The Good Life: Joy Phil 4 8

Philippians 4:8 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 

God who loves us more than we can comprehend, grant that we would turn our whole focus to you and blot out the terrors of our world. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

It has been another difficult week in the news. The botched execution of Christa Pike may be one of the worst pieces of news. The ethical dilemmas posed by that are enough to leave your stomach tied up in knots for days. And that is just one awful thing that has happened. We can find ourselves deep in a hole reading horrible story after horrible story, doomscrolling is what they call it. Spending hours reading about all the tragedies in the world and there are plenty of tragedies to read about and focus our attention on. And Paul tells us not to do that. Paul says 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  And that may sound like polly annaish advice but remember Paul is in a bad place when he wrote that. Paul isn’t ignoring the reality of trauma in the world. Paul is choosing to focus on what God is doing while being acutely aware of the bad stuff in the world.

Remember Paul is in prison. It is not a happy place. He is dependent on others to supply his needs.  He knows the reality of life. He is facing execution. He is uncertain of just what his fate will be but still, in the middle of all the bad, he says we should focus on the good in the world.

On Wednesday, I got a text with a picture of a chicken in the funeral home where Marty works. This chicken had wandered up to the back parking lot. It was a good choice of parking lots to wander into. Marty loves chickens and immediately caught that hen. He brought her into the safety of the funeral home. We put pictures of the hen on social media hoping we would find her people. We did. Apparently she had been missing for a week. She had traveled across town and even made it across Main street. Before Marty caught her, a boy had caught her and taken her to school. We don’t know what other adventures she had but I’m sure they were quite fun. In a world with such tragedies as botched executions with no just and ethical conclusion lucky chickens are  a good thing to focus on.

Two things can be true at the same time. The world can be a hot mess and good and noble things can happen.  We get to choose where to focus.

I have to admit I say this with trepidation. It is also easy to just ignore the troubles in the world. When we do that we forget that we are called to care for others. There is a balancing act in which we participate.

Paul starts this passage by praising the Philippian church. They are his crown. Whatever else happens to him, he can remember that this church is living as Christ followers modeling how churches should be in the world. Since church was such a new concept, it is even cooler that they understood the assignment. Paul thanks them for this which is a gift as important as the money and companionship they had sent to him.

Then he entreats two of his fellow leaders of the church to work together. Some have thought that Euodia and Syntyche were fighting but new researchers think they were just working together for the greater good of the community. Whatever the case, Paul wanted them to work together to build the church. And you will notice that they are women leading the successful church that  works for the good of the world following God’s call. He then lists some others who are also coworkers in the gospel. This is a place where we are able to see the real person, Paul, stripped of his deep theological covers. He is just a man here. A man in prison writing to a beloved church who has supported him as their leader. Paul becomes very human when he thanks those who have helped him.

Then he begins to tell the church, and us, how to live in the world. He does not say to lament the horrors of life. He does not say weep with me and feel sorry for me. He says Rejoice and again I say rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness[d] be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

He said to them to be reasonable. Not to be overly concerned with the things of this world. Find ways to work together for the good of the church and of the world. Let people see that the church does things differently. The church does not sue each other. The church forgives one another. The church shares so that those who are hungry always have food. The church is not a place of striving to be the best. The church is a place of common worship and common work.

Jesus is coming back Paul says and so we should not be anxious about anything. If he was here today he would tell us to turn off the 24hour news and stop doomscrolling. Jesus is coming and we should be rejoicing so that others can see our joy and know that there is good news in the world. While we don’t need to ignore the bad, we need to focus on the good. We work to correct the bad in the world as much as we can but we also rejoice daily in the magnificent wonder of our God who though he was God emptied himself of his Godness to become one of us. To know what it is to be hungry and to be betrayed. Jesus knows what it is to see injustice and pain Jesus knows what it is to be executed and Jesus calls us to address injustice and pain but we are to do that in joy.

