 Thank you, Kimberly. Oh Or should I say thank you, Nana? It's Nana and Papa nowadays. It's a whole new chapter of life, and we're loving it Let's begin in a word of prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen Almighty God our Father in heaven we give you thanks for the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ and In the name of your eternal Son our Lord and Savior we ask you to pour out the Holy Spirit upon us To enlighten our minds with the word of your truth to enkindle our hearts with the fire of your love To inform us according to the inspired word But to transform us through the incarnate word We thank you also for the gift of our older brother St. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles and as Gentile believers We are especially mindful of the debt of gratitude that we owe him for the gift of your wisdom that came through him And so we join him in giving thanks and praise to you And we ask now that you would help us and hear us grow an understanding and as your beloved sons and daughters Praying the family prayer that Jesus taught us our father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and Lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary mother of God Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. St. Paul In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen Well, we've tackled much longer books in previous years. It's a relief to have one that's only four chapters But it's not just a relief because it is only four chapters. It's also relief because This is the epistle of joy The term for joy in Greek occurs five times, which is more than you'll find than any other epistle of Paul Even the longer ones like Romans, but perhaps even more it is the term rejoice Rejoice nine times in this epistle So whether it is the noun or the verb we have About 14 Emphasies here on the need for us to recover the joy of the Lord and to rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice that's why I've entitled this presentation epistle of joy and Apostle of joy because I want to give you an overview of the letter to the Philippians Now before I look at the letter to the Philippians in this sort of summary fashion I also want to take Some time and look at the life of Paul because when we consider this book I would propose to you that Philippians is probably the most quotable of all of Paul's letters You're going to see so many beautiful quotations that are worth not only pondering but memorizing. I Am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ One of my favorites Philippians 1 verse 6 For to me to live as Christ and to die is gain Philippians 1 21 For it has been granted to you not only to believe but also to suffer for his sake Philippians 1 29 which might sound a little counterintuitive But when you look at the term granted you'll see that it really is a gift not only to have faith But also to face the prospect of suffering There are many other passages that you know pretty well for example 4-4 rejoice in the Lord always and again. I say rejoice Chapter 4 verse 6 have no anxiety But in everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known to God And then the next verse the peace of God which passes all Understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. I have a personal favorite It's a kind of family favorite because it's one that we always use in my home. It's Philippians 4 verse 8 I plan to return to it before I conclude, but let me just quote it now in case I don't get to it I've said this to my six kids many times I've got we've got five boys and one girl or as I say one rose and five thorns And the thorns are very familiar with Philippians 4 verse 8 Because they have this tendency that they have inherited from the male progenitor in their home Which is to be somewhat negative at times Kimberley on the other hand we describe as pathologically positive Dad can down can be downright and erotically negative if he hasn't been sufficiently preyed up Whatever is true Whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is gracious if there is any excellence if there is anything Worthy of praise Think about these things You can see the practical cash value that might have in a home full of boys who are growing up It's not in any way Paul saying pretend to be ostriches bury your heads and ignore the problems It's just contemplate how it is that God's grace is made perfect in our weakness And there will be other quotes too that you're gonna be hearing throughout these days together But before we actually do the flyover the summary overview of Philippians before we take a look at the letter I'd like to Recognize something else about this epistle besides being the most quotable letter of Paul besides the most Encouraging and the most joyful. It is also the most autobiographical That is we get more material from Philippians about Paul's former life We find this especially as you probably know if you've been reading here in chapter 3 in Chapter 3 beginning in verse 2 So if you have a Bible turn with me to Philippians 3 and we're gonna look at the autobiographical Reflection on his past life and as you're turning to this material Let me just also say this by way of summary that the introductory questions when it comes to this epistle are really Simple no real controversy as to authorship and no real controversy in terms of dating this epistle We read in the book of Acts chapter 16 verse 11 and following all about how Paul brought the gospel to Philippi Which was a important city in Greece at the time and throughout Asia Minor and You discover of course the conversion of the Philippine Jailer who is there Asking Paul what must I do to be saved and then he and his whole household are baptized in There in Acts 16 and then again in Acts chapter 20. He returns to Philippi for an extended stay there as well Most likely this epistle is written during his Roman imprisonment between the years of 60 and 62 he refers to his Imprisonment he refers to his incarcerated state and the fact that there are references to the Praetorian Guard They're in Caesar's household as well in 422 But just for a moment now, I'd like to look at that autobiographical section that I mentioned earlier One other thought When you approach Paul's letters, you're sort of accustomed to finding a Clear