Hello friends,
This is Mark Lardman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in dogs.
Welcome back as we continue through Paul's letter to the Philippians.
And today we're looking at the last couple of verses of the letter.
Now over these past days,
We've traveled through this beautiful piece of scripture.
We began with Paul's confidence that the God who begins a good work in us will carry it to completion.
We discovered that our circumstances don't have the power to determine our joy because Christ remains present even in our suffering.
We stood before that great hymn of Christ who emptied himself in love and saw that the pattern of Jesus becomes the pattern of the spiritual life.
We met Timothy and Epaphroditus,
Ordinary people whose quiet faithfulness revealed the beauty of Christ.
We heard Paul's invitation to release every identity.
Built on achievement and discover the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.
We were reminded that we're still becoming,
Still being formed and still being drawn forward by grace.
And we learn the peace of God that guards our hearts and the contentment that comes from discovering that Christ is enough.
And now we arrive at the end.
And it's easy to gloss over these last couple of verses thinking that they're insignificant,
Just greetings and closing farewells.
What I've found is that the text of scripture rarely wastes words and hidden within Paul's conclusion is a beautiful reminder that the gospel is not something we can live in isolation,
That it takes root among ordinary people in ordinary communities through ordinary acts of love.
So as always,
Before we listen,
Let's become still.
Take a nice slow breath.
And as you settle into this moment,
Just remember that the people.
.
.
That God has placed around you.
The people who have encouraged you.
Even those who've challenged you.
Those whose lives through whom God has been made known to you.
And let us listen to Philippians 4.
Verses 21 to 23.
Paul writes.
Greet every Saint in Christ Jesus.
The friends who are with me greet you.
All the saints greet you,
Especially those of the Emperor's household.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Be with your spirit.
I greet all God's people in Christ Jesus.
The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings.
Relationship again.
This is not a letter written to some audience that's out there somewhere.
It closes in the same way it began.
It's being written to people,
People whose names and faces and stories Paul knows.
This is a community.
Paul isn't just trying to get ideas across here,
He's communicating life.
This is one of the great truths of a deep spiritual life and practice.
That God doesn't form us to move into isolation.
He forms us to come into communion and community.
From the beginning,
Scripture tells us it is not good for humanity to be alone.
And the spiritual journey.
Is perhaps sometimes personal.
But it's never.
Private.
And that small distinction.
Matters.
Now notice Paul's language where he writes,
Greet all God's people.
The Greek word often translated as saints.
Simply means those who belong to God.
What's important here is it doesn't mean people who are perfect and it doesn't mean people who've achieved some sort of special level of holiness.
And it doesn't even mean people who belong to a particular group.
It means people who've been claimed.
By grace.
And this is important because sometimes We imagine saints as some figures in history who lived extraordinary lives,
Maybe even performed miracles.
I seem impossibly holy.
But what Paul does here is he literally calls ordinary people.
.
.
Science.
These people who form the community in Philippi.
They weren't famous,
They weren't powerful,
Not important.
Especially by the standards of Rome.
They were merchants,
They were workers,
Households.
And Paul says,
You are God's holy people.
And this,
As you will have seen,
Is one of the great themes of this letter,
Philippians.
Transformation happens in ordinary places.
It happens around meals,
In conversations,
Through acts of generosity,
In moments of disagreement and reconciliation,
Through serving one another,
Through suffering.
Walking the way of God isn't just something about belief,
It's about something of being formed and changed and transformed.
A community.
With a different way of being human,
A community where humility is valued and generosity is celebrated and forgiveness is possible and where Christ and God literally become visible through us.
And then.
.
.
Paul adds this beautiful little detail,
All God's people here send you greetings.
Especially those who belong to the emperor's or to the Caesar's household.
And this is a great little phrase here,
Because remember where Paul's writing from,
Probably from Rome.
He's surrounded by the power of empire.
The palace,
The military,
The structures of the emperor,
The structures of Caesar.
And yet within that very environment,
Something new is growing.
People belonging to Caesar's household have encountered God.
They've started to know this way.
Of Christ,
The Gospels have entered places where Paul might have never expected them to arrive.
The Empire thought it was controlling Paul,
But God was forming a new community.
Even within the heart of empire.
The kingdom of God was starting to take root.
Even within the halls of power.
And this brings back a theme from earlier.
In Philippians,
Paul told them,
Our citizenship is in heaven.
And now we see what that looks like.
It's not escaping from the world.
It's about transformation within the world.
And so the gospel doesn't create a separate community disconnected from society,
It creates people.
Who carry the values of the Kingdom of God wherever they go,
Into homes and workplaces and schools and governments,
Into every place where human beings gather,
And even into the palaces of emperors.
And so the question isn't just,
Where can we find God?
The deeper question is probably something like,
Where is God already at work and how are we invited to join in and participate with this work?
And then Paul finishes with,
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
It's a beautiful ending because grace has really been the foundation of everything in this letter.
It began with grace.
Paul wrote at the start of the letter,
You remember,
Grace and peace to you from God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it ends with grace.
And so the spiritual life begins with grace,
Continues through grace,
And it's completed by grace.
Everything that we've explored in Philippians is simply what happens when a person and a community become open to that grace.
And notice Paul's final words,
Be with your spirit.
Your spirit.
The mind,
Yes,
But your spirit,
The deepest center of your being.
Paul's not interested in external religious behavior or knowledge.
He wants Christ to dwell within them.
He wants the Philippians to become the kind of people whose inner life is transformed because what happens within eventually becomes visible without.
A changed heart creates a changed life.
So as we close the letter,
Maybe we can see the whole movement.
Philippians begins with a promise,
God is at work.
That it moves to a vision of the mind of Christ,
Then it becomes practice,
Live with humility,
Joy,
Peace,
And contentment,
And it ends with a blessing,
Remain in grace.
And that,
Friends,
Is the journey of formation.
Becoming.
Like Christ.
So as we finish,
I invite you to begin to the question we began with,
What is God forming in you?
Not what are you doing for God.
But who are you becoming?
Because in the end,
Spiritual formation isn't just about producing more,
It's about becoming more fully alive.
Both in and to the presence of Christ within and around you.
The God who began a good work in you is still with you.
Working.
The story's not done.
Grace is still active and Christ is being formed.
Within you.
So today I invite you to pray a prayer of gratitude.
Think of three people.
Through whom God has shaped your life.
And name them.
Give thanks.
And then ask.
God,
May I become that kind of person for someone else,
Someone whose presence brings encouragement,
Someone whose life reveals grace,
And someone through whom another person encounters Christ.
Let's pride.
God of grace,
Thank you for the gift of this journey through Philippians.
Thank you for Paul's witness.
Thank you for the community of believers who received these words.
Thank you for the people through whom you have formed us.
Continue your work within us.
Form the mind of Christ within us.
Teach us humility.
Teach us joy.
Teach us peace.
Teach us contentment.
Make us people through whom your grace becomes visible.
May our lives become a living letter of your love.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with us and remain with us today and always.
Amen.
Thank you for joining me on this journey through Philippians.
May you remember the God who began a good work in you is still working.
May Christ's humility become your way of life.
May his peace guard your heart,
May his grace sustain you,
And may you continue becoming more and more like Christ.
Until tomorrow.
Bye for now.
You you you