And we find that joy through prayer. We just wrapped up 40 days of concentrated prayer for the church. God has answered our prayers in many ways. Sometimes we can’t see those answers immediately. Sometimes it takes awhile but prayer never returns empty. God always answers.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. We can put down the phone and stop our doom scrolling because the peace of God surrounds us. The peace that comes in the middle of horrible news. The peace that lets us put aside our anxiety for the world. God’s peace is beyond understanding. God’s peace is what brings us the ability to rejoice in the face of all the bad stuff of life.

As we leave this place of sanctuary this week, it will be important to take this peace and joy with us. It is important that we do not succumb to the temptation to focus all of our attention on the negative. Paul tells us that to live the good life, we must focus on what is good and true and noble. We are to find the good and the pure things. We are to spend our time and energy focused on the noble things of life. And through our willingness to focus on the good, we demonstrate for the world what it means to live as those who follow Jesus. And it is for this we can say, thanks be to God Amen.

The Good Life

Righteousness

Phil 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 

                    Pray with me- God of love, inspire in us the kind of faith that holds on in the midst of trials. Let our righteousness be born in humility knowing it comes from faith in Christ and not our own doing. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

                    One thing you always have to keep in mind when reading Philippians is that Paul is writing from prison. I don’t know everything about Roman prisons but I do have a family member who was incarcerated in the Texas prison system for several years. We wrote letters back and forth. He would tell me little things about his life. He was lucky. He worked in the kitchen. He was unlucky because it was Texas and they had inadequate air conditioning. He needed money regularly because everything cost something in prison. Quick research using AI reveals that the items in commissary in prison are 2 to 5x more expensive than retail with up to a 600% markup. Now, my family member was imprisoned properly but there are many more who are in prison on wrongful charges. He had people on the outside with access to money but many people in prison are poor and have no access to additional funds.

At year end in 2023, over one million people were incarcerated in America. World data. Com says  Violent offenses account for the largest share of state prisoners at 618,200 persons (59% of all sentenced state prisoners), with Black individuals comprising 36% of this category despite representing only 13% of the US population. The statistics on incarceration are interesting. The black to white incarceration rate is 5.3 to 1.  The statistics for mentally ill individuals are worse. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (Nami) reports  people with mental illness are overrepresented in our nation’s jails and prisons. About two in five people who are incarcerated have a history of mental illness (37% in state and federal prisons and 44% held in local jails). This is twice the prevalence of mental illness within the overall adult population.

Last week we talked about how the church in Philippi had sent Paul a care package including money. This was an act of love and righteousness.

                    Paul thanked them and then goes on to tell them what his goal in life is. He wants to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

            Paul is saying that there is work to be done in following Jesus. In the church of my youth, the focus was on going to heaven. Everything was focused on making a declaration that would assure the resurrection from the dead but it was a declaration made in the belief that all it took to get to heaven was this declaration that Jesus is the savior. Paul tells us it takes more than a simple declaration. To participate in the resurrection from the dead, we must share in Jesus’ sufferings, becoming like him in death. That doesn’t sound like a very fun gospel. Where is the good news in suffering and death.

            The good news is found in the work of becoming righteous. The work of changing our fleshly desires into spiritual fruits. The work of becoming more and more like Jesus despite our circumstances. Paul says it like this: and I want to be found in Jesus, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Paul tells us at the beginning of the passage that if righteousness could come through privilege of birth, he would be the most righteous of all. He lists all of his privileges. He met all the criteria to be counted righteous in the eyes of the law. But there is something more to the righteousness of Jesus.

