Monday, April 10, 2017

Palm Sunday 2017 (with photos) -- Philippians 2:5-11

Palm Sunday A 2017
Isaiah 50; Phil 2:5-11; Matthew’s Passion
                                                           Rev. Adam T. Trambley                                  
April 9, 2017, St. John’s Sharon

In the reading this morning from Philippians, Paul tells us to think like Jesus. Specifically, Paul is taking about how Jesus was willing to empty himself of the power and privileges we imagine he had as God to become a human being. Paul writes that though he was in the form of God, [he] did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness…and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.  We read this passage from Philippians with our Passion narrative today because Jesus’ entire passion and death speak of his refusal to stay aloof in heaven, but instead to come down and do whatever is necessary to reconcile us back to God.

I want to look particularly at the line, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.  The passion has very little to do with the qualities most associated with God, especially in the ancient world.  We often think of God as all-powerful, invincible, the head of armies of supernatural angels or other beings.  We see in our gospel how Jesus refuses to take advantage of that kind of divine power to save himself. 

While he is in the garden being arrested, one of his followers pulls out a sword and attacks a slave of the high priest.  Jesus says that he could have twelve legions of angels if he wanted them.  But he doesn’t call for them. 

When he is being interrogated by the high priest, Jesus says that they will see him on the right hand of God and coming on the clouds of heaven.  But at that moment, Jesus doesn’t wow them with rhetorical brilliance, or perform miracles, or do any other signs or wonders that might secure his release.  He remains silent before the many accusations made by the chief priests and by Pilate. 

Later, while hanging on the cross, bystanders mock him.  They note that he did miracles to save others, and he should be able to save himself.  If he could raise Lazarus from the dead, he should be able to get himself off the cross and heal his wounds.  But he doesn’t.  He doesn’t even surround himself with a happy glow, or use some sort of divine meditation technique to remove any feelings of pain or suffering.  He doesn’t exploit his equality with God even to feel God’s presence surrounding him in his death.  Instead he cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.  In all things, Jesus has refused to take advantage of or exploit his status as Son of God in order to make things easier for himself.  Instead, he has given up everything, so that when we too die, we can remain reconciled to the God of life. 

Paul may be talking about something even beyond the personal choices that Jesus is making, however.  When he says that Jesus didn’t regard equality with God as a thing to be exploited, maybe he didn’t mean only that Jesus decided he wasn’t going to do it.  Maybe he also meant that Jesus knew that equality with God wasn’t something that it was possible to exploit.  My colleague in North East, Pastor Carol Carlson, talks about this understanding.  Maybe being God isn’t really about smiting folks or ordering hosts of angels around.  Maybe a crucial component of being equal with God is about letting go of anything except an all-consuming love of God and neighbor.  What Paul is trying to tell us is that we can’t possibly understand what God is really about if we don’t understand that Jesus exhibited his equality with God by loving God enough to be obedient and by loving us enough to die to reconcile us back to God.  Maybe what makes God God is love, and that the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-everything are just incidental characteristics.  Too often we think that being God is all-everything, and we’re lucky that God is also love, but I think that’s backwards.  Jesus didn’t regard equality with God as something to be exploited because equality with God is about loving like God, and once you start taking advantage and exploiting, you’ve stopped loving.

Think about God hanging out as Trinity before the creation of the universe.  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit just existing in love.  Then they have a longing.  They want to create a universe to love.  Certainly, not having a universe would be a whole lot less trouble.  Fewer prayer requests, no betrayal and intrigue with Lucifer, avoid the whole crucifixion piece.  Nevertheless, we hear, “Let there be light…let there be dry land and animals and birds and fish and creepy crawly things…and let us make humanity in our image and likeness.”  Out of that initial decision to love, God ends up having to go through all kinds of other actions throughout history that also exhibit love.  We see the covenant with Abraham, the saving of Israel through the Red Sea and bringing them the long way into the promised land, the exile in Babylon and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and, most powerfully of all, the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, teaching and healing, and eventually dying so he can rise again. 

I think there are some parallels with parenting here.  Studies repeatedly show that parents without children are happier.  They have fewer stresses, less financial pressure, more sleep, more freedom, and more time for each other and themselves.  Yet, people decide to have children, and even yearn for that opportunity, sometimes going to great lengths for fertility treatments or adoptions.  As a result, they get more difficulties, more sleepless nights, less financial stability, and more suffering, as they suffer when their children suffer even more then when they themselves suffer.  More importantly, they also develop more love.  Children, at least in my experience, have a way of drawing love out you that you never knew you had.  They call forth willing sacrifices that you never knew you could make.  Even if the kids do some chores now and then, there is nothing about real parenting that involves something to be exploited.  There is only a call to ever-increasing opportunities to love. 

This same attitude is exactly what we see in the life of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.  When Jesus teaches us to call God, “Our Father,” he wants us to see God as that incredibly loving parent.  When Jesus looks at Jerusalem and compares himself to a mother who wants to sweep together all his beloved children and protect them, he is sharing that he sees himself as our loving parent, as well.  We shouldn’t really be surprised by Jesus’ willingness to undergo whatever suffering is necessary, even this extraordinary painful and horrible death, in order to offer us reconciliation, healing and new life.  This kind of love is what parents always want to show their children.  Most of us fall short because we aren’t Jesus, but we would want to go to those lengths if necessary.  Jesus, through whom all things came to be and in whom we live and move and have our being, exhibits that kind of love for us because that is precisely what equality with God is about.  As God, Jesus is able to love fully and completely, and he chooses to do just that for us through his passion, death and resurrection.
 
Paul says that we should have that same mind as Jesus, meaning we should strive to love one another as Jesus loved us.  We should strive to be like God, and God is about love.  We don’t need to be parents to have this kind of love, and, in fact, God is calling us to this kind of amazing sacrificial love for each other even when we don’t have family or other ties.  We love one another because that is how we become like God. 

Paul ends this section by saying that God highly exalted Jesus for his sacrifice and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.  Since loving is the defining characteristic of God, then Jesus’ ultimate act of love resulted in him being exalted as God and Lord above everything else.  As we share in Christ’s love through our own acts, we, too, grow more deeply into the life of God and we can rest assured of a place with our Father in heaven.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.


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