Saints and sinners …

Saints and sinners: being humbled | A Sermon on Philippians 2:1-13 | The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost 27 September 2020| by Samuel D. Zumwalt |

Philippians 2:1-13 English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, ² complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴ Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

SAINTS AND SINNERS: BEING HUMBLED

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Churches and synagogues are families, which means the members are emotionally connected. The late rabbi and psychiatrist Ed Friedman wrote and taught much about that as he applied the family systems theory of Murray Bowen to religious communities. Some families, including church and synagogue families, are healthier than others. My late friend and mentor Peter Steinke wrote and taught much about that, too. Because people are works in progress of varying degrees of emotional and spiritual maturity, so are the families of which we are all a vital part.

Paul has a very close relationship with the Church at Philippi, which has its own local pastors and deacons. He functions as their spiritual father and provides oversight for their life together. As the key leader for their life together, Paul has much to say. And all that Paul has to say is rooted in his profound conviction and deep commitment to the Headship of Jesus Christ, God’s Son and Savior, the glorified Lord of all. Long before Thomas a Kempis wrote his spiritual classic, Paul, who is imprisoned for the sake of the Gospel, urges the imitation of Christ with all his being. Paul is all-in for the Kingdom of God, and he wants his beloved Philippians to be so, too.

The Church at Philippi, as dear as it is to Paul, is not a finished work. Yes, baptized into the Lord Jesus’ death and resurrection, these Christians are saints of God set apart to be His own. But they remain yet in bondage to sin, and, accordingly, they can look like sinners as they relate to each other in the family of God. Again, they are a work in progress, a painting that will one day be a masterpiece, an incomplete symphony not ready for eternity, a house not fully built, still running the race while not yet to the finish line. These dear sisters and brothers are, like all of us, dust and to dust they and we shall return.

Our parish church has a memorial garden beneath pine trees. A retired engineer drew up the plan almost twenty years ago. Azalea and camellia bushes were planted in a circle. Three stone benches were placed at compass points with the entrance serving as the fourth. By law, there would be no urns or containers for the cremated remains. A hole would be dug. The bag of ashes would be opened and poured directly in the hole and covered. A memorial plaque with brass name plates and birth and death dates of those buried in the garden was placed in the narthex. When I began serving the parish more than sixteen years ago, there were only two sets of cremains buried there. Eight years later, that engineer died from cancer. His ashes are there now.

Seven years ago, an Eagle Scout created an arbor entrance and a memorial brick walkway to mark the inner circle. Six months after the rededication of the memorial garden at Easter, the young man’s father’s ashes were buried there. This Pentecost, another Eagle Scout completed his project by adding an ornamental iron fence around the exterior circle beyond the azaleas and camellias. Now we have a second plaque on the wall for the forty saints interred in that place. Each time we open a bag of ashes to place in the ground in sure and certain hope of the resurrection unto eternal life we are reminded of how little is left of our old life once the old Adam or Eve in us has breathed his or her last. Then, our Baptism is complete. The pastor invites each grieving family member to place a shovel of dirt over the ashes until they are completely returned to the earth. We are humbled. All our plans and dreams, all our striving and successes, all our losing and defeats, all our earthly goods and honors are brought to nothing. Ashes to ashes. Dust….

Families at their worst are assaulted and infected by the devil’s empty promises. Church families only need two or three or even five members to become hosts to selfish ambition, conceit, and the mind of the old evil one, and then the Body suffers. Pastors are not immune to evil. The saints of God are also sinners in this life. Where there are great gifts, there are always great demons. A handful of church staff members, a small group of church members, indeed any of the saints who do not persistently practice the daily drowning of the old Adam or Eve can destroy a congregation, a regional judicatory, an entire denomination by their own selfish ambition, conceit, and constant being led by the mind of the old evil one. By their fruits they will be known.

So, Paul gently but firmly leads the Church at Philippi by pointing them to the Crucified Lord Jesus, truly God and truly human: For us and our salvation, He humbled Himself by taking on our frail flesh, by suffering, and by dying the death we deserve and cannot innocently die. He does not establish quotas for diversity. He does not disseminate critical race theories. He does not approve this world’s murder of the unborn or call it justice. Indeed, He does not bring peace by redecorating the devil’s worldly work nor does He endorse candidates who are too soon dust.

