Prince of Peace and Christ Our Savior Lutheran Churches December 7, 2003

Pastor Steve Geiger Second Sunday in Advent

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Philippians 1:3-11

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Thank God for Each Other Philippians 1:3-11

1. We have a gift in common

2. We long to love more

What did you do after church last Thursday?

Thanksgiving. Many of you may have headed to your home or to the home of a relative and sat down around the table for a dinner of cranberries, sweet potatoes, and turkey. I sat down, but not around a table and not in front of cranberries and sweet potatoes. Though there was turkey. In sandwiches. As I sat in a car on the way to Colorado.

We pulled out the turkey sandwiches about halfway between Yankton and Norfolk. It was time for my mom and my dad and I to pray, and the suggestion was made that we each include in our prayer something that we’re thankful for, things that would begin with each of the letters of the word Thanksgiving. Mom started with T. Eventually Mom got the first “G.” It took her some time. Finally she said, “Grandchildren.” My dad then laughs, “Well, what about Gerald?” That’s his name. So when it got to the last “G,” which was my letter, I thanked God for his grace and for Gerald.

Unfortunately there wasn’t in the word Thanksgiving a “C” for Carol, the name of my mom, or an “S” . . . wait a second, there was an S, but we didn’t thank God for Steve either! So it was fun and good-hearted, but it was also a time to remember that we were thankful for each other.

Are we thankful for each other? Right here? Our Christian family?

Paul was. Paul was in prison. When he wrote his letter to the Philippians he was in prison in Rome. Far from home. Captured because he loved Jesus. No longer free.

Yet was he sad? He was happy. He was happy because, while in prison, he remembered his family. He remembered what they were doing: actively living their faith. His family. People like Lydia, who was meeting near this river when Paul met her and told her of Jesus. She was baptized, along with the members of her household And then there was the event with the slave girl. We don’t know if she became a Christian, but she had a demon in her, and in the name of Jesus Paul drove out that demon. Then he got dragged into this marketplace by the owners of that girl who were making money off of her apparent ability through the power of the demon to tell the future . . . he was dragged here, where he was unfairly thrown into prison, perhaps here, where an earthquake struck and the jailer, thinking all the prisoners had escaped, was ready to kill himself, until Paul shouted out, “Stop. We are all here.” The jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus,” and he did and was baptized, along with his whole household, and suddenly there were more Christians in Philippi.

As Paul sat without freedom many miles away, he prayed with joy when he remembered his family. His partners. His fellow workers for the good news.

That was at the heart, wasn’t it. The gospel. The good news that even if you’re thrown into prison for doing what’s right, you’ve lost nothing. The good news that though all things physical will be lost because sin, our own disobedience, has ruined the world . . . the good news that though we by nature are lost and deserve punishment, we have a Savior. Our sin is forgiven. If earthly life is taken, eternal life continues. The good news that makes you pray and sing hymns to God when you’re in your prison. The good news that made that jailer wonder, “What must I do to have what you have?” The good news that there was nothing he had to do. Believe in the Lord Jesus, who has done it all.

You know the good news. Do you realize what you have? Do you realize who surrounds you? Do you thank God for these souls miraculously brought from death to life, who now stand with you proclaiming the good news?

Or would we feel uncomfortable if some fellow member thanked God for our partnership in the gospel because we don’t think we’ve been very good partners for the gospel? Have you been a partner for the gospel? Spending time recently showing the joy that comes from the gospel? Talking to friends who are hurting about the joy that comes from the gospel? Or have you found many reasons to complain? You’ve felt like all has gone wrong recently—almost like you’re in prison—and you’ve had not joy but frustration. Your friends aren’t seeing someone singing in trouble. We may feel that we’ve let God down. We’re not very good partners in the gospel, not worthy of having someone say thanks for me.

Or we may have very good reasons to say thanks for our fellow members, partners in the gospel, but we do not have that good a relationship with our fellow member. Instead of seeing each other as happy partners on a team, maybe we think of someone and feel angry. Maybe we think of someone and remember a sin. Maybe we haven’t forgiven, haven’t forgotten. Maybe we assume the worst. Maybe we see a weakness in another and become frustrated, giving up on them. Maybe we remember how someone let us down and feel that effort to include them is not worth it. Or, maybe we feel so inadequate that we don’t bother to offer our thoughts to the family. Maybe we feel so guilty that we imagine we could never be loved. Maybe we see our partners for the good news as something less than people we love, people we would die for.

Don’t we struggle with that? Our sinful flesh makes it so easy for us to feel that others are burdens to us, that we are burdens for others—gets us to feel alone. Our sinful flesh gets us to let slip our privilege to do gospel work. Our sinful flesh gets us to forget who we are and to forget who our family is.

