Putting on the Mind of Christ
It’s too bad that over the course of our 3-year lectionary cycle, the only Sunday when today’s passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians is assigned to us is Passion Sunday. This passage is one of the most well-known and most beloved in all of the New Testament, and for good reason. But given that it is paired with the Passion Gospel – and only on every 3rd year – we rarely if ever get to hear a sermon on Philippians 2. And that’s a shame, because in this passage, Paul lays out for us the character of Jesus that we are called to imitate.
The Rev’d Barbara Brown Taylor remarks that on Passion Sunday, if you want the full details of Jesus’ arrest, arraignment, torture, and death, see today’s Gospel lesson. But if you want to see the mind of Christ – the attitude that determined Jesus’ actions every day of his life, including the last day, see today’s epistle lesson. See Philippians 2.
Taylor points out that the first half of the passage is full of verbs describing the actions of Jesus. He:
· Emptied himself
· Took the form of a slave
· Humbled himself
· Became obedient
And these actions were not random or spontaneous. Taylor reminds us that they arose from the Christ-mind – the way he saw himself in relationship to God and to the world. Paul articulates this in verse 5 when he says, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
I think that what Paul is getting at isn’t a call to have the same intellectual capacity as Jesus. But rather, Taylor sees it as the “total evacuation of the ego so that there would be room for God to dwell and act.” She then goes on to observe that the verbs that we looked at in the first half of the passage – emptied, humbled, took form of slave, became obedient – all belong to Jesus. But the first verbs in the second half of the passage all belong to God the Father. God was able to act - to highly exalt Jesus and give him the name that is above every name – because Jesus made room for God to act. Jesus made himself an empty vessel so that he could be filled with and by his Father in heaven. As such, when Jesus acted, it was God who was acting in and through him.
So when we read and hear the horrific story of Christ’s passion and death, we are better able to make sense of it if we have Paul’s observations to guide us. The Gospel lessons that we hear today and for the remainder of Holy Week all point to a Christ who emptied and humbled himself so that God could dwell and act within him. We will experience this self-emptying on Maundy Thursday when Jesus washes the feet of his disciples and institutes the Last Supper. And we will see it again on Good Friday. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he is trying to help them – and us – make sense of Jesus’ scandalously self-emptying life, death, and resurrection.
During this season of Lent, we have been practicing this discipline of Christ like self-emptying – we have been putting on the mind of Christ in various ways.
· Joy in Confession Group: This group has been meeting on Wednesdays for Noonday Prayer and then reading and discussing the book “Joy in Confession: Reclaiming Sacramental Reconciliation.” Much of this book focuses on how through the sacrament of reconciliation, we are invited to engage in the process of emptying ourselves of any shame or guilt we are carrying, so that we can make room for God’s reconciling love in Jesus Christ. Of course, God is active and present in the emptying process as well. But the fruit of redemption always involves the good work of emptying of ourselves of the old so that we can make room for the new creation in Christ Jesus.
· Centering Prayer Group: On Thursdays, our Centering Prayer group has been wrestling with the challenge of emptying our busy, thought-filled minds during the 20-minute period of Centering Prayer. The goal of this ancient prayer form is to discipline ourselves to empty ourselves of our numerous thoughts that clutter our minds, so that we can make room for God to dwell within us. As God occupies that space in our own selves, we begin to bear the fruit of a God-filled self, and we share that with others.
· Youth 30 Hour Famine: This weekend, our 5th-12 graders engaged in a literal act of self-emptying. Beginning Friday afternoon, they came to the church for a 30-Hour Famine lock-in. They fasted from food for 30 Hours while they learned about hunger and poverty throughout the world. On Saturday, they cleaned up the exterior grounds of the Senior Center in our neighborhood, and then they volunteered at another neighboring non-profit. So our teenagers are modeling for us self-sacrificing love for others.
These practices are ways that we can begin to allow God to work on, in, and through us. I pointed out earlier that the verbs in verses 5-8 belong to Jesus, and the verbs in verse 9 belong to God. But note that in verses 10 and 11, the verbs don’t belong to Jesus or God…they belong to us. When we empty ourselves as Christ did, and make room for God to dwell within us, we don’t merely become passive recipients of God’s work. We become God’s work in the world around us. We become so filled with God that in all that we are and all that we do, we are initiating and reflecting the mind of Christ. And as such, “at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend on heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Thanks be to God!