Due to the sudden move to Level 3 on Saturday night, I have decided to post this week’s sermon – which came from a lockdown letter from St Paul – as a letter to those in lockdown. Please note, these are my sermon notes quickly fleshed out a little more, this is definitely not an exemplary piece of writing!
– Dan
“Design is a way of looking at the world with an eye towards changing it.”
If I say “design” you probably think of the end result of something, for example: a new smartphone, the feel of that new coffee table book you just bought or the way a website works.
But the practice of design is a practice of change. Design changes the world by solving its problems on a case-by-case scenario. As part of this, designers require skills in dreaming, critiquing and change management in between. Healthy design teams are able to work with critique and problem solve so that something can become the best version of itself that it is meant to be.
To design is to change.
Which reminds me of a great thought from Richard Foster:
“To pray is to change”
That is to say, prayer is not the destination, but the means to the end. A reminder today: we as Christ followers are people on "The Way of Jesus". This "Way" has a destination: full maturity in Christ.
It is to this end we are being formed.
And it's not just mahi that will see us formed. It's a spiritual formation. So, because not just habit will shape the outcome, but a life in the Spirit, we are to engage in spiritual practices.
We are to pray for our formation into Christ-fullness.
We are praying to that end.
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”
Here today in our text, we see Paul praying for a community to change to the end goal before them.
In v3-5: Paul is praying for his partners, his fellowship.
And then in v6 we come to the framing verse; the one that holds it all together. This is what this opening is all about. Paul is motivated by the end goal which draws them all forward together. Which tells us something really, really important.
They aren't there yet.
Now this letter to the community in Philippi isn't a letter trying to solve a problem or deal with a conflict, it's just a really happy letter actually - Paul is so joyful in it even though he is writing from his own lockdown of house arrest! - but we must not miss this point here.
Even in their incomplete nature - the not-yet-finished design - Paul is still so joyful at the work God has done.
And He is joyful at the work yet to be done.
Maybe some of us just need to pause and consider that today...
God at work is a journey to delight in.
Like a healthy design team can enjoy the processes and work of prototyping and designing change, so it can be with our discipleship to Jesus. Even if God isn't finished yet, it's still good work as he moves us closer and closer to being like Jesus.
Now, this is called "eschatological tension"
The tension of the future and the present being held together. And here Paul is illustrating us this tension: God's future work (of making all things new) is reaching back through time from his future, and drawing us to his perfect future, the completed work where we are quite literally made new again and resurrected, and he's doing this via Christ's present work in us now.
To be a person of the Kingdom means we don't design and build a future of our own making and strive our way towards it, but instead we are drawn along to God's future that He is making and graced for the journey.
So with that set as the frame here. Let's look at the actual prayer that Paul prays.
“I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.”
“So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.”
There are three pieces in this prayer. Paul prays for them to:
v9 - Be filled with love that is enacted as knowledge and understanding / wisdom
Note the link between emotion and mentality. There is NO segregation here! Paul is saying that what we experience internally must become something that is enacted into the world. Love is not just a feeling but lived as a lens to see all of reality.
The Greek language had four words for love, and the one here is agape love. Agape is otherly, charitable and sacrificial love. This love is being felt by Paul from the Philippians, and he is praying that it would continue for them.
Agape can not just be a compassionate feeling, it is the move to compassionate action. If it does not move, it is not agape at all! Agape seizes the opportunities presented to it - like philosopher Søren Kierkegaard says:
“When one has once fully entered the realm of love, the world — no matter how imperfect — becomes rich and beautiful, it consists solely of opportunities for love.”
All this to say: maturity of Christ in us will mean we do not just feel love but make the most of the opportunities around us to do so.
v10 - Live in moral discernment
Paul prays that they would live in the Spirit's discernment for them in their fuzzy world. Discernment is to search for what is best and true amongst the cultural fuzziness.
And is there anyone else who is finding culture fuzzy at the moment?
It can feel like every week there is a new thing to be against, or for, and then the next week it's either another thing or it's the thing from last week but it's now changed and morphed and you are now saying the wrong thing... We live in a culture where our world, experiences and opinions are framing reality, and often as Christians, we are then trying to figure out what to do with the teachings of Jesus within that. A mistake we are often making is that we are often starting with zeitgeist (spirit of the age) as our truth and then looking to how Jesus might bless or condone it. Rather than Jesus helping us interpret the zeitgeist itself for what it is.
We must change our methods from World > Scripture > Jesus to Jesus > Scripture > World
Paul starts with Christ, and builds out from there. This too is our best discernment.
We are in interesting and confusing times, but it’s important to remember: the church always has been. Philippi was a Romanized city. It too had a zeitgiest of sexual ethics. Of racial boundaries. Of socio economic divides. Of evil. Of misused power. Of dominion. It's all part of the world the church was birthed in and has journeyed through.
All this to say: This prayer has a discernment context and we have one too. Paul is praying for them to discern their context - the zeitgeist - through Christ first, not the other way around.
v 11- Produce fruit of right living
This verse is actually intrinsically tied to the last one. Our fruits show what we are discerning. This is a great truth of life and we cannot ignore it: Our lives are already producing fruit. The question is always; is it the right fruit?
Here, Paul is stating that righteousness is not the fruit of rightness (as in arrogance and smugness, I'm right and you are wrong...), but the fruit of the Spirit as the fruit of maturity. To Paul, he goes on to explain this further a little further in the letter, framing up righteousness as formation in Philippians 4:8-9:
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
Note how active this all is. Maturity is a verb after all. Salvation is being outworked in the Philippian church as they continue to put into practice all that Paul taught them and showed them. Salvation isn’t stagnant and a one-off occasion, it is presence and present.
So in closing:
The design of this prayer is one of change.
Paul, like Berger's quote that I began with, has one eye towards how the church of Philippi can be.
And as a pastoral leader of this community, today I too have an eye on how we could be thanks to his prayer.
May we grow towards what he has prayed.
May we grow in love that is not just an emotion but an act of wisdom and knowledge.
May we grow in discernment of Christ in our context.
May we produce the right fruit of maturity.
And...
May you see how God has begun this in you - His good work - and pray and orient your life towards the fullness of its end in you.