"Divine Fingerprints"--September 4, 2019

“Divine Fingerprints”—September 4, 2019

"I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ; and most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear." [Philippians 1:12-14]
God, it turns out, is quite clever.

In fact, God is able to do good things precisely through the circumstances we just want to get out of as fast as possible, and God is able to do them even when we are unaware of the touch of God's hand. We may just keep putting one foot in front of the next without really having a clue how God is directing any of what we do, or using the circumstances in which we find ourselves. And then, there are other times when, as Paul puts it, our love just “overflows more and more with knowledge and full insight” and we see the telltale signs of Spirit on things, nudging and steering us where God intends.   But whether we see them or not at the time, it turns out there are divine fingerprints on every moment of our lives--both the moments of serenity and of struggle alike.

So these verses come from one of those times when Paul himself has seen the curtain pulled back, and Paul has been able to see God’s direction in his life, even through bad circumstances. Paul has come to recognize in a whole new way just how clever the living God really is.

It turns out that Paul is writing the letter we know as Philippians from prison—or from a kind of house-arrest—in Rome, awaiting trial. This might seem like a bad situation, both for Paul personally, and for the prospects of spreading the Good News. After all, Paul’s the star player on the team, and it seems like he’s in the penalty box and out of commission at the present time. If you or I were in Paul’s place, we might just accuse God of having abandoned us, or we might give up on spreading the message of Jesus around, because after all, look where it’s gotten Paul so far!

But Paul has been given a glimpse of how God was working through his situation. Paul sees that because of his imprisonment, now the message about Christ is spreading like a virus through the whole imperial guard. It is infecting the empire with the Gospel, so to speak, from the inside out. And Paul can see that because he has been arrested, others have stepped into the fray and begun to speak up. Others are being empowered to bring the Good News of Jesus—others who will raise up new leaders after them, and another generation after them. And those new preachers and teachers and missionaries would not have found their courage if necessity had not compelled them to find it. Even while Paul is sitting under house arrest, he is still being used by God to reach others with the news of Jesus. And on top of that, Rome footed the bill for his transport from Palestine to the imperial capital, and the Roman soldiers who were there to keep Paul in are also going to keep Paul safe from any lynch-mobs around! All this is possible, on the Emperor’s nickel, mind you, because God is just that clever.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "My personal trials have also taught me the value of unmerited suffering. As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways that I could respond to my situation: either to react with bitterness or to transform the suffering into a creative force." That change of perspective is exactly what Paul had been praying for on behalf of his readers—that their love would overflow with knowledge and insight so that they can see God’s hand and their place in God’s purposes. And now Paul is the one who has been given that insight for his own situation. Paul can see how God is using his imprisonment to get the Good News to more people—people who will then take the word from the capital, Rome, throughout the empire. And at the same time, God has got the Romans to pay for it all: the great empire that arrogantly sees itself as eternal ruler of the world is paying for the spread of a message that a crucified rabbi from Palestine is the true ruler of creation! Paul can see, with a kind of delight at being in on the divine joke, how God is using this situation for divine purposes. And Paul can live with that, even if it’s not easy or fun to be in prison. Paul understands that there is a cost in all of this--he has likely given up (permanently) the freedom to go out where and when he wants to, the possibility of a future wife and kids--or even any hypothetical future "significant others", or even a permanent mailing address.  But he is willing to let all of those things go, regardless of how comfortable, fun, or pleasant they might have been, because he has come to see divine fingerprints on his situation, even when it comes with a prison guard and a criminal record.  It is a question, as Dr. King said, of deciding whether to act with bitterness or to let the suffering be transformed into a creative force.

That’s the other thing to catch about these few verses: Paul can recognize God’s clever designs even when things aren’t going great for him. Paul doesn’t make the mistake we sometimes do—that God’s will must be whatever is pleasant to me at the moment, that "what I think would make me happy" is the same as "what God is obligated to do for me," or that if I am struggling through difficult circumstances, God can’t be anywhere in that situation. And we get bitter.

Sometimes, we recognize God’s fingerprints when our hardships go away—when the sickness is cured, the work-load at our job gets lighter, or the person you’ve had personality conflicts with goes away. Other times, like Paul here, we can see God’s gracious cleverness as we go through the tough stuff that isn’t being taken away, or that we are not being taken out of. Paul is still in prison—but he sees God at work in that situation, as others are brought to faith because of where he is. He doesn’t have to like being in prison, but he does see that God is up to something right where he is.

Today, may we be given such clarity to catch glimpses of what God is up to in our lives right where we are, too.

Lord Jesus, allow us today to see at least in part how you are at work around and in and through our circumstances today, even while we remain in those circumstances.