For the past few weeks we have been reading the Bible and thinking about salvation. God saved the Israelites from slavery to the Egyptians, God performed a miracle of parting the Red Sea so the Israelites could cross on dry ground. And God saved them from hunger in the wilderness by providing manna from heaven.
And here we are again, still with Moses and the Israelites who are still in the wilderness and just as miserable as they were before. Now they were worried about their water supply and once again they began complaining, and quarreling with Moses, demanding that he save them with water.
I believe that we are seeing a very common aspect of human nature. When we are unhappy with our lives we wish for someone to come down like a fairy godmother and magically make everything all right. Our consumer culture understands our nature – it is always promising bliss and happiness if only we buy this gadget, or that medicine.
Christian teachings rightly point out that all salvation comes from God. But if we leave it at that, focused only on what God does, it can leave us with an image of ourselves as helpless Cinderellas and Pinocchios just sitting around wishing for our dreams to come true. And when we don’t get what we want we end up quarreling with God and those who represent God to us, or just giving up on faith all together.
I once came to know a congregation who had such a passive image of salvation. They were down to five active people attending worship. Though they had known one another for a long time, I noticed at coffee hour that everyone talked and no one listened, or responded to the other. They did not participate in any outreach ministry of any kind, or attend any conference or district events, or take up special offerings for the poor, or victims of disasters. They were not particularly cooperative with their pastors either. At the same time that they were getting ready to close the church and take the whole summer off, they had put in a request for the conference to give them enough money to pay for a full time pastor. Their expectation that someone would just save them, while they continued to focus on what they lacked - grumbling, murmuring, complaining and fighting all the way.
Can you visualize this congregation? Can you imagine being a visitor to such a congregation on a Sunday morning? No wonder a congregation like this was not growing in any way at all.
In contrast Paul urges the followers of Jesus to “do all things without murmuring and arguing so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in which you shine like stars.” Can you now imagine a congregation like this? – one that feels like an oasis from the outside world. One that has members that shine like stars because they are filled with Christ’s love and they know God’s saving grace.
This is the kind of congregation Paul encourages the Philippians to become. A congregation that encourages one another, that offers one another solace, consolation, compassion and sympathy in times of need; a congregation that is united in heart both to Christ and to one another; a congregation full of the Spirit of Christ – and thus full of joy.
Such a congregation learns how to put each other first, and does nothing for selfish reasons of ambition or conceit. The members are not focused on their own individual needs, but on the needs of other members and seek to meet them. When I read this description in Philippians I think of Quakers, who have learned the art of making all decisions by consensus. This is a process whereby each person is asked to pray about a certain decision. Then the members discuss how they hear the Spirit leading them. If only one member disagrees with the path the group is setting, the group returns to a position of prayerful listening, and they seek to alter their plans until every member is at peace with them. If they can’t come to peace, then the group just holds off on any decision until later. This process takes time, and patience and a certain humility, which Paul lifts up here in Scripture. It also takes trust that the Spirit of God is at work in each member of the church. It is not easy to learn to let the same mind that was in Christ reside in us. But when we, as a congregation, begin to practice this discipline, we will find that we make better decisions, and have more unity of direction, because we are setting aside our own wills in exchange for following God’s will.
The kind of salvation presented to us in Scripture, rather than being a magical, instant cure that someone else gives us, requires our response. Yes, salvation comes from God alone, but God’s Spirit works in us and through us, empowering us and transforming us from people who sit around grumbling and quarreling, to children of God who shine like stars without blemish. Scriptural salvation begins with God, is grounded in God, and is motivated by God. Verse 13 says, “God is at work in you.” And not just me or you as individuals, but all of us. If Paul were a southerner he would say, “God is at work in y’all.” But the work God does in us is just the first part of salvation. The second part is that God’s work in us enables us both to have the will to stop sinning, and the ability to work for God’s good pleasure. We are called, therefore, to work out our own salvation.
John Wesley wrote a sermon on the topic of working out our own salvation and describes how we can do so. He said,
“Cease to do evil; learn to do well.” If ever you desire that God should work in you that faith whereof cometh both present and eternal salvation, by the grace already given, fly from all sin as from the face of a serpent; carefully avoid every evil word and work; yea, abstain from all appearance of evil. And “learn to do well:” Be zealous of good works, of works of piety, as well as works of mercy; family prayer, and crying to God in secret. Fast in secret, and “your Father which seeth in secret, he will reward you openly.” “Search the Scriptures:” Hear them in public, read them in private, and meditate therein. At every opportunity, be a partaker of the Lord's Supper. “Do this in remembrance of him:” and he will meet you at his own table. Let your conversation be with the children of God; and see that it “be in grace, seasoned with salt.” As ye have time, do good unto all men; to their souls and to their bodies. And herein “be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” It then only remains that ye deny yourselves and take up your cross daily. Deny yourselves every pleasure which does not prepare you for taking pleasure in God, and willingly embrace every means of drawing near to God, though it be a cross, though it be grievous to flesh and blood. Thus when you have redemption in the blood of Christ, you will “go on to perfection;” till “walking in the light as he is in the light,” you are enabled to testify, that “he is faithful and just,” not only to ‘forgive’ your ‘sins,’ but to ‘cleanse’ you from all unrighteousness.”
The baptismal covenant is the Christian’s way to enter into salvation. It is God’s gift, offered to us without price. But in it we are also asked to respond to this gift. God is like the river, and we are each a small mill. The river flows over us, but we need to put ourselves in gear in order for the rushing water of God’s grace to turn our water wheels and empower us to do great things. We put ourselves in gear by renouncing sin, by professing our faith publicly, by taking note of all the ways God has already saved us, and giving God thanks and praise, and by keeping our promise to support the Church, the community of brothers and sisters in Christ, by our prayers, our presence our gifts, our service and our witness.
As we prepare to put ourselves in gear once again through the renewing of our baptismal covenant, let us sing hymn 577 – God of Grace and God of Glory.
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