June 24 – Philippians 1 – “Rejoice in the Lord always” – Continuing to head west, we’ve moved from Galatia to Ephesus and now over to Macedonia (northern Greece) to the church Paul founded at Philippi. Charis and shalom as ever in the greeting. As with Ephesians, Philippians was written while Paul was under house arrest in Rome. Some of Paul’s most notable phrases appear in this book: 1:6, 1:21 and 4:6-7 are some that particularly hum. I had a good friend who wrote a wonderful song based on the latter; she put it on an album in the ‘70s, but it’s long gone now. Perhaps we can sing it at Mid-week Worship if you’d like. The church at Philippi was the first in Greece and was born at considerable cost (and pain) to Paul and Silas. In one of my favorite passages in Acts their astonishingly different approach to life as Christians is revealed – newly (and illegally) flogged, they are perfectly satisfied to be in jail, having a sing-along with their feet in stocks at midnight (Acts 16) – because that is where God has sent them. And this letter likewise is about thankfulness and its outcome, starting in v3-11 – “I thank my God…”. There’s an awful lot to be thankful for! In every revelation, God’s nature pours through with uncountable grace. One of His blessings is to give us the Natural Revelation – creation – to show us His grandness and power. We are provided with things that help us thrive and we can probably understand more of those than of His Spiritual Revelation – we know would not be here if it weren’t for a vast collection of dissimilar gifts such as gravity, pressure, air, water, pain, the gravitational constant, time, the Moon, Jupiter, the Earth’s core, the Goldilocks zone, vegetables, the size of the Sun, the Milky Way – just to name a very few off the top of my head. In his book Hogfather, Terry Pratchett has Death say of humans, “Do you know, that in a universe so full of wonders, they have managed to invent boredom?” How broken are we? It seems that Paul is thinking along these lines too, for he tells them that his very imprisonment is cause for the advancement of Christ’s Gospel both as news spreads throughout the Imperial Guard and as people are encouraged by Paul’s stand (v12-18). Poor Paul – torn between living for Christ and dying to be with him (v21-23). And his choice for himself is to remain and serve, and his instruction to the Philippians: be worthy of the Gospel. Strive together for its faith (v27). Remain unafraid of your opponents (v28). You get to believe and – no, wait: how great is THIS! – you get to suffer for His sake too (v29). Woo-hoo! Rejoice! - S
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 15:09:56 +0000
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