Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He Who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:1-11)
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So - am I contradicting myself with today’s sermon title? The question would be a fair one - at least at first glance. Last Sunday, I spoke about “Resurrection As Journey” - about the resurrection of Jesus putting us on a faith journey that’s ongoing; that leads in a definite direction, but that leads toward a destination that we actually never fully get to, at least not in this life. In fact, throughout my ministry, one thing that I’ve tried to stress is that as Christians we are never in this life and in this world a finished product. We are a work in progress. It disappoints me and it disturbs me to see a Christian who chooses to rest on his or her laurels, so to speak, assuming that because they’ve come to faith in Jesus, they’ve got it - and they have the right to tell others that they’ve got it, and they claim the right to tell others what others have to do to get it, or what others are doing wrong that’s preventing them from getting there. Oh - I’ve run into such Christians, believe me. They have a tendency to assume the right to tell others (including other Christians) how to live. In a recent post from a blog I was reading, I came across these words: “Jesus is scary when he’s riled. And the only people who rile him are those who, in his own name (what with him being God and all), set themselves up as sanctimonious judges of others.” That’s the danger, though, when you think of yourself as a finished work rather than a work in progress - you tend to become a sanctimonious judge of others! And it’s at least possible that Jesus gets just a little bit riled! So, I ask again - am I contradicting myself with today’s sermon title?
The answer is “no.” I’m not contradicting myself because when I speak of the resurrection as “completion” I’m not talking about us - I’m talking about God. I’m not suggesting that God isn’t still here; that God isn’t still being revealed; that God doesn’t still speak to us and give us guidance. I believe all those things. But I also believe that God’s essential work is complete - and that it was basically completed with the resurrection. Through the resurrection, God gives life. That is God’s work. Through the resurrection, God shows love. That is God’s work. Through the resurrection, God demonstrates mercy. That is God’s work. And all that is complete. God is life; God is love; God is mercy. That’s been shown by the resurrection. There is certainly mystery about God; but God is not complete mystery. God is life, love and mercy. And, ultimately, through all the steps of this journey we’re on, this is what God is seeking to bring to completion in us. Paul wrote that
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He Who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
God has begun a good work in us. It’s the good work of new life in Christ. It’s the work of the God of life, love and mercy granting us life, love and mercy in as much abundance as we choose to show to the world. If our journey never ends, God’s work is complete. Thanks to the resurrection of Jesus, who is forever alive and who is always with us, we have been given everything we need. It’s simply a matter of us completing the journey, growing more and more each day, coming always closer to what God wants from us and with the assurance that eventually we will be all that God wants us to be. As Paul wrote,
this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God.
It’s a good prayer. It’s one that we should be continually praying for each other - so that our “love may abound more and more” (because love is truly what changes the world for the better); so that we might gain more “knowledge and depth of insight” (because it’s in understanding God and God’s desire for our lives that we’re encouraged to continually grow); so that we might “discern what is best” (and not just settle for what’s easy or comfortable or OK); so that, when our journeys do finally end as they surely do for us all, we “may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (which can only happen if we’re humble enough to let the grace of God that is Christ work within us), and so that we might be “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ” (because righteousness doesn’t refer to how good we are, but to how well we’ve lived in to our relationship with God, and to how well we’ve completed a journey of faith that starts with the resurrection of Jesus; the triumph of life.
So, may Paul’s prayer be our prayer indeed.
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