More than just referring about their behavior as individuals in the world, Paul is actually pointing to the way that they live out their heavenly citizenship with one another, their collective polity. See, Paul recognizes that as a local church, they have a common life with each other. That is, set in the context of their citizenship in the Roman empire. So Paul is calling out the Philippians to live out their common life together in the secular context, not by simply adopting the customs and the culture of the world around them, but rather to live out their collective life together in a manne ..read more

Paul did not say, "Everything has a purpose." He did not say, "In spite of the difficult circumstances of me being in prison, God did something good." Paul simply did not make the best of a bad situation. What Paul said is far more remarkable. He said, what has happened to me—that is, getting thrown into prison—has served to advance the good news. In other words, what has happened to me, the sufferings I am enduring, unjust as they are, have opened up an opportunity for the good news of Jesus' resurrection and new life to advance. And if I hadn't been put in this prison, this might not have ha ..read more

Over the next several months, we will be reading someone else's mail. I say that as sort of a creative way to refer to the fact that this New Testament book, this epistle to the Philippians, really is a letter from the apostle Paul to the local church that he had started in the city of Philippi. But in another sense, I say that because, you read the opening paragraphs of this letter, and you get a sense that there's this deep, personal connection between Paul and the Philippians. To me, I read these opening words...and it's like I'm peering into this tender exchange, this honest expression of ..read more

How does the resurrection make a difference on a Wednesday? When I'm bored at school? When I'm grocery shopping at Trader Joe's? Or languishing at a mundane job I only endure for the paycheck? Now we can have a fine time today kicking around some theology of the resurrection, or maybe naming two or three proofs for the resurrection, but I want to take it out of the clouds and drop it into a typical Wednesday. How does the resurrection matter on a Wednesday? How does it bring hope in the real world where we are actually living in 2024 ..read more

"Our first priority as the church is not to make all these things happen in the world through political action, but to be a prophetic witness to the hope of a world remade according to Christ." Brian Zahnd Too often, we sink our chips into politics and try and make the society righteous. But as the church, we are the ones who are to be the righteous society in the larger society... So wherever Kingdom values, ethics, and principles drive our voting, they should drive our actions within our own church toward one another, and then out from there. Caring for the poor—in our church... Loving the i ..read more

Politics—if we think of the fullest definition of it—has to do with how we live together, and how we relate to each other in the various communities that we are in. It has to do with the values and the principles that govern our communities and relationships and common life together. And today's topic is "Incarnational Politics." It might seem like a strange phrase. What it means is simply in-the-flesh politics. Hands-getting-dirty kind of politics that rejects ideology from a distance and embraces a politics of presence. A politics of showing up, and being with, and listening to, and seeking ..read more

I have to tell you lately, I've been taken with the phrase, "The center is different than the middle." Think about that from the perspective of a follower of Jesus. The middle is neutral political ground to avoid conflict and make everyone happy. But for the Christian, the center is the starting point for healthy discussion and debate. And the center is King Jesus and the way of His Kingdom. Our calling is faithfulness to Him. Will we let the Kingdom bend our politics? Matthew 22 says, 'The greatest commandment is to love God and love our neighbor.' That's an excellent guide for a Kingdom appr ..read more

God says in the first of the ten commandments these words, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me." And a few verses later in the second commandment, God continues the theme, "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name." These commandments prohibit idolatry. Not exactly an everyday word in our lexicon. But idolatry is taking a good thing and making it an ultimate thing. Idolatry is giving Godlike status to something or someone that isn't G ..read more

A crucified God is at the center of our faith, and this image gives us a vision of power that is upside-down from Rome's, Jerusalem's, Washington D.C.'s, or any other place of power. Jesus' life was cross-shaped even before He went to the cross. It was a life of service and sacrifice. Jesus said at the end of Matthew 28, "All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to me." But Philippians 2 says, "Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage, so He humbled Himself, took the very nature of a servant, and became obedient to death on a cross." If you're wond ..read more

The church, from the very beginning, was designed to be a community of "Unlikes," a community of "Differents." There is a palpable tension in the New Testament around the inclusion of the Gentiles in the early church. Christianity was born out of the Jewish faith, and there came points along the way where there was pressure to let Gentiles be part of it. But God's plan—from the very beginning—was for Jewish and Gentile Christians to worship together, and do life together, and sort out the tensions and disagreements together, in the shadow of the cross and in the shadow of an abundant communion ..read more