The Formation Field: Our Inner Life

Formation in Philippians • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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At the center of our lives is the divine mystery of the Triune God who desires to shape us into the likeness of Christ. The spiritual formation God desires to bring about touches every part of our personhood. In this sermon series on Philippians, we will look at the various spheres of our personhood and discuss God’s transformative design and desire for our lives.

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Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, please be our companion in the way. Kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and in the breaking of the bread. Amen.

Formation in Philippians

Dr. Adrian van Kaam and Formative Spirituality

Formation field: Spheres of Formation (Foundations)

Read Philippians through the lens of spheres of formation

The Life of Dr. Adrian Van Kaam

Roman Catholic Priest

Hague, Netherlands

April 1920 - November 2007

Operation Market Garden Failed

Dutch Hunger Winter (1944-45)

September 1944

Dutch train workers went on strike to hinder Nazi troop transportation

Nazis punished the Netherlands by cutting off their food supply

Operation Manna

Operation Chowhound

4.5M Affected

20,000 Died

Key Observation

The Quest for the More Than was unquenchable.

It prevailed in the most oppressive circumstances

Physical debilitation

Emotional upheaval

(Understanding Our Story, 2)

Spiritual formation question: What is the role of human suffering?

Model of Formative Spirituality born out of human crisis

Formative Spirituality Model

Deeply Trinitarian

Starting Place and Center: The Mystery

Unique-Communal Life-Call

Form Donation and Reception

Genesis Story: Life is a process of being formed, deformed, reformed, and transformed (41)

Formation Events

Foundational Structure: The Formation Field

The Formation Field

Intra-sphere (Our Inner Life)

Inter-sphere (Our Relational Life)

Situational-sphere (Immediate Circumstances)

Wider-world-sphere (Global Influence)

Divine Mystery - Triune God (Center)

Always in relation and always truly cares (12)

Trinitarian Nature of the Formation Field

Perichoresis is used in the context of the Holy Trinity to denote an interpenetration of the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each person remains distinct from the others, but participates fully in their Being and action as one.

Athanasius (296-373 AD)

Exiled 7 times for proclaiming Christ’s divinity

Listed the 27 books he thought should be in the NT; it’s the 27 books we use today

“I am in the Father and the Father is in me”

John 14:11

John 14:11 ESV

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

John 17:21

John 17:21 ESV

that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Dynamic not Static

Weaving: uses movement to create “thickness” and cohesion

“God’s mission utilizes movement: within the Trinity, into creation and humanity, and ultimately through the back-and-forth movement of pieces being woven together into a thicker whole...” (Okesson, A Public Missiology, 71) .

“Hence, the public realm of the twenty-first century is not a monolithic entity but more a spirited dance as free-flowing domains clasp hands, clutch one another in mad embrace, push apart, and spin across the ballroom, constantly seeking out new partners” (Okesson, A Public Missiology, 51).

Relationship and connectedness, not the oneness of eastern thought.

Persuasive because this view of reality corresponds to the very Being of God in His Triune nature.

Philippians 3:1-16 and the Intra-sphere

Phroneō

10 times in Philippians (26 in NT)

Thinking, feeling, acting (Dispositions)

Three Essential Pairs of Spiritual Dispositions

Sensibility and Responsibility

Sensibility - Openness (Phil. 3.10)

Responsibility - Response (Phil. 3.12)

Firmness and Gentleness

“Firmness without gentleness deteriorates into severity; gentleness without firmness becomes debilitating weakness” (van Kaam, Formation of the Human Heart)

Firmness - Phil. 3.12

Gentleness - Phil. 3.15

Privacy and Communion

Privacy - Internal Retreat (Phil. 3.4-8)

Communion - Deep Friendship (Phil 3:15)

call of God in Christ Jesus

The Pace of Grace

Famine paired with a lack of fuel for warmth

Self-talk leaves us cold and starving

Reflection Questions

How is your inner self-talk shaping you? Is it a source of formation or deformation?