Philippians 2.1-13; Matthew 21.23-32
“God is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” God is at work in you. I am going to take St Paul’s word at the end of today’s second reading, originally written for the church at Philippi, and trust that this is also for the church at 3600 25th Street South, Fargo and is a word for us, too. God is at work in us. In everything we do in a life of faith, in everything we are meant to be as followers of Jesus, in our encounters with people on a daily basis, we are not left to our own resources. God is at work in us.
I find that both encouraging and reassuring. Because if, for example, the way of life that the New Testament sets before us in other places—genuine love, outdoing one another in showing honor, patience in affliction, responding to evil with good—if that is the path of faith I’m meant to take, and to take it with the least amount of stumbling possible, I will need God at work to give me the desire to do what is right and the strength to do it.
Paul’s words of assurance and encouragement come from a time in his life that was less than encouraging. He is writing to the Philippians from prison, facing a possible death sentence, fully aware that he may never see his friends again. I try to put myself in Paul’s shoes and can’t imagine having the same confidence he has. God must be at work in him, too.
In his absence from his friends, Paul trusts that they, and we in our day, will be able to work out for ourselves what it means to be people of faith. When Paul says, “work out your own salvation,” he is not saying that it is up to us to get right with God; salvation is a gift from God in Jesus Christ. Paul says, “work out your own salvation,” because cannot be personally present to guide us through every daily situation and encounter. He trusts us to calculate and put into practice what it means for us to follow Jesus. To “work out your salvation” means applying Jesus’ life to every aspect of your life, and to do it with utter seriousness, with “fear and trembling,” he says. Now that sounds like a daunting task, but the good news is that we are not left to ourselves to work it out. “God is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
To help us think through the implications and meaning of Jesus’ life for our life, Paul today quotes an early Christian hymn that praises Jesus for who he is, what he accomplishes for the salvation of the world, and how he does it. The Son of God refused to take advantage of equality with God. He rejected the chance to exploit divine power. Equal to God and existing from all eternity even before becoming human, he gave up divine power with its privileges and rights. He came as a servant, was born in human flesh, and offered self-giving love all the way to the cross. He didn’t boast about his own reputation but died the death of people who had no reputation.
Paul calls this the ‘mind of Christ,’ a mind we are meant to share. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” This mind of Christ is more than mere intellectual thought, however; it is an attitude and way of life formed after Jesus himself. Now Paul, as you heard, doesn’t give specific steps for us to take; he doesn’t lay out detailed rules so that our mind operates like the mind of Christ. That is a good thing. He was Jewish and lived in the 1st century; for us in the 21st century, many of our questions and concerns are different than his. But by quoting a hymn about Jesus, Paul gives a pattern and direction for our life.
For example, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.” Can you imagine? Living this way will, of course, make the followers of Jesus stand out. Humility was not a prized virtue in the ancient world; it remains rare today. Now the biblical sense of humility is, to be sure, not about humiliation or being humiliated; there is more than enough of that and none of it is godly. This is about a humble spirit. Yet in the ancient world, a humble spirit might have been a virtue for children and slaves, but it was not for adults and honorable people. Public status, self-assertion, and boasting about one’s achievements were prized.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Curated image, status, being right—Christian humility challenges it all. “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” Similar guidance appears early, and often, in the letters of the New Testament. I guess that means that if even Jesus’ closest followers needed to be reminded of this, then having a humble spirit must not be our default nature but a Jesus-shaped second nature. To live with a humble spirit is one way to apply the mind of Christ to daily life, to work out our salvation with intent and purpose. And as we do, the source of this way of life is always present with us and for us. “God is at work in you.”
A humble spirit toward life in God, and the same humble spirit with others, is also shaped and guided by today’s gospel reading. Jesus says to religiously devout and good people, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.”
Now the faithful crowds who heard Jesus say this were surely surprised. Our Lord has a good word for ancient tax collectors with extortion as their business method and people in the world’s oldest profession as their business method. Talk about thinking of others more highly than yourself; this is, to be sure, quite a group of ‘others.’ So you also may very well be surprised by what Jesus says.
Yet all through the gospels, we see how the down-and-out and the looked down upon know more about the way that God’s kingdom works than the upright and up-and-coming. The sick were brought to Jesus and healed, the troubled met by his mercy, sinners forgiven. In Jesus, the very people who wondered if they belonged received a welcome that was nothing less than restoration and healing, peace and joy, of life made new and set right: salvation.
The parable that Jesus then tells about two sons—the one who said ‘Yes’ to work in his father’s vineyard but didn’t follow through, and the other who said ‘No’ but later started harvesting grapes—highlights the truth of grace in Jesus. The son who said ‘Yes’ represents the religiously devout who said the right things but never got around to rolling up their sleeves. This stands in stark contrast to the son who said ‘No’ but had a change of heart and mind; he represents all those who know their need for God. God is at work in him.
This is a caution about professing faith but not working out the implications of faith, of making faith a mere intellectual exercise rather than a way of life. Yet for people who know their need of God and turn to God? “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.”
Only what are we to make of that? Peter Gomes, late chaplain at Harvard, in writing on today’s gospel, wonders if this means that for God’s grace to be active in our life we need to go to work for the IRS or take up prostitution? Of course not. (At least not one of those. Deciding which one is a part of your salvation to work out.) But Jesus today reminds anyone who is religiously serious and devout that there is an ongoing need to rethink life as we know it in the light of God’s grace and through the mind of Christ.
This is true for all of us because at a certain level, personal comfort, image, and self-satisfaction become a substitute for God as God. So Paul, in Philippians, turns us from selfish ambition to the self-giving grace of God in Jesus Christ. Gomes, in his writing, invites us to think through this life and gift of grace in Jesus. He says, “Look at what your priorities and anxieties are. Because you know life has more to offer than you now have of it, no matter how much you own, or how smart you are, or how important you are. There has to be more than this, and there is, and it is already given for you, this place of God in your life.”
Today, then, is the time to work it all out—the implications of your salvation—and in doing so, do two things: to be grateful for the good that comes from God; and to repent and turn from the things in your life that could be labeled, ‘not Jesus.’ To roll up your sleeves when you have said ‘Yes’ to God; and when you have said ‘No,’ to discover once again that grace is the only game in town and have a change of heart and mind and life. And so that you can do this, “God is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
Paul wants you to see and know what it means to follow Jesus each day and on a daily basis as you work out the implications of your salvation, having the mind of Christ. As you calculate and put into practice with utter seriousness what it means to be a follower of Jesus, God is at work in you. God is at work in you so that you can show generous self-giving love in a world of self-centered demand, of self-forgetful joy in a world of arrogance and conceit. God is at work in you, filling your mind and heart with peace so that you can offer peace to people living in fear and in order for you to swim against the current of anger.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” More than mere intellectual thought; it is an attitude and way of life formed after Jesus himself. And each day there will always be opportunities for you to work out your salvation with Jesus in mind. What will it be today? Where? And with whom? If you haven’t found out yet, there is plenty of the day left to afford opportunities. And in each moment, you can trust that “God is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
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