A Life Shaped and Re-shaped by Prayer

Thursday, Week 2 - Philippians 2: 14-18: Expecting Reversals

Do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world.  It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you - and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me.

“Do all things without murmuring or arguing,” Paul writes.  Why is it that we might be tempted to murmur and argue?  Often because others are exerting power and getting their way.  Behind the tensions in the Philippian Church, and often behind the tensions in our families and workplaces, is an issue of power.  Who gets to say how the holidays are going to be celebrated in your family?  Who gets to define the expectations for your work environment?  Who gets to say how the Church in Philippi is going to move forward now that Paul is absent?  These are all issues of power.

What then is Paul driving at?   Is this a call to meekly give-in whenever there is a conflict?  (“Yes dear, whatever you say.”)  I think not, for Paul never seems to give in as evidenced in his passionate, articulate letters; and Jesus didn’t meekly walk away from conflict either.  Jesus confronted his opponents, over turned tables, and upset the economy of the day.  Yet Jesus did so with a degree of humility, without insisting on his own way, without crushing the weakest members of the community around him.

When Paul writes, “Do all things without murmuring or arguing,” I wonder what spiritual discipline he is driving us toward.  I’m reminded that this is still all commentary on the great Christ hymn (quoted in Tuesday’s reading).  Verse 1 of this hymn notes that Christ had all the power, “being in the form of God,” yet he emptied himself of that power, so as not to exploit, and so as to serve.  At the end of verse 1, Christ is empty and weak.  Verse 2 then declares that in a great reversal God raised him up and highly exalted him. 

One spiritual practice is to embrace a measure of weakness and expect reversals. The place of weakness may in fact be the place where renewal begins.  Likewise, what looks so mighty is more fragile than you know.  Success, more influence, bigger numbers may motivate our arguments; However Paul is reminding the community at Philippi that striving for unity in their relationships, letting go of some power and focusing on serving will allow God’s light to shine through – and that is the ultimately the source of true power.  Don’t be scared by the kind of disciplined self-emptying that the world regards as weakness; it often makes space for God to enter with surprising blessings and reversals.

Lord God, give us the inner strength to resist murmuring and arguing, and the boldness to act with conviction.  Give us courage to risk trusting that you often act in and through what the world deems as weak, and continue to surprise us with your grace.  Amen.