order typically like you find in the book of Romans. There is a lot of doctrine And following that doctrinal section that such as you find in Romans 1 to 8 or 1 to 11 you have what you often refer to as Paranesis that is the practical and the personal application for living a Christ-like life in terms of the moral law of Christ Philippians is different. It's very personal. It seems almost Disorganized, but it's not really it's just more like a personal letter that you and I would write to people that we're really proud of People who also stand in need of encouragement But at the same time the exhortations that Paul expresses to the Philippine believers are just charged with some of the most positive praise You will find in any of his epistles That's why I think it's interesting that Paul does wax a little bit autobiographical Such as we find in chapter 3 beginning around verse 4 Having reflected upon the Judaizers for a just a brief moment in the preceding verses He points out that he too like his opponents the Judaizers comes from this solid and sacred stock Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also if any other man thinks he is reason for confidence in the flesh I have more Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel So he considers himself an Israelite male circumcised just as you find in the covenant given by God to Abraham in Genesis 17 on the 8th day notice. He's not just a Jew He's an Israelite why because he's not from the tribe of Judah, but from Benjamin Circumcised in the 8th day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew born of Hebrews and then he gets more specific as to the law of Pharisee In other words a very strict observance Israelite as to zeal a persecutor of the church Look at that in just a moment as to righteousness under the law Blameless But then he adds whatever Gain I had I count his loss for the sake of Christ indeed I count everything is lost because the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and Count them as refuse in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own based on law But that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and May share his sufferings and become like him in his death that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead That's a sort of Paulian overview of the before and the after of the pre-conversion Saul the persecutor and then the post conversion Paul the Apostle and It's charged with a lot of richness I would just like to stop for a moment though and reflect on why it was that he was such a zealous Persecutor because I think we recognize that in Paul we have arguably the most influential author in history the most studied writer People debate the meaning of his letters and happened for 2,000 years Some have observed that the history of the church and all of the doctrinal controversies Really surround the history of the interpretation of Paul and the debates as to what Paul meant especially in books like Romans And we also have a reference to Paul from our first pope in 2nd Peter Chapter 3 verse 15 who speaks of Paul as a beloved brother And he also speaks of the wisdom of God that has been given to him But acknowledges that there are things in Paul's writings that are hard to understand which the unstable Twist to their own destruction. I think that might be the understatement of the entire New Testament There are many things in Paul's letters that are hard to understand which the unstable for almost 2,000 years have twisted to confusion and destruction But fortunately Philippians is just not one of those epistles where there is much doctrinal controversy So it's nice to kind of be out of the Pauline minefield He's also been described as the most thoroughly converted man They say that Paul was such a great apostle precisely because Saul was just such a fierce persecutor God just simply took all of that energy, which was misspent and redirected and harnessing it for holiness by sending him forth out to the nations to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ And yet recently scholars have asked the question. Was he converted ever since the 60s professor Christopher Stendall from Harvard Advanced the argument that he wasn't really converted on the road to Damascus rather. He was called by the Lord of heaven by the resurrected Christ and I think there's a certain surface truth to what Stendall argued because if you think that conversion is simply from one religion To another from say Judaism in his case to Christianity then of course he wasn't converted Because as a Jew he was waiting for the Messiah But as a Pharisee he was fully convinced that Jesus was not the Christ So it's not a conversion from one religion to another But I would propose that the look the closer we look at St. Paul and What his life was like when he was the Pharisee that we know as Saul There is another kind of conversion a deeper interior transformation that he could not bring about for himself But that the spirit of Christ had to bring about in him You can look for example on your own at 2nd Corinthians 5 especially verses 16 and 17 where he acknowledges the fact that he once regarded Christ According to the flesh in the Greek. It's kata Sarka that is just from a natural human perspective But then he goes on to say he regards him thus no longer In fact, he insists that he regards no one according to the flesh Why because if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation Not just sort of refurbished not just renovated, but a new creation This I think captures what we're looking at in the heart of St. Paul and the grace of conversion that came to him on the Road to Damascus that we read about in Acts 9 and again in Acts 22 and the third time he tells his conversion story in Acts 26 I Sort of can relate to this because you know, I'm very familiar with people who introduced me as a convert, right? I was a Protestant and now I'm a Catholic But I really didn't switch religions I just Was transformed by the Holy Spirit who opened up my mind and heart to see That Jesus Christ who I learned about in the New Testament who I firmly believed as my Savior and Lord Really meant what he said and he said what he meant when he told us on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it And so for me it wasn't subtraction. It wasn't really a