Philippians Bible Study, part 1

Yesterday, I taught a Bible study for the first time in three months (which is a long time for me).  I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to getting back in the swing of teaching on a weekly basis.  I'm also going to make an attempt to post weekly updates to my blog that are focused on what I'm teaching.  I'm thinking that these entries will be reflections, random thoughts, and information that may or may not make it into the actual study I'm leading.  In terms of the study, I decided to start with something that I would be pretty comfortable with, so naturally, I picked Paul.  We are studying Paul's letter to the Philippians and we covered most of chapter 1 yesterday.

As I mentioned on my last post, Philippians is a joyful letter - it is Paul's most upbeat letter and you can easily see the affection he has for this church.  It should also be noted (and this is made plain in the letter) that Paul is writing from prison.  I'm inclined to think that he's writing this from a Roman prison, near the end of his career.  A couple of other reasons I think the letter is a later one are the mention of bishops and deacons in 1:1, the presence of what appears to be hymn in 2:6-11 (one of my favorite passages of Scripture, btw), and a mature theology that is at once reflective in regards to the past and confident in regards to the future.  I tend to think that Paul knew that chances were pretty high that he would be executed at some point and this reality plays a prominent role in chapter 1 (verses 19-24).

Yesterday, as I was teaching, I was most struck by verse 6 and how well it lines up with the importance Methodist theology gives to sanctification.  Verse 6 reads: "I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ."  In the context of the letter, this refers to what God is doing through the community and is not referring to God's acting in the lives of individual believers.  But I think that we can extrapolate from Paul's statement about God's faithfulness to the church to His faithfulness to us.  The "work" that God does in our lives is the work of sanctification - which is the on-going grace that God gives to us in our daily lives as we grow in faith.  Sanctification is the work of the Spirit making us holy ("sanctus" means holy).  One of my 'mantras' that I repeat to myself (and have said on a number of occasions in sermons and studies) is that Jesus didn't come that we might be happy, but that we might be holy.  While holiness and happiness aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, they don't necessarily coincide in this life.  Often times, what makes us happy (or what the "world" claims will make us happy) has a negative impact on our growth in holiness.

If you pay attention to "popular culture" in this country, you could reasonably make the claim that happiness is the highest good that people might strive for.  From what I can gather, the basic question posed by American culture for whether or not someone should do something is: "does it make you happy?"  I realize that I'm making a REALLY broad generalization here, but I think it holds up if you look at the messages we receive from popular culture.  We obviously know the reality - much of what we do in this life doesn't make us happy.  And I'm pretty sure that being happy shouldn't be the highest good.  As a Christian, happiness is not what I seek so much (though I'll definitely take moments of happiness when they come).  As Christians, we seek joy and contentment.  Happiness, in our world, seems entirely contingent upon our circumstances or, even worse, those material things we possess.  Joy and contentment are often present in spite of circumstance.  Here's what Paul says in chapter 4 of Philippians: "...I have learned to be content with whatever I have.  I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty.  In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me."  If you're a Christian, that's what you aspire to...what a great word from Paul.

Grace and Peace to you!

Some Thoughts on Settling and Resuming, along with some introductory thoughts about Philippians

If you are reading this blog, chances are you know me and you know that my wife and I moved to a new church last month (Harrisburg UMC).  The move went extremely well and we are getting settled in.  We were pretty much settled into the house a couple of weeks ago - it's taken a little longer at the church.  I haven't posted an entry in months due to the appointment change.  Saying goodbye and saying hello are time-consuming processes.  Now that things are beginning to calm down just a touch, I figure it's as good a time as any to resume blogging.  Hopefully, I can post more regularly than I have in the past - writing helps keep my thinking fresh.  Also, this is my first post after a long layoff...I'm a little rusty...

Starting on August 17th, I'll be teaching a weekly daytime Bible study here at the church and this blog will be a good opportunity to engage the text or topic beyond the class.  For the first four lessons, we'll be covering Paul's letter to the Philippians.  I read chapter one yesterday and was struck, once again, by how I respond differently to Scripture under different circumstances.  Christians call Scripture the "Living Word" and I think this is true in two senses:

1. Christians proclaim that the Biblical text was written by people who were inspired by the Holy Spirit in the act of writing.  Additionally, the Holy Spirit inspires us as we read or hear the text. 
2. We, as Christians and as readers/hearers, are constantly changing.  The context in which we encounter Scripture is always changing.  I am not the same person I was when I last read Philippians, which wasn't all that long ago.  But I've met new people, had new experiences, learned new things.  Therefore, I'll encounter Scripture differently this time around.  The same will be true in 6 weeks, 6 months, or 6 years. 

These two points heavily influence my theological difficulty with any claims towards a "literalist" interpretation of Scripture.  Perhaps I can dive in to those waters at a later date.  On to Philippians…

Philippians is perhaps Paul's most joyful letter.  Paul is not angry with this church (like he is with the Galatians - "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ…" or the Corinthians - "Am I to come to you with a stick?").  A recurring theme in Philippians is rejoicing and thanksgiving.  This gives the letter a refreshing tone and is all the more striking when we remember that Paul wrote this while imprisoned and told the Philippians that they would most surely suffer for the sake of the Gospel.

What caught my attention yesterday in reading this were verses 9 and 10 of chapter 1: "And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless."  There are a few important things going on here.

1. The root of the Gospel, of ministry, of the Christian life is love.  Paul prays that the church would experience an overflowing of love.  I think that one forgotten element of Paul's theology is how highly he values genuine love and affection within the church.  How often churches and Christians forget Paul's (and more importantly Jesus') insistence that the highest value, the highest ideal, for Christians is love.  If the church in North America remembered that with more consistency, perhaps we wouldn't spend so much time talking about and fretting over decline.
2. Stanley Hauerwas (one of my professors at Duke and an excellent theologian/ethicist) has stated that "the greatest enemy of Christianity in America is sentimentality."  I tend to agree.  Paul is not talking about a mushy, warm feeling.  What Paul is talking about is a love modeled on the love of Jesus, the love that God has for us.  That Paul couples love in this passage with knowledge and full insight teaches us that Paul is not talking about love as an emotion or as simply a pleasant sentiment.  Paul is talking about sacrificial, willing-to-suffer kind of love that might define the church.  A love that loves those the world calls "unlovable".  A love that loves that many in the church call unlovable. 
3. Love here is coupled with knowledge and full insight because there is a need for us to be discerning about how we handle relationships and acceptance within the church.  I have encountered individuals who have demanded that the church give them money or endorse destructive behavior because, after all, shouldn't the church love people?  Shouldn't we accept people as they are in the name of love?  Yes - we should accept people as they are.  But in the name of Jesus Christ, we don't let them remain as they are - if they are broken, hurting, and lost.  Paul believed in a God of transformation, a God that works in the lives of believers making them "pure and blameless".  A God that does not simply allow us to remain the same, but offers a life transformed by the indwelling of the Spirit, sanctifying us. 

So, in the church, love is tethered to discernment (which is knowledge and full insight applied) so that we might accept folks and not position ourselves as their judge (remember, Paul is pointing towards the "day of Christ" - we are not the judge).  However, this does not give everyone within the church carte blanche to do whatever they wish to do, or exploit the Body of Christ, or abuse the members thereof; or use the church to enable destructive habits, or believe any old thing they want to without consequence or rebuke.  There's a line to be drawn between acceptance and accountability.  This is where "knowledge and full insight" are helpful.  I'm rambling now, so I'll stop...

Peace and grace be with you in the Name of Jesus!