Out of Sync?

The last two verses from this Sunday's epistle reads as follows (Philippians 2:13-14)

Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Having just preached a bit on one of Pelagius' heresies, I'm not sure if I'm ahead of my time or behind.  That "work out your own salvation" part has me wondering.  And then, the Old Testament reading has Ezekiel proclaiming the "unfairness" of the Lord--the other theme of last week's sermon. 

But this week, Paul seems to be urging the church in Philippi toward reconciliation reminding them of the great gift they had been given in Christ's birth, death, and resurrection.  Its part guilt trip and part reminder of the whole point of being in community anyway--particularly in Paul's absence. 

I don't know how Paul did it, really.  It is easy to malign Paul but he really did an incredible thing in trying to attend to these fledgling Christian communities spread across distant lands with numerous cultural and religious backgrounds.  He wasn't there much of the time do a lot of hands on work so he had to trust the community to always aim for their highest inclination--loving God and each other they way Christ demonstrated.  At times I'm sure these communities were hanging on by thinnest of abstract concepts and yet, this Jesus whom most of them did not know and his ideals around living together was enough to carry the faith forward to the present. 

Then there's the Gospel (Matthew 21:28-32) which asks essentially, what will take for the people to believe.  Again, the latecomers are favored as doing the will of God.  Even if they decline at the beginning, they will always be welcome when they turn around.  But those who say, "yes, yes!" and then go do other things--Jesus isn't feeling them so much.  It's like my grandmother used to say, "It's never too late to get your act together."