defection It was simply addition if not multiplication the good news that I believed got better And so likewise the the hope that Saul had as a Jew as a Pharisee is Precisely what then was fulfilled through the revelation of Jesus Christ Speaking to him from heaven there on the road to Damascus in the blinding light But we ought to ask the question That is sort of behind his conversion experience Because when we first meet him again, he's not Paul the Apostle He saw the persecutor from Tarsus which was a center of Greek culture and therefore because he was born in Tarsus He was by law a Roman citizen which conferred upon him very special prerogatives And yet at the same time he was an Israelite a Hebrew a Jew a Pharisee He was also a student of Gamaliel the great rabbi in the first century the first rabbi To actually be called by the Jews raban rabbi is my teacher raban is our teacher Gamaliel becomes a sort of universal teacher for all Jews the first of others as well but of course we know that Saul the Pharisee recognized these Jewish Christians the earliest Christians of course were all Jewish Christian They saw themselves also as Jews in fact the early Christians in the opening chapters of acts saw themselves Not as ex-Jews or even Jewish Christians so much as they saw themselves as the true Jews They were not just the followers of Jesus. They were the ones who had accepted the long-awaited Messiah They believe that the hopes and the promises of the Old Testament were in fact fulfilled in Jesus by his death and resurrection But implicit in that confession of faith on the part of the earliest Jewish believers is a sort of indictment against their fellow Jews who do not believe Because in effect if you don't accept the Jesus of the Christ It's almost as though What's implied is that they're not true Jews What kind of effect would a claim like that have on a Hebrew of Hebrews? Someone zealous for the traditions of the fathers after all here is Saul a learned man the prized pupil of the greatest rabbi of the time What an affront what an insult to be told by unlettered fishermen a former tax collector Who had followers who were Repentant prostitutes That the whole of the Old Testament had reached its climax on the day that a carpenter's son from Nazareth Was crucified by the Roman authorities the glorious hope of the Jews had finally come and Was revealed through this shameful act of Roman crucifixion and that unless you accept this truth You're going to be disinherited. You're an unbeliever. I mean this goes beyond the preposterous. This is downright unbelievable This is outrageous This is insulting and not just to individual Jews who don't believe but to the whole group that is led by None other than the chief priest The priests in the temple who by and large rejected the Messiah How could they miss the Messiah and then harness the power of Rome to have him murdered? And then how could they just step back and allow these people like Peter James and Paul to preach the gospel saying in effect? That the Jewish hopes were in fact fulfilled To discredit such a proclamation is basic And so no wonder when we first meet Saul He is not only a Pharisee He's also organizing the persecution of the early Christians probably sponsoring the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts chapter 8 But even the death of Stephen is not enough for Saul He has the papers from the chief priests in the Jerusalem temple as he travels in midday on the road to Damascus But of course, we know he never made it Because a bright light much brighter than the sun at noon blinded him Knocked him to the ground and a voice that he heard Saul Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you Lord? So he knows that this heavenly voice is necessarily divine But up until that moment he thought that he understood the divinity the God of Israel and yet it wasn't quite so and So at this moment when he is blinded naturally in order to be illuminated supernaturally At this moment when he is knocked to the ground in order to be exalted to divine grace He is an exemplar of what true conversion is it's not leaving one religion To embrace another it is leaving behind the purely natural material of human flesh to enter into that grace and that truth Which alone comes from God the father through the son by the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit Even as Jesus told Simon Peter Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father was in heaven Flesh and blood has not revealed what that you are the Christ the son of the living God It's easy for us because we've heard it from our parents. We've heard it from our pastors We learned it from our grandparents to kind of assume that all the mysteries of faith are in fact conveyed to us naturally But God can use natural means to communicate supernatural truth But don't ever mistake the medium and the message because though the medium might be natural the message itself is utterly supernatural Your parents are human and yet God the father is Making us divine children This is the crucial event and I am convinced that a lot of people misunderstand the nature of Paul's conversion without going into a psychological analysis. There are basically two approaches one is the common view that Saul was a zealous Pharisee and yet deep down he was troubled in his heart He was afflicted in his conscience and so no matter how hard he tried to keep the law Like Martin Luther for example in the early 1500s. He just had that knowing sense of guilt and finally that was Released by the grace that came from the voice of the risen Christ The problem with that is it flies in the face of what Paul says as to the righteousness found in the law Blameless and so we have to look and see that it isn't just a kind of subjective quest an Experiential search that I I was going into the Old Testament deeper and deeper until I realized I just hadn't made a wrong turn No, the objectivity of Paul's conversion shows us. This is not a man-made Experienced this is something that came from outside of himself. He had to be blinded Naturally to see supernaturally and for three days of darkness. He didn't know if whether he'd ever see again until Ananias Performed the sacrament of baptism. No wonder in the early church the synonym for baptism was Photosmos enlightenment