One in Christ

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Good morning.

I'm Denise Yon.

I'm a member of the San Francisco Community Group.

And women reading women.

Today's scripture reading is from Paul's letter to the Philippians, chapter 1, verses 27, through

Philippians 1:27

chapter 2, verse 11, as printed in your liturgy.

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you

stand firm in the one spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.

Without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.

This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved, and that by God.

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also

to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear

that I still have.

Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from

his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make

my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one

mind.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you

to the interests of others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being

in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own

advantage.

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human

likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Thanks, Denise, for that scripture reading.

And good morning, Christ Church.

It's good to be back.

I don't know if you noticed, but I wasn't here last week.

And I heard everything went beautifully.

And I really want to just give a shout out to our leaders for stepping up and allowing me

and Jonathan to get away on vacation.

Oh, thanks, Sharon.

It was a really sweet time.

I'm coming up today, this morning, kind of heavy hearted.

A part of my trip, you know, we had planned that trip to North Carolina about six months

ago, but only about less than two months ago, we had found out that the friend I'd be visiting

in North Carolina, his wife, would be needing to go through chemo and struggling with cancer.

And by the time I arrived, actually, they were already talking about palliative care.

And she just passed yesterday.

So I may actually fly out again this week.

So just a heads up.

But I really want to thank the leaders for stepping up and being the church.

You know, this isn't a one-man, two-man show.

This is the body of Christ being the church.

And I love that we can do that as a church family.

Anyway, let's pray.

Let's open up the word of God and let's hear what he has to say to us this morning.

Lord God, we thank you that you are not far from us, from our suffering.

In fact, you know it deeply because of the incarnation of your son, because your son humbled himself,

became a servant, took on human likeness to save us, not because he had to, but because he was glad to.

Well, God, would you open our eyes this morning to your love, to the beauty of the gospel.

Would you fill our hearts with praise and peace and adoration.

In Jesus' name, amen.

All right.

So I heard Jesse crushed it last week.

And I'm glad he did or else I would have given him a hard time.

He's a good buddy of mine and we try to pray together almost monthly.

And I'm so glad that you were blessed by that in Paul's letter to the Galatians.

But today we're back in Philippians.

All right.

Today we're back in Philippians.

And what we're stepping into today is the unmistakable heart of Paul's letter to the church in Philippi,

especially here in chapter 2, verses 5 through 11.

It quite possibly might be the heart of Christianity itself is what we're looking at today.

You could say that everything else in the letter, everything else in the whole of Christianity really

hovers around, frames, and flows out of this core passage.

It's truly one of the most profound and foundational passages in all of Scripture.

It's like the heartbeat of the Christian confession.

And for me personally, it's deeply, deeply formative in how I understand who God is.

And not only who God is, but how I understand what it even means to be human.

So I feel a certain weight this morning preaching this text.

I want to do it justice.

I want us to behold, you know, the beauty of what Paul wrote about here.

And I want us to behold the super unique beauty of really the whole of the Christian faith that's

kind of encapsulated here in this passage.

I just, as a heads up, we're going to be, I'm going to be speaking mostly to Christians

this morning.

But if you are here today and you're not a Christian, we're so glad that you're here and we'd

love to get to know you better.

How I would suggest that you listen to the sermon this morning is by asking the question,

what is so unique about Christianity?

What is so unique about the God of Christianity?

And why are Christians so crazy about this guy called Jesus, who they claim to be God?

All right?

So I want to invite you into that this morning.

And just to remind us of where we are in this letter, Paul's, you know, he's done his

intro, his personal opening remarks, he's told them how full his heart is with affection

for them.

He's told them that he wants all God's best for them.

And he said, yeah, I'm in chains.

Yeah, I'm in suffering.

But honestly, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

And that's all I care about, serving and honoring Christ.

This is what he said so far in chapter one.

But now today's passage is where he really gets into the substance and meat of the letter.

He says, yeah, I'm in chains.

He says, yeah, I'm in chains.

He says, yeah, I'm in chains.

Okay?

So we're going to dive right in.

Turn with me to verse 27.

Okay?

And I'm going to need you, I'll just, heads up, the beginning of the sermon's pretty dry.

Okay?

And I'm glad Chelsea's not here because she would give me an extra hard time for that.

But it's going to be a little bit dry because we're going to get a little bit technical.

We're really trying to pay close attention to what Paul is saying here.

Okay?

So verse 27, let's look at that.

So here in verse 27, what we find is the very first commandment.

