Welcome to the CommonsCast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information. Well, welcome to church.

My name is Jeremy, great to see you here online. And we really don't take it for granted that you make worship part of your rhythm on a Sunday, so thank you for that. We're in the series on a book of Philippians. And last week, Scott led us out of chapter one and into what is known as the Philippian hymn at the start of chapter two. It's one of the most famous sections in this letter, one that's got a lot of theological nerds all hot and bothered because of this weird and beautiful word that Paul uses, kenosis.

He says that Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or grabbed ahold of. Instead, he made himself nothing or more literally, he emptied himself. And this whole idea of emptying, man, it just opens up all kinds of theological wondering and writing and speculating about the beauty of what it means to say that the divine emptied, to take the nature of a servant and become human like us. The significance of this idea that the God we worship would identify identify in self giving and self emptying and self sacrificing love. All that we have is gift and that all that we have is now available to be given.

This is just really beautiful. And Scott did a great job with all of this last week, particularly in framing this in our commitments to each other. I do want to go back and catch up one moment from the start of chapter two today that I think is going to help us through as we finish the end of this chapter. Back at the beginning, Paul, before he dives into the Philippian hymn, and by the way, we call this a hymn because we think that this section originates with somebody other than Paul. This was one of the hymns or the poems or the songs of the early church and Paul is quoting it to the Philippians expecting them to recognize it, which is another neat realization when we read this.

But as he leads into the hymn, he says, therefore, if any of you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion. Then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and one of mind, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others. And this is sort of just a perfect lead in to the idea that the divine itself looks out for us first. Because this this line, rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interest, but each of you to the interest of the others.

This is okay. This is neat little thing going on here in the Greek. Paul says, in humility, value others above yourselves, and there, others is the word alelus. And that means one another. So it's in humility, value one another above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but to the interests of the others.

This time, I I think the NIV, which I'm reading here, is trying to highlight this by using this phrase the others, but Paul actually shifts his language in Greek here a bit. This time, it's not one another. It's not a laelus. This time, it's heteron, which probably we already understand just hearing it. That that prefix hetero is one that we understand in English.

We use it all the time as in heterosexual or heterogeneous. It means being other or distinct from. Allelus is one another, but heteron is the other. In other words, Paul moves from our selfishness to our ability to care for one another to our call to care for the other, and then into a hymn about the God who empties themself in love for us. And David Geshe writes, the heart of love is treating all persons equally regardless of their proximity to us in life.

When we learn to care about other people's children and not just our own, other people's life chances and not just our own, then we have moved in the direction of the love God requires. That's the movement that Paul is talking about, the same movement Paul invites us into, the same movement that God models for us in Christ. This is I mean, is just great stuff here. Today, however, we've got wine offerings, grumbling and complaining, muddy feet, and a new world. But first, let's pray together.

God of all grace and peace who comes to us to empty yourself for us, to show us what it means to reach beyond ourselves to one another and eventually to the other. To recognize that these distinctions are illusions, that every person we encounter is part of your creation, part of what we need to flourish in the human experience. May we begin to dismantle, to tear down all of the boundaries and barriers we place up between ourselves. May we recognize that if you can bridge the divide from heaven to humanity, then we can as well bridge the divide between ourselves and our neighbors. In this, may we model your love, may we follow your path, may we become like your son.

In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen. Okay. Philippians chapter two starting in verse 14. It's where we find ourselves today.

It says, do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you, so you too should be glad and rejoice with me. Now, we want to focus on the first half of that today, but I did read a little bit farther so that we could know a couple of things here.

First of all, it says, even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. This is a bit of a callback to what we talked about two weeks ago. Paul is in chains and he keeps vacillating between confidence that he will be set free and live and concerned that he may not. And he uses this language now of being poured out like a drink offering. It's a pretty provocative imagery, but it comes from the Levitical code.

We we actually did a series on that book about man, it's probably been about six years now. You can find it here on our YouTube channel if you're interested. But the reference is to the priest who would offer an animal sacrifice along with a grain sacrifice and sometimes a wine sacrifice that was poured out on the floor of the sanctuary. I mean, this was the original OG pour one out for the homies. But that's the reference here.