Illumination because that's exactly what happened to Paul It was the enlightenment that came to him that restored more than his natural site. It gave to him supernatural vision But at the same time, I think it's fair to ask ourselves this question What is it? About Jesus that made Saul and his fellow Pharisees so resistant so antagonistic After all, there were a lot of claimants in that time who went around sort of evoking messianic allegiance But what was it about Jesus that got Saul so zealous and worked up as to persecute his followers Well scholars debate this of course there are the sociological factors that I've already covered that is What are his believers really implying the fishermen the tax collectors the men from Galilee are saying in effect That the rabbis and the scribes and the priests in Jerusalem not only missed the Messiah, but murdered him But the real question is why did they miss the Messiah? Well again, we could probably go down a list of various features but I would summarize it in terms of three primary obstacles that Saul and his fellow Pharisees would have seen standing in the way of any Conversion the first thing was the fact that Jesus acted and spoke as though he was practically equal to God We hear it especially in the Gospel of John is early as chapter 5 We're after healing the paralytic the the invalid by the poolside of Bethsaitha who'd been there for 38 years on the Sabbath When confronted with the the question, why do you heal on the Sabbath? He went on to say because my father's working still and so John Interjects this is why they sought to kill him because he not only healed on the Sabbath But he called God father thus making himself equal to God And so he did he called himself the son of God He referred to God as father addressed him in prayer as Abba in a way that not even the most devout rabbis in that time ever Dared to us address the God of our fathers. He's the God of our fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob He's not our father God and it gets worse as you continue reading in the Gospel of John by the time you get to John 8 Verses 56 through 58 he is there Disputing with those Jews who think of themselves as his followers who are trying their best to believe in him Only he's confronting them and then he announces that before Abraham was what I am and They took up stones in order to stone him there, but he had to hide himself notice. He didn't have to explain himself I didn't mean what you think I said no He hid because they understood that he really was claiming to be equal with God God is my father. I am his son before Abraham was I am I mean that is one huge hurdle to clear for any Jew who wants to see a Palestinian male Jew in his early 30s is also what? Eternal and divine, but there's a second obstacle to that I've already alluded to and that is the fact that Jesus Behavior did not conform to the 613 commandments that you find in the law of Moses when you add them all up as the rabbis were fond of doing Jesus seemed to take an entirely different approach not only to observing the Sabbath But the purity laws and the dietary regulations He and his disciples would pluck the heads of grain on the Sabbath But even more he would allow a leper to be touched by him and There are lots of other things that we know from the Gospels that he did That looked in the eyes of the Pharisees to be simply infractions the law of Moses This man is disobedient to the law and you keep the law if you want to keep the covenant So besides claiming to be equal with God, this man is disobedient to the Lord God of Israel And then the third thing that really would represent a major Hurdle that would be almost impossible to clear is the fact that he died On a tree He was the victim of the the most gruesome and shameful form of death Dr. Petrie is gonna discuss this tomorrow morning crucifixion. It wasn't just painful and agonizing. It was actually it was just absolutely shameful But for Jews who know Deuteronomy 21 23 Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. It's almost as though heaven confirmed our negative judgment He claims to be equal with God He disobeyed the commandments and he ended up crucified hanging on a tree to show that yes In fact, God rejected his credentials and not just we and So you can see why it is that Saul would have a good Basis a good argument he could pass a polygraph with a high score in Rejecting Jesus and his messianic credentials. This I think is significant not only to understand the autobiographical section in Philippians 3 which we've already covered But also to really appreciate what is usually regarded as the absolute centerpiece of this epistle the Christ Him in Philippians 2 verses 5 through 11 So turn with me to Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 11 when I spoke of Philippians as being The most quotable epistle of Paul's the most joyful and encouraging. I Especially have in view this passage which the church reads on Sunday masses and in daily masses throughout the year in electionary just Constantly and so it's one of those passages that though we've heard many times we probably haven't contemplated enough And I'd like to look at it really as though it's in three parts because it is We have an introductory section in chapter 2 verses 1 to 4 Where Paul is sort of? Encouraging he says if there is any Encouragement in Christ if there is any incentive of love if there is any participation in the spirit complete my joy by being of the same mind of the same affection and sympathy of of Being in effect shares of the one mind, but what is the one mind? Is it Paul's now? It's mine. No It's the mind of Christ and that's what sets us up for the Christ him in Verses 5 through 11 now before I take a look at these verses in the central section I want to say something because though it's often referred to as a Christ him it isn't necessarily a Separate unit in other words some scholars think that you know Paul can write in very Obstruce and convoluted ways and so when you come to something so beautiful as Philippians 2 5 to 11 it had to have been a Hemnic unit that he just simply borrowed because he really wasn't capable of writing anything that beautiful I Think he was and I think he does elsewhere, too People will often act that way when you come to the