Proper
21-A 2014
Father Adam Trambley
Sept 28, 2014 St.John’s Sharon
From Philippians this morning: Have the same mind as Christ
Jesus. He was up in heaven having a
glorious time, but didn’t feel like he was entitled to that existence. Instead he humbled himself to come down to
earth, to be born like us, to live like us, and even to be crucified and die
like us. Saint Paul exhorts us to do
pretty much the same, although we really can’t claim to start up there as equal
with God the way Jesus did.
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| Heaven has better pyro-technics. |
Christ’s willingness to come down from heaven to be fully
part of humanity is the ultimate act of loving humility in the universe. Christ Jesus is God, in the form of God,
equal with God, living what we assume to be the pretty amazing life that God
lives because, if you’re God, you probably set things up in the universe so your
life is pretty spectacular. All the
scriptural visions of heaven are filled with choirs and incense and color and
fire and all sorts of beautiful, amazing experiences worthy of the Almighty –
things that make the Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular seem like a toddler with a
Fisher-Price piano and a Lite-Brite.
Christ had all of that radiance surrounding him, for eternity if he
wants it, but he doesn’t need to keep it.
He doesn’t feel like he has to hold onto it or make some sort of
guarantee to always have it. He
willingly sets it all aside to be with us, so that we have a chance to
experience that heavenly life someday, too.
Instead of deciding that he is God and all the glory is for him, he
decides that he would rather give it away to us – to you, and to you, and to
you, and to you, and to me. That amazing
gift of not only to his heavenly position but also of his very life was made to
people that we know don’t measure up to Jesus, but who were considered by Jesus
important enough to give it all up for.
That humble, self-giving love of Jesus is what we are called as
Christians to follow.
Paul gives a couple of guidelines about how we are supposed
to live this life. He says not to look
to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Instead of being constantly obsessed with all
of our particular worries and anxieties, we are supposed to pay attention to
the needs of others. As Christians, we
put others first and trust that we will get what we need from God.
Then Paul says something that turns our prevailing attitude
on its head. He says, “in humility
regard others as better than yourselves.”
He doesn’t necessary say others are better than we are. He says don’t worry about whether someone
else is better or worse, just treat them like they are better than we are. Act toward others like we believe that they
are more important to us than even we are to ourselves. Take the time to really listen to them. Make sure they have what they need if there
is any way we can provide it. See to
their comfort and convenience in the little things in life instead of demanding
they bend their comforts to our own.
Think about how Jesus acted in coming down from heaven to us. He acted as if we were more worthy of
receiving his life than he was worthy of keeping it. We weren’t more worthy, of course, but he
acted like it, and in receiving his life he actually made us worthy of it.
The monks tell a story about a monastery that was beset by
conflict, fighting and dissention.
Nobody new was joining and nobody, including the monks, really felt like
anything holy was going on there. Then
one day some of them went to visit a wise rabbi on the other side of the
forest. The rabbi said, “I’ll tell you a
secret. One of you is the Messiah.” Now telling a bunch of Christian monks that
one of them was the Messiah is a bit ridiculous since they knew Jesus was the
Messiah, but the monks thought that maybe God had something special in store
for them. So each of them starting
thinking about just who might be the Messiah.
Brother Robert seemed like a good candidate – he was quite, hard-working
and prayerful. But Brother John was
wise. Then Brother Aelred was so
difficult that it seemed impossible for God to do anything useful with him,
which was the kind of person who would probably turn out to be the
Messiah. Pretty soon, the brothers all
started treating each other as if any of them just might be the Messiah. They regarded everyone else as better than
themselves. Pretty soon the quality of
their community life became so profoundly loving that amazing things began to
happen and Jesus the Messiah really did show up in their midst constantly.
In humility regard others as better than yourselves and look
not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. When we live into this calling in our lives,
the quality of our relationships and communities change, just like they did for
the monks in this parable. If we treat
our spouses and family members as better than ourselves, if we treat our
co-workers or our fellow students as better, if we treat our church members as
better, if we treat the people in the other cars on the road as better, if we
treat people we don’t even really know as better, amazing things will happen
around us. Such willingness to love and
serve others is hard, which is why we usually don’t bother to do it. But we are called to nothing less. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ
Jesus.
