e-vo for week of December 2

Dearest e-votees-

My apologies, last week escaped me. Here is a very belated devotional piece based on the appointed epistle text from last week.

Peace,
Karl

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I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:3-11, NRSV

These familiar verses are some of my favorite in all of scripture. They speak deeply of Paul’s deep affection for the saints at Philippi. It communicates the communal nature of doing ministry. It communicates that God’s grace is what binds us together. It communicates the sure and certain hope that God will complete what was begun.

How are we with our deep affection for our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus? Do we pray with joy constantly for them and their partnership in the gospel? Do we live in the reality that ministry is a communal venture or do we try to strike out on our own? Do we allow ourselves to be built up into the church with grace as the mortar or do we try to build on the shaky foundations of our own achievements and ambitions? Do we rest securely knowing that God will finish what God began in our baptisms or do we fret?

Paul’s prayer is one that suits us well too. We need to be a community founded on love. That love is not to be frothy and shallow but deep and abiding. That love is to be informed by knowledge and depth of insight. That growing in knowledge and wisdom is a communal venture as well.

As we wait for Jesus to liturgically come again in the manger and to definitively come at the end of all time to usher in his kingdom let us rest secure. Since our fates have been sealed by God’s grace we can dare to live lives of love, service and increasing knowledge. These things don’t save us—they are evidence that we have been saved. God began it and God will bring it to completion.


God, mold us into the people you would have us be. Help us love one another more than we could ever deserve because that is how you first loved us. Amen.