the love chapter in 1st Corinthians 13 This man was not only a complex thinker. He was a mystic and As such he was capable of really appreciating what it means to know the love of God and To see it as the inner logic behind everything that God has said and done through Christ So here pay attention now in Philippians 2 Beginning in chapter 5 we read have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus So it's not Paul simply downloading his theology into the Philippian church It is Paul sharing what he knows to be nothing less than the mind of Christ Who though he was in the form of God? And that's a very strong statement. He was in the form of God the Greek word there is Morphe What does it mean? Well? He was in the form of God, but he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped That's interesting. He did not count Equality with God a thing to be grasped yes to be in the form of God is to be equal with God Now where have we heard that before it was the first of the three hurdles The very fact that he would call God father making himself equal to God is why they began to plot the conspiracy That would lead to his death and yet here is this profoundly converted Paul Who's pointing out what has been revealed to him that he was in the form of God from all eternity? He didn't count equality with God a thing to be grasped now the Greek word for grasp there in verse 6 Heart Pagmos is a little problematic Because it doesn't occur anywhere else in the New Testament. It's a very scarce term. It's a hapox legamina There's an article by Hoover back in the 60s that was published in the Harvard Theological Review Which is highly influential because he basically looks at different interpretive options He did not count equality with God a thing to be seized and you can almost picture Adam Seizing the fruit to be equal with God Well, Jesus didn't do that Except the grammatical argument for that view is weak So a second option is he did not count equality with God a thing to be held fast Clung to that could be a possible meaning of heart Pagmos in verse 6, but again The arguments for that are tenuous The third option is he did not count equality with God a thing to be seized because it wasn't yet is And he discounts that as well and he comes to the fourth and final view Which I think is the most compelling of all that is he did not count equality with God a thing to be Heart Pagmos that is exploited for personal gain He was in the form of God He was equal with God Unlike Adam, but he did not count equality with God a thing that was there to be exploited for his own Personal gain the way people tend to use whatever advantages they possess over others So what does he do instead? He empties himself in verse 7 the Greek word cannot owe for emptying is where we get the the familiar noun Canosis which was a Greek term back in the first century that is now in the English dictionary Canosis refers to the emptying of Christ He emptied himself But how did he do it taking the form once again the term morph a he took the form of a servant a Do-Loss a slave in effect the servant Especially as we read about him in the prophecies of Isaiah being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form He humbled himself and became obedient So if the first hurdle was what? Equality with God that Saul and his fellow Pharisees couldn't accept we hear the apostle Paul Affirming the fact that he was in the form of God He didn't count equality with God a thing to be exploited for his own personal gain Instead he humbled himself taking the form of a servant and He was found Obedient he became obedient the second hurdle was the fact that he was disobedient He didn't keep all 613 of the commandments of the Torah of Moses Well, yes, he did as he himself says at the beginning of the sermon on the mount He doesn't come to abolish the law in the prophets He comes rather to fulfill any Warns his disciples that whoever relaxes the least of these commandments and teaches men to do likewise will be called least in the kingdom So he was assiduous in keeping the commandments, but as the son of God will keep the covenant Which goes beyond 613 statutes There's a 614th call from God That the Israelites never heard and never had to obey and what was that to become obedient unto death? even death on the cross So this man was equal with God, but he was obedient in a way that no man had ever been before he was obedient unto death But what kind of death? The death on the cross Which in effect is the third and final hurdle that you cannot clear as a first century Jew on your own natural power Apart from supernatural grace and so here in this Christ him You can tell that Paul is developing something in verses six seven and eight That he's going to then turn the corner in order to show what God has revealed in verses nine ten and eleven And so we see in verse nine the turning point therefore Do it's a it's a logical inferential transition here Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name Which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven on earth and under the earth and every Tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father and we're all like oh, yeah It's like you know there He was in the form of God he didn't count equality with God a thing to be graspy emptied himself He took the form of a servant, you know and being born in the likeness of the servant He becomes obedient unto death even death on the cross, you know, and it's sort of like What did God the father asked the son to do to basically disguise his divinity to conceal his own? Deity right, you know and so for 33 years Jesus sort of held his divine breath sort of withholding his identity Disguising himself That's not what Paul saying what Paul is showing us here is that God the father in Resurrecting Jesus and raising him up and seeding him at the right hand and giving him the name Which is above every name so that the name of Jesus every tongue should confess him to be the Lord in heaven on earth and under the earth There is something deeper that is going on here in the Christ him that we often see But Paul wants to show it to us Because instead of concealing his divinity What Paul is showing us is that Jesus is revealing the truth of what it means to be divine Instead of disguising himself. He is