Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

David Orendorff       Philippians 2:1-4      September 13, 2009

It is sometime around 90 CE and Paul is writing to the congregation of Philippi from prison.  Those of you who attended the evening VBS in August will recognize that prison for Paul meant being chained to a Roman guard 24 hours a day.  Still Paul was permitted visitors and writing.  This letter to the church in Philippi is probably intended to be Paul’s farewell letter.  There are several allusions to the fact that he may die and not ever see those he loves again.

Why is Paul in prison?  To answer this we must understand what Paul is preaching and why Rome would consider it treason and sedition.  First Rome - Rome prided itself on bringing peace to the world.  Its motto was Pax Romana, Roman peace.  This peace was ordained by the Roman god Jupiter and enforced by Caesar who was considered the son of Jupiter and the living presence of the god.  Yes, Caesar claimed to be the son of god and even the living god.  Caesar’s war time victories were seen as proof that god (Jupiter) was on his side and approved his policies.  Sound familiar?

The title Lord (with a capital L) was reserved for Caesar alone.  It referred to his divinity and his power to bring peace through the violent victory of war. For Rome, its victory in war is the salvation of the world since with comes economic prosperity for Romans and some few non-Romans.  It is classic religious imperialism conducted through military conquest and oppression.

For Paul the Roman way of religiously justified violence leads to  “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and things like these. (Galatians 5:19-21).

Paul’s gospel is a direct confrontation to the very basics of Rome’s power.  Paul preaches that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that Caesar is not; that Jesus Christ is Lord (capital L) and Caesar is not.  Paul preaches that peace, freedom and prosperity are meant for all peoples and not just Romans and their few selected friends.  He preaches that peace comes from Jesus like loving servants and not from the victories of Roman armies.

Paul preaches that though Rome crucified Jesus in an attempt to make peace through violence, God raised Jesus proving that the loving way of Jesus (and not the violent way of Rome) is the way of God. Paul preaches that someday, and he believed that day would come very soon, it would be the resurrected Christ who ruled the world and not Rome and her emperor; and that in fact the reign of Christ though not yet complete had already begun.

Those who accept the mind, spirit and power of Christ into their lives reject Caesar as god, reject violence as the way of peace, seek equality and prosperity for all, and seek to live Christ like in both their personal a political lives.  This meant loving even their enemies.  It meant in a very direct confrontation with Rome when for three centuries Christians refused to serve in Rome’s or anyone’s army. They rejected politics that divide rather than unite, that murder rather than love.  And lives lived in Christ (or Christ in them) they were given a spirit transplant as it were - replacing the violent mind and spirit of religious imperialism with the living Christ and the fruits of the spirit.  This new organ, new mind and spirit, is both one’s personal salvation and the salvation of the world; it is the way to a life lived in “love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22).”

What Paul preaches is indeed, in Roman eyes, both treason and sedition against Roman rule.  Paul is clearly an enemy of Rome. He knows it and they know it because he is not shy about telling anyone who will listen.  Rome has run out of tolerance for Paul’s preaching his gospel and has imprisoned him with the intention of executing him. The gospel Paul preaches is both his reason to be in prison and is at the heart of all he writes and lives?

Why is Paul writing Philippi?  Apparently there are two reasons.  One, he wants to say good-bye as he contemplates his imminent death.  Imminent death causes us to tell those we love of our great affection and Paul spends most of the first chapter of his letter telling the Philippians of his love for Christ and for them.

And secondly Paul writes because he has heard that factions have risen among the Philippians over how to be Christian.  To Paul, factions are the very antithesis of the good news of Jesus Christ.  Factions come when one person puts his or her interests before that of their neighbor.  Factions occur when we love ourselves not as we love our neighbor and God, but more than we love God or neighbor.  Factions are the result of believing it is my way or the highway.  In Galatians 5 Paul lists factions as one of the fruits of the flesh (read selfishness) along with fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and things like these.  How can the mind of Christ be in them when they are fractious.  He urges the Philippians to not be divided in their minds, but a have one mind, the mind of Christ; to have but one thought, the thought of Christ.  He writes to them, “Do nothing from a faction, nothing from vanity, but in humility regard the concerns of others as equal to your own concerns (my translation).”

