Your Attitude Should Be

“Your Attitude Should Be”

A Sermon based upon Philippians 2: 1-13

By Rev. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Third Sunday after Easter, Mother’s Day, May 12th, 2019

An old adage goes: "Pray as if everything depended on God; work as if everything depended on you."   These words point straight to the end of today’s Bible text where the apostle Paul gives some very unexpected advice.  He encourages the Philippians, and perhaps us as well, to ‘continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ‘for’, he says, ‘it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose (Phil. 2:13 NIV).  

WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION? (12) 

Coming from Paul, if it was from Paul, this is rather surprising, since the letter to the Ephesians emphatically states, “For we are saved by grace, through faith, not of your own doing; it is the gift of God---not of works so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:8-9).   If God saves us solely by grace, and God ‘works’ in us, what could we still have to ‘work out’?  What could I, you, or any of us, ever do to add to the saving work God has already done for us in Jesus Christ?  

My first thought, of course, is ‘nothing’!  We can add nothing, and should not need to add anything to what God has done for us in Jesus.  Jesus is not only the ‘author’ but, Hebrews says, Jesus is also the ‘finisher of our faith’ (KJV, the NIV translates it ‘pioneer and perfecter’).  In other words, through Jesus, who ‘did not sin’ (Heb. 4:15), God has done what only God could ever do.  In Jesus, God has reconciled us to himself (2 Cor. 5:18), giving to us a saving hope that only the eternal, true God can give (1 Tim. 4:10). 

But interestingly, at the same time Paul told the Corinthians that God had ‘reconciled us to himself’, in the very next breath Paul emphatically implores the Corinthians with this imperative one liner: ‘Be reconciled to God’ (2 Cor. 5:20).  At the same time Paul has announced God’s reconciling work, he goes straight to the human work that still needs to be, and still must be done.  When you think about this, Paul is right, isn’t he?  While God has done what humans could never do, there is still a ‘working out’ of salvation that both Corinthians and Philippians must do, and just as there is a ‘working out’ of our salvation’ that we must do too.   This does not mean that we have earned or worked for our salvation, but it means that even the greatest ‘gift’ given must still be received, acknowledged, opened, unpacked and claimed as our own.   

The fourth gospel, John’s gospel, echoes our own responsibility in accepting God’s gift, “He came unto his own and his own received him not, but as many as did receive him, the gave them power to become sons (and daughters) of God (John 1:12).  Do you hear your own responsibility in this, and your own ‘working out’ of God’s saving work for us, and for you?  Some received Christ, and others rejected him.  Only those who ‘received him’ were given ‘power to become sons (and daughters) of God.  In the receiving of Jesus Christ, there a power given to help us ‘become’ and to ‘work out’ God’s saving ‘power’ in our own lives.

MAKE MY JOY COMPLETE… (2)

On this Mother’s Day, we have wonderful analogy of what Paul and John meant.  Our Mother’s gave us life, not just physically, but in so many other loving, selfless, and caring ways.   I’ve told you how for several years, my own mother worked in a Textile mill on third shift, just so she could be at home to wake me up for school, sleep while I was at school, and then go to work, after she tucked me into bed.  The only what I realized my mother worked, was because we went to the annual Christmas party.  And they gave the children great big presents!  

When I think of the sacrifices she made for me today, cold chills go up my spine, and I wonder, did I tell how much I loved and appreciated her enough?  But even as much as my own mother did for me, I still had to grow up and ‘work out’ living my own life; becoming the person her love and care enabled me to be.  Isn’t that a picture of what Paul means here?  While we are in no way responsible ‘for’ our birth, or our new birth, our eternal salvation, we still have to receive it, accept it, own it, apply it and live out the rest of our lives making our own decisions and choices.  Even though our parents gave us life just as God gave us our saving hope, and both these ‘gifts of life’ are ‘gifts’ we can never give ourselves, we still have to ‘work out’ who we are and who we will become because of God’s love for us.  

