But How Do We Know What to Obey? - Phil 2: 1-13

Obedience is one of those words that seems to instantly make people think negative thoughts. Perhaps this is because obedience is most commonly used with the word not, as in “you have not obeyed me” or “why weren’t you obedient?” Other times, the thought of obedience makes us uncomfortable – we want to be our own person and follow our own rules and anything less feels like conformity. The result, when relationship is considered in obedience to God, is that we can seem to be in a perpetual state of trying to define ourselves apart from God by rebelling against God’s wishes – in other words we seem to be perpetually disobedient.

But in contrast to the negativity that can surround the context of obedience, we have Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi today – where he has words of encouragement and joy for them and an excitement about their obedience to this teachings. He is overjoyed that this group of followers are living out the realities of Christ’s glory in their present lives! They got it! They understood that what they were striving to become was something so much bigger then their own pride issues over being obedient – it wasn’t about them solely – it was about God’s kingdom!

Paul is like a parent in this passage – feeling a surge of joy and pride in the people he helped grow in the faith. Usually, Paul’s letters go out to churches who struggle to be obedient when he is absent. Like children who say one thing to a parent, and then do the opposite when they leave, many of the group of believers he taught back slid as he traveled on. But not Philippi – they got it! And they were thriving!

What hope this must have brought Paul as he was imprisoned, facing a pending execution. His legacy would live on and all of his work was not in vain – this one group of people was bringing other encouragement in Christ, sharing their love with all the met, having compassion and sympathy for those they interacted with – and constantly sought the spirit’s guidance. While other churches along Paul’s journey struggled, this community sought to live for Christ and not selfish ambition. This fellowship looked to the interest of others over themselves, and in doing so they magnified the love of Christ and modeled his obedience, even to death on the cross. Jesus sat aside all of the power that he could have had, and abandoned his equality with God, because above all God is love – and Jesus loved others.

For the church in Philippi this love was crucial. They took it on as a spiritual exercise – a spiritual experience. Obedience for them was not linked with mindlessness, or a lack of will – it flowed from their will to follow God, which was their daily choice. They knew that God’s love came before them, was with them, and would go beyond them once they left this world. And they yearned to be part of sharing this love with others.

What amazes me is that this fellowship of believers made the choice to be obedient knowing that the consequences could be dire. They choose to be obedient even though the one, who had taught them, their Spiritual Father, sat in a prison facing death for living out his beliefs. They may loose their status in society, their wealth, and their very livelihood and become outcasts, but they made that choice anyway, because in their lives, God’s love was worth following more then anything else.

So what about us? Ghandi once said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Our Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Currently I am reading the book They Like Jesus But Not the Church: Insights Into the Emerging Generation for a retreat that I am leaving for this afternoon. The author, Dan Kimball, uses this quote from Ghandi to draw a parallel to how many people outside the church, and some people inside the church, feel about Christians – that we sometimes fail to live into the message of love that Jesus gave. We took Jesus’ teachings and want to teach them to others, but sometimes we don’t want to do the hard work of examining our own lives to see if we are really being obedient to Christ, really living the way God has called us to, marked by love. Ghandi made his now famous quote about Christians while struggling for justice for the oppressed in India, which he did out of love. He saw Jesus as one who modeled such radical love, but was not joined in his struggle by many of Christ’s contemporary followers. He didn’t see people like those in the fellowship in Philippi, those who put obedience and modeling Christ’s teaching above their own comfort and needs.

When reading one of the commentators on today’s scripture passage, I was struck by the statement that we are called to be imitators of Christ, not impersonator. An imitator wants to live in such a way that reflects the one that they imitate and they do this not for themselves, but to bring glory and honor to the one they respect enough to want to be like. However, an impersonator struggles hard to make people see them a certain way, a way that they are not really. They fake being something they are not in order to get their own acclaim.

Perhaps this is what makes the church at Philippi so different from some of the other places Paul traveled – they understood that it was not about them. Following Christ was not about making their lives better or being lifted up to a particular status in society or being part of the in crowd. It was about adopting a Christ like attitude daily.

I am sure that the people in Philippi stumbled a lot. But in their striving to imitate Christ, to be a reflection of Christ’s love, they had to be honest about the times they screwed up. An impersonator often acts as if everything is okay, even when it is not. An imitator uses their failures as an opportunity for growth, and try again. Because they understood that this was a daily choice, a process of living obediently.

If we want to be like the church in Philippi, we need to ask ourselves some very hard questions as individuals and as this gathering at Albright-Bethune. Can the world see Christ in us? Are people sensing the love of Christ through us? Are we striving to be more like Christ daily, imitating him, or are we simply trying to impersonate him for our own glory? Are we making the daily choice to be obedient to Christ? And when we struggle with obedience are we honest about this so we can learn from it in the future?

Brothers and sisters, Christ has chosen us to be his imitators in order to accomplish God’s mission on this earth. Sometimes we do this well and other times things seem to go very wrong. But like Philippians we have a daily choice – to choose to be obedient to what Christ has taught us through scriptures, what he modeled by dying on the cross, and following where the Holy Spirit is leading us daily. This is hard work, especially in the face of a culture that tells us to do things our own way and to think about ourselves first. Obedience is not childish nor is it something to be viewed with a negative connotation – it is a high calling to bring glory to a wonderful God. God has not called us to do something alone; for the Holy Spirit is always with us, and God has not asked us do anything that Christ has not done before us. We need to make the daily choice to set ourselves aside for the good of the body of Christ. We are called to practice what we recognize, so that people no longer look at the Church and do not see us as imitators of the one whom we love and follow. Amen.