September 20, 2020
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
Philippians 1:21-30
Beacon of Light through the Inscrutable Darkness
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
“Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” This 27th verse from the first chapter of Philippians speaks through the centuries and into our current context.
I’d like to read it again, but this time from the New International Version. That version captures the thrust of the verb in the sentence a little more accurately. Here it is: “Whatever happens, CONDUCT yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
The verb that Paul uses for CONDUCT contains the very important root “Polis.” It means City. The name, for instance, of Minneapolis ends with Polis. The city’s name combines the Dakota word for “Water” with the Greek word for “City.” So it’s the City of Water. Very appropriately named!
As he writes to the Philippians, Paul’s refers to how they conduct themselves. With the presence of the word POLIS, his meaning is very public. Paul isn’t referring to their private conduct. He’s addressing how they conduct themselves in public.
Today and during the four weeks of our fall stewardship emphasis, we’ll be focusing on passages from Paul’s letter to the Philippians.
Paul wrote this letter while he himself was in jail. While in jail, the Philippians had sent a delegation to visit Paul. They brought with them a nice care package to help Paul during his imprisonment. Paul is so overjoyed by their actions that he sits right down to script a letter to this community who cared so deeply for him.
Paul is well acquainted with the public situation the Philippian Christians live in day after day. Philippi was very cosmopolitan. The city was founded by none other than the father of Alexander the Great, King Philip of Macedonia. The city is very Greek in its culture. The Jews they know and tolerate, but who are these new Christians? Even the Jews don’t seem to like them.
Every day the Philippian Christians find themselves under public scrutiny. Their every move is being watched. As a new movement, they also face the wrath of their foes. They’re very susceptible to public vilification. And if vilified, then persecuted.
Writing from jail, Paul himself is no stranger to their situation. Paul realizes that he’s a walking witness of Christ. Even in jail, he’s being watched! How does he conduct himself under duress? What others see in him is a man absolutely filled with hope and faith. Paul may live under lock and key, but he exudes freedom, freedom in Christ!
Paul’s future looks bleak. He senses that his end may be just over the horizon. But his words speak only of promise: “To me, living is Christ and dying is gain.” No matter what happens in the future, Paul has already won. He wears the crown of glory.
Paul’s words to the Philippians sound very similar to those of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As King approached his final days, he, too, sensed that his end was near. But on the night before his assassination, he was filled only with words of hope:
“We’ve got some difficult days ahead,” he said, “But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land”
Like Paul, King knew that his days were numbered. But even with the specter of death hanging over him, he conducted himself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hope and promise outshone dread and despair.
“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
We don’t live in Philippi, but Paul’s words reverberate through time and speak to us in 2020. What a strange and bizarre year it has been! Frankly, it’s exhausted me. It’s like a decade of events have been crammed into this one year. Let me review with you the year so far:
• The year began in January with news of a novel coronavirus that had emerged far away in China.
• Almost overnight, the virus spread across the globe. The medical community sprang into action. We listened to the daily tallies as the numbers in our country and our state and our counties ticked upwards.
• As if our world wasn’t surreal enough, then the murder hornets emerged in the Pacific Northwest.
• In early spring disturbing news stories revolved around inappropriate policing actions with minority communities. George Floyd, who was choked to death, became a household name. Protests sprang up across the country to call for change.
• But with the protests, there also came looting and riotous behaviors. It seemed like our country was self-destructing.
• Meanwhile, the reaction to the coronavirus continued. We quickly learned all about masking. And then a national argument about masking reared its ugly head. Is masking something we do to protect one another or is it an infringement on personal liberties? Uff da!
• And then hurricane season hit. The frequency and intensity of hurricanes seems to be escalating, a sign of changes in our global environment.
• Along with hurricane season has come the season for the presidential election. We’re bombarded with political campaigning, especially here in swing state Wisconsin. People are behaving badly, posting on Facebook with heated language, even stealing yard signs!
• All of this, from the coronavirus to masking to global warming to racial divisions have turned up the volume on arguing. Our country is more and more divided. We argue on social media. Newsfeeds are polarized. Old friends who hold opposite opinions stop talking with one another.
• Most recently, huge wildfires have erupted along the west coast. The fallout of the ash has darkened our Midwestern skies.
• And still the struggle against the coronavirus marches on.
And to think we still have over three months of 2020 to go! If you feel exhausted along with me, it’s no wonder!
In this year of extreme extremes, Paul’s words call to us. He bids us to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Our world and our neighbors need to be surrounded by our witness of hope and goodness.
What does that mean for us? As I pondered this question, my first thought is that we reflect Christ’s light in the world. Christ’s gospel is light for the darkest night of the soul. It gives us direction when the way is shrouded in shadow. As we receive this good news, we in turn reflect it into the world.
But the more consideration I gave this, it doesn’t fully capture what Paul bids of us. It doesn’t convey what Paul himself, or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. witnessed in their lives.
You see, when you merely reflect light, it bounces off your surface. It doesn’t penetrate. If you and I simply reflect the gospel light into the world, it’s possible that this becomes a superficial experience for us. It doesn’t go deep, it doesn’t enter our interior. In our center, we remain empty and unaffected.
It’s in our interior where our own darkness lies. If the gospel of Christ doesn’t seep inward, we may appear superficially to reflect Christ, but our own insides will remain untouched. It’s from our interior where our fears lie. It’s the core of our being that grounds us. It anchors our decision making, it determines how we respond under duress.
If we are to truly conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, we need that living gospel to touch and heal and transform our own deep interior! Only when it’s thoroughly seeped through the broken cracks and fissures of our superficial self and reached our deepest fears and hurts can we be filled ourselves.
That is what the gospel of Christ does. It fills. We hear and absorb the stories of Christ’s deep abiding acceptance and care. We perceive that we are known fully by him. And we come to realize that there is no sorrow he cannot console, no offence he will not pardon. We understand that he has overcome all foes, including even death.
The more we abide in his gospel love, the more that love fills and heals and overcomes our own being. As we’re filled, the more we are grounded in his reality. The gospel of Christ simply transforms us into a new being! We have a new anchorage. We’re able to conduct ourselves in the manner of the gospel of Christ because that gospel dwells in us! In him we live and move and have our being.
That is what our world thirsts and yearns for. So, friends, let us conduct ourselves in this manner! May the light of Christ fill your being so that you become a living testimony to the good gospel of Christ our Lord!
