This is the last in a
series of blog posts on bearing with one another –
especially
when we find ourselves disagreeing with one another.
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes,
“work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
Fundamentally, this whole
series has been about
an
essential aspect of working out our salvation.
That we need salvation –
deliverance,
healing, and forgiveness –
is evident enough.
We are made for love and
communion,
but
there is deep brokenness in all of our relationships,
personal and social.
In spite of that,
we
have seen through Jesus
that there is grace at the heart of all things.
With that grace we become
aware that
With that grace we have also received mercy –
God
sympathizes with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15),
forgives us (1 John 1:9),
and will finally heal all brokenness (Acts 3:21)
Human brokenness meets God’s
grace at the foot of the cross
where
we hear Jesus praying forgiveness upon us.
With the assurance of that
forgiveness
we
can dare to look at our own complicity in his death –
our own fingerprints on the hammer and nails –
and the myriad ways, great and small,
that we nail one another to the cross.
With that grace we can
live lives worthy of that grace.
With that grace we are
free.
We are free to deny
ourselves
and
take up the cross
as we follow Jesus
in his way of self-sacrificial love.
We are free to accept that
we are often wrong.
We are free to be
vulnerable in in self-sacrificing love
with
open hearts and open hands.
We are free to live kindly
and
resist
the temptation to bear false witness against others.
We are free to interpret others with charity.
We are free to work out
our salvation.
The second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians describes what that looks like. It looks like Jesus who did not grasp at
equality with God, but rather emptied and humbled himself for the sake of
self-sacrificing love.
To live like that, like
Jesus, is what it means to work out our salvation –
to
live as though we know that grace is real.
We work out our salvation together
in the Church by being
a
community of mercy and delight.
And thus we seek to be of
the same mind, having the same love,
being
in full accord and of one mind.
We seek to do nothing from
selfish ambition or conceit,
but
in humility regard others as better than ourselves.
We seek look not to our
own interests,
but
to the interests of others.
We avoid murmuring and
arguing,
so
that you may be blameless and innocent.
To not live this way is to
participate in
the
crooked and perverse generation
living contrary to the way of Jesus
Having received the mercy and
delight of God’s grace in Jesus Christ,
we
can work out our salvation
and shine like stars
in a world darkened by brokenness and division,
by meanness and violence,
by envy and enmity.
Let’s bear with one
another and in this way fulfill the law of Christ.
(Galatians 6:2)
Let’s lead a life worthy
of the calling to which we have been called, with all humility and gentleness,
with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to
maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
(Ephesians 4:1-3)
Let’s bear with one
another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other;
just as the Lord has forgiven us, so we also must forgive. (Colossians 3:13)
Previous:
Bearing with One Another
1. Broken Love
No comments:
Post a Comment