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Sunday September 25, 2005 - Proper 21, Year A

Not too long ago, I heard a story
about a college student
who had grown up in the church.
She'd been pretty committed and active
through her teenage years.
But by the time she went to college
she wasn't so sure
about the whole church thing, although she still thought of herself as a Christian.

Then one of her friends, who was Jewish,
challenged her.
What makes you a Christian? What difference does it make
this Christian faith of yours?

And it got me to thinking. We live in a country
that thinks of itself as Christian.
A survey about ten years ago
found that just over fifty percent of Americans
consider religion to be very important in their lives. About 40 percent say they attend church at least once a week - but the reality is it's more like 20 percent. And that's much lower than it used to be.

So we tend to have this image of ourselves as Christian: it's kind of regarded as being almost the same as being a good citizen. But as less and less people
actually do anything about their faith,
and as there are more and more challenges like the attempts to move "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance,
it becomes clearer that being Christian
is something different than being a good citizen, or a nice person. So
while maybe we don't get asked the question as bluntly
as that college student was asked,
it's a question
that we need to work out an answer to.
Why bother?

And I suspect it's a question
that's in lots of people's minds, kind of lurking below the surface.
Especially if they hear we go to church.
What difference does it make, this Christian thing? There's plenty of other things to do Sunday morning. Is it worth it?

And as I was thinking about all of this, it struck me that today's reading from Paul's letter to the Philippians
is a pretty good beginning for an answer.

First of all, at the center of the reading and at the center of our faith
is Jesus. That's what makes the Christian faith
different from other religions. We believe that Jesus is God incarnate, God made flesh, and that we can have a relationship with God through him. Christ is the basis and center of our faith, and through him we have confidence
that we will be resurrected to eternal life.

But there's something unusual about the Jesus we believe in, the Jesus we worship, according to Paul. Because this Jesus
is not a whole lot like other famous leaders. We expect kings and presidents
to rule, to exercise power, and to have people to look after and serve them. We expect leaders in society
to be much the same, just on a smaller scale.
But Jesus? He was different. Royal wealth, governmental power,
personal luxury,
none of those were part of his everyday life.
This
is what Paul is trying to say
in this section of Philippians
that we read today:
"Though he was in the form of God,
He did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited, to be grasped hold of.
But he 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."

There's a paraphrase of the Bible, a retelling, by a guy called Eugene Peterson, called The Message. He retells the Bible
in the sort of language we use every day. And this is how he retells this bit of Philippians:
"Jesus had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death--and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion."

This is the Jesus we follow, the Jesus we worship. Someone
who deliberately
chose
not to take advantage of his power
but instead
lived alongside those who were struggling. To the extent that
when people in the crowd
watching his crucifixion
made a mockery of him saying,
"Come down from the cross, if you're the son of God!"
he ignored them. His job
was to die
for our sake.

But of course, that wasn't the end of the story, as Paul reminds us.
"Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."

Or again, as we hear it in The Message,
"Because of his obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth- even those long ago dead and buried-will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father."

We worship a God
who became incarnate,
who came among us
and lived as one of us. Who didn't use his divinity
as some sort of magic pass,
but submitted to all the limitations of being human - and being human
not as someone with power
but someone whose only power
came from the words he said
and the miracles he worked, mostly among those who were poor or sick or struggling. And who died in the most
abhorrent, degrading way.

But his death was not the end. Because Christ was resurrected,
brought to new life
and raised to a place of honor above everything and everyone else,
and is now reunited with God
with the whole earth
called to worship him.

That's what is distinct, different, about what we as Christians believe - our worship of Jesus Christ.

But there's more! As Christians, we
don't just worship Christ, we follow him. And following Christ
doesn't just mean agreeing with him, it doesn't even just mean calling ourselves after him; what it means
is living like him.
And so Paul introduces his wonderful description of Christ
with the command
that we should have the mind of Christ. That we, as Christians, should be like him.

That's how our reading today began.
"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. 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. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus."

Or again, from The Message,
"If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care-then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself."

You see, being a follower of Christ
really does make a difference. It means we live differently. We act differently. We relate to other people differently.

Everything we do, as Christians, every part of our life
says something
about who Jesus is.
And it's his love, the love of God
that is underneath it all.
That's what makes us as Christians people who are different. People who
work hard at creating peace, who are easy to get along with, who put others before themselves
rather than treading on others to get ahead. People who are always looking out
for everyone else.
That's what's different
about Christians.

Well, at least,
we try.
The reality is, that we don't always get it right - it's hard to live up to someone like Jesus. But that's the standard that we're aiming at, that's the way
our lives are supposed to look.
It's not always easy. Which is why Paul reminds his readers, Paul reminds us,
that while we have to work out our salvation, that is, that salvation is something we live here and now, and we have to work hard on living out this brand new life God has given us,
while we have to work at it,
underneath it all, God is at work in us. The energy and effort behind living like Jesus
comes directly
from God.

So what's different about Christians?
What's different
is that we worship Jesus Christ,
and what's different
is that we follow him, that we live like him, people

shaped by
and living out
his self-giving
love.
So that when people look at us
what they see
is the face
of Jesus
Christ.

 

Sermon ©Raewynne J. Whiteley 2005