163. Year A - Palm Sunday - Philippians 2:1-11 - "Radical Obedience"

Pulpit Notes

Note: the spoken version of this message diverged quite a bit from the text that I brought with me to the pulpit.

Today is Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday. Deep into Lent, we are boring into core Christian teachings. Who is Jesus? Who are we as Christians?

The text we have in front of us is thought to be an early Christian hymn that Paul is using to make a point, likely because of its familiarity with the Philippian church.

The English here in the NIV smooths out the language here in verse five, but in so doing obscures the point that Paul wants to make.

It reads literally: “Let this mind be in you which also in Christ Jesus.”

We have talked a lot about this fundamental Pauline concept of being “in Christ.” Salvation happens “in Christ.” We have been taken from “the world” and are now “in Christ.” In Christ we are a new creation. In Christ we are raised from the dead.

But as we have learned, we don’t yet fully experience this reality today. A big part of the core of our faith is believing in this reality, that “in Christ” we are all these things.

We know that until Christ returns this new reality remains hidden “in Christ.” This is why we lift our attention to heaven to where Christ sits at the right hand of God.

In the way that Paul lays out his opening sentence here, what he is telling us is how to make this “in Christ” reality something that is revealed in our lives and the life of our community.

Interestingly, the “in you” here is actually the plural form. What Paul is saying is that revealing Christ in our lives in not something we do individually, although we all participate as persons. But this is something we do as a community.

So, Paul is teaching us that our mind, our thinking, our attitudes, our actions should reflect what is “in Christ.” Our mind is Christ’s mind. What is in you, among you, should be what is in Christ.

So, what is “in Christ”?

We have talked about this as a change in being, of our essence. We have gone from a space where our essential being is “of the world” to one where we are now “in Christ.” We believe, a core part of our faith is that this transformation has taken place, even if now this new essence is hidden “in Christ.” What is this essence? What does it mean to be “in Christ” to be a new creation, to be the body of Christ?

It is easy to read the opening of the hymn and place the emphasis on the fact that the Son of God gave up his equality with God the Father to empty himself to become a servant to humanity to sacrifice himself for us, and if we combine this with Paul’s urgings in the first five verses that we should do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit and that would should consider others as better than ourselves as us being urged to be pushovers, or weak, or to put ourselves and the church at the mercy of bad actors would take advantage of all of this.

This is not a call for weakness, but rather one of radical obedience to God the Father. We choose to be gentle not because we are weak, but because we are obedient.

We are not the people who get walked all over. We are not a people who get taken advantage of. We don’t let bad actors take us for a ride.

We can take a stand and hold our ground. We can say no. We can say, we don’t do that here. We can tell the truth about the reality of sin. We don’t have to ignore sin or bad behaviour. We can tell the truth. We can draw lines in the sand. We can hold each other accountable.

Jesus did all of these things and they put him to death for it.

The reality that Paul is talking about here is not one of being weak or giving excuse for passivity or to justify Christians being pushovers.

In reality, this thing that Paul is calling us to is one of tremendous strength and discipline.

What he is calling us to is a life of radical obedience.

So here is how it works.

You live in community. What do you pursue? Do you pursue what you want, what your plans are, what your ambitions are? Are you thinking about how other people need to be meeting your needs and accommodating you in what you want?

Is it all about the respect you deserve? The recognition you deserve? Is it about people acknowledging how much you do around here? Is it about people noticing what you are going through and asking you about what you need? Is it about being upset because no one acknowledges you and your situation?

You get the idea. It is not about you. It’s not about me.

It’s even not about what I want for the church. And it is certainly not about trying to manipulate people by tugging on their willingness to sacrifice so that you can push your agenda on to people as if your plan, your vision for the church as if it is God’s vision.

This is radical.

It also means that because this is a communal thing, that when the Spirit of Christ is truly living in us and we are practicing the kind of radical obedience to God that Jesus did, that we can also call people to account for their bad behaviour, just as Paul is doing here in the previous five verses.

It is ok to put our collective foot down and say, “This is not how we do things here. We are “in Christ.” We can be firm and bold about this.

Jesus was so radically obedient to the agenda of God that he was willing to set aside his position as second person of the Trinity, become human, and live among us, and die for us.

How badly are you going to push your agenda? How important is it that you be “the man” at the church, calling all the shots. For example, it might even be the pastor who is wanting to push institutional growth at the expense of the spiritual discipling of the people because it makes him look good at pastors’ meetings or when he is out with other professionals of similar education. He can show off his growing church. He can show off his “compassionate” church that is a shining beacon of “social justice.” But in the end, its all about the ambitions of the pastor.

The church is not a place for my ambitions, for my personal gain, or my personal power, or yours. The church is about radical obedience to what God wants. Primarily, that is revealed in the cross, the day-to-day sacrifices we make. Sacrifices that are made consciously and purposefully so as to keep the community unified around what God is doing, his work in, around and through this congregation.

Ours is not primarily an abstract faith. It is not about theological ideas. It’s not about turning Christian teaching into a set of plans and policies, making it into an ideology. Ours is a faith that is lived. Ours is a faith that is made real in how we act, how we carry ourselves. Do we share the kind of radical obedience that Jesus had, where it was more important to the Son that he obey the Father than he maintains his position as the second person of the Trinity.

This is the narrow path. This is what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus. This is what dying to ourselves so that we can live to Christ is all about. This is key part of who we are “in Christ.” We fixate ourselves on Christ and we reveal in our actions who we are in him. It is not about us. It is about Christ living in us.

The promise of our faith is that in dying we will also be raised again. We are not, like Jesus, going to be seated at the right of God with the nations bowing before us. We don’t sacrifice our ambitions transactionally planning even as we make the sacrifices the kinds of rewards we expect from God. This is not a tool for career or social advancement.

We sacrifice ourselves in radical obedience to God, putting the ambitions of God for this community ahead of our own, putting the work of God ahead of our own status or importance within the body of Christ, without any expectations of being elevated or rewarded for our sacrifices.

This is the desert. Will you serve God obediently even though you get no reward for it? Even when no one says thank you? Even when no one nominates you for elder? Will you still obey in the way that Christ obeyed?

Even with Jesus, it was not Jesus who exalted himself. It was God who lifted up his Son in obedience and gave him the highest of all places. The Father mad his Son Lord of all because of his obedience.

Only God exults.

So, we wait on God. In obedience. Putting others and the work of Christ in the community ahead of ourselves. And we rely on God to lift us up and fill us up.

Here is the thing. If everyone is doing this within the body of believers, I am pretty sure that that the needs we have will be met. And it is ok to acknowledge that we have needs. It’s also good to sacrifice ourselves and those needs and look out not just for our interests but for the interests of others. It is this sense of sacrifice, spread out and made real in the lives of believers that reveals Christ and who we are in Christ to each other and to the world.

This is the question that Paul leaves with us as we enter Easter week. Are we willing to be like Christ? Are we willing to reveal in ourselves, what is in Christ?

How far are we willing to go to be like Christ Jesus? How obedient are we willing to be?

Are we willing to have within ourselves, in our minds, in our actions, in our attitudes, to have the same mind as Christ?

Paul tells us that we are “in Christ.” So let us show it by having the same mind as Christ Jesus.

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