Welcome to Wednesday in the Pastor’s Workshop! It’s great to be together today.
This week we’re celebrating our graduating high school seniors with Senior Sunday. Our focus verse is Philippians 2:12b-13, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing God is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.”
On Wednesdays we look at the world into which the Word spoke. Knowing the context of the text draws out highlights in the Scripture we might not otherwise see.
Philippi was a Roman military outpost in northern Greece. As a Roman colony it was extended particular privileges. Being part of the Greco-Roman world, Philippi was awash with a variety of cultural influences. How do you encourage believers to live out their faith in the midst of such diversity of values and life-styles?
It was easy to get “caught up” in these influences and to live reactively. To live into the Gospel and to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” was a proactive choice of faith. To do so made a difference in the lives of those believers. We celebrate this difference 2,000 years later as we read this letter.
In our society we face a variety of cultural influences. America is no longer monolithic in its values and beliefs (if it ever was!). Our high school seniors will be living into a culture where Christianity will be a deliberate choice, not a default assumption. It is easy to get caught up by all the choices and live reactively. Our seniors will need to be proactive in how they decide to “work out their own salvation in fear and trembling”.
This is the truth not only for our high school seniors, but also for ourselves. With the opening blessing of “Grace and Peace”, this text invites us to find a foundation for our lives in the ever-present love of God in Christ. It is this “Rock” we can count on, trust, run to, and rely in. God’s Grace is our Peace. Peace is the calm assurance that whatever is happening, it will all be OK because God is ultimately in control.
The text goes on, encouraging us to build on the Rock. “Work out your own salvation”. See what difference the love of Christ can make in and through you. Seek to be your best so you can bless the rest, making the lives of others better and our world better through Christ’s love. That call and challenge comes to all Christians.
As we respond in faith we can celebrate that “God is at work in us”, strengthening and encouraging us by the Spirit. It all brings a smile to God’s face and to ours, for living out Christ’s love is of God’s “good pleasure”.
As you look at the context you see that even though societal circumstances may change over the centuries, the basic human challenges to live out the faith remain the same. Even as the challenges remain the same, our God remains the same. In Christ God is always drawing us deeper into divine love and always calling and strengthening us to live out that love as a witness to our world.
This morning as you think about this text I’d invite you to consider the challenges you face in “Working out your own salvation”. Pray about these. Know that even as you seek to live into the truth of this text, living into the love of your salvation, God is right there with you every step of the way!
In that “walk” and “work” I’ll see you tomorrow in the Workshop.
Prayer: Gracious God, thank you for how your Word speaks into our lives and calls us into your World. Help us to know that faith is our proactive choice. Strengthen us to live out your love in your world. Let us be our best in you. Let us be the blessing you would have us to be, bringing out the best in the lives of others. In that faith guide us forward as we seek to “work out our own salvation” through Christ our Lord. In his name we pray. Amen