But Christ didn’t stop with just serving. He emptied himself, taking the form of a
slave, humbling himself even to death. He
gave it all away. Such sacrifice may
seem excessive, and even impossible to us, so I want to share two examples of
this kind of loving obedience unto death.
The first is Constance, who along with her companions are
called the Martyrs of Memphis. If you
come to the Thursday morning services, you know about her because I always
celebrate her feast around September 9th. Constance was an Episcopal nun in 1878 when a
Yellow Fever epidemic hit Memphis, Tennessee.
She was the superior of the Sisters of St. Mary who had come to Memphis
five years earlier to found a girls’ school adjacent to the Cathedral. When the epidemic began, Sister Constance and
the Cathedral Dean immediately organized relief work in their area, which was one
of the most infected regions of the city.
Instead of looking to their own interests and fleeing to safety,
Constance and six of her sisters, as well as priests, doctors and volunteers
from Memphis, Boston and New York stayed to minister to the victims. All but two of the volunteers came down with
yellow fever, and Constance and five others died. Throughout Memphis, 30,000 people fled and
of the 20,000 who remained, more than 5,000 died. Constance did not see her own position and
connections in other places as something to be exploited. Instead she emptied herself serving the least
of Christ’s brothers and sisters, obedient to the point of death. Similar love is being shown by African
doctors and nurses treating Ebola patients today.
A second contemporary example is a Syrian Christian woman
named Liena, whose story is told by Voice
of the Martyrs. As many of you know,
the current violence in Syria is of particular danger to Christians, with many
being persecuted or killed for their beliefs. Before the current civil war,
Liena and her family had been praying for revival in Syria, their home. When the war started, their Islamic neighbors
apologized for the evil acts of the terrorists toward Christians, and Liena and
her family had opportunities to share Jesus with them. She and her husband had great love for their
Muslim brothers and sisters that lived around them. In prayer, she asked God what he would have
her do to be his witness in Syria to these people that she loved so much. Over a series of days in prayer, God asked
her if she could give him her life and the lives of her husband and
children. With great prayer and fasting,
she and her husband knew they had to be able to offer themselves and even God’s
great gift of their children back to God.
The terrorist already knew who they were. They knew that Liena’s family shared the
Gospel with people. Her family was in
danger. But Liena and her husband
decided they had to stay and do God’s work, refusing opportunities to escape to
the safety of Western countries. They
had to talk to their children about what to do if they were attacked: to be
quiet and not say anything except to tell the terrorists that Jesus loved them
and that any pain would be short-lived and then they would be with Jesus
forever. Liena and her husband and
children have emptied themselves and are obedient, even unto death, although we
all pray it will not come to that. But
the same mind is in them that was in Christ Jesus, looking not for their own
interests but for the eternal interests of those around them and to the
interests of future generations who need a holy homeland in Syria and not a
country handed over to terrorists. They do not regard their privileges and
connections to the West as things to be exploited, but to be turned over to God
– and we trust God will exalt them in God’s good time.
We at St. John’s this morning face neither terroristic
persecution nor fatal epidemics -- thank you, Jesus. But we are called as individuals and as a
church to be of the same mind that was in Christ and empty ourselves for one
another. Most of the good things that
have happened at St. John’s over the past 150 years have occurred when, instead
of ensuring we preserve the church for us, we have opened it and given it away
to others that have needed it. As a
parish, we pray that we will have the wisdom and courage to keep looking to the
interests of others, having the mind of Jesus to will and to work for his good
pleasure. Then, as we practice emptying
ourselves as a church, we are better able to support one another as we as
individuals humbly regard others as better than ourselves, and live into
sometimes difficult and even dangerous consequences of such discipleship.
Of course, these consequences are not the final
consequences. Paul writes:
Therefore God also highly exalted him…
So that at the name of Jesus
Every knee should bend in heaven, on earth and under the
earth,
And every tongue confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord
To the glory of God the Father.
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