Sermon: The mind that was in Christ Jesus

 May the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts be now and always

 acceptable in your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

 

Philippians 2.1-13

 

This morning’s New Testament lesson is one of the great passages of the New Testament. It includes what we often call ‘The Song of Christ’s Glory’, the section beginning, ‘Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God’ and ending with those great words ‘that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’.  Most scholars agree that here St Paul is quoting from an early Christian hymn, to illustrate his practical teaching about internal relationships within the church. 

The letter to the Philippians is one of Paul’s most positive and joyful letters. Written from prison, Paul evidently took great delight in the fledgling Church there, which he founded, not least because the reports he had received reassured him that the Philippians were continuing in their fidelity to Christ and to Paul’s apostolic teaching.

But it’s not that all was peace and quiet. Paul speaks of opponents and of the Philippians’ suffering. Clearly, there were some from a Jewish background who strongly opposed Paul’s stance, requiring that the Philippian Gentiles accepted circumcision and complete submission to the Jewish law. In somewhat colourful language, Paul later refers to them as ‘dogs’, ‘workers of evil’, so no love lost there. The division was fundamental; for Paul, what puts us right with God is faith not outward conformity to the Jewish law. The basis of Christian holiness is not keeping a set of rules and regulations, but of the submission of our will to the in-dwelling Spirit of holiness and in the imitation of Christ. So, there was a struggle going on for the soul of the church. Moreover, the church was set in an alien culture. And as with most human communities there were petty and sometimes not so petty squabbles and quarrels.  

Hence, today’s reading is a heart-felt appeal to the church to give attention to its internal relationships. 

And I want you to notice that Paul locates the plea for unity, in the objectivity of what God in Christ and through the Spirit has already achieved.  So today’s passage begins with a series of ‘ifs’: ‘If there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation from love, if there is any fellowship in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy’. Encouragement, consolation, fellowship or communion, compassion, sympathy or pity, these are not merely human graces – they are divine gifts – they flow from the internal relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s similar in thought to what we call the grace: ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all’, as Paul concludes 2 Corinthians. Those divine attributes are to be experienced in the life of the Church.  If we as Christians are partakers of the divine encouragement, love and fellowship – than how do we reflect those graces in our common life? 

Well, Paul gives his answer to those ‘ifs’:  positively, it is about protecting and nurturing our unity, being of the same love and the same mind; negatively it is  by avoiding and banishing selfish ambition and conceit.  And then turning from the corporate to the individual, it is about looking, each of us, not to our own interests, but to the interests of others. 

Now this sounds very worthy, perhaps idealistic, but then Paul relates it to Christ as our exemplar. And here to illustrate this series of heart-felt pleas, Paul quotes the words of a hymn, used in the context of Christian worship. Whether the Philippians knew and used the hymn in their own worship we can’t tell, but it is an example of the type of credal hymn that sets out the early church’s understanding of salvation history. 

The reason why Paul quoted this hymn is because it illustrates the humility of Christ.

Fascinatingly, it is one of the earliest texts to express an understanding of Christ’s pre-existence; in other words, of one who already existed in the form of God, but chose to empty himself of that divine pre-eminence in being born in our human likeness. The language seems to be influenced by the Genesis narrative. Adam, a human being, desired to become like God – he sought to grasp equality with God by taking the fruit of the forbidden tree. Christ Jesus, by contrast, was already in the form of God, but chose to set aside that equality by becoming human. And it didn’t stop there, because in becoming human, he did not adopt a position of human power, status, or dignity, but accepted the non-status of a slave.  Nor did it stop there, in becoming human, in accepting the non-status of a slave, and therefore of one under absolute obedience, he accepted the divine will that he should die, and not merely any old death, but the humiliation, stigma, and curse of death on a cross. The hymn begins with the heights and goes progressively goes, down, down, down to the lowest, lowest depths. That was the ‘mind’, we might say the mind-set of Christ. 

The hymn, of course, does not stop there. Because of his obedience, therefore, God has highly exalted him, given him the highest name, and the pre-eminent place, literally God has super-exalted him – so that every knee – in heaven, on earth, and in the depths, will bow down, and he has been given the highest title so that every tongue will confess – Kurios – ‘Lord is Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father’.  Here a title traditional used of God by Jews is used for Jesus, and yet, the Lordship of Christ is a manifestation of the glory of God the Father. As Paul states in another passage, in his culture there were many ‘lords’, but for us there is one Lord – Jesus Christ, a sentiment we echo in the Creed. So the hymn goes up, up, up, to the very heights. 

And so in response, Paul says to the Philippians – It that was the mind of Christ then work it out. What are the implications of having this mind that was in Christ Jesus? How do we reflect his obedience and humility in our daily discipleship? And how do we work out the implications for how we relate to one another in the life of the Church? ‘Work it out’, says Paul. ‘Work out your salvation in fear and trembling’. In other words in utter humility let the example of Christ inform your attitudes one to another.   But even then, there is a higher reality, because God is also at work in you, enabling you to will and to work for his good pleasure. We’re not on our own here. 

So how do we do it? Let me give two examples, one on the bigger scene and one nearer to home. Yesterday, Bishop Mark gave an address at Diocesan Synod before the Synod debated two issues that are divisive in the life of our Anglican family of Churches; the first was the admission of women to the episcopate and the second the Anglican covenant. The former divides us because some of us regard the opening up of the priesthood and episcopate to woman as a prophetic sign, led by the Holy Spirit, to the working out in the Church of the truth that ‘in Christ there is neither male nor female’. Others regard it as a pre-emptive break with the church’s tradition without a parallel discernment by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. On the latter, the issue is how as a family of Churches we maximise our communion one with another in the light of very different convictions, some of them cultural, about aspects of how we order our ministry and in our attitudes to controversial issues such as same-sex unions.  Bishop Mark asked each member of the Synod, no matter how strongly he or she might feel on these issues, to recognise that each of us might be wrong, and to recognise that all of us are weak, sinful and fallible human beings. The issue is not that we might have different convictions, but how we honour and treat each other. It is about whether we demonstrate courtesy and humility. 

The second implication is more local.  On Tuesday evening we have a Community Gathering. I think it will be one of the most important meetings in my ten years here. As a Cathedral we are facing some very big issues, partly in the financial challenges that are before us, partly in how we want to develop this place as a place of mission and encounter, of telling the Christian story and rejoicing in out heritage. Any of this could be the occasion for division and disunity. Or it could be the opportunity to honour one another by seeking to carry each other’s burdens and to grow in our common responsibility to carry forward God’s mission in this place. I hope you will every effort to come. How we relate to one another will be crucial over the coming years. I will try to keep Philippians 2 at the front of my consciousness, especially those words of Paul, 

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. 

Perhaps that early Christian hymn, stating so eloquently the mind that was in Christ Jesus, will inform our relationships one with another, so that the graces that stand at the very heart of God in Trinity may be reflected and lived in our common life.