In today's reading from Paul's letter to the Philippians, we find one of those exhortations that are quite popular for ourselves, but which we are usually loathe to apply to others. Indeed, there tend to be two kinds of Bible passages: those that apply to everyone ELSE and those that apply to NOONE else. In this case, the passage that applies to NOONE else is "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

All too frequently, it is a favorite pastime of Christians to work out the salvation of other people. I fear that we thoroughly enjoy coming up with all sorts of little doctrines, little "false teachings", by which we can point our fingers at our neighbors. It has been said that for many, salvation isn't worth anything unless it can be denied to someone else. We fancy that God's grace is like some precious gem that only has value based on how many people DON'T have it, instead of seeing it's value in the fact that it is available to all people. And naturally, if we're going to go running around picking motes out of peoples' eyes, it helps if we can shunt responsibility for that off onto something like the Bible. Rather than own up to this ugliness in our own souls, we point to passages in Scripture which conveniently condemn those we don't like - those different from us, who believe differently or live different lifestyles - and say that they better stop being different or else... "It's out of my hands. God said it, I believe it, that settles it."

Of course, we always forget to point to those passages which rather rudely condemn ourselves. When someone turns around and pulls the same stunt on us, THEN we invoke the "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" clause. After all, it simply wouldn't do to be judged as we judge others. "It's everyone ELSE who has the false teachings, not ME."

Why do we so easily forget that Paul's advice applies to all people? We expect others to allow us to work out our salvation, to show humility and love to us, but we do not return the favour. Or worse, we get in peoples' faces, working out salvation for them, and in some perverse twist call THAT "humility" and "love". I've met far too many people who wish that Christians would stop being so "loving" in this "unique" way.

The reason we do this is as evident as the sabre-rattling on the nightly news: power. "We have hierarchies to maintain, darnit, and we're not going to let any old sorts of Apostles and Messiahs get in the way of that!" This is the poison creeping through our veins and our society. This is our legacy to our children and our neighbors... The pursuit of power no matter the cost.

We define success by what we have that others don't, and by how many we have under us. One gets on top by having the big money or the big guns, without ever questioning if we should want to be on top. And there is nothing bigger than speaking for God, to hold the Power of eternal life or eternal death... To have OUR hand be the one holding others above the fires and saying - demanding - "believe as I believe or go to Hell, literally."

Jesus dealt with just these sorts of people in today's gospel reading... Of course, it is unfair to pick particularly on the priests since "these sorts" are as easy to find as the closest mirror. At any rate, here are the chief priests and elders, the top of the religious hierarchy and the ones to claim to speak for God, having their turf violated by this "country bumpkin from Galilee"... This "false prophet", this "friend of sinners", this "enemy of Romans and Zealots alike". Who gave this "self-styled" rabbi the authority to teach in THEIR Temple? And so they ask Him that very question. And we can be certain that it was no honest question. As portrayed in the Gospels, there was no question the Scribes, Pharisees, and priests asked that wasn't meant to entrap Him.

Jesus, being God and therefore a remarkable judge of human character, knew this, and so He once again turns tables... Not the physical tables of the money changers, but rather, the tables of the priests' fundamental assumptions about the way society should be organized, about the way things "are". Jesus did exactly what noone expected Him to do: he asked the priests where they got THEIR authority from.

The priests were most likely expecting Jesus to simply make a contesting authority claim which could be debated, reasoned over, argued against, and even violently destroyed if necessary (the tactic they ultimately resorted to). They couldn't think in any terms outside of the hierarchical system they had. They were expecting Jesus to propose an alternate hierarchy because, after all, its all about who has the power. What Jesus did do was infuriating and frightening.

I know from my own experience how profound what Jesus did was. I've been accused of false teaching and condemned to Hell, even to my face, more times that I care to recall. Those who did so no doubt expected me to try and argue my way out of Hell on their terms, to bandy about proof texts or whathaveyou. Instead, I merely responded (at the best times) "I'm sorry, but you don't have the authority to condemn me to Hell. You can disagree with me and we can discuss the matter, but you don't have the authority to accuse me of false teaching." Well, it was much less eloquent when I said it, but that was the basic gist. That put them on the defensive, forcing them to justify their prerogatives rather than forcing me to prove anything to them. It also tended to make them very angry, VERY angry, because it touches and deep and threatening nerve about the way things are.