Paul’s concern in writing his letter to the Philippians is that they will continue to ‘work out’ their own ‘salvation’ with both ‘fear and trembling’.   What all this ‘fear and trembling about?   We don’t have to guess.  Paul says that his ‘joy’ is not ‘complete’ because he wants to the Philippians to ‘have the same mindset’ or the same ‘attitude’ that was in Jesus Christ (2:5).    What was still needed in this church was ‘having the same love’ for each other and ‘being one in spirit and one in mind’ (2:2).  In other words, according to Paul, what they still needed in order to ‘complete’ his joy and to ‘work out’ their salvation, was an attitude adjustment.   They needed to have their minds, as well as their conduct and their hearts, so transformed by Christ’s love, that it becomes real and transforming in the everyday life of the church.  Why would a church ever need an attitude adjustment?

Will Willimon, a Methodist pastor, told of the very first church he served. He was a student at Emory, near Atlanta, at the time.  He says he drove out to the church on Saturday to meet with the lay leader. He met at the little one room church, then named, "Friendship Methodist Church".  He got there before his host so he thought He'd go in the church and look around. But he was surprised by a big padlock and chain barring the front door. When the lay leader arrived he said, "Glad you are here to open the lock on the door."

"Oh, that ain't our lock. The sheriff put that there," explained the lay leader. "Things got rough here at the meeting last month. Folks started yelling at one another, carting off furniture they had given to the church. So, he had to call the sheriff and the deputy came out.  He put that lock on the door until the new preacher could get here and “settle 'em down” and perhaps ‘straighten them out’.   And that was the young preacher’s first church, and his first job.

Instead of the church modeling what needs to happen in the world, sometimes the church ends up just as divided and polarized as the rest of the country.  Is there really such a thing as a united congregation or a truly united country?   Has there ever been?  At least a third of the New Testament deals with division and polarization.    After saying some beautiful things about Jesus and the Christian life, Paul finally gets down to what's bugging him: Disunity.  The church knows Jesus but still doesn’t know how to get along.  They need an attitude adjustment.  They need to get a new mind about things, but who’s mind will it be?  Whose mind will get their way?  We are so used to thinking in terms of winners and losers, aren’t we.  We are so used to thinking that no matter what it takes, we have to be on the winning side or on the winning team.  It’s hard to go out and just enjoy the game. 

Fred Craddock, the late preaching genius from the last generation, played quarterback for his school in high school.  ‘It was a small team in a small school’, he said.  They were not that good.  It was not long after the Great Depression years, and their heaviest guy weigh just 170 pounds.  He was the fullback.  Craddock said, ‘he had all the speed and grace of a spastic turtle.’  Craddock was no athlete and their team was not that good.

On one occasion, he recalls, the team from the next town had them down at halftime, 21-0.   They crawled and limped into the dressing room, licking their wounds, wishing the game was over.  Craddock says, “The coach got up, as was his custom, and stood at one end of the dressing room to speak.  We were ready to be chewed out.  He said,  ‘Fellas, I don’t have much to say today.  I just want to read this to you.’  He pulled out of his pocket a yellow sheet of paper, and, as he started to read, he chocked up.  He tried to read it again, and again, and got very emotional.   He handed it to the assistant coach and left the room.  We were all quiet as could be.  The assistant told us that the coach wanted to read a telegram he just received.  It simply said, “Win this one for me,” and it was signed, “Joe.”   We didn’t know who Joe was.   The country was at war, and we pictured Joe in a foxhole somewhere about to be shot.  We imagined that he had graduated from our school and had played football.  Surely, we could win one for Joe, we said to ourselves.  Every guy on the team grew about six inches and put on fifty pounds.  We went back out on the field and beat the other team, 28-21. 

