Sermon for July 23, 2006The Mind of Christ3rd in a series based on the book of Philippians Rev. Cindy Bates |
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Scripture: Philippians 2:1-5 - New Revised Standard Version 1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, When I returned from lunch on Thursday of this week, there was a note on my computer. It said, “Saved in your documents….The Mind of Christ.” And for just a brief moment I thought, “That would be really nice. Whenever I needed “the mind of Christ”, I could just click on that little icon and there it would be.” There were several times this week that I would have done that, if I could have. And there were probably several people in my life this week that wished I could have done that as well. Now, before I have lost you completely, I need to explain that Diane Yokel Smith, my Administrative Assistant was doing a really good thing while I was out of my office. She went in to update some software on my computer and noted that I had a document opened that just happened to be the beginning of this Sunday’s sermon, entitled “The Mind of Christ.” She needed to put it somewhere and her note told me where “The Mind of Christ” had gone. I am very fortunate to have someone like Diane who can tell me those things. Perhaps we all need someone or something that would help us retrieve “the mind of Christ,” ´whenever it appeared to be missing. According to this morning’s scripture passage, Paul would have liked something like that in place for the people in the Church at Philippi. He wanted them to know the mind of Christ and he wanted their actions to come forth from that knowing. Today’s sermon is a third in a series on Paul’s communication to the Philippians. The last two Sundays, Harvey has concentrated on chapter one and today we move to chapter two where Paul is saying, “Be of the same mind….let the same mind be in you that was in Christ.” That’s it! His message here can be taken as a formula, a recipe for how to be a Christian…how to live the perfect Christian life. Have the same mind that was in Jesus, our Christ. Very powerful words….so what do they mean? Is Paul saying we all need to think alike? That doesn’t sound like anything we can accomplish anytime soon. And, frankly, try telling any group of people that they all need to think alike and see what kind of a response you will get. When we actually look at the verb that Paul uses it really does not have a good English equivalent. He uses the Greek word “phroneo” which is more like a combination of thinking and feeling. According to The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, “Its meaning is less cerebral than ‘think’ but more deliberate than ‘feel’…. combining the activity of the heart and head.” Paul is saying that “having the mind of Christ” is more like having the same attitude that Christ had rather than saying we all need to think like Christ, and therefore we all need to think alike. I am reminded of the words of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism when he said, “We do not need to think alike in order to love alike.” That seems to be more of what Paul was saying in this passage. He is asking followers of Jesus Christ to have the same compassion, the same attitude that Christ had when he related to others, to God and all the things life brought to him. That’s still a really big order, isn’t it? My experience has been that even when I am intentional about having the mind of Christ, I still lose my mind quite often! And after over twenty-five years of being a pastor in the Christian faith I have witnessed other “Christians” losing their minds often. Having the mind of Christ can be a very elusive thing! Just a couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of attending a conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico with several others from St. Andrew. The conference had two outstanding speakers, Father Richard Rohr, and Sister Joan Chittister, and they led us through several days of reflecting on the Old Testament prophets and raised the question of what it might look like to be a prophet today. One night after a rather lengthy, but inspiring session that went into the evening, several of us were taking an elevator to our hotel rooms on the eighth and ninth floors. I remember very distinctly that there were 5 of us from St. Andrew and perhaps five or six others that were boarding the elevator, but we had all just been to the same conference session. Tam Curfman happened to be the last in the lobby as the elevator was filling up and several of us said, “Oh, come on Tam, there’s room.” So we squeezed together, punched the buttons and started moving. Now even though we were a little crunched in that elevator, the sign said the capacity was 2500 pounds. A quick summation of the number of persons multiplied by the average weight did not indicate an overload. The elevator made its way up several floors, fifth, sixth and then a sudden stop not quite to the seventh. In that brief moment of silence, suspended somewhere in an elevator shaft enclosed with several friends and a few others, I remembered a phobia I had as a child. I hated elevators because I was afraid that they might break and one day I would be trapped in there! Now, what occurred next in that elevator truly amazed me. Rather than being frightened because I was trapped in an elevator, I was stunned by how quickly a group of Christians could lose their “Christian” minds when confronted with a little emergency situation. One of us laughed, maybe a little nervous laughter but it quickly evoked a very grumpy response of, “I don’t see anything funny about this.” Someone else started shouting, “Call 911!” Another person decided to see if he could break his way out be starting to remove the ceiling panels. It seemed that any conversation to minimize panic was met with disdain. It was not a pleasant experience but the unpleasantness had very little to do with the situation and had a whole lot more to do with the attitudes of the people in the situation! Paul knew that when he wrote that letter to those folks in Philippi. And we know that when we read this passage together today. As my friend, retired United Methodist pastor Ray Brown used to say to me when I would get a little frustrated in my ministry, “Oh, Cindy, it’s just the Church! When you’ve got the Church, you’ve got people, and when you’ve got people, you’ve got trouble!” How do we obtain the mind of Christ? And how do we keep from losing that mind no matter what situation confronts us? First of all I think it is important to say this is not an easy thing to do. It is not just a matter of saying this is what I am going to do or this is what he or she needs to do! As someone so succinctly put it the other night at our monthly Leadership Council Meeting, “Being a Christian