Sunday, September 28, 2008

Work, Fear and Trembling – A Reflection on Philippians 2:1-14

Written by Hugh Rushing...

I liked, as a child, to jump on my bed. What child doesn’t? Of course, my mother didn’t allow me to do this. Therefore, I took to jumping on the bed when my mother was out of the house—at the clothesline for instance. From my second floor bedroom window, I could see my mother, a hamper full of wet laundry on her hip, headed to the clothes line. I leaped on the bed and jumped and jumped and jumped. Since I could see my mother as she was returning I was able to tidy up the spread and occupy myself doing something else as she returned to the house.
She came upstairs, armed with her favorite weapon, a paint stirrer which had been dipped hundreds of times in paint, so the end of it was heavy, coated with dried enamel. After the requisite punishment, I sobbed, “But how did you know I was jumping on the bed?” “A little bird told me,” Mother said. I never did figure that one out.

Someone observed that character is what you are, how you act, when no one is watching you. Isn’t it much easier to do what we should do if we are under a watchful eye? I believe it would be much easier to walk my Christian walk if I could hire JJ or one of you to watch me all of my waking hours. Even my wife has a restraining influence over me.

In fact, we rely on our support systems more than we know. When Emily is out of town, I don’t put the toilet seat down; I’m likely to stand with the ‘fridge door open, looking for something to snack on; I’m liable even to drive over to KFC and eat an entire eight piece bucket of original all by myself. I do not however jump on the bed any more.

This is the situation we find in the epistolary reading from the lectionary this past Sunday, taken from Phil. 2:12-13. Paul credits the church at Philippi with always obeying when he was around; but now, some 12 years after its founding and about six years since they’ve seen Paul, he writes to ask that they obey even when he is not there (being held under house arrest clear across the Roman Empire at the time).

From his absent and jailed position, what does Paul ask the church at Philippi to do? – “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

What does Paul mean by this?

For many years, I understood this passage to be a direct command and proof text for the living of a holy and--so far as possible--blameless life. That only by “acting” correctly could one possibly merit the salvation delivered by Christ’s sacrifice. It was an ideal statement for a legalistic, deterministic and judgmental form of Christianity. It also made it easier to just “give up”, since I felt I could never, ever, measure up.

Historically and traditionally, there were other Christians who thought that a sinner must be “convicted” of his sin, and, through a highly emotional experience, “come through” or be “prayed through” in order to reach a sanctified state. This was “working one’s salvation with fear and trembling” for certain…the weeping sinner in the mourner’s corner.

Now we certainly know the first idea—that Paul is commanding his friends to make certain they tow the line so that they can merit their salvation – is certainly not true. At very nearly the same time he writes to Philippi, Paul has also sent a letter to the church at Ephesus where he says in chapter 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the results of works, so that no one may boast. (Listen carefully here): For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for Good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Some believe this passage provides sponsorship for an individual road map to salvation, that everyone has to somehow “figure out,” on their own, what they must do to achieve their salvation. Again, this can hardly be the case, because Paul has some very definite ideas about how Christians should live. In fact, the verses just preceding these contain that great hymn in which Paul commands the Christians at Philippi to take the form of Christ, in humility, and be obedient unto death.

What I believe Paul is saying when he asks that their salvation be worked out is this: God has planted his salvation within the Philippians and within us as well. With that planting, we need to allow his grace to affect every area of our lives—our minds and our relationships with others.

And what about the phrase “with Fear and Trembling?” Paul uses the same phrase to describe how servants ought to relate to their masters in Ephesians 6:5, and how Titus was respectfully received by the church in Corinth as we read in 2 Cor. 7:15. The point is that Paul asks not for a quaking in the boots kind of fear, but rather a respectful awe which flows out of the reverence that we have for the salvation imparted to us by God.

Furthermore, Paul continues in vs. 13 – “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

Surely, left to our own devices, the law of the jungle kicks in – the biggest, meanest and cruelest person wins all the marbles. Whatever good we have within us and however it comes out is because of God and his Spirit working within us. God’s indwelling gives us the power to do what we ought and to act according to his good purpose.

God’s salvation was given to the Israelites in Egypt, but when there was no water the people quarreled. After grumbling to Moses, which he labeled a “testing” of the Lord, God provided the water, just as God also provided the manna and quail. But the people had to consider specific actions which enabled them to collect the manna and the quail and to drink the water. When the Israelites came to the parting of the waters, they still had to walk, just as we have to walk our walk of salvation.

Likewise, this is the situation which Jesus exhibits in our Gospel Lesson for the day: The unwashed of the day…the tax collectors, collaborators with hated Rome, and the prostitutes entered the Kingdom of Heaven ahead of the chief priests and the elders of the people. These were the people who believed in John’s authority and his baptism. They had been granted salvation and they had chosen to walk in their belief, working out their salvation, while the religious authorities neither believed nor repented.

The Western World’s firm grip on individualism has tainted, I believe, our understanding about much of what we find in Chapter Two of Philippians. We have elevated individual rational thought, the express seeking of individual happiness to the expected norm. We work mightily to build up self-esteem; to assure everyone that everyone is a winner in something, to instill pride and boastfulness in home, business and church activities.

What Paul is attempts to do is to convince the Philippians they should be, as he says in 2:2, likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind. And with that one-mindedness, seek with all seriousness to embrace fully the love and grace of God that has delivered them from judgment. And that single mindedness works as that support system which enables Philippi’s Christians as well as us today to magnify the grace of God and make it a rich source of joyful living.

Our new minister, JJ Martin, speaks a lot about the image of Christ, and how a congregation of God’s people can be the image of Christ…not each one being necessarily a clone of the other, but in what matters, love, devotion, friendship, support, being of ONE MIND. We cannot individually do everything that our brothers and sisters need, and that the world needs. Paul recognized that we are of many differing talents and abilities; that Christians within the church can have differing roles and attributes. This is the work of salvation—figuring out as a body, with fear and trembling, where our role is in the world. What we can do, whether large or small, to support and minister to each other and the world we come into contact with.

But we can all look forward to that great day, when time is no more, where every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. May that day come quickly and may we, I pray, be prepared for it. May God’s will be that we are of one mind at Cahaba Valley and that we strive every day to live in thankfulness for the gift of Jesus and his salvation for us. Amen.

No comments:

Free Blog Counter