2 If then
there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in
the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be
of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard
others as better than yourselves. 4 Let
each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who,
though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something
to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he
humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a
cross.
9 Therefore
God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every
name, 10 so that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11
and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.
12 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; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both
to will and to work for his good pleasure.
The family
and I were able to head out to Hanover, PA over the last few days to visit with
my Grandmother, and quite a few other members of my extended family. It was a great visit and one of the things
that was very much on display was that there is a
great amount of love that is shared in the room.
However, as
is the case in many family, there are points where those family members who
love each other like crazy,…drive each other totally
crazy! There are points in the midst of
the disagreements that you wonder if they would be able to agree on anything;
even the stuff that works!
All of us
have run into this predicament at one time or another,
whether it be at home with your family, at school with a teacher or classmate,
or at your job with a co-worker or your employer, people have a hard time agreeing
on how to do anything. This even
stretches into our churches, at all of its levels. This is why it seems so impossible to do what
Paul is calling us to do by becoming like one person. However, the call is there and we need to
figure out what to do with it.
The truth of
the matter was, that the people that Paul was writing
to at the church at Philippi were not some sort of super Christians in that
they were able to achieve this enlightened state of unity. On the contrary, if they had actually reached
this goal of unity of thought and action, then why would Paul be writing and
even ask them to do that very thing? If
this goal had already been achieved then there would be no need for Paul to
plead, as verse two states, “make my joy complete”.
We can also
assume that the people who Paul was writing to were probably not all that
different than us in terms of their differing opinions and personalities. Admittedly, the world has most definitely
changed, but we humans, for better or for worse, have remained very much the
same throughout the years. People back
then were the same sort of fallen creatures that they are today. Simply put, we are not as God has created us
to be. It is because of this fallen
nature that things like pride, envy, and jealousy enter the picture and it is
when these sorts of common human traits get involved with differences of
opinion, that misunderstandings, anger, and even hate can ensue. I don’t think that there is anyone among us
who can make the claim that they have never had a disagreement with someone
that, whether you desired it to or not, the difference got out of control. Things may have been said, or actions
committed whose end result was not to solve the disagreement but to inflict
some sort of pain. Paul knew this. He knew it as well as we do
here today.
However, the amazing thing that we still seem
to forget, that Paul so rightly points out to us, is that there is something
that transcends all of those human tendencies to lead to division. That one common bond is Jesus Christ. If we were to focus on the commonality in
Christ and not our earthly differences, then we would begin to realize that
with the power of the Holy Spirit we can begin to have thoughts that were much
like Jesus. There will be times when we
mess up and allow those prideful tendencies to take control, but if we lift our
hearts and minds out of those prideful tendencies and concentrate on the one
who saved us, and what he would have us do, then we will begin to see that our
differences are actually not as great as we make them out to be and that
together as many different people we can move together, united as one, doing
the will of God.
We are actually able to recognize that
reality in a few different ways today.
The first way we celebrated this coming together of many people, moving
as one, was through Cody’s baptism.
Because here’s the thing: while Kate and Kevin carry the lionshare of responsibility in raising Cody and all their
boys to know Jesus and live a life of faith, that is not a responsibility that
they carry alone. As a Church we
recognize that when we are led to say that ‘we believe’, that we don’t just
have individual responsibilities to God, we also have communal responsibilities
to pray for and as needed care for one another in that faith. So, Kate, Kevin, please know that you do not
go alone, that we are here as you need us.
And to all the members of this family of faith, when you see an
opportunity to be the presence of Christ, then step into that space, trusting
that God will provide you with everything that you may need. We go together. Different though we may be, the thing that
brings us together (the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ) reminds us that we
are to humble ourselves so that we might be able to serve others, as Christ
first served us.
But not only are we able to be reminded of
this truth through Cody’s baptism, but we are also able to experience it as
Dawn Alpaugh is able to be ordained as a minister of
Word and Sacrament here this afternoon.
Yes, Dawn was the one who went to the classes and took part in all the
fun that seminary is. I get that. But she didn’t get there, let alone stay
there and ultimately succeed there without the help, guidance, and support and
many different individuals, including many of you. That help, guidance, and support are
different ways that we put others first, that we put God first. When that humility is able to be exhibited,
that’s when the light of God is able to shine in some absolutely brilliant
ways, because that humility allows us to be transformed, even if it is only for
a moment, into a closer reflection of who God created us to be: brothers and
sisters unified with one another through their connection to the Almighty.
Paul realizes that this sort of unity in the
church is going to be difficult. In the
same breathe, he knows that in Christ, all things are
possible. He even uses the words of that
hymn that we talked about in the introduction to show that Jesus humbled
himself so that God’s will might be done.
What Paul is calling us to do is humble ourselves so that the visible
church might become like one person in thought and action. This does not mean that we role over without
allowing our opinions to be known. Absolutely not. Your
ideas will allow the rest of the whole to hear things in a new a different
way.
However, regardless of how different the
viewpoint may be, you need to recognize where your gifts may lie and always,
always keep your focus on God and doing God’s will. If you do, then we will be able to do things
as a collective whole, as a community founded on our faith in Jesus Christ,
that we could have never done on our own.
The baptism we celebrated a few moments ago,
and the ordination that will take place in a little bit show us just how
wonderful those accomplishments can be.
So humble yourself, as Christ did, put away
your pride and watch as the doors to coming together in life and love begin to open.
O mysterious
God, work in us so that we might be able to put away our pride and become the
humble people that You would have us be so that we
might be able to work in one accord toward the completion of Your will. We know that we are all have
different ideas, but with Your help and guidance, the visible church can become
a force that is to Your glory. Amen.