I shouldn't boast of myself though, because I only learned this from the Lord who challenged the priests' world view, and my world view, and everyone's world view. Putting the trick question on the priests, Jesus sent them scrambling... They were faced with a question that answering either way would undermine their whole claim of speaking for God. They would either admit they did not follow God's call, or face the daunting task of having to discredit an obviously Godly man.

At another time, Jesus tells His Disciples that they must be as righteous as the Scribes and Pharisees... It's evident that these men were no slouches: they knew the Law and followed the Law. Yet here, Jesus follows up His question by saying that no less than prostitutes and tax collectors - hookers and the federal Liberals - would precede them into the Kingdom of God. He didn't say the priests wouldn't go, just that the last will be first and the first will be last.

"What?!?" It is easy to imagine the priests' reaction because we've seen it in others and we've seen it in ourselves. "What?!? Those liberal, tree hugging, commie, feminist homosexuals are going to Heaven?! Those earth-destroying, people-oppressing, capitalist conservative patriarchists will be seated at the foot of God?! I don't want any part of any Kingdom of God that would have THEM there!" I have no doubt that when each of us arrives at the pearly gates, we're going to be gloriously suprized by grace when we see who else is standing there.

God forbid we humble ourselves and let others' work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.

It's scary work, being faced with this task. We're staring into the abyss of uncertainty, of self-doubt... It means going out into the wilderness and relying on nothing but God. We may have been oppressed in the modern day Egypt of our society, but at least we had order! We had definite goals and purpose, and if we tried hard enough, we could work our way up the hierarchy to where WE had the power.

But what faces us out here in the wilderness of sin? How can we manage without someone else to point to and say "you're wrong"? Won't we have complete anarchy if we don't have a hierarchy, if we can't look to our private interpretations of Scripture and say "here is authority"?

Well, here is a little known fact, intentionally little known I fear. Anarchy doesn't mean disorder. Anarchy means organization without hierarchy. It means restructuring our society and ourselves along paths that don't look to power or self as a motivation. It finds certainty in the community working together, not in one person to rule over the rest.

Paul relates to the Philippians just how this structure is created: being of one mind in love, doing nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, in regarding others as better - even more holy - than ourselves, to look to the interests of others EVEN AT the expense of our interests. How profound and radical this ethic is, especially in this day and age where we'd rather be the most holy, when we'd rather be right than humble, when we'd prefer to get angry at being told that our self-interest comes at the humiliation of other people across the globe rather than actually do anything to change it.

It is an amazing freedom... It is God's living, pleading call into our lives that crashes through our walls and overturns our tables. But it is as frightening as it is profound. It means working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We must do without the certainty of saying "here are the rules and right doctrines and I follow them." We must forsake the comfort of "relative salvation", which is determining "how saved" we are by "how unsaved" other people are. We wander now in the wilderness.

Yet in the wilderness we find a new certainty and a new comfort. Gone are the ways of making up rules and doctrines to impose on others. In the 40 years of wandering, the Israelites wanted for nothing but only received anything from God. They has to rely on God for, literally, their daily bread... For the food they ate, the water they drank, and the guidance that lead them. The hierarchy which provided everything at a terrible price was gone, and so was it's certainty and twisted comfort. God became their certainty and their comfort.

As we approach the wilderness of our own abolished hierarchy and authority, we can only rely on God... His promise becomes our certainty and Her grace becomes our comfort. Christ becomes our guide, and we wander until we have forgotten the old ways and enter the Promised Land... The 40 years in the desert that lead us to the Kingdom of God.

Noone can wander for us: Jesus freed us from oppression and oppressing, and now He leads us on the journey we must take. This is the reality of spiritual growth in opposition to the lie of power. This is working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, and allowing others to do the same. We have not arrived... We are all wandering together as God works in us. Amen.