Seeing Jesus walking on the lake terrified the disciples. Their own lack of power was frightening, but the idea of a power beyond their imagining was more so. Do you ever find the idea of God actually “showing up” a bit scary? In what ways does Jesus’ divine power reach beyond our usual human ideas? What gives you confidence that he always uses his power in ways that are good for you?

Pray – Jesus, I need your rest, your peace, your freedom from fear. Help me to hold firmly to your claim to be the great “I AM,” who is always on my side and at work for my good. Amen.

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