disclosing the inner mystery of God's own eternal life I think we assume that for 33 years, you know, Jesus sort of did what our kids always do When we're on vacation and we come to a tunnel and The kids have always through the years held their breath to see if they can make it all the way to the other side You know what dad does he slows down It's the only time in the entire vacation trip that he's not speeding up And you can see the looks of frustration in the rear of your mirror as my kids Especially the boys are like speed up stop that and they're turning beat red until they are all kind of passing out It's not like that. You see when Jesus who is in the form of God and he possesses equality with God But not to be seized not to be exploited for his own personal gain He's not holding his divine breath. He is breathing out his spirit He's not concealing his divinity. He's revealing. He's not disguising himself He is disclosing What we didn't know about God before the father sent the son to pour out the Holy Spirit To give us all what saw God on the road to Damascus and that is the grace of a completely and utterly supernatural conversion Where flesh and blood couldn't possibly reveal to us that God is anything more than our Creator our Lawgiver our Lord our judge our provider. He's all of those things and we can know it by natural human reason But for God to be a father and for that to be more than a figure of speech That just isn't true. That just isn't so that just isn't part of the Jewish system of belief And so if you look in the Old Testament you will find God referred to as father roughly 17 times Which might seem like a lot until you compare it to the tetragrammaton What we would say is Yahweh would is usually translated Lord with all four capital letters. That occurs approximately 7,000 times Elohim the generic term for deity in ancient Israel that occurs about 2600 times So 17 references to God as father isn't much for the Hebrew Bible. It's there But it's scarce in star contrast. What do you find Jesus doing in his very first sermon? He refers to God as father 17 times in his first sermon The sermon of the mount which goes from Matthew 5 to 7 and then he calls upon God as father over 170 times and never addresses God in any other term except for father and Then we find almost 300 occurrences of father Referencing God in a non metaphorical way throughout the New Testament most especially in Paul In a way that Saul the Pharisee could never have imagined The God of our fathers is one thing our father God is something altogether different The Lord is my shepherd but not until the shepherd became the Lamb of God Did God reveal his fatherhood by sending his son to give us the Spirit at the moment? He breathed his last he gave up his spirit What Paul is getting at is this That the life death and resurrection of Jesus reveals the love of God in action That the resurrection of Jesus the son by God the father is not just God the father vindicating his innocence or resuscitating his corpse It is nothing less than God the father vindicating Jesus interpretation of what it means to be equal to God What it means to be in the form of God? It doesn't mean to lord it over lesser beings who are finite creatures because we're God They're not so we can always have our way The creator creature relationship in a certain sense is ultimate for us as creatures But it doesn't tell us who God eternally is Because whoever God eternally is he is apart from creation creation is temporal God is eternal So we don't know who God is from the creation We don't know God's uncreated essence when we wouldn't we couldn't unless he revealed it to us And that's exactly what the incarnation does when God the father sends the son to Assume the form of a servant to be born in the likeness of men to become obedient to the commandments But to become obedient unto death even death on the cross He is not losing his life He's making it a gift. He's not concealing his divinity. He's revealing to us The essence of what it means to be God from all eternity The resurrection is God the father vindicating Authenticating yes, that's what it's like to be equal to God It is to make your life a gift of love It is to take your life and to pour it out More than the power by which the Creator can coerce the creature the greatness of God Consistence something that Saul and his fellow Pharisees never imagined and that is the inner life of God is self-giving love And that the inner logic of God's own love which is life-giving from all eternity is the only thing that explains everything Especially those things that don't seem to make sense. This is not just a new understanding of Jesus for Saul This is an entirely new understanding of God For Paul and for all the rest of us The supremacy of God is what the incarnation reveals particularly when he makes his life a gift of love You know, I was just writing this morning in my prayer journal And then I I thought of something as I was reading my devotion. I'm looking for it because I actually posted on Facebook You can go to my public page We know that here's what I wrote by instituting the Eucharist Jesus didn't simply eat the last supper And then accept his fate He transformed his physical suffering and death into a spiritual sacrifice of life-giving love The Eucharist is the key that illuminates the mystery of Jesus death. It was not a Roman execution It was the completion of the sacrifice It didn't begin when they started hammering the nails into his body It began when he took the bread and said this is my body when he took the chalice and said This is the cup of my blood which is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins the blood of the new covenant The Eucharist is the mystery and revelation of God's love in action. It is the climax of the incarnation It is the only way we've come to see What Paul says in the Christ him that the resurrection of Jesus is more than a resuscitating his corpse It's more than vindicating his innocence It's basically the father saying yes, that is what it means to be equal with God Yes, that's what it means to be in the form of God that divinity is revealed through a love that pours itself out to the very last drop to the very last breath and So when Jesus is resurrected, it's not just an arbitrary reward that is given