The very first imperative that Paul gives in this entire letter.

This is the first time he actually commands them to do something.

And what he commands them is this.

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

And let's stop there for a second.

Okay?

Now in the Greek, where it says whatever happens, that's actually just one word.

And the word there simply can be literally translated only or alone.

So what Paul is basically saying is this alone I command you.

This is my one and only major command to you, church and Philippi.

Concern yourselves with only this.

And then where it says conduct yourselves in a manner worthy.

That's actually also just one word in the Greek.

It's the word polytuomai.

Polytuomai.

And if that sounds to you like the word politics, you're absolutely right.

Because see, when Paul is saying polytuomai, he's not just saying conduct yourselves in a worthy manner.

More literally what that means is be a citizen of.

Okay?

So what he is saying, if you put those together, is this.

Only this, be a citizen of the gospel of Christ.

That's his first and primary command to the church in Philippi.

This alone, be a citizen of the gospel of Christ.

Now, if you're wondering what this means, we're going to unpack it.

But before we do that, Paul goes first.

Instead of explaining what it means, he'd rather explain to us what it looks like.

Okay?

So according to Paul, what it looks like is found in the rest of verse 27.

He says,

So the picture that Paul is painting for citizens of the gospel is a picture of oneness.

A picture of unity.

That's the key word for today.

Unity.

That's the picture he's trying to paint.

A picture of standing together in the unity of the Holy Spirit and of striving together in unity of their faith.

And it's a unity that's a fearless unity.

It says in verse 28,

See, Paul is writing to them from prison, in chains, again.

And as verse 30 indicates, now some of his fellow Christians in Philippi are also following in his footsteps, finding themselves in chains and facing opposition themselves.

And what he wants them to commit to in all of this hardship is their citizenship in the gospel.

Their shared unity with Paul, with Paul's chains, and with each other as they all face opposition together.

And ultimately, their shared unity in Christ.

Their unity as a suffering people who are trying to be with Christ, for Christ, and like Christ.

Paul is saying,

Stand firm in this Holy Spirit-filled, Holy Spirit-honoring confession.

Strive together for continued unity in this counter-cultural faith.

And do not be afraid, even in the face of opposition.

For by pursuing this kind of fearless unity, Paul says,

You are bearing witness to the world that in the end, God and his people will ultimately win.

Will ultimately be saved, as opposed to God's opponents and enemies who will face destruction.

Paul pleads with them on the basis of their own experiences with the triune God and what he's done in their lives.

He pleads with them to be united.

That's what he wants for this church in Philippi.

Look at chapter 2.

He's saying,

If you have at all tasted the encouragement of being united with Christ,

if you've at all known the comfort of being loved by your Father in heaven,

and if you've at all enjoyed the fellowship and belonging of the Holy Spirit,

and surely you have, right?

Surely you've been moved by God toward tenderness and compassion.

If that has at all been your experience as a Christian, he says,

Then unite together as citizens of Christ, being like-minded, having the same love,

and being one in the Spirit and of one mind.

Okay?

Now at this point, let me pause and thank you for staying with me.

Okay?

I know I started off very exegetical, paying super close attention,

doing some heavy lifting together around Paul's logic and his language,

but let me bring it home now and show you why this is so deeply relevant for us.

You see, what Paul is doing here is profound contextual theology.

What he's doing here is, you could consider it as counter-catechesis.

He's confronting the cultural waters that this church in Philippi is swimming in every single day.

See, these Christians in Philippi lived in a world that was constantly preaching to them,

Look at the unity Rome has achieved.

Look at the peace Rome has secured.

Look at the greatness and glory of our empire.

And remember, Philippi was a proud, proud Roman colony full of veterans,

loyal Roman citizens who enjoyed the privileges and protections and the peace of the Pax Romana.

This was a city essentially being discipled by the Roman Empire

that was preaching to them every single day,

Be encouraged, be comforted, and be united in peaceful communion because Caesar is Lord.

But Paul, from prison, is commending to them a radically alternative citizenship,

a dangerous citizenship, even a treasonous alternative.

He's calling them to shift their primary citizenship,

to shift their boast, to shift their ultimate hope and joy and loyalty

and source of unity away from Rome and onto Christ.

From Caesar is Lord to Jesus is Lord.

And that's why his first, his very first command here is only this,

be citizens of the gospel of Christ.

Now, why does that matter to any of us?

Because in many ways, we're not so different from the Philippians.

We too are swimming in cultural waters that preach rival versions of unity to all of us.

Political parties promising, if only everyone voted like us, then we'd have peace.

Corporations preaching, if you buy and consume and have this certain lifestyle with our products,

then and only then will you truly belong and feel secure and feel united with the rest of society.

Or even within our families or our schools,

as long as everyone agrees on our set of values, then we'll have unity.

Just like in Paul's day, we're all being sold a million paths to unity,

and yet we find that we are all still starving for unity, aren't we?

Whether elephant or donkey, conservative or liberal, religious or secular,

nationalist or globalist, Christian, Muslim, agnostic or atheist,

we all actually want a world where we all get along.

We all want peace, stability, harmony.

Everyone longs for unity, but now if everyone in the world longs for unity,

then why are we still so deeply divided?

Well, I think the political analyst, Yuval Levin, he gets it right when he writes,

The sense that what's holding us back is our disunity,

is one sentiment that now does seem to cut across party lines.

Yet unity itself can be a divisive notion.

Americans yearning for solidarity don't always mean the same thing by it,

except in as much as they all mean they would like to see less disagreement

with their own views and priorities.

In fact, the question of just what ought to bring Americans together now

underlies a lot of discord in our politics.

In other words, our problem isn't that no one wants unity,

it's that we can't agree on what our unity should be based on.

And so we end up swinging back and forth, right,

oscillating between two broken extremes.

On one side, we've tried to create unity by enforcing uniformity,

by imposing narrow, biased and often unjust and arbitrary standards

that silence dissent and crush difference.

You have strongmen, dictators, tyrants, bulldozing their way toward order, right?

And then on the other side, we've tried to create unity

by embracing a kind of relativistic tolerance

where every viewpoint is supposedly equal,

but that too eventually collapses under its own weight

because even tolerance has its limits,

and when those limits are crossed,

it turns into its own form of intolerant canceling

and manipulative coercion itself.

You have online mobs, social media outrage, cancel culture,

all highlighting the fragility and the naivete of love as mere tolerance.

So we just continue to fight.

We continue to struggle with disunity.

Why?

Because ultimately, we have competing visions of what is ultimate,

competing visions of what is honorable,

competing visions of what it means to be truly human

and of what an honorable human life ought to look like.

See, Paul knew this.

He anticipated this.

Paul knew that the Pax Romana wasn't a true peace.

He knew that while it may have lasted pretty long

and while it may have indeed benefited a whole lot of people,

it wouldn't last forever.

And it also crushed a whole lot of other people

in the name of order and peace and unity.

And so when Paul exhorts this church in Philippi

to be citizens of the gospel, united together with Christ,

he's ultimately offering them,

he's ultimately offering all of us

who are still struggling with unity today,

he's offering the world a more worthy citizenship,

an actually pure unity,

a nobler vision of what is truly honorable.

He commends to us citizenship without superiority,

unity without coercion,

humility without compromise,

and a life of servanthood without degradation.

And he does this by pointing us to Jesus.

And in doing so shows us the most ideal picture

of who God is

and the most ideal picture of what it means

to be human at the same time.

And this is the beauty of our passage.

This right here, this is the secret sauce of Christianity.

This is what makes our faith like literally sing, okay?

So let's go to verse 3

and see how Paul suggests we arrive at unity

as countercultural citizens of the gospel.

Verse 3 says,

do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

So first Paul tells us what not to do.

Unity will never come out of contentious,

selfish ambition or vain conceit.

And by the way, the word here for vain conceit

is also a single word in the Greek,

kenodoxia, okay?

Kenodoxia, which comes from kenos is empty,

and doxa, which is glory.

And basically it's this idea

that being empty of our true and original glory

because of sin,

we try to fill ourselves with false and empty glories

chasing after honor and status and recognition

to make up for what's missing inside.

But Paul's like, no, no.

Verse 3,

rather in humility,

value others above yourselves.

Don't pursue your own glory and value.

Humble yourself and value others above yourself,

not looking to your own interests,

but each of you to the interests of others.

What Paul commends to gospel citizens

for the sake of unity

is humility and deference

and an interest in others

that supersedes our own self-interest.

Now, I think you don't have to be Christian

to agree with this, right?

I think for most of us,

this all sounds, you know,

fine and dandy and quite commonsensical

because, you know, of course,

it's hard for any of us really,

especially us enlightened Western people

to disagree that, of course,

more humility, more unselfishness

would definitely help us move toward unity, right?

But what's unique about what Paul is doing here

is not just saying,

try to be nicer,

try to be less selfish,

try to be less vain and conceited,

try to care about others more than yourself.

No, Paul knows

that these mere suggestions

toward kindness and selflessness

will never make much of a difference

on their own.

The key for Paul,

and this is what the secular West has abandoned,

is that the reason we all value selflessness

and humility and love and sacrifice

in the first place

is because of the person of Jesus Christ,

because of the story of Jesus Christ.

And it's only when we are united with Him

that that kind of fruit

will ever begin to abound in the world.

Paul writes in verse 5,

in your relationships with one another

have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.

He brings us back to our union with Christ

and not mere moralism, okay?

And then from verses 6 through 11,

we have this stunning work

of early church doctrine.

Most commentators think it's a song

written either by someone in the early church,

maybe multiple people,

maybe by Paul,

maybe others,

but nonetheless,

it's often called the Christ hymn, okay?

This is the Christ hymn from verse 6 through 11,

written no more than 30 years

after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And it's a hymn that Paul is either writing himself

or referring to

in order to communicate a bunch of core Christian truths

all at the same time.

And the first truth is this,

that Jesus of Nazareth

was from all eternity,

verse 6,

in very nature God.

This is what Christians have always believed

about Jesus of Nazareth.

And yet,

though being in very nature God,

we've also believed

that he did not consider equality with God

something to be used to his own advantage.

Now, some of you have,

might recall other translations.

Other translations say

he did not consider equality with God

something to be grasped, right?

Or it means like

to violently and selfishly

snatch and seize

for his own personal self-interest.

Think of that child

who maybe invites another kid from school

over for a play date.

And they're playing

and the invited kid reaches over

for one of the toys

and the host kid says,

no,

snatches it,

mine, right?

And honestly,

that child is not wrong.

That child is not wrong.

I mean,

I won't let my girls do that.

They won't get away with that.

But that child is not wrong.

It is his toy.

And in a sense,

he has a right

not to give it up.

He has a right to insist

that it is his alone

to enjoy.

But this is not what we see

in the Son of God

who is something far better

than a toy.

He is in very nature God.

He did not act this way.

He did not turn the stone

in the desert to bread.

He did not call legions of angels

to rescue him from the cross.

He did not use his divinity

for his own advantage.

But rather,

verse 7,

he made himself nothing.

Or some translations say

he emptied himself.

And this doesn't mean

that when the Son of God

became human,

he stopped being God

or he emptied himself

of his divinity.

But actually,

it says he emptied himself

by adding to himself.

Subtraction by addition.

Verse 7,

by taking on

the very nature of a servant

and being made

in human likeness.

He put on humanity

so that he was

at the same time

in one person,

100% God

and 100% human.

How does that work?

We don't know,

but we say yes, Lord,

because that's what

the Scriptures teach.

And again,

not just any kind of human though,

a servant.

You could even translate this,

a slave.

In the person of Jesus,

God himself,

the creator of the universe,

the holy I am,

who I am,

the one in whom

all things hold together,

the one and only God

took upon himself

the lowest possible

human status

in the ancient world.

Think of that image of Jesus

with a towel around his waist,

washing his disciples'

stinky feet.

Remember his words

to his feuding disciples.

You know that the rulers

of the Gentiles

lord it over them

and their great ones

exercise authority over them.

It shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great

among you

must be your servant.

And whoever would be

first among you

must be your slave.

Even as the Son of Man

came not to be served,

but to serve

and to give his life

as a ransom for many.

As a human,

verse 8 says,

God incarnate,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient

to death.

And even the worst kind of death,

even death on a cross.

And man,

this is wild.

Let us not become

overly familiar

with this beautiful

ancient truth

that God became human,

that he became a slave.

He became a dead

human slave,

even a crucified

dead human slave.

God in Christ

didn't consider that

too beneath him.

So how then

shall we live?

Do you see

what Paul is doing?

You know,

so many people,

I was just on the phone

yesterday

with someone

who identified

as a Christian,

but to her

the essence of Christianity

was just being nice

and being accepting

and to her

the core teaching

was love your neighbors.

That's what Jesus taught.

But no,

that cannot be.

That cannot be the first

and ultimate principle

of Christianity.

That command alone

will do almost nothing

in our devastatingly

broken world.

No,

the world doesn't need

a moralistic suggestion

that we need to love more.

The world needs a God

who will show us

what real,

healing,

world-transforming love

truly is

and a God

who can do it.

A God whose initial

act of love

will empower

and inspire

all other loves.

And don't you see

that that is

what we have

in the incarnation

of Jesus Christ.

God become man

and not just man

but crucified slave.

What Paul is doing here,

what Paul is revealing

about how unity

and peace

will be accomplished

and achieved

amongst the citizens

of the gospel of Christ

is the ultimate truth

about who God is.

And that picture

is one and the same

in Jesus Christ.

You see,

in this passage,

it isn't just some

proof text from the Bible

proving that Jesus is God.

No,

it's far more than that.

The message here

is not simply

that Jesus is God

but that God is Jesus

even as a human slave

bleeding to death

on a cross

in a trash heap

outside of Jerusalem.

You know,

we tend to think

of God-likeness

as domination,

as being untouchable,

unstoppable,

invincible.

I used to play

this video game

in college

called Dota

and when you managed

to stay alive,

which was very hard

for me,

but once in a while

and you went

on a killing spree,

you would hear

the video game say,

God-like.

And it was so satisfying.

I also remember

a time playing basketball

with the youth.

I think it was

Luther George.

He would not miss.

And Eli Gilbert goes,

He's a God!

He's a God!

And it wasn't wrong

at all

to think of God

this way,

as all-powerful,

as undefeatable,

as someone

who never misses.

But the beauty

of Christianity

and the good news

of Jesus

is that our God,

He is so much more.

He's so much more

than that.

Like, our God

is that.

Yes, He is able.

He's able to crush

His enemies.

And yet,

also,

He's a God

who is willing

to be crushed

in the place

of His enemies.

in our place

when we were

His enemies

ourselves.

And that's a crucial

truth here

as well.

In all the disunity

we suffer and lament,

it's because of our sin.

Our sin,

our selfish ambition,

our pursuing empty,

futile glory.

From the beginning,

we gave up

our original glory

and we've been starved

for glory ever since.

Adam and Eve

and we with them,

in unity with them.

According to

our selfish ambition,

we thought

that we could be

more like God

than we already were.

And still today,

we think that we can

be everywhere.

We think we could be

omnipresent with our planes

and with our internet

connections and streaming

devices.

We think we can be

omnipotent,

just speak things

into Siri or chat

TPT and boom,

there it is.

And we think we can

be omniscient.

We think we can be

all-knowing

with more accessible

facts and data

at our fingertips

than at any other time

in human history.

And we,

like Adam and Eve,

pursue more and more

closer and closer

proximity to such

power and presence

and proficiency

because we are

seeking our own glory

rather than the glory

of God.

That is the essence

of sin.

That is the essence

of sin.

But thanks be to God

that,

as John Stott

famously wrote,

while the essence

of sin is man

substituting himself

for God,

the essence of salvation

is God

substituting himself

for man.

man asserts himself

against God

and puts himself

where only God

deserves to be,

but God

sacrifices himself

for man

and puts himself

where only man

deserves to be

on a cross.

See,

this is the stuff

that will change

the world.

This is what makes

Christianity

and particularly

the God

of Christianity

unlike any other.

This is the only path

to unity,

peace,

and order.

God,

the ultimate reality,

the I am,

who voluntarily

entered creation,

humbled himself,

and served us

unto death

on a cross.

It's the most important

truth that has changed

and will ultimately

transform the world

and our sinful,

stony hearts.

The historian

Tom Holland

in this book

Dominion

many of us

read a few years ago,

he isn't even a Christian

and yet he notices

this as well

and he writes,

to be a Christian

is to believe

that God became man

and suffered a death

as terrible

as any mortal

has ever suffered.

This is why

the cross,

that ancient

implement of torture,

remains what it

has always been,

the fitting symbol

of the Christian revolution.

It is the audacity

of it

the audacity

of finding

in a twisted

and defeated corpse

the glory

of the creator

of the universe

that serves to explain

more surely

than anything else

the sheer strangeness

of Christianity.

All are heirs

to the same revolution,

a revolution

that has

at its molten heart

the image

of a God

dead on a cross.

As Paul writes

in verse 45,

therefore,

therefore,

after he mentioned

Christ becoming a servant,

Christ being obedient

to death on a cross,

therefore,

God exalted him

to the highest place

and gave him the name

that is above every name

that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bow.

At the name of Jesus

every name should bow.

The highest name,

Yahweh,

belongs to Jesus

in heaven

and on earth

and under the earth

and every tongue

acknowledge

that Jesus Christ

is Yahweh,

that Jesus Christ

is Lord,

not in opposition

to the Father,

but to the glory

of the Father.

Paul here is echoing

Isaiah chapter 45

Isaiah 45 · chapter mention

here where Isaiah prophesied

and all the faithful

Jewish people of old

hoped for the day

when every knee

would bow

and every tongue

swear allegiance

to their God,

Yahweh,

alone.

And Paul is saying here,

yo,

that's Jesus.

The crucified slave

is Yahweh

and his Trinitarian glory

is not at all

diminished

by his self-emptying love,

but in fact,

it is magnified

all the more.

And if I could just

close with a final point

reminding you

that the incarnation

of Jesus

described here

isn't just a picture

of who God is,

but it's also

at the very same time

a picture of what it means

to be human

in the most beautiful,

the most honorable

possible way.

You know,

throughout history,

there have been

so many counterfeit models

of who is worthy

to be called a Lord,

who is worthy

to have people

bow the knee,

who is worthy

to have a high

and noble name,

and it's always

had to do with power

and strength

and force

and wealth

and beauty

and cunning

and intelligence

and all sorts

of other meritorious

factors.

But in Christ,

in Christ,

we find that

the most perfect way

to be human

is not by merit,

not by self-exaltation,

but through humbling

oneself,

emptying oneself,

making oneself

a servant

even unto death.

And this probably

sounds crazy,

probably sounds terrible

to most of us,

and many of us

are suffering

under terrible injustices

and afflictions

and terrible scarcity.

But what I believe

this is saying to us,

what I believe

Jesus shows us here

is the good news

that when we humble

ourselves

and when we face

suffering and hardship

and scarcity

even near to death,

if we are united

with Christ,

we cannot lose,

we can only win.

Our stories are never

beyond redemption

and the endings

of our stories

will one day

surely end like His

in honor and glory

beyond anything

we could have imagined.

And this is how

the gospel

inspires and empowers

our self-denying,

self-giving,

Christ-like unity

as citizens

of the gospel

and as witnesses

to the watching world.

This is how we are free

to live differently

than everyone else

in the world

who is striving

and grasping

and sweating

to make their bread.

We don't have to grasp.

We don't have to seize

in Christ.

We see the perfect model

of being human.

He humbled Himself

and then God

exalted Him

and that's a picture

of the gospel.

The gospel says

we can humble ourselves

because we trust

that God will exalt us.

We don't have to exalt ourselves

but we can trust

that we will share

in the glory

and in the imperishable

inheritance

of the beloved Son of God,

the resurrected King

of the universe.

So because of Christ,

because of Christ,

we know

that to be human

is not having to spend

the rest of our lives

anxiously

protecting our own names,

protecting our resumes,

protecting our wealth,

our comfort,

our boundaries.

No.

If Jesus did not consider

the comfort and status

of heaven

something to be grasped,

why should we feel

the need to grasp

at this or that,

at this salary,

at this lifestyle,

at this status?

What if instead

we approached

every good thing

in our life

simply as a gift from God

not to be hoarded

but to be stewarded

and shared

in the name

of Jesus

or time

or talent

or treasure

or maybe

for some of us

it's not so much

the challenge

of what do I need

to give up

and share

for the sake of others

but how can I

empty myself

by adding

adding servanthood

to my life

as Jesus did

addition

by subtraction

by addition

what might God

be calling me

what might God

be calling us

today

to pick up

and add

what particular mission

might God

be calling me

to give my life

to

but either way

whether it's

emptying ourselves

by giving

or emptying ourselves

by taking up service

if we are united

with Christ

by faith

if we believe

in the beauty

of the Christ hymn

we can rest assured

that our God

who emptied himself

for us

is the same God

who will one day

exalt us

with himself

forever

and that's the good news

of Christianity

the uniquely good news

of Christianity

will you pray with me

O Lord

make this

Christ hymn

the hymn

of our hearts

the habit

of our hands

as we go out

in the name of Jesus

not grasping

but giving

not striving

but serving

out of your abundant love

for this world

O God

make us more like Jesus

help us to enjoy

our union

and communion

with the one

who is in very nature

God

who loved us

to death

on a cross

and make the world

a different place

because of the way

that we commune with

and adore

and seek to live out

the spirit

presence of Christ

in the world

do that Lord

in us

in Christ's church

in your church

O God

for the glory

of your name

and for the good

of the nations

we pray

in Jesus' name

Amen

Amen

Thank you.