And what it means is a little more obscure though. I mean, Paul is very committed to the idea that in Christ, sacrifice has been done away with it. All of our attempts to put our sin on another, all of that has been made obsolete. So it doesn't seem that he's trying to make so much a theological point here as much as he's just using this symbolic provocative imagery of sacrifice to point out how significant this moment is to him. Again, I think I think it's about the context of this deep long relationship between Paul and this specific community that underpins this section.

This this isn't theology as much as this is friendship on display. That said, let's get to the heart of the section that we really do want to focus on today. Paul says, do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. Do everything without grumbling or arguing.

I mean, that I mean, that's a lot to ask. I have a seven year old living in my house these days, and very rarely do we do anything without at least a little grumbling. I've joked about this on Twitter, but someday I'm going to put together a pastor reads mean tweets video. You ever seen those where they have celebrities read mean tweets? Well, I've been saving up some of my favorites.

Here here's a few. Now what kind of liberal hipster church is this? I bet they have a coffee bar. To be fair, we haven't been able to use it in a while, so easy. Now I got seasick not a minute in because your head was flapping around like a Canadian from South Park.

K? That's the theme here. Great sermon, but it was hard for me to watch because you look like a Jesus bobblehead. No offense. And then taken, I guess.

Yo. Is that swaggy Jesus? I don't even think that's a mean tweet, so I'm gonna take that as a compliment. At least that's my impression. Here's a good one.

You are in error. I would suggest you pray more, read more, listen more to the Lord. Many are called, few are chosen. May his face be upon you and his face shine upon you. You are the worst.

I'll admit that that one had a different ending than I expected. It started here, and then it went over here, and then all of sudden we made our way back. Anyway, your sermon is a joke and you are a clown. Never mind. I thought you were another commons church.

Turns out you're just another dumpster fire from Canada. Carry on, a. I I really don't understand the hate for Canada on YouTube, but, you know, whatever. One last one here. If Sheldon was a Christian and the only I really take offense to there is the fact that the Big Bang Theory, I mean, it was an overrated show.

Regardless, instead of arguing on Twitter, what I usually do is I collect these comments and these emails and I save them for when I need a laugh or when I need to be brought down a peg. But what exactly is Paul talking about here with this grumbling and arguing line? Well, the words in in Greek are and and the basic translation of these words are to murmur or grumble, to make utterance in a low tone of voice. So, basically, to complain under your breath. In other words, it's it's to make it known that you're dissatisfied without ever really presenting why.

And then dialogueusman, which is verbal exchange that takes place when conflicting ideas are expressed, disputed, argued. Now when you hear that second one, if if you're anything like me, an Enneagram eight, you're like, wait. How do you go through life without doing that? I mean, a verbal exchange that takes place when conflicting ideas are expressed, disputed, and argued. I mean, that sounds like aqua vida to a parched soul.

But the key here is really to understand how Paul has structured these two ideas together. I mean, Paul himself is a pretty argumentative guy at times, at least in the right circumstance, but the Greek conjunction here, chi, it can mean or as the NFE goes with, but it can also be and or but or also. It it really just links these ideas and leaves the rest up to the context. So I don't think for a second that Paul is saying that dialogue or even argument is bad. I think Paul is saying that argument predicated on grumbling, where we speak under each other or over each other or past each other, this is unproductive.

You have to take these two words as a package here. That's what the chi does and I would define them together as something like doubtful discussion or grumbling debate or maybe even empty argument. The idea is complaint with no intent toward resolution. And and I do think this is important because some of us really do like arguing and we need to notice when that has slipped away from us into talking at someone. And trust me, I I spent the first couple of years of my marriage talking at my partner until I learned how to tell the difference and moderate myself.

But then on on the other side, sometimes we need to be reminded that debate and dialogue can be necessary and healthy as way. Avoiding the issue is not the same as peacemaking either. So let's understand. Paul's not really saying avoid grumbling or dialogue as much as he's saying avoid grumbling argument. But there's even more going on here with these word choices because Paul has chosen these words very specifically and even though they are in Greek, they are a reference to a Hebrew story from the Old Testament.