Jesus walked in humility with God. Jesus emptied himself of his Godness so that he could be born as a human person. We celebrate that birth at Christmas. The holy time when the all powerful God of the universe, creator of all things became human born to a woman helpless like all babies. God became one of us and lived and moved and had his being as one of us. He taught us how to live in the world. And the world despised him. His message of humility and radical love were more than could be tolerated by those who prescribed righteousness and guarded the law. He healed on the sabbath saying that caring for people is more important than following a law that had been perverted, changed from lifegiving to life limiting. He ate with sinners and tax collectors saying that loving people was more important than following purity laws that said those without privilege were worth less than those born with privilege. And for that refusal to follow the accepted norms of his day and time, he was crucified. But God raised him from death proving that God has power over all things, setting us all free from the power of sin and death. And now Paul is in prison, wrongfully accused and suffering the consequences of imprisonment saying that his righteousness is found not in his circumstances of birth but in his suffering for Christ. His striving to be like Christ in a world that does not appreciate people doing things that go against society. Doing things that reveal the evils of society because if you point out the flaws in the system, you might require that those flaws be mended.

    In the church of my youth, it was enough to say that Jesus was my savior. That got me into heaven which was enough. I know now that faith in Jesus is more than assenting to a set of beliefs. Faith in Jesus is demonstrated by suffering with Jesus living a life like he did. A life of radical welcome to the stranger. A life of caring for the sick and dying. A life of supporting one another in the trials of life. A life of working out our salvation with fear and trembling not just sitting back making grandiose statements and waiting for heaven.

The Christ following faith is active. We are to actively live out the gospel. We are to love mercy and seek justice. We are to strive to see injustices and work to reverse them. We are meant to work toward righteousness by growing closer to Jesus every day. Paul tells us that we are to be joyful in all circumstances because we know Jesus. And Jesus sets us free from all the sin and all the death. Jesus sets us free to live a life of joy even in the midst of pain.

  Paul tells us not to be content with having privilege but to strive to live out the gospel. Strive to know the stranger. Strive to care for the widows and the orphans. Strive to visit the sick and those imprison. Strive to reverse sexism and racism. Strive to make the world a more equitable and just place. Strive to let equality be the marker of our society. Strive for righteousness. Strive to suffer with Christ knowing that it is in suffering that we are refined. And while being refined find that amazing joy that is life in Christ. A life where nothing can separate us from the vast love of God. This is the good news of Jesus christ. No matter our circumstances God is with us. No matter how far we wander from God’s side, God is always ready to welcome us back. No matter God’s grace is wide and wonderful and almost frightening in its awesomeness. No matter what God is with us God will never leave us or forsake us. There is no prison that can hold us because we are free to live as those set free from the bonds of sin and death. We are free and it is for this we can say, thanks be to God. Amen

The Good Life

Unity

God of joy, fill us with your Spirit so that whatever our circumstances we, like Paul, can spread joy in a weary world. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you our rock and our redeemer. Amen

The church in Philippi was one of the first churches Paul founded in Macedonia. They had sent an emissary, Epaphroditus to Paul. Paul was in prison and the church sent him money. Prison is never a good place to be.

Our prisons are not better than they were in Paul’s days. One example is the cost of phone calls from prison. The Federal Communications Commission imposes guidelines that limit the cost per audio call to .11 per minute. We are unaccustomed to paying by the minute for phone calls.  Very small jails, like ours are able to charge .18 cents per minute. And that is just for the call. Additional fees may be imposed like .02 cents for administrative costs. Text messages are also still charged individually by the amount of time taken to write and send the text. It is common for each text to cost .50. And this is just one example of how prisons today make money off of  inmates. It wasn’t very different in Paul’s Roman jail. The money sent by the Philippian church was a blessing. So was being remembered.

Paul wrote them this letter as a way of saying thank you and a way of reminding them what the good life is for Christians. The good life for Christ followers looks very different from the good life lived by those of the world.

Paul begins this section asking the church to make his joy complete by being of the same mind by choosing unity over selfish ambition or vain conceit.

That is a big ask. Even in church we have to fight our selfish ambition. We have opinions about how things should be but Paul tells us there is more to life than being right. It is like that saying do you want to be right or do you want to be married because you can’t have both for very long. Striving to be acknowledged as being right destroys relationships. Paul tells us we are to live in humility. We are to value others above ourselves. We are to look to the needs of others before we seek our own needs.

