Overflowing Love - Philippians 1:2-11 (Sermon from December 6th)


Have you ever been in a hurry in the mornings fixing breakfast and either hit the wrong numbers on the microwave, or if you’re a stovetop person, forgotten about the timing while fixing oatmeal, grits, or cream of wheat.  We have a morning routine at our house.  Joshua wakes up with his alarm and comes up the hall where I am doing my devotions.  Once I am done, or if I am already done, my job is to help him finish waking up and get him eating breakfast while I fix my coffee and Anita’s hot chocolate for the morning, along with our lunches.  If Joshua decides on one of those three I mentioned, I am going back and forth to the microwave, working on both his breakfast or Anita’s hot chocolate.  The timings are close.  The initial time for the hot chocolate is a minute, thirty seconds, for Joshua’s breakfast, it is a minute.  Do you know what happens if I forget what I am putting in, and hit 1:30 with his breakfast, especially if I have accidently added too much milk?  That’s right, the bowl can’t contain it, it bubbles up and overflows the bowl, running down the sides, and making a mess of things.
Paul is writing to the church in Philippi.  Many of Paul’s letters are written to churches to address issues of concern that Paul feels threaten the church—such as the arrogance of members that Paul addresses in his letter to the Romans or the divisions amongst the congregation and the failure to address sin amongst its members in his letters to the church in Corinth.  Philippians, though, tends to be a much more positive, peaceful, affirming letter.
We gather from our reading this morning that this church in Philippi had proved itself repeatedly faithful to the Gospel.  Paul talks about giving thanks for the congregation with joy in his heart, and, later, in the third chapter of this letter, Paul tells the people, “to write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.”[i]  Contrast that with some of his other letters such as 2nd Corinthians where he says, “And I wrote as I did so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice; for I am confident about all of you, that my joy would be the joy of all of you.  For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.”[ii]  Notice the subtle (or not so subtle difference):  to the church in Corinth he says that, “hey, y’all’ve got some things to fix before I get there so that I won’t be upset by what I’ve heard I am going to find”; whereas to the church in Philippi it comes across as, “hey, I’m writing this stuff not because of anything you’ve done wrong, but to encourage you so you don’t fall into the same traps that others have succumbed to.”
The church in Philippi was a relatively new church start in a very non-Christian culture.  They would have found themselves being opposed by non-Christians (such as those who worshipped the Greek or Roman gods and goddesses or those who suggested that to worship a God who was nailed to a cross made no sense) as well as opposition from other “Jesus groups” such as those who insisted that Jewish laws of circumcision must be followed.  Paul writes, encouraging them to stand strong and remain faithful despite the society working against them.  They know that Paul is sincere in this encouragement and not offering some empty platitudes from a comfy throne room or penthouse; he writes in the midst of his own imprisonment for being faithful to the Gospel.
Paul’s praise for the Philippians centers around their show of love.  Paul prays that as they grow in their faith, understanding more and more of their relationship with God through Jesus Christ, that this love may overflow from them more and more.
My brothers and sisters, Paul here indirectly indicates a key truth about our faith.  Love is core to our faith.  The command to love, from loving God, to loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, to loving our neighbors, to loving our enemies, is the most frequent command of Christ.  Jesus’ emphasis on love is so central that Jesus commands us to love one another and shares that the world will know that we follow Him if we are loving one another.  In other words, if we are not loving, then we are not following Christ.  If our lives are filled with bitterness or hatred, or even the withholding of expressions of love out of fear, then we are clearly not following Jesus.  As we grow in faith, as we grow in our relationship with Jesus, our life will be marked more and more by love…love that the Holy Spirit will place within us, not for us to hold on to, but to allow to overflow from us, into the lives of those around us.
And you know what happens when love overflows?  It makes a mess of the way the world works and thinks.
Love overflowed from the heart of God and made a mess of things from the moment that God made a mess of chaos by bringing order through creation…but most explicitly God let that love overflow into the world as He came into the world as the tiny infant, Jesus…
Love overflowed from the life of Jesus:
It overflowed from him as he ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners…offering them forgiveness and friendship…making a mess of all the holiness standards of those in religious authority.
It overflowed from him as he offered healing, regardless of the day of the week…making a mess of man-made guidelines of what it means to observe the Sabbath.
It overflowed from him as touched lepers, allowed an unclean woman to touch him, and brought healing to Gentiles, making a mess of regulations on who’s in and who’s out of the community.
It overflowed from him as he was arrested, offering healing to the slave struck by Peter’s sword, making a mess of the idea of defending oneself with a violent response.
It overflowed from him, as blood flowed to the ground from the cross and he cried out Father, forgive them…making a mess of the idea of asking God to curse or destroy your enemies.
But this mess-making overflow of love was not just limited to Jesus, but was a mark of his followers.
Love overflowed from Peter, Steven, and other disciples as they sought to share the gospel, and made a mess of the idea that we should obey the laws of man rather than God (when city officials had sought to silence them).
Love overflowed from Peter, Phillip, Paul, and others as they carried the Gospel outside the bounds of the Jewish community, into the lives of Gentiles…making a mess of the idea that God limits those He would extend love to.
My brothers and sisters, God has poured His love into our lives as well, and He intends for us to let that love overflow from our lives into the world around us, making a mess of the status quo.
God’s love over-flowing from us can make a mess of hunger and poverty as we seek to free folks from their oppressive hold.
God’s love over-flowing from us can make a mess of racism and supremacism as we seek to embrace all of those around us, regardless of the color of their skin, the language they speak (or don’t speak), or their country of origin.
God’s love over-flowing from us can make a mess of arguments about borders and refugees as compassion and open arms override fear.
God’s love over-flowing from us can make a mess of elitism and privileged thinking as we seek to serve rather than be served.
God’s love over-flowing from us can make a mess of political platforms and political parties as we allow love to govern all the decisions of support, and how we interact with whom we disagree.
God’s love over-flowing from us can make a mess of self-righteous judgment as we remember that everyone we face—from fellow Christians who may have wronged us in a meeting to an atheist sitting on death row to Islamic jihadists threatening to annihilate us—is someone that Christ in the outpouring of His love died to save, and we seek show love to them.
God’s love over-flowing into us can make a mess of our own lives, calling us to examine everything we do, everything we say, and everything we think to ensure that it is marked by the love of God pouring out of us.
Why?
So that all the world may come to know the love that we have experienced from God and “…so that in the day of Christ [when God’s love is made complete we—that day we anticipate during this season of Advent] may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest or righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.


[i] Philippians 3:1b
[ii] 2nd Corinthians 2:3-4

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