In fact, the second part of this reference is even probably in quotes in your Bible to help you pick up on it, the phrases grumble and complain, which again is much closer to what Paul is going for here, And warped and crooked generation, both of these refer back to a particular story from the Hebrew scriptures. In fact, here, Paul has used the Greek translations from the Septuagint to pull these phrases directly from Exodus 16 and Numbers 14. There we get two accounts of the same story of the Jewish people as they come out of captivity in Egypt. And they end up getting lost wandering in the desert. Now they get lost for forty years, so some of that frustration is a little bit understandable.

But the Bible says that the people start to grumble and complain about their situation. And at one point, they even turn to their leaders, Moses and Aaron, and they say, this blows. It would have been better had we stayed in Egypt. Now I get a little grumbling. I understand the need to complain from time to time.

I mean, I love Apple products as much as anyone. I have been a fan for a very long time, but my 2018 MacBook Pro with the butterfly keyboard is the worst Mac computer I have ever owned. And I think my loyalty to the company entitles me to complain about it to anyone who will listen to me. That said, these people, these Hebrews, they complain and suggest that they would rather go back to slavery. So God hears the cries of the oppressed.

God frees God's people from bondage. God takes them out across the Red Sea by dividing the water so they can walk through on dry land and then collapsing it in on Pharaoh and his army so that they can escape. And now they're wishing they could go back. But God is not pleased. And this is what we read in Numbers 14.

How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. And then in Deuteronomy 32, referencing the same story, we read, they are corrupt. They are not God's children. For their shame, they are a warped and crooked generation.

This is this is an important it is a well known story in the Jewish narrative and Paul is referencing it here in this way. Well, it's not going to go unnoticed by his audience. This is this is about far more than just Paul saying, don't be whiny. In fact, if Paul was quoting a hymn to the Philippians at the start of chapter two and now quoting a familiar story to them as a follow-up, it's likely that they sees this as an expansion of the themes that we've been talking about these past two weeks. This is about our ability to look past ourselves toward a bigger story.

Now there's another story the rabbis used to tell to help keep this lesson alive for the community. There's a story about two Hebrews that followed Moses out of Egypt, and these two Hebrew men are following this huge mass of people that are escaping bondage. Some scholars estimate that there may have been as many as 1,000,000 Jews in Egypt at the time of the Exodus. That's probably a stretch, at least from what the archaeological evidence shows. But even try to imagine thousands or tens of thousands of people, families, kids and pets, belongings, animals all hurriedly getting together and leaving on mass.

And then the crowd comes to the Red Sea and Pharaoh's army is closing in behind them. So Moses lifts his staff and the sea parts and they continue walking forward on dry land. I mean, is this is quite a sight. But the story goes that these two men near the back of the crowd, they're talking and walking and grumbling and complaining as they go. And for some reason, the scound starts to get soft and a little mushy, muddy beneath them.

And the mud starts to get between their sandals and under their feet, between their toes. And these two guys, they just start complaining to each other about the mud. I mean, they they hate mud. They despise the feeling of dirt between their toes. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.

And somebody better have laughed at that joke. But besides, no one has even told them where they're going right now. I mean, they've heard of Moses, but they've never met him. In fact, they heard that he was actually just some kid who grew up in Pharaoh's palace anyway. So they talk to each other under their breath, and they keep their heads down so no one hears them.

But they wonder about whether they should just turn back and head home, except they they never do. They just keep walking and complaining, and eventually the ground becomes dry again and the mud crumbles and flakes off their feet and they're happy about that. But by the time they reach camp that night, well, they're tired and they're sore and while everyone else is at the campfire telling stories about the day, they decide instead to just go to sleep. The rabbis tell how they walked and they walked and they complained and they grumbled and they never even noticed the miraculous water that parted for them and surrounded them with safety. That night they went to bed only knowing that they hated the feeling of mud on their feet and frustrated that everyone was making so much noise celebrating around the fire that night.

So God says, I parted the sea. You complained about the mud. I took you from bondage. You complained about the food. I freed you from savory.

You complained about the walk. And here I am complaining to anyone that will listen to me about how much I don't like the keyboard on my brand new MacBook Pro I was blessed enough to buy. Now choices were made. They were bad ones and Apple should feel bad about that. But why do I?

When do why do all of us often feel so justified in our complaints? Complaints that have nothing to do with moving the story forward. Complaints that barely even bother to understand the story at all. They've no intention of finding a solution or helping anyone else. And yet often we find ourselves with our eyes down, grumbling and complaining and loving it.

