A Sermon for Proper 21 A 2008

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

The Church in the town of Philippi in northeast Greece was one of St. Paul’s favorite congregations. He rejoiced in their affection for him and their support of his work. His letter to them is full of confidence abut their faithfulness to God and their life as a Christian community. Still, as with all the churches he writes to, Paul was concerned about the quality of their life as a congregation. Paul’s letters, always passionately theological, never separate theology from the actual life of the church to which he writes. Paul knew that the ways Christian live together is as much an expression of the Gospel as anything we might do or say in the name of Jesus. Indeed, the concrete life of Christian communities can be the clearest sign of the depth of their faithfulness to Christ. How people treat each other in the Church matters.

So Paul writes to the Philippians about the kind of communal life he wants to see in them:

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Paul clearly is interested in some sort of unity in the church at Philippi. But it is striking how hard he works to convey the point he is trying to make. He strings together words and phrases one after another as if by piling up expressions such as encouragement, consolation of love, sharing, compassion, sympathy, same mind, same love, being in full accord and of one mind he could somehow get across to his readers the richness of the kind of life he wants to encourage in the Church.

The unity he desires is rich indeed -- it includes the rational mind, the heart, the spirit and the soul. It has do with what the Philippians think and feel, of course, but even more with how they how they treat each other. It may challenge us to recognize that the unity Paul writes of is not primarily about agreeing with each other, but about loving each other. In today’s ideologically driven world, agreement if often thought to be the necessary condition of unity -- not so for Paul. The unity Paul desires is based not in agreement, but in love.

But what may still be harder for us to grasp is that Paul is talking not primarily about how individuals in the church are to think, feel and act, but rather about the communal personality and behavior of the congregation. In today’s terms, we might say that Paul is speaking about their corporate culture as a congregation -- the values, attitudes and actions that mark their life as a whole.

In the verses that follow, Paul spells out more specifically the kinds of actions that will show forth the shared communal mind that he seeks. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

One part of the corporate culture of loving care for others, Paul writes, is humility. The word humility comes from the Latin word for ground. To be humble is to be grounded, to be rooted in the basic reality of the earthen humanity we share with others. It is to see ourselves and others as part of the same human race – flawed and wonderful as it is. Humility is not being preoccupied with our individual failings and weaknesses, real as they may be. It is rather to know that we share those weaknesses and failures with everyone else we meet and that they share with us the glory of being made in the image of God. To be humble is consider other people as having at least as much worth and value us ourselves, as Paul writes: in humility regard others as better than yourselves.

A second part of the communal culture of love Paul desires is loving service to others:

Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others, he writes.

Humility and loving service are closely linked. We are only likely to serve others when we believe they are in some way worth it; that they matter enough to us to give ourselves for them. Only when we value people, only when they matter to us will we embrace the personal cost – sometimes great – of seeking to care for them. But when humility and service are joined in a community’s life, when others matter enough that we routinely act for the other’s good, then the common mind, the corporate culture of loving care that Paul desires for the Church begins to take flesh. Paul knew that that common mind and corporate culture were already present in Philippi. In today’s reading he urges them to live into that way of life yet more deeply.

I’ve been here at St. Francis now for almost a month. That’s enough time to get a preliminary sense of the common mid and corporate culture of this congregation. My sense of you is akin to Paul’s sense abut the Philippians. I’ve seen your concern and care for each other; I received that care for me and my family as we have arrived here; and, not least, I’ve seen the ways you seek to extend that care beyond these walls to people in need.

Yet like Paul, I want today to urge you – to urge us -- to live more fully into that corporate culture of communal love and service that is to mark the life of every authentic Christian congregation. There is much good here -- but as with any congregation our community life could be better. We could show forth the kind of caring, loving communal culture Paul writes of more fully than we already do. That is our call and challenge from God.

And the good news is that we do not have to do that on our own. Listen to these further words Paul writes to the Philippians: Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. The common mind, the corporate culture of loving service is not a human invention -- it comes from God. The mind of loving care, Paul says, is nothing less than the mid of Christ. For who, after all, was ever a greater or more loving servant? Who was it who looked out for our interests and not his own – to the point of death? Who valued us as worth it -- important enough, loved enough, to die for?

Christ Jesus, Paul writes, was in the form of God,

but 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 being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death--

even death on a cross.

Paul writes that we are to let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. We could hear him to mean that we are to imitate Jesus’ way of living and loving service -- but Paul actually means something more powerful than that. Another translation of this text runs: Have this mind among yourselves which you have in Christ Jesus. Stunningly, Paul says, the mind of Christ, the Spirit of loving service are ours. We have the mind of Christ, here in the Church. It has been given to us in Holy Baptism and lives in the Church in the Holy Eucharist. The communal culture of loving service has been built into the DNA of the Church by our founder and is continually renewed in our midst by God.

Our role is to embrace that gift; to be formed by the divine DNA, and to live accordingly. As Paul writes in the concluding words of today’s passage, We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; Yes, we need to work at living in accordance with God’s desire and design for the Church’s life, -- and to do so in holy awe, for Christ is present among us. And that means we do not engage in that work alone: for, Paul writes, God is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.

Thanks be to God!

The Rev. Jack Zamboni

September 28, 2008