Love and Life That Endure--October 16, 2023

 

Love and Life That Endure--October 16, 2023

"Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved." [Philippians 4:1]

This might just be the greatest evidence of resurrection that we have: love.

It has to be the real thing, though. Only the genuine article will do. Not to be confused with boxes of chocolates and hastily purchased flowers. Not to be equated with liking someone, even liking someone a lot. Not to be confused with romance at all, really. But love, the authentic, I-will-go-to-the-mat-for-you, I-will-follow-you-into-the-dark kind of commitment and devotion, that might just be the best sign we Christians can offer that the tomb was empty on that Sunday morning, and that one day ours will be, too.

I realize that this verse might not seem at all like a statement about the resurrection—whether Jesus’ or ours. But this verse, which many of us heard this past Sunday, comes right on the heels of Paul saying that Christ Jesus “will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory.” And Paul wasn’t talking about a surprise makeover. He was obviously talking about resurrection, about life that endures beyond the grip of death, and about God’s power to make us into new creations. All of that is in the background as Paul continues here in what we call Chapter Four of Philippians.

See, today’s conversation begins with a “therefore,” which is Paul’s succinct way of saying, “Ok well, based on everything we were just talking about, here are some conclusions.” The hope of resurrection stands in the background of today’s verse. It is what keeps Paul grounded while he is in prison and very well staring down the possibility of capital punishment. And it is what allows him to face each new day while he is separated from distant friends who clearly mean the world to him. The resurrection, and Paul's confident trust in a God who can raise the dead, these are the things that lead Paul to say what he says in today’s verse—they are what the “therefore” is there for.

Ah, but none of that gets at how love is evidence for the resurrection, at least not exactly, and that was what I promised you. But it sets the stage, and it gets all the players to their right places. And that is actually what this is all about. Paul has come to love these people, the Christians at Philippi, very dearly. He is not bashful or awkward about it. He just comes out and says it. It is a pure love, free of self-interest, and one that allows him really to delight in the things that are good for these friends of his in Philippi, and really to be crushed by the things that pain the Philippians.

But consider this: there was no real reason that Paul ever would have had to meet these people, much less come to love them, except for the Message of the Resurrection. Paul lived in a world where your average peasant (and let’s face it, most everybody in the Empire was a peasant or below on the great Roman social hierarchy) might not have ever traveled a hundred miles from the spot they were born. Paul wouldn’t have had reason to travel out all the way west to Philippi—a Roman colony somewhere around seven or eight hundred miles from his own hometown. He could have lived a quiet life in Tarsus, or Damascus, or back even further away from Philippi in Jerusalem. He might never have had an occasion to visit Philippi—except for the fact that he came as a Christian to bring the news of a crucified and risen savior.  

Easter—that is, the news of a Savior whose love endured through the cross and out the other side of an empty grave—was the reason for Paul first meeting this people, all the way back to including that jailer who had once tortured him (see Acts 16). If Jesus had not risen from the dead, Paul would likely have had no reason, ever, to have gone to Philippi. And even if he had gone, if there were no resurrection, Paul would never have met any of the specific people he had come to love there. (Acts 16:13 implies that there was not a substantial Jewish population in Philippi for it to have its own synagogue, which meant there wasn’t a base of fellow Jews for Paul to have connected with, if he had not been changed by the resurrection.) So the people Paul knew and loved in Philippi are people he wouldn’t have even met if Jesus weren’t alive and hadn’t appeared to Paul.  Jesus' enduring life and love made it possible for Paul to be brought to faith in Jesus, and in turn Paul got to know and love those folks in Philippi because of that whole chain of events.  Jesus' resurrection led to Paul's coming to faith in Christ and from there to meeting and caring for the Philippians.  His love for them is evidence that Jesus is alive.

The fact that Paul has not only met these people, people with whom he had very little else in common before Christ, but also that he has come to love these people, that is a sign in and of itself that something powerful and life-changing has happened to Paul. The fact that their lives are now tangled up in one another’s, and that he can call these dear friends of his “my joy and crown,” this is sure evidence that something has completely changed Paul’s course of life and taken him places he never would have guessed he would go to.

And the fact that now, even while they are separated by great distance, they remain friends who continue to miss one another, this, too, is a sign that Paul isn’t just a blow-into-town kind of guy who forgets the people the moment he gets on the next bus. Well, something must have happened in Paul’s life to turn him into this person that even we have met through his letter: someone who loves these people at Philippi very deeply, someone who has gone to distant places he never expected, someone who is willing to suffer in prison for the sake of his calling.

That something was the resurrection: the enduring power of life and of love beyond death. Only a risen, living Christ can make sense of the change in Paul’s life situation. His love for these people, and their love for him, is evidence of Easter.  Like the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said it, "It is love that believes the Resurrection."

The same is true for us. We are placed in these amazing communities of faith, we Christians, where people show up for us when our hearts are heavy, where people rejoice with us in times of joy. And among these people, we find that our lives are bound up with theirs, as we are all tangled up in the love of God. The funny thing is, these are not necessarily people you would have picked to be your friends otherwise. You know, sometimes we talk about fellow Christians in our congregation as “church family,” and that refers not only to the closeness we find in these communities, but also to the fact that you don’t get to choose your family. We might not agree with one another or always get along with each other; we might not share the same taste in music or movies, either.  But our being pulled together in Christian community is evidence by itself that Jesus is alive with a love that endures beyond death. Here we are, people who might never have met otherwise, people who might not have expected to like one another, much less befriend one another, but the fact that we have is a sign that something wonderful and amazing has happened to us. We have been brought to this moment and this place because Jesus is alive, and someone told the news.

Today, how can you and I let our love of others be evidence to someone else that Jesus is alive? How might be we evidence of the Resurrection for someone?

Lord Jesus, let your resurrection show through in me today, by letting your love flow through me.