to him because he happened to obey an extra command It's not him gaining something that he lacked before It is something it is simply Something that God the father reveals in his humanity which he possessed in his divinity from all eternity Now his humanity is glorified. It is deified because he has done in time What God does from eternity? Love that is life-giving This to me is the beauty of the Christ him This to me is the grace of conversion This to me is a challenge not only to see Christ in a new light, but to come to understand that God is a father Like no other dad you could ever find on the planet This is the mystery of the incarnation This is why I think it's so significant on the one hand that Paul is continually referencing God as father In a way that is just unparalleled in the history of religions, especially Judaism And yet on the other hand, we don't even notice anymore. It's like white noise It's like wallpaper instead of being amazed we yawn and look for something novel and yet. There is something Absolutely striking about the fact that this is still a startling today as it was back then That God is a father like no other Now the third and final section of this particular chapter is the following verses Because a lot of Christians who are not Catholic would agree with everything. I've said about the Christ him But generally speaking people understand Jesus deaf and resurrection a Lot of non-Catholics in terms of what we call penal substitution That is you know God the father was looking down from heaven could no longer see his son He could only see our sin and still instead of pouring out his love He poured out his wrath until it was all vented and We got his righteousness. He got our sin. He got our punishment So we got a reward and it's all this really merciful legal fiction Which remains a legal fiction, but even more than a fiction It's a profound injustice How could God the father? reveal his love By pouring out his wrath upon a son something is wrong with this picture What we've got to see is that for Paul the cross is a revelation of the inner life of the Trinity The cross is a revelation in Jesus humanity of what love does from all eternity Jesus Christ is the Lord, but Jesus Christ is the revelation of God's love and action Again, the Eucharist is the key. He didn't lose his life on Good Friday If in fact he gave his life on Holy Thursday He's not the victim of Roman violence and injustice at Golgotha. He is the victim of divine love and mercy So that what he is doing in the Eucharist is what he consummates on the cross so that the resurrection in effect is Precisely what makes it possible for us to do this in memory of him because he's raised from the dead He isn't buried in the tomb. He isn't bleeding on the cross This is the gospel according to Paul. This is the joy of the gospel according to Paul And so what difference does this make? Well, it isn't the case that it's a kind of substitutionary exchange That he gets our guilt and thus our punishment and we get his righteousness and thus his reward as though We're sinless and he's sinful No, that kind of divine schizophrenia that kind of cosmic injustice is nowhere in Paul What Jesus does instead of a substitution is a representation He is a substitute for the first Adam because our first father our founding father failed and the whole human family Is one big broken family you can think of the old TV show the Adams family, right a bunch of monsters That's what the human race was after Adam But Jesus comes as the new Adam as the last Adam as the representative head So that what he does he doesn't do so that we don't have to he does precisely so that now at last We can because we are united to him in the spirit. We participate with Christ We are members of his body and so it's significant I think that as soon as you've come to the climax of the Christ him there in Philippians 2 11 What do we read? Therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Now Paul could have said since Christ has died since Christ has risen since he has now received the name above every name So that everyone says that Jesus Christ is Lord therefore all we got to do is believe and our faith is enough But the therefore that comes at the climax of the hymn is Therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed in my presence. So now much more in my absence work out your salvation with fear and trembling But I want to propose to you that this is not just our Task of imitating Christ for Paul. It is our privilege of participating in Christ It's not us climbing the ladder that he has set up It is allowing God the father to download the life of his son through the power of the spirit So that the life of divine sonship to the love of the children of God can be reproduced in us Even to the point of being obedient unto death even death on the cross So we're to work out our salvation with fear and trembling why because Christ has given to us a new law But even more than just a new law Christ has given us his own life And that's why Paul concludes for God is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure If Paul had stopped in verse 12, I think I would just give up work out your salvation with fear and trembling Yeah, right forget it. I Don't have the capacity and Paul would say you're right, but God is at work in you both willing and working for his own good pleasure Whoa What a relief So if God is the one working in me to complete what he has begun Willing and doing for his good pleasure. I got it made in the shade. I can sleep in I don't have to work out my salvation with fear and trembling because God is working But what's the only proof for Paul that God in fact is working within us willing and doing for his good pleasure That we're working out our salvation with fear and trembling I wouldn't really care about my salvation unless God was at work in me I wouldn't want to work it out with fear and trembling unless he was willing and doing for his good pleasure One hand washes the other. It's human and divine. It's freedom, but it's grace It's not one or the other any more than it's you know, which plane of the which wing of the airplane does most the flying Well for conservatives, it's the right wing It's both wings, right? And so it is a theandric It is fully human it is fully divine