I think part of this is because we tend to universalize the particular. I'm not sure exactly where I got that phrase. I think it was Rob Bell, but I'm not entirely sure. I couldn't find a reference for it this week. But for whatever reason, unsighted, that phrase has stuck with me for a long time because I find it just I find it really helpful to understand this tendency that I have to take whatever particular moment I'm in and to make that somehow the my opic lens through which I view life.

I just walked through the Red Sea, waters parted surrounded by divine protection, but there's mud in my shoes right now and that's all that matters to me. That's not to say it's not okay to lament things. Right now we are hopefully moving towards the end of a very long and draining pandemic season. It's it's okay. It's it's holy even to lament what has been lost.

This is part of how we heal, how we name what is broken. And it's also not to say it's not okay to speak truth to power. Complaining has a place when it is directed at something that is twisted and can be made right. Complaint can be sacred. Now what Paul is talking about here, what the Exodus story is talking about here is complaint for the sake of entertainment, grumbling for sport, argument for spectacle.

But see this is the beauty of how these stories were remembered and retold and collected and preserved because look here at what Paul does with these words. See the line from Deuteronomy is, They are corrupt and not his children. To their shame they are a warped and crooked generation. But Paul here uses that story to say that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. In other words, Paul is saying that what has happened does not need to be what does happen the way things have been does not need to be the way things will be.

See, this is what our stories are for. We don't forget the past. We learn from the past. We don't forget our mistakes. We refuse to let them define us the next day when we get up.

And it's also pretty fascinating to take this whole chapter as a unit and recognize that Paul is speaking to a Philippian community in a difficult spot worried about their future. And he starts by encouraging them to turn toward each other, then he quotes from the tradition of the Christian community with this hymn in the first half of the chapter, and then he quotes from the gathered wisdom of the Hebrew story in the second half of the chapter. As if to say, listen, guys, wherever you are, whenever you're anxious, remember that you are always surrounded by community and wisdom and stories and goodness and spirit, always and forever. And that can change everything for you. Because he's not quite done yet, he adds one more thing.

He says this, that on that day you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life, and I will be able to boast on that day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. And there's two things here. This is actually a dual quote. From Isaiah 65, it talks about the fact that one day God's people will no longer labor in vain. And then also from Daniel 12, it talks about those whose names are found written in the book of life, how they will shine like the brightness of the heavens, the stars in the sky forever and ever.

And what links those two passages is that both of them are describing the Olim Habbah or the world to come, this Hebrew expectation of the time when God would make all things right. This is what I find so compelling about what Paul is doing here in chapter two. He starts by saying, look, you need each other. And not just those near you or like you, you need everyone, a lay loose and head on. So God will go first and God will empty Godself into the world to show you how which will take all of your failures and all of your failings and turn them into something new.

Memory and wisdom and the chance to try again. Because this is the story. God is at work slowly making everything right. And when you are ready to know yourself as part of that story, The good creation of a generous God who began a good work in you and will carry it on all the way toward completion. And even the stars in the sky will pale in comparison to the light that you're able to bring to those near you.

But you see this is the difference between grumbling and arguing that sees nothing better than our complaint and the commitment to participate in the transformation of the world because we begin to believe that God is making all things new and that better is possible for all of us if we can learn to love. When we absorb this example of Christ, this self emptying that reaches somewhere deep in our soul and finds root, we turn from our selfishness to one another and eventually to the others that surround us, then even our worst moments can become sources of light in the world. Let's pray. God of all grace who comes to every moment and offers to it the possibility of redemption. Who looks at our failings and our failures and says even those can be turned into something beautiful.

New chances to learn, new chances to change, new chances to situate ourselves in a bigger story, one where all things are being healed. May we take that gift. May we welcome those opportunities. May we learn and grow and become something stronger, something healthier, something more like your son who follows the path of your way in the world. Who gives ourself to those near us, who gives our self to those who don't feel like they're near us, who helps to create a world where everyone is known and loved and welcomed and embraced.

And in that, when that table is full and we finally take our place with you, might we recognize that every step along the journey, all of it was good and beautiful and holy and sacred because of the fact you were with us in it. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen.