163. Year A - Palm Sunday - Philippians 2:1-11 - "Radical Obedience"

Pulpit NotesNote: the spoken version of this message diverged quite a bit from the text that I brought with me to the pulpit.Today is Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday. Deep into Lent, we are boring into core Christian teachings. Who is Jesus? Who are we as Christians?The text we have in front of us is thought to be an early Christian hymn that Paul is using to make a point, likely because of its familiarity with the Philippian church.The English here in the NIV smooths out the language here in verse five, but in so doing obscures the point that Paul wants to make.It reads literally: “Let this mind be in you which also in Christ Jesus.”We have talked a lot about this fundamental Pauline concept of being “in Christ.” Salvation happens “in Christ.” We have been taken from “the world” and are now “in Christ.” In Christ we are a new creation. In Christ we are raised from the dead.But as we have learned, we don’t yet fully experience this reality today. A big part of the core of our faith is believing in this reality, that “in Christ” we are all these things.We know that until Christ returns this new reality remains hidden “in Christ.” This is why we lift our attention to heaven to where Christ sits at the right hand of God.In the way that Paul lays out his opening sentence here, what he is telling us is how to make this “in Christ” reality something that is revealed in our lives and the life of our community.Interestingly, the “in you” here is actually the plural form. What Paul is saying is that revealing Christ in our lives in not something we do individually, although we all participate as persons. But this is something we do as a community.So, Paul is teaching us that our mind, our thinking, our attitudes, our actions should reflect what is “in Christ.” Our mind is Christ’s mind. What is in you, among you, should be what is in Christ.So, what is “in Christ”?We have talked about this as a change in being, of our essence. We have gone from a space where our essential being is “of the world” to one where we are now “in Christ.” We believe, a core part of our faith is that this transformation has taken place, even if now this new essence is hidden “in Christ.” What is this essence? What does it mean to be “in Christ” to be a new creation, to be the body of Christ?It is easy to read the opening of the hymn and place the emphasis on the fact that the Son of God gave up his equality with God the Father to empty himself to become a servant to humanity to sacrifice himself for us, and if we combine this with Paul’s urgings in the first five verses that we should do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit and that would should consider others as better than ourselves as us being urged to be pushovers, or weak, or to put ourselves and the church at the mercy of bad actors would take advantage of all of this.This is not a call for weakness, but rather one of radical obedience to God the Father. We choose to be gentle not because we are weak, but because we are obedient.We are not the people who get walked all over. We are not a people who get taken advantage of. We don’t let bad actors take us for a ride.We can take a stand and hold our ground. We can say no. We can say, we don’t do that here. We can tell the truth about the reality of sin. We don’t have to ignore sin or bad behaviour. We can tell the truth. We can draw lines in the sand. We can hold each other accountable.Jesus did all of these things and they put him to death for it.The reality that Paul is talking about here is not one of being weak or giving excuse for passivity or to justify Christians being pushovers.In reality, this thing that Paul is calling us to is one of tremendous strength and discipline.What he is calling us to is a life of radical obedience.So here is how it works.You live in community. What do you pursue? Do you pursue what you want, what your plans are, what your ambitions are? Are you thinking about how other people need to be meeting your needs and accommodating you in what you want?Is it all about the respect you deserve? The recognition you deserve? Is it about people acknowledging how much you do around here? Is it about people noticing what you are going through and asking you about what you need? Is it about being upset because no one acknowledges you and your situation?You get the idea. It is not about you. It’s not about me.It’s even not about what I want for the church. And it is certainly not about trying to manipulate people by tugging on their willingness to sacrifice so that you can push your agenda on to people as if your plan, your vision for the church as if it is God’s vision.This is radical.It also means that because this is a communal thing, that when the Spirit of Christ is truly living in us and we are practicing th