Paul is applying his gospel to the brokenness of the church in Philippi but he is speaking to us as well.  We too have been known to divide ourselves into factions and place our concerns before the cares of others.  We divide ourselves into Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians and Independents which is fine until we cast suspicion and fear on the others and disregard their cares. We divide ourselves into the major religions of the world (arguing which is best and God preferred) which is not a problem until disregard the cares of the others because they are not of our faction.  And each of those religions divide themselves into various factions which is not a problem until the cares of the other are denigrated. Currently fractious polarization seems to be a favorite practice for political recruitment and public policy argument.

I don’t have time or space to name all of the divisions among us, we seem to be infinitely creative in this. Paul is not bothered by difference of thought.  However, he is very bothered when any faction mistakenly believes that God cares for them more than any other.  He believes such folks have lost their Christ minds.

The problem comes when one group thinks more highly of itself than it thinks of other groups; when one group thinks of its concerns without equally considering the concerns of another; or when one group is ready to use the violence of word or sword to make a forced peace.  Fractious violence can infect our families and our work places. It may or may not surprise you, but even inside Bear Creek factions sometimes exist which rise up with heat as we discuss the future and structure of worship, what being a disciple really means, or even over what Sunday school should be like.

And we will recognize the sin of factions in our political lives as well.  Rome’s religious imperialism can be seen in world history such as the politics of Nazi Germany which almost all the German Christian churches supported as Christian. Our national history has not been immune from fractious violence. We added our share of religious imperialism when Colonialism attempted to violently take Christianity with western culture and control to the rest of the world for its own good. Our European ancestor’s violent application of Manifest Destiny against Native Americans and their violent application of “the Great White Savior” against Africans kidnapped to the Americas as slaves; and the 1898 Spanish American War are but four quick examples.  And lest we think we are currently immune to fruits of the flesh (as Paul calls any life outside the mind of Christ) I encourage you to ask yourself if our national leap to the war in Iraq was not out of a religious imperialism that sought to bring peace to the mideast by the violence war. I wish I could tell you I was a prophetic voice against the war, but though it didn’t have my full support, I didn’t resist or speak out either.

And even when weapons of mass destruction were not found we, as a notion, justified the war as good for the Iraqis when Iraqi poles said they didn’t think it was good for them. It this not exactly what Paul saw as so wrong with Pax Romana?

Some of you may be angry with me for speaking this.  I do not meant to anger anyone, but to speak what Paul spoke against military violence as the way of peace and for Christian love as the way of peace.  And further, the heat we fill in these conversations about the war, or about healthcare, is exactly the kind of fruit of the flesh Paul is attempting to warn the Philippians about.

The factionalism which is in all the areas of our lives has but one source, as far as Paul is concerned, and that source is a failure to love each other as Christ loved us.  When we place our concerns above the concerns of another, whoever that other is, we have lost our Christ minds.  Any attempt to bring personal or world peace using the means of violence backed by religious claims stands as sin to Paul and is not the way or mind of Christ. There will be differences but Paul asks, even begs, that in our differences we love each other and serve fully the cares of the other as we care for ourselves.

For Paul, and for me, Jesus is the perfect revelation of God’s humble and unifying love.  For Christ, though equal to God, placed himself as a servant of all; a servant who for the love of God gave himself up to death administered by the violence and fear of others; a servant vindicated by God’s resurrection from the dead that he might give life abundantly, living in those will have him and even those who betrayed and murdered him.

If we too have the mind of Christ in us, placing the concerns of others equal to or even above our own, then all factions work as partners for the good of all and we become one people, the people of God.  If we have the mind of Christ and live in the Spirit of Christ then love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; all the fruits of the Spirit are ours and eventually the worlds.  I pray we all accept Christ living in us as the Lord of our lives and the Savior of our spirits.

Shalom and Amen.

Communion Preparation:  Whenever I begin to feel heated I know to stop, breathe deeply and center in the Holy Spirit so that I am able to listen more deeply rather than defend myself by attacking the other. But when I fail to seek the mind of Christ then I can argue pretty fiercely and inevitably wound even those that love me.  In such a heated argument my father and I once cleared an entire restaurant.  I can’t give the details of your lives, the places where you have not humbly regarded the concerns of another as you would regard your own concerns.  So I encourage you as you prepare to receive communion to make your own fearless self examination of when you have been fractious, to repent of such thoughts and actions, and in the forgiveness of God in Christ be healed by this meal and led to seeking unity, sympathy, compassion and community with Christ, with each other and with all God’s creatures and creation.