Sermon notes and ideas from a reading for Palm Sunday
Philippians 2:11 “and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
One of the vivid recollections in my mind of the Gulf war, way back then, is a cartoon in the UK Daily Mail. It was a picture of two missiles one just fractionally ahead of the other. On the leading missile were the words “USA” on the second missile the words “CBN News.” We live in an age were no matter where in the world events are happening, someone will endeavour to take a video and flash it around the world. One of the problems with that is it makes it easy to fail to take in the significance of the events. We view murder and mayhem on our TV screens and just keep on eating our evening meal as if it was just a picture no different from a movie or our favourite TV show.
All of us live in a world where the edges are getting blurred and it is harder now than ever before to discern what is true and what is not; what is fact and what is fiction. As this is being written almost the whole world is in “lock down”. On the one hand we are being told that humanity is facing a grave threat that puts millions at risk: But other voices are saying our leaders are over reacting and indeed some are even ignoring the demands to stay in isolation.
The situation reminds me of a phrase from Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes. Judges 17:6 6 There are times in life when we need to not only listen and trust the voice of our leaders but we also need to obey what they are saying. ‘cause sometimes they have better information than we do!
But back to our reading!
Paul despite his great theological treatises in Romans writes letters to the churches which are practical and grounded in facts. In his letters he tries to give practical advice and a clear understanding of the message of Jesus.
It’s an old joke but bear with me!
Graffiti found on a wall of St. John’s University: Jesus said unto them: “Who do you say that I am?”
And they replied: “You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of our interpersonal relationships.”
And Jesus said: “What?”
So the passage which we read in Philippians is not an abstract, metaphysical ideal but an observation which tells us exactly who Jesus is and how we should relate to him. That information needs to be applied immediately: So Paul is urging to think seriously about who Jesus is and what he has accomplished.
Paul says, from verse 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.. Philippians 2:5-11
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus; The point being that Paul is calling for his people to have a collective understanding. Think together all that Jesus accomplished. Together we come and recognise both who he is and what he has done. Paul says have this mind together. It is not that he came in one way for one and another way for others: As if some were given special privileges while others missed out. Thinking together means we have a common mind about who Jesus is and what he has done and as such we cooperate with one another for we see ourselves as all being equal. We move forward together: As Christians we are on a journey together not on a competition, competing against one another.
Thinking together we recognise that Jesus came as servant to all. His position was equal with God but all this he put aside and became a man. Jesus wasn’t a god with a human outer shell. He was fully God but this he stepped away from and became as fully human as you or I. As a human he came to be a servant to serve. In that service Jesus gave up himself to death on the cross.
ericjkirkham.com 