Philippians 2:5-11
Servanthood, Jesus as the example, why is Paul raising all of this up. You have to read the verses just before this and after to understand this. This section is known to be an early hymn or creed of the church. It was to remind them, just as it should remind us what it means to be servants, what it means to be Christian, what it means to work on our own faith.
Just before this Paul is admonishing the community in Philippi to have the same mind of mind to complete his joy, their joy in being a community. He also warns them about doing things from selfish ambition, not looking towards our own interests, but the interests of the whole community. Then we have this. The example of surrender, the example of looking out for everyone but himself, Christ. Servanthood in this way is a total giving over to God our own wants and needs and looking out for everyone else.
In the book A Tangled Mercy the author Joy Jordan-Lake takes two communities and weaves the story of healing together. A past historic hurt has driven the community towards a hurt so big it cannot heal until the other is recognized and dealt with. It's a story of looking for the best for a community as a whole and not looking for our own way, our own answers, or our own wants. The only way for the community to come together is in exploring the hard past of slavery, lynching and race. This means surrendering our own wants and desires for the goodness of the whole.
More than ever we need to be reminded of this quality within us to knit together something stronger. We have become so enamored with the idea of the single individual working out their own wants and needs we forget Christianity was never this way. The first communities described to us in Acts surrendered everything to be held in common for the community as a whole. All was given to remind one another they were dependent upon someone higher than they.
We are not the be and end all. We are only one part, one speck, of a whole. This week much has been made of the finding of a black hole and photographing it. There also has been much made of the woman, Dr. Katie Bauman, the thing is as you read the article it wasn't her alone who made this happen, she had a team of people. Not much has been made of this team and its not wrong to lift up this individual who worked hard and made strides for women scientists, still we do nothing totally on our own.
This is the example Christianity should be. Today we follow a crowd, a crowd which will soon condemn Jesus. Still Jesus healed the servants ear in the Garden of Gethsemane, and still others we encounter through legend and scripture helped Jesus on his way to the cross. Simon of Cyrene, who carries the cross; Veronica, who wipes his face, the women and John who stand by and watch, waiting to claim the body. All this community serving one another in the face of death from Rome, siding with the one who was being crucified, Jesus.
We don't get our own way if we are truly working out our own faith, with fear and trembling, as Paul puts it. We don't force our own way. We serve again and again. We serve and sacrifice for the community's well being, for the good of the whole and not of ourselves. Its a lesson we need to learn, a lesson the early church clung to as so different from the world around it. A witness that changes the lives of the whole and brings healing and love,
Servanthood, Jesus as the example, why is Paul raising all of this up. You have to read the verses just before this and after to understand this. This section is known to be an early hymn or creed of the church. It was to remind them, just as it should remind us what it means to be servants, what it means to be Christian, what it means to work on our own faith.
Just before this Paul is admonishing the community in Philippi to have the same mind of mind to complete his joy, their joy in being a community. He also warns them about doing things from selfish ambition, not looking towards our own interests, but the interests of the whole community. Then we have this. The example of surrender, the example of looking out for everyone but himself, Christ. Servanthood in this way is a total giving over to God our own wants and needs and looking out for everyone else.
In the book A Tangled Mercy the author Joy Jordan-Lake takes two communities and weaves the story of healing together. A past historic hurt has driven the community towards a hurt so big it cannot heal until the other is recognized and dealt with. It's a story of looking for the best for a community as a whole and not looking for our own way, our own answers, or our own wants. The only way for the community to come together is in exploring the hard past of slavery, lynching and race. This means surrendering our own wants and desires for the goodness of the whole.
More than ever we need to be reminded of this quality within us to knit together something stronger. We have become so enamored with the idea of the single individual working out their own wants and needs we forget Christianity was never this way. The first communities described to us in Acts surrendered everything to be held in common for the community as a whole. All was given to remind one another they were dependent upon someone higher than they.
We are not the be and end all. We are only one part, one speck, of a whole. This week much has been made of the finding of a black hole and photographing it. There also has been much made of the woman, Dr. Katie Bauman, the thing is as you read the article it wasn't her alone who made this happen, she had a team of people. Not much has been made of this team and its not wrong to lift up this individual who worked hard and made strides for women scientists, still we do nothing totally on our own.
This is the example Christianity should be. Today we follow a crowd, a crowd which will soon condemn Jesus. Still Jesus healed the servants ear in the Garden of Gethsemane, and still others we encounter through legend and scripture helped Jesus on his way to the cross. Simon of Cyrene, who carries the cross; Veronica, who wipes his face, the women and John who stand by and watch, waiting to claim the body. All this community serving one another in the face of death from Rome, siding with the one who was being crucified, Jesus.
We don't get our own way if we are truly working out our own faith, with fear and trembling, as Paul puts it. We don't force our own way. We serve again and again. We serve and sacrifice for the community's well being, for the good of the whole and not of ourselves. Its a lesson we need to learn, a lesson the early church clung to as so different from the world around it. A witness that changes the lives of the whole and brings healing and love,
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