Our sinful flesh does the very opposite of what God describes here. How far we fall short of what is right.

To be frightened and troubled is to remember first that Paul and his Christian family in Philippi were not so different. The worst of sinners, Paul knew he was. Ready to commit suicide, the jailor of Philippi was.

But something changed their lives.

A man. Also God. Jesus Christ. Who appeared to Paul in the brightest of light and should have destroyed him, but didn’t. Who was reflected to jailer by men unjustly accused and who had every opportunity to escape but didn’t. Jesus came to help sinners. Jesus came to be patient to sinners. Jesus came to show you and me mercy by humbling himself, by obeying every one of God’s commands, by loving the “members” of his congregation, his disciples, even when they were weak. By obeying all of God’s commands, even if it meant dying. By taking all of our sin onto himself and getting beat up, in a way beyond our most nightmarish imaginations. But all is now finished. Paul’s sins were forgiven and forgotten. The jailer was forgiven. You are forgiven. Every time you haven’t been good partners in the gospel, gone! All the times we have had bad thoughts toward members of our Christian family, gone! It’s a fact. Trust it. Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.

By God’s mercy the jailer did believe. He was baptized. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia to respond to Paul’s message. She and her household were baptized. The Lord brought spiritually dead Paul to life. He was baptized. Paul and the Philippians, family in Jesus, because all had been shown mercy.

In his difficult moments, this gave Paul such joy. He thanked God for working those miracles. For beginning a good work in himself, in Lydia, in the jailer.

It is God who creates faith. It’s also God who keeps it strong.

Sometimes we become so aware of our weakness that we become afraid. We see how many times we’ve failed God. We know Jesus has died for us, but knowing ourselves, we’re so sure that we’ll never be able to keep our faith.

It’s true that we’ve failed God. It’s true that Jesus has died for all of our sins. But it’s not true that we are the ones who by our own strength must keep ourselves faithful to the Lord. “Being confident of this,” Paul says, “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Be calm. It’s God who will keep you strong until the end.

Yet another thing to thank God for when we think of our Christian family. Given a gift, all of us. Partners in sharing that gift, all of us. Blessed by promises from God to keep us faithful to him, all of us.

What blessings we share. Not a surprise, to hold those with whom we share something so precious . . . to hold them most closely to our hearts.

Thank God for each other. Then pray that God will help your fellow Christians grow.

That’s what Paul did. Lord, help my Philippians friends grow in their love.

I have two little nephews. Over Thanksgiving vacation I had the chance to see them. Over four months had passed since I had seen them last.

You witness such change. Taller. Smarter. Bigger words. Only natural it is for them to grow. Because they eat. Golden Grahams. That was Grandma’s Christmas present. And Pop Tarts. That was Grandma’s other Christmas present. Now I don’t remember ever having pop tarts when I was little—and “Grandma” was my Mom! Though maybe that’s because there weren’t Pop Tarts when I was little.

But Golden Grahams and turkey and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and they grow.

This is my prayer: that your love might grow. That it might grow so much that you bust out of your jacket and constantly need to buy bigger shoes. Love that grows as you eat peanut butter and jelly?

No, but as you grow in knowledge, and then, as you grow in your ability to see what’s really happening. As you study your Bible, as your eyes are opened to more and more truth, you begin to see what’s really happening. Like when you’re mistreated at work, your boss being unfair, and you suffer, and before you grew in love, you got really mad, and you were plotting about how you could get back at your boss, and you couldn’t sleep, and you had evil thoughts . . . until you were reading your Bible, about Joseph, who worked for Potiphar, who was accused of adultery though he had done nothing of the sort, and he lost his job. Thrown in jail. Then some friends whom he helped forgot him. Trouble all over again. But God was watching. God was powerful. God was working a most amazing miracle behind the scenes.

Do you see what’s really happening when you face disappointment at school or difficulty at home or challenge at work? Suddenly you see that God is always working for your good, even when it doesn’t seem like it. Suddenly you can sing when things are going horribly, when you’re in jail in Philippi.

Instead of being frustrated and burdened, you are free and can love and can witness to prisoners and comfort a jailer and remember with joy your conversation with a Lydia along a river.

Paul prayed that these and others would grow in love as they grew in knowledge. This must have happened. In the ruins of Philippi still visible today you will see Christian churches, churches built long after the lives of Lydia and the jailor. No doubt the Christians in Philippi had grown in love, sharing the good news.

Paul, in prison. But he thanked God for his family. Partners in gospel work.

At times it might feel like you’re in prison, the troubles of life weighing heavy. When that happens, thank God for the G in “Thanksgiving,” Gerald . . . and Brad and Larry and all of the names of those here today. Remember that we all share the same gift, Jesus. Remember to pray, that we all might grow in our love.

Remember to thank God for each other. Amen.