“A Faith Work-out” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, September 27^th, 2026, Year A / Proper 21  –  Psalm 25:1-9  ¨  Philippians 1:27-2:13

THEME:  Strive to imitate the same mind and self-emptying love that was in Jesus.

How many of you exercise regularly? Do any of you do yoga? How about lifting weights?   When I was in my 20s, I went to a gym for the first time. A friend and I decided that we would try lifting weights. What a miserable experience!  I hated it. I did not set foot in a gym for the next 35 years.  But a few years ago, on a whim, I joined the West Shore YMCA. And something unexpected happened. I fell in love with working out. Lifting weights and running on a treadmill was suddenly fun.  Ever since, two or three times a week, I go to the Y for a workout. Without fail, I leave feeling better and stronger. Working out is exactly what Paul is telling the Philippians to do. Let me set the scene for you.

Philippi was a prosperous Roman colony in modern-day Greece. Gold mines, a convenient harbor, and a major trade route running through the city made Philippi a wealthy town. Further, as a Roman Colony, it was like a mini-Rome. Politically, legally, and culturally, it was an extension of the Empire. Not surprisingly, worshiping the Emperor was a wildly popular religious practice. A few years before, when Paul first arrived in Philippi on his second missionary journey, he encountered a group of women praying down by the river. One of them was Lydia.  Lydia was a widow and a dealer in purple cloth.  She hosted Paul and his companions, Timothy and Silas, on their very first night in Philippi. As a result, Lydia became the first Christian convert in Europe. The church that Paul planted in her home became the first church in Europe. And of all his churches, this one was his favorite. Over the years, he developed a deep affection for the Philippian Christians. And they felt just as fondly about him.

The other churches Paul nurtured were a source of endless grief and agitation. (Corinthians and Galatians, anyone?). The Philppians were Paul’s pride and joy. They were his most faithful partners in ministry, both spiritually and financially. Now, he needs their support more than ever. Paul has been imprisoned in Rome for preaching the gospel. The Philippians have sent a church member named Epaphroditus to deliver a gift and to care for Paul while he is in prison. Epaphroditus has given Paul the news that the Philippian congregation needs Paul’s help and guidance. They are facing persecution from without, and quarrelling from within. So, Paul sends Epaphroditus home with this letter that you and I call Philippians. It is a thank you letter. It is also a letter of encouragement. Paul tells them to keep the faith, even – and especially – in hard times.  He urges them to stand firm and stay together, as he puts it, “striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel.”

In a nutshell, they have to have the same mind and the same love as Christ. They have to imitate his humility, his obedience to God, and his willingness to empty himself in service to others, putting their needs ahead of his own.  What will enable them to do this is God. God is at work in them, Paul says, just as surely as God was at work in Jesus. This is how they will be able work out their own salvation, with fear and trembling. In other words, their faith needs a workout. If they are to remain faithful to what Paul has taught them and what the gospel demands of them, their faith needs to be strengthened, and it needs to be stretched.

And folks that is how it is with our faith, too. Like a muscle, faith will atrophy if we do not exercise it. A static faith is not just a stagnant faith. It is a dying faith. Further, without exercise, muscles do not just get weaker, they get tighter. That’s how serious injuries happen. If you have ever pulled a muscle, or even had a charley horse, you know how painful that is.  The same is true of our faith. Our faith needs to be strengthened and it needs to be stretched. The question is, how do we do that?

First and foremost, we focus our minds on the grace God has given us in Jesus Christ. Then we let our gratitude guide our decisions and shape our actions. We model these on Jesus himself. But, wait a minute. We are not Jesus. We do not walk on water. We don’t heal lepers with a mere touch, and we don’t cast out demons with just a word.  We definitely do not raise the dead. The good news is that Jesus does not expect us to perform miracles. He does expect us to follow him faithfully. In other words, he expects progress and persistence, not perfection.

Voltaire, the great French writer, satirist, and philosopher of the Enlightenment, famously warned that “Perfection is the enemy of good.” Perfectionism is a disease. Many of us are familiar with this disease. We feel it in the pressure we put on ourselves, in the unwarranted self-criticism, and the ever-present fear of failure. Sometimes, perfectionism leads us to achieve great things. But it has a dark side. When we begin to consider that anything less than total perfection is failure, it leads us to procrastinate. We become hesitant to try difficult things for fear that the result will not be flawless.

 Worst of all, at its very root, perfectionism reflects the unspoken belief that it is all up to us. That we are responsible for our own success. That our achievements are solely our own. When that is our mindset, there is no room for God, and there is no room for grace.  It is the very opposite of faith.  

It is most certainly not the mindset that Paul intends us to have. We not only judge ourselves harshly, we judge our neighbors harshly, too. That prevents us from loving them as Jesus commands. This realization of our critical need for grace is the foundation of our faith, especially as Reformed Christians. The one who famously named this is Martin Luther.   Martin Luther, as you probably know, is often called the Father of the Protestant Reformation.

In the early 1500s, Luther became a monk and an ordained Catholic priest in Germany. He belonged to the Order of Saint Augustine.  Our current Pope, Pope Leo, is also a member of this same order.  It is an ancient monastic community and very well-respected. However, the branch that Martin Luther belonged to was overly strict. So, he came to view God as an angry judge, rather than a gracious Lord. He became consumed by guilt because he was unable to stop himself from sinning. He assumed that God would judge his guilt and relegate him to hell for all eternity.  Not surprisingly, he was overcome with anxiety and fear.

But Luther was also a brilliant scholar. His focus was the New Testament, especially the letters of Paul. One day, as he was reading Paul’s letter to the Romans, Chapter 1, verse 17 caught his eye. That is where Paul describes the Gospel as “The righteousness of God, revealed from faith for faith, for as it is written, the just shall live by faith.” And the light bulb went off in Martin Luther’s head. He later described the impact of that moment. He said, “I felt that I had been born anew, that the gates of heaven had been opened.  The whole of Scripture gained a new meaning.  And from that point on, the phrase 'the justice of God' no longer filled me with hatred, but rather, became unspeakably sweet by virtue of a great love.”

That is the moment when Martin Luther truly took on the mind and the love of Christ. Paul wants the Philippians to do that. Jesus wants us to do it, too. Friends, no one expects you or me to perfectly adopt Christ’s mindset and self-giving love for others, least of all Christ himself.  

What he does expect is that we will embrace the gospel promise that he is the embodiment of God’s grace, the source of our salvation, and the object of our faith. When it comes to imitating him in living out our faith, he expects progress and persistence, not perfection. Today, you and I live with the same struggle that Paul and the Philippians faced. Doubt and division are rampant in our world. It has never been more important for us to live out our faith, for us to imitate the mind of Christ and his self-emptying love.

Who in your life needs that love? Maybe someone who is struggling with disease, or despair – or both? Maybe a child or a grandchild who is facing a crisis? Maybe a friend or a spouse who has become estranged? Whoever that is for you, trust in the power of imitating Christ by sharing his love.  Not only will it give them hope, it will give your faith a workout as well.

May it be so.