because that's who Christ is and that's what he's doing in us And so we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling not because it's all up to us But because the only way we can prove and confirm to ourselves that God in fact is working inside of me Willing and doing for his good pleasure is because I am getting up each day admitting my weakness praying to him for help and Working out my salvation with fear and trembling knowing my capacity to the sin which is virtually unlimited But knowing his capacity to make me holy, which actually is unlimited This is the message of the gospel of Paul This is why this epistle is so full of encouragement so full of hope so full of joy In conclusion, I'd like to give you a little takeaway I'd like to enumerate some of the main themes that you ought to find in this epistle I spent a couple of hours before the blessed sacrament yesterday than a couple more today because I always feel so inadequate when it comes to Sharing the truth of God's word with people who come from so far away. It's like Lord They seem to want so much for me and he's like no Scott. They just want me So let me fill you so that what they're getting from you is not you but me Well, I can't vouch for this is being divine, but let me give you an acrostic based upon the word rejoice Now there are four chapters, but there are seven letters to rejoice And so I would propose to you that some of the main themes in Philippians can be summarized first by the letter are the revelation of Righteousness and resurrection power. I'll say it again the revelation. It isn't a discovery that we come up with our own It's a revelation. It's a pure gift of God, but it's a revelation of righteousness That comes with resurrection power And you're gonna see that as a theme throughout all four chapters the second letter of rejoice as you know is e and I trace it all the way back to Paul's encounter with Jesus Christ an encounter with the exalted Lord and This is the basis of evangelization So there are three words a personal encounter with Christ To experience the Lord as exalted and then to see this as the heart of our evangelization The next letter in rejoices J and I would propose first Jesus is Lord The second and now I'm going to do a little bit of squeezing is a joyful journey And I'm gonna put in to judgment day Because this is the epistle of joy Rejoice in the Lord always It's a joyful journey that leads us all the way to the day of judgment when we will be exalted with him Number four the letter Oh, I would propose that the term obedience is crucial Not only because he was obedient unto death But because through the Holy Spirit he enables us to become obedient as he was to reproduce that obedience I would also add another oh and that is one mind the mind of Christ and The third oh since we're on a three-fold streak here is an offering There in chapter 2 verse 17 Where we are a sacrificial offering where Paul sees his own life blood as a libation of wine poured out upon These Philippian believers and again in 418 he uses that same Sacrificial imagery of offering to show that if we are one with Christ one mind of Christ His obedience becomes ours and we share his offering the fifth letter is I And of course that would point to the incarnation of the Sun It would also remind us of the imitation of Christ and The need for us to intercede To pray without ceasing to cast all our anxieties upon him and then we come to see The letter C which is letter number six and this is where I really get out of hand Okay, so don't even try to get all of these down, but it's Christ-like cruciformity That is to say we are to become like Christ to the point where we are carrying our own crosses where he is Forming in us that loving obedience unto death and likewise called and converted just like Paul was and Then finally I would add contentment One of my favorite passages and one of the most challenging in the whole letter is where Paul says in 411 not that I complain of want I don't you know Not that I complain of want I've never known people who didn't complain Beginning with myself for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I Know how to be a base that I know how to abound in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger abundance in the one I can do all things in him who strengthens me 413 and That leaves us the last the seventh letter which is E and I would propose to you Encouragement that's what we need to receive from Paul and through Paul from our Lord We also need that notion of excellence as I said before if there's any encouragement in Christ Paul says Think on these things if there is any excellence anything worthy of praise think about these things We can always find the bad. We can always find a ground for complaint We can always find an excuse to avoid suffering to shirk the cross, but in fact When we strive for excellence when we allow ourselves to be encouraged We have what Paul describes in Philippians 120 and 121 as an eager expectation there I slipped in two more ease Excellence encouragement and eager expectation Why because it is granted to us not only to believe but also to suffer We're not just obeying 613 commandments We are to pick up our cross every day and allow the Holy Spirit to reproduce the love of the Son for the Father in us So that we will know ourselves as children I think back to when our little Jeremiah was two and a half and it was his time like his older brothers to get his shots So Kimberly took him to the doctor's office and the doctor said get him ready And so you know the shirt comes off and the and the doctor comes back and Jeremiah braces himself for his shots And as the the doctor comes over to Jair, he looks up at the doctor and says Where gun he thought he was gonna get shot Talk about trust Talk about a child like fearless trust in a mother and a father and a doctor where gun You're not gonna get shot you're gonna get shots I Would propose to you that even if we get shot We have an eager expectation and solid grounds for encouragement to know that it won't just be for our health It will be for our exaltation This is why this epistle of joy this apostle of joy will be a source of encouragement And hope all the rest of our lives in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen. Thank you very much