Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Paul opens the letter to the Philippians, a group of people for whom he clearly had great affection. He was writing from prison, but still expressing warmth and thankfulness for them.

Paul ends Romans with a list of specific members of the church of Rome, probably for a couple reasons. First, they really were dear to him. But also to establish his credibility to this church. He was asking for their help, and so here they had a list of people who knew Paul. "Oh, Priscilla! I know her! He must be okay, then."

Having harmonized the Jew and Gentiles under Christ, Paul now gives back a little of the Jewish identity. The promises of God have been carried through them, and they are made complete in Jesus.

Paul means to uproot the system of food purity laws from the Jewish way of life, but not destroy it. Instead, he reframes it. Instead of following rules to appear most holy, do so in a spirit of love between believers. Those who came from Jewish backgrounds would have more than food to think about with this, they would have a generous amount of food for thought as well!

The Kingdom of Jesus was established to be a people set apart, but not a nation in retreat from the world. This Kingdom is in the world, bringing something new and unusual to the world, but still paying taxes to their country and respect to their leaders. The love we have to show is given to us from our Savior, and that is our defining characteristic.

Today is leap day that extra day we get in the year, every four years. The Bible reading plan we follow doesn't account for this, so we have some readings about the Day of the Lord, and about God's faithfulness. Both go together. Christians have been looking for Christ's return pretty much since Christ ascended, but don't give up hope. We are his people in the present and future both, and the day of his return is sure to be something worth waiting for.

The measure of a faith expression is the kinds of people it produces. Paul gives a vivid picture of the kind of people he sees coming of this new faith in Jesus: loving enemies, serving one another in real love, and making sacrifices for each other. It's a wacky and upside down kind of approach, but that's what people thought of Jesus too.

Paul wishes to clarify that Jews have not been excluded from this new kingdom, despite their having been part of the first wave of God's plan. There could have certainly been some confusion about this, particularly because Christianity was originally a division of Judaism, but now that a new thing was happening, they were included too. Jews had also been kicked out of Rome, this was an important clarification to make.

Jew and non-Jew are both equally welcome in the Kingdom of Jesus, but how do we get there? Belief. God is doing most of the work, building the Kingdom and calling new citizens. Calling on the name of the Lord and following are our part.

Having resolved the issue of Jew and non-Jew as heirs of the Kingdom, Paul now discusses what determines that adoption: the will and sovreignty of God. This upends the approach of religious leaders who lord over others the need to follow the Law, because determination of who's "in" and who's "out" isn't theirs. God is God, and God determines his people.