That is a big ask. Think about the church and the family as a football team. If the quarterback is concentrating on making a name for himself, he will make all of his decisions on what is good for him, not for the team. It is the same with all the positions. A team has to work together or it will not win. The members can all have different opinions about the color of the uniform or the best plays but they put that aside and listen to the coach. They humble themselves for the good of the team.

The church is like a team with a million different opinions but one goal. The one goal of the church should be to proclaim the gospel and live its message. Paul understood that the next question would be how do we live this life of humility and care for others and he quotes a beautiful poem that shows what it means to live the good life as a Christ follower.

He says, Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death-even death on a cross.

Jesus was God and prior to coming to earth as Emmanuel, God with us, he was exalted above all other beings. He was God. The same God who created the world. The same God who spoke to moses in the burning bush. The same God who visited Abraham to announce that Sarah would have a baby in her old age. Jesus was God and Jesus decided there was something more important that had to be done than remaining in heaven being God.

He decided to pour out his life, his glory, his status as God and to be born a human baby. He entered the world the way we all enter it through the body of his mother. He was weak and helpless. He had to learn to walk. He had to learn how to read and write and how to live as a teenager. He had to grow into a man with all the experiences of a boy but he did it all in humility following God’s command in every instance. The good life is following God’s commands in every instance.

And, when he was a man in the prime of his life, he humbled himself to death and not just any death a horrible, painful suffering death on a Roman execution device, the cross. There was nothing glamourous about dying on the cross. It was the kind of death reserved for the very worst people. It was the same as our death penalty. Only the very worst of our criminals are executed. Now, the Romans executed way more people than we do but still, it was the worst punishment for a sin against society. We know that Jesus did not sin. Jesus taught us how to love in such a counter cultural way that death was the only answer Rome and the religious elite could tolerate for him.

God rewarded that humble sacrifice by exalting Jesus to the highest place and gave him the name above all names. His sacrifice was made into the pivotal event that changed the cosmos. Through his life, death and resurrection, Adams disobedience, Adam’s arrogance in wanting to know more than God was reversed. And because God exalted Jesus we are set free from the bonds of sin and death. We are free to live as those without fetters, those who are free from all the jails that restrain us.

It is at the feel of the humble servant of God that all people will kneel and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.

This was a particularly dangerous thing to say in Philippi. Philippi was a Roman town where Roman soldiers went to retire. It was a patriotic town with statues to the emperor and a robust cult of Emperor worship. To say there was another king was to commit treason of the highest order and even risk torture and death for yourself.

Yet, the team, the church worked together in unity to spread the message of Christ and to live the good life as those who follow Christ.

Paul knows this and Paul encourages them to continue their work. Continue to live the good life which is modeled by Jesus who though he was God emptied himself of his Godness and came to earth to live as one of us. To model how we should act in the world. How we should love one another, putting the other’s needs before our own. Understanding suffering not as a rare and terrible thing but knowing that suffering was part of Jesus’ life so those of us who follow Jesus can expect to suffer as well.

Anyone who presents a gospel without suffering as a component is lying. To live as Christ is to live a life that goes against the world as it is. It means compromising when you would rather just be right. It means seeing the needs of your brother and putting them before your own needs. It means being a team with one goal, the goal of following Christ no matter where it leads.

God will reward us not usually with the rewards of this world. Sometimes God gives us the desires of our flesh but most of the time God teaches us how to survive in the midst of suffering. God is there with us in the depths of despair. Jesus who knows what it means to suffer as a human walks beside us, holding our hand as we tread the paths of sorrow. Jesus rejoices with us when the world is bright and hopeful and Jesus comforts us like a parent comforts their child.

Jesus calls us to a good life. A life of unity. A life of humility. A life of service. A life of working out our salvation together as the church who follows Christ regardless of where he leads. This is what it is to live the good life, to follow Christ through valleys of the shadow of death and to the green pastures of rest. This is the good life for which we can say thanks be to God. Amen

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