Jesus Follows Through

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, October 1, 2023
Philippians 2:1-13

    In May of 2021, Anthony Klotz coined the term “The Great Resignation,” to describe the post-COVID phenomenon of many workers quitting their current jobs; changing jobs and even careers because of high-stress-low-paying work – notably in education, hospitality, and the healthcare fields especially, but across the board this was a trend.  For others, working from home or remotely became the norm.  I know some of you have also noticed the struggle in recent years to retain responsible, committed workers.  You schedule an interview for a prospective employee, and they ghost you – not bothering to show up or giving the courtesy of an email or phone call.  It seems like today, it’s harder and harder to find reliable, willing workers, and in some ways with inflation and high cost of living, we can understand this.  It still bothers me, however, and I am sure many of you, to see lack of commitment as a societal trend.
    Jesus’ parable about the well-intentioned son who never shows up and the reluctant, unwilling son tells us that unreliable workers are not a new phenomenon but have always been an issue.  People work and change jobs for a variety of good reasons, but I personally find people who say they’ll do something and don’t follow through a very frustrating personality trait.  Even so, I know I am guilty of agreeing to do something and then forgetting or having to back out of a commitment because I’m too busy. I like to tell people “yes,” and struggle to say “no,” and that can be a problem!  A mini-lesson here is that it’s perhaps better to say “no” and change your mind later than disappointing someone by not showing up when they were counting on you.  
    However, Jesus seems to indicate in the parable that the first son is not really commendable, either; he does the will of his father, but he’s not excited about it.  How many parents of teenagers can relate to this guy?  You can almost hear him groan, saying, “Ugh, fine! I’ll do it!”  When it comes to faith, Jesus tells us this parable to convict us that some of us have willing hearts but find it difficult to follow through with actions, and some of us have less than willing hearts and try to be faithful out of obligation or duty, not necessarily from joy or a kind of intrinsic motivation.  God wants willing hearts, willing minds, AND willing feet and hands to serve, Jesus is teaching us.  The praise and service of God requires our whole being, body, mind AND spirit.  Today, we confess to God the ways we have not followed through on our commitments to him – unkept promises, words easier said than done, AND the times we have reluctantly come to church or volunteered to help out in some way – doing things with our hearts not in it.  We are both sons in this parable at different times in our lives.
    Thank God we have our second reading in Philippians for a good news answer to the confession of the ways we have not placed our whole heart, mind, and body in God’s hands in full trust!  For the next three weeks, we’ll be looking at Paul’s letter to the Philippians as probably the most joyful of all of Paul’s letters in the New Testament.  It’s helpful to know that Paul is writing this letter from jail, but his imprisonment is not keeping him down or keeping him from encouraging believers in Christ despite their failings.  Our faith in Christ and our unity together as Christians encourages us despite our failings, whatever the circumstances around us, Paul encourages us in Philippians chapter 2!  The passage we read today is one of the earliest known Christian hymns, and it is sometimes referred to as “The Christ Hymn,” because Paul puts the focus back onto trusting Christ and not our own interests, ambition or conceit.      Paul’s main point here is that Jesus follows through for us even when we don’t follow through with our intentions to be good Christians in all of these different ways.  Christ follows through!  Paul praises God in a song that sings of Christ’s willingness to humble himself and die for us, even death on a cross.  Jesus has told the disciples this several times – he is going to suffer, be handed over to the authorities, die and be raised.  And then we know, he does what he says.  He follows through – Christ’s death and resurrection point to God’s faithfulness to us even when we fail at being totally faithful in word and deed.
    And this is why one who appears so humble in the eyes of the world – owning few possessions, traveling from town to town without a home, crucified as a common criminal – this very human Jesus of Nazareth is exalted with a name above all names, Jesus, the Christ.  Because Jesus does the will of his Father completely, Jesus does what he says he will do.  He is 100% reliable and trustworthy, all of the time.  What’s more, he doesn’t follow through for his own selfish gain – for power, status or prestige -- but he dies and is raise for us, emptying himself in human form, on the cross, for us!  
    For all the times we fail to live up to Christ’s example for us in his humble obedience, in his reliability, in his service to all – Paul reminds us that in Christ, God is at work in us!  We can praise God with our hearts, minds, and bodies because everything has already been done for us in Christ’s death and resurrection.  How is God at work in you – in the words you say, the actions you take, in your attitude?  When you see how God is at work through you, helping YOU follow through in your commitment to Christ, give God praise!  Paul gives us such a hopeful vision of the future, that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” – in kneeling and in praising, in words and deeds, one day, all creation will worship God in Christ with willing bodies AND minds.  One day we will all recognize Jesus for who he is.  Until that time, despite our failings, Christ equips us for the work of sharing our faith in word and in deed in different ways.  Some of us volunteer at church, some of us give financially to organizations that serve the least and the lowest, some of us are great inviters, some of us work quietly behind the scenes, some of us visit the sick and homebound, but all of these things support Paul’s vision of serving Christ in word and deed, just as Christ first served us.  May we continue to seek Christ’s mind and heart, enabling us both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.  Amen.