Philippians 2:1-13
Last
week we began to look at the book of Philippians. The opening section of the
book underlines the importance of the Christian community. The book of Acts
shows us how a small group of believers were sent into the world by the Holy Spirit,
scattering to the winds like a dandelion puff, planting Churches across the
known world. The rest of the book of the Bible are letters written to those
Churches, expected to be read in Churches, by churches, giving instructions to
them about how to be the Church.
Paul
begins his letter by telling the Church in Philippi that he is thankful for
them, that he thanks God for them every time he prays (which Paul tells us
elsewhere is “continually”). He thankful for the way they share the gospel,
live in Christ like ways and for the help and support they are giving to him
and his ministry. And we ended our time together practicing being thankful for
one another sharing the ways we are thankful people in this congregation and
writing thank you notes to one another, which we sent out this week.
Paul’s
understands the Christian life as a life lived in community, and that community
is necessarily the Church. The Church, among many things, is a community in
which each person who belongs to that community lives completely for others. Paul speaks of a life in which a person is
continually emptying themselves out, pouring their being out for the good of
others and for the sharing and spreading of the Gospel. It is a life which his marked by the belief that
even as you give all of yourself to the good, support and strengthening of
others, they in turn will live their lives in a similar fashion. An emptying knowing that you will in turn be
filled. It is a life of abandon and trust, trust that if you empty yourself
out, you will be filled by one who is likewise living this emptying life.
We
have all met that person. You know the
person, the one who knows exactly how much they are worth and how much they
expect out of those around them. The
person who walks through this world believing the rest of the world is there to
serve them. They are the person who,
when at a coffee shop, gets upset when the line is not moving fast enough, they
don’t get their drink as immediately as they would like or doesn’t understand
why the person who is making drinks for other people doesn’t stop right this
very second and fill their bottle with water instead of waiting for others to
get the drinks they paid for first. On
the road they are the person who gets in the empty right turn lane to speed forward
and then cut over into the left turn lane so they don’t have to wait behind all
the other cars making a left turn. In a
line they are the one trying to push to the front. In the workplace they are the one who does
not understand why they do not get a promotion even when they are not working
hard or doing their job properly. They are
certain that the world is there for their pleasure, for their convenience, to
serve them. They will do whatever they
can do to push ahead and be on top; to be front and center for everything.
These
people pretty much live exactly the opposite to the life Paul calls for us to
live as Christians. The Christian life
is a life that is poured out for others, not one that continually pulling from
others and never giving back.
When
it comes to the lives we live, Paul tells us nothing would make his joy more
complete than if we all were of the same mind. His desire is for us to have the
same love. When it comes to matters of Christian living we are of one mind, we are
in one accord in that we live out of the abundance of the love we experience
through Jesus Christ. The one mind we
share, the one mind we all have, is the mind of none other than Jesus
Christ. We live with Christ’s mind
guiding us all. The love Christ exemplified through his life, death and
resurrection is the center of all of our lives, is the center of our community,
is the heart of the life we live.
Paul
then goes into detail about the self-emptying love which the life of Jesus
exemplified. Jesus gave up all that
rightfully belonged to him, he shed all his honor, all his glory all that was
his and laid it aside, for us. To live
life amongst us, to show us the Love of God, to give up everything, so that he
could be human and then in the end even gave that life up for us, for our
salvation, to draw humanity unto God, and into right relationship with God.
This
is our example of the mind WE should have, the sameness that we are to
incorporate into our communal life. We
are to be of one mind, and that mind is to be the mind of Christ. The life we live should exemplify and typify
the life of Christ. The love we have
should be none other than the love of Jesus Christ; a love that is continually
emptying itself out, being poured out for the sake of others, a love that gives
everything of value, everything of worth and floods out, so that there is a
tidal wave of love being poured out on all the others that inhabit the world
around.
Having
the mind of Christ means loving; it means that we love those around us with a phenomenal
love, with a love that is willing to reach inside and scoop out everything and
give it to those around us, trusting and knowing that the more we scoop the
more we empty ourselves the more we are filled.
If
we are all scooping, if we are all pouring then we are all being filled, no one
is ever empty, everyone always has abundance.
This is a beautiful picture, a picture of Christ emptying himself out,
pouring out all that he is, spilling his love into each and every one of us, and
us in turn then turning ourselves out onto others. Filling and being filling, of continually
being emptied and continually being filled.
The good life is a life where we don’t have to worry about ever being
empty. It is a life lived giving away
the love that we are receiving. All of
us receiving and giving and spilling and flooding the world around us, so that
no one is untouched, so that no one is empty, so that no one is left out. Living the life we are called to live is a
life lived in overflowing love, filled with the love of God, flooding our world
with that love. Loving each other,
loving our world, filling our world with all with which Christ is filling us.
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