The local paper ran a story about the game with a headline that read, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”  We were all proud.  We felt good!  About three of four weeks later, we found out that the coach had made up the telegram.  There was no Joe in a foxhole.  He had been using this ploy as a motivational trick for years. 

Do you know what a motive is?  A motive in that which inspires, sustains, and calls forth energy and activity.  It is the ability to ‘push someone’s button.   In this passage, Paul wants to ‘push’ the church’s button.  But he does not want to push it with a fib, or a lie, but he wants to push it with the truth.  Even more surprisingly, he doesn’t want to push their button to win, but he wants to push it make them want to lose.  What in the world kind of motivation is that; making people want to lose, when we all want to win?

TAKING THE NATURE OF A SERVANT (7) 

The ‘motivation’ button Paul pushes for the church is the only way to ‘work out’ one’s own salvation in Jesus Christ.   Like Jesus ‘emptied himself’ of being God 2:6) so he could later be exalted by God, Paul revealed the kind of ‘attitude’ the church must  have to win, even by losing.

If you think this kind of ‘salvation’ is strange, you’re not alone.  When Jesus told his disciples he was headed to a cross,  "…Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord!  This must never happen to you."  Peter's plea for Jesus not to avoid the cross—to only think of himself was, according to Pam Driesell, like pleading with a woman not to suffer for the birth of her child.   You see, the point of our lives is NOT TO AVOID PAIN...neither is it to endure pain for pain's sake. THE POINT OF OUR LIVES IS TO FOLLOW CHRIST and do the will of God...to CHOOSE LOVE AND JUSTICE AND GOODNESS...and to bear whatever suffering comes in order to ‘bring the Christ-in-us TO LIFE in the world’ (Pam Driesell).

Pam Driesell tells how her baby sister Carolyn was primarily known in her growing-up years for her indulgent lifestyle and absolute abhorrence of doing anything that was inconvenient.  She was, in a word:  SPOILED.  When she finally got married, Driesell’s son Walker was having a hard time getting his mind around self-indulgent Carolyn having a baby.  Walker asked his mom one day after he had seen Carolyn, who was well into her pregnancy,

"Mom, doesn't it hurt to have a baby?"

  "Yes," his mother said, "it's a real PAIN!"

  "Do you think Carolyn is scared?"

 "Probably....".  

Walker got quiet.  He was thinking about Carolyn having to endure all that pain and wondering if she could handle it.  Finally, he broke the silence. 

"She shouldn't go through with it!”   

A bit startled, his mom looked up straight into the dancing brown eyes of her youngest.

 "It's not worth it...is it?" he asked with a smile. 

Ask any mother whether going through childbirth was worth it?  Most would do it again, even if it put their life at risk, which it did, and it still does.   When you think about it, especially on this Mother’s Day, working out our salvation can bring us pain and challenge too.  Perhaps this is the ‘fear and trembling’ Paul means.  Having the mindset of Jesus can be like picking up a cross, taking up the towel, bearing a burden, going the extra mile, and as Paul says here, it is:  ‘valuing others above yourselves, not looking after your own interests but each of you looking to the interests of others’  (2:3-4).  Ouch!   Having that kind of mindset can hurt, but it also bring healing and hope, and it can be how God works with us to save us too.  

As the the commentator Matthew Henry expressed our ‘work’ in God’s salvation:  "We must resemble him in his life, if we would have the benefit of his death.’  Any salvation ‘worth its salt’ will imitate Christ’s love with his humility.  This is why Paul concludes: “If you have any comfort from his love, if any sharing in his spirit, or if any tenderness or compassion,….be like-minded, having the same love, being in one spirit, and of one mind… In your relationship with one another, have the same mindset, the same attitude, as Jesus Christ” (2: 1-5).    

Has your faith changed your ‘attitude’ so God can ‘act’ through you ‘in order to fulfill his purpose’?    Reversing Matthew Henry, if you want his life, you must with love and humility join him in his death.   Then, God will exalt you too.   Amen!