This Jesus, risen, ascended, and exalted, is the One to whom every knee in heaven, on earth, and under the earth must bow and to whom every tongue must confess as Lord. So, then, if this Jesus can humble Himself unto death on a cross out of love for His Father and love for every child of earth, ought not, then, those marked with His holy cross, sealed with the Holy Spirit, and claimed as children of the heavenly Father imitate our elder brother. Paul writes this from prison, which reinforces his bona fides as apostle and as their spiritual father.

No pastor has any business being in a pulpit, presiding at the altar, teaching a class, leading a meeting, or writing to sisters and brothers if the pastor does not practice daily renunciation of the devil, his works, and his ways and daily confession of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as God. As the late 4^th and early 5^th century Patriarch of Constantinople, St. John Chrysostom, said: “It is a miracle for a pastor to be saved.” Why is that? Because we pastors can become so familiar with the mysteries, the holy things of God, and even the holy people of God that we become infected with selfish ambition, conceit, and the mind of the old evil foe, whose best trick (caveat emptor) is to convince the prideful sheep (and sheep dogs) that he isn’t really there: Just a childish idea.

Working out our salvation with fear and trembling is not (caveat emptor) synergistic cooperation. The very idea of that is already a devilish wasting of the death of God’s Son Jesus. Born dead in our trespasses, the dead can do nothing but be dead, be buried with Christ in the waters of Holy Baptism, and then made new through no effort or merit of our own. The old Adam or Eve in us is being humbled. These bodies are wasting away, yes, sometimes, inexplicably, before they are fully grown. But we know that when these eyes have closed in death and the decomposing clay in caskets or the few pounds of ashes in a bag have been fully humbled, returned to the earth from which our first parents were formed, then we will be raised in imperishable bodies. Our commonwealth is in heaven from which we await our Savior Jesus, the exalted Lord of all.

So, then, working out our salvation with fear and trembling is the story of the saints of God in the family of God. We remember our Baptism daily. We renounce deceitful and underhanded ways. We renounce our old will, which is nothing but the weak-minded will of those infected in the original Garden by the rebellious spirit of the prideful fallen angel who can never be God. When we see the behaviors and hear the words of selfish ambition, conceit, and the mind of the old evil foe at work in the family, we humbly confess: “We did not so learn Christ.” Sometimes, we must more forcefully declare: “The Lord did not teach us to pray, ‘My will be done!’”

Where there are great gifts, there are also great demons. Those great gifts must be made captive not to our will but to the Word of God that comes from outside us. The great scholar of God’s Word can become a forensic pathologist of the Bible, who finds the constituent parts of that corpse interesting. The great preacher can become a preening fool addicted to the praise of the sheep and fleecing them shamelessly. The great musician can become so enamored of his or her own art and work that the mirror on the wall delightfully sings or plays “How Great Thou Art.” The saint who has skillfully acquired ten talents can be certain his or her will must be God’s. The matriarch or patriarch of a church family can convince her- or himself “this church” is mine. And so on and so on and scooby dooby dooby (“Everyday People,” 1968, Sly and the Family Stone).

“Churches and synagogues are families,” wrote Friedman. “Your church family can be unhealthy,” wrote Steinke. “Christ’s family imitates Jesus,” wrote Paul from prison for the sake of Gospel. Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. You are being humbled and so am I. Remembering this mortal clay will decompose in a casket or be ashes in the ground when we least expect it is a good mental exercise for saints who are yet sinners. We are being humbled. Thanks be to God we will also be raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit to bend the new knee and to confess with new tongues that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father!

In the interim, be led every day by the mind of Christ and offer yourself up as a living sacrifice of praise for the sake of the world God loves more than His own life. Imitate Jesus!

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

©Samuel David Zumwalt

szumwalt@bellsouth.net

St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church

Wilmington, North Carolina USA