The Christian Life in a Nutshell

Around noon on Saturday, I drove out on Route 377 beyond HOPE…   There must be some theological statement in that clause… I drove out beyond HOPE… to the place where the men of the church are building the CASA playhouse.    There, in a metal building, I found the trailer with the platform upon which the playhouse is taking shape… and five men who were working on the building itself.    The building had been completely framed.  The men were nailing the siding onto the sides of the tiny building and cutting out the door.    I took a few photographs for the newsletter and then I stayed and watched them work for a time.    They worked well together and I pondered that as I watched.  Five very strong…very independent… very different…men, all working together in harmony to create this playhouse.  What created the harmony, I wondered?    For realistically, they could have fought over every cut of wood…and every nail.  In the end, I decided that what created the harmony was their commitment to the ultimate goal:  the creation of a playhouse for CASA.  Anything that moved them in that direction was good.  Anything that hindered them was bad.  The specific details of the path they took were not as important as the ultimate goal.

Paul told the Christian community at Philippi to “be of one mind”… to not allow the petty differences between people distract them from the ultimate goal:  that of having the mind that was in Christ Jesus himself.  What mind was that?    Paul knew that they would ask, so he told them:  Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited… but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death -- even the lowly, abasing death of a criminal on a cross.”    If they would work out their own salvation in this way, Paul said, God, working within them, would enable them both to will and to work for his pleasure.  That was the ultimate goal.

            There have been many occasions when I have wished that all of you could read the Greek and see the power of the words Paul has chosen.  His first verse here is incomparable in its passion…and the English translations I have read cannot convey the depth of his feeling.  Listen, will you, to this plea:  “if there is any way that my words of encouragement… my words of exhortation… my words of consolation have helped you to stay faithful… and I know that they have   and if my encouragement… my love for you… my assistance… my support has given you any comfort in the past… and I know that it has    and if you share any fellowship… common life together… spiritual community as believers… and I know that you do   and if you know anything of the deep love of God… the mercy shown to you by Christ… the tenderness of God… the compassion of the Divine… and I know that you do    then please, make my joy complete by being of the same mind… by having a total inward attitude that strives for only one thing… be of one accord… be bound together by an single-minded loyalty to one objective:  that of having the mind that was in Christ Jesus. 

Jesus was God… but he did not exploit that.  He did nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.  But, instead, in total humility, he gave himself over to unquestioning obedience to God.   Was this a radical concept in Paul’s day?    Yes, it was.    In fact, the concept was so radical that the Greek word for “humility”… found in verse 3… has no recorded usage in the Greek language before Paul used it here in this letter.  And, in the Greek, what does it mean?    It means having the mentality of a slave… being totally unfit, totally unworthy, and of no account at all.    A slave exists solely and totally to serve his or her master.  There is no other reason for living.    And here, Paul tells us that we are… in humility… to regard others as better than ourselves… to look not to our own interests, but only to the interests of others… serving God by serving them. 

Many of you know that I participated in the Tarleton Challenge Ropes Course for my orientation to the Leadership Stephenville class.  When my fourteen classmates and I met on the course at 8:15 AM Thursday morning, we did not know each other at all.  Yet, each of us was in a position of leadership in the arena in which we worked.  The series of exercises that we went through communicated two key messages to us that day.  The first was that, if we were surrounded by a supportive team, we, as individuals, could achieve much more than we thought we were capable of achieving.  The second was that, as a team working together, we could achieve much more than any individual was capable of achieving on his own.    For those of you who saw the Friday edition of the Empire-Tribune… Yes, I did climb the telephone pole… stand on top of it… and jump off of it to catch the trapeze that was just out of reach.    But I would not have done so without the fourteen people standing on the ground… shouting words of encouragement and instruction to me… and giving me the freedom to risk something totally new.     And, without the planning and commitment of the entire team, we could not have gotten the entire team through the “Spider Web” to the other side without upsetting “Ralph,” the biggest, meanest spider I have ever seen. 

By the end of the day, that group of strangers had bonded together in a commitment to each other and to Leadership Stephenville in a way that escapes most of us as we make our way through life.    We may all be going the same direction.  We may all have the same objective.  But are we of the same mind?    Are we willing to give up our own selfish ambition to help someone else move forward?    Can we empty ourselves and take on the mind of Christ… the total obedience… the total humility… the servitude that was Christ’s essential nature?    You see, Christ was not just acting as a slave… going through the motions to please someone, namely God.  The Greek makes it clear through the word that Paul used for “form” that this was not just the outward appearance, but the total essential nature of Christ… a form which totally and fully expressed to the world the being of Christ.    This is what it means to be a Christian.    This is what it means to have a new life in Christ.    This is the totality of change that baptism brings… radical change… to a completely new life… where service to our fellow man or woman is service to God… where service to God means total obedience to the will and the work of God… with no thought… no hint… no whisper… of our own desires and ambitions. 

Because Christ did this for us, God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name… that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, in heaven… and on earth and under the earth… and every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.    But again, Paul chooses words that push these simple phrases to their ultimate expression.    What Paul meant here was that at the mere whisper… of a hint…  of the mention… of the name of Jesus, all of creation would fall to its knees in awe and reverence… unable to remain standing in the presence of the mere thought of his glory.    And every tongue… whether that of angels… or demons… or human beings… would be compelled to profess the lordship of Christ… unable to resist doing so… from their own deep conviction of the truth. 

“Jesus is Lord” is the first known baptismal confession of the early church and this place in Paul’s epistle is the earliest known record of it. “Jesus is Lord” is the only confession required of those who are baptized in the Christian faith, regardless of their denomination, throughout the world.  In a few minutes, Sarah Darby will make this profession of faith in her own baptism…and, for the rest of her life, she will struggle to understand what it truly means.  Paul has captured it in a nutshell in his letter to the Philippians, but that does not mean that it is any easier to achieve that objective.  Paul tells us that we, as a Christian community, must help each other achieve this seemingly impossible goal of having the mind of Christ Jesus.    I know that I cannot do it myself, without your help… that Sarah cannot do it without your help… that all of us need each other to achieve this goal.    If we will all do that, then God will work within us and enable us to will and to work for his good pleasure.  Amen.

Philippians 2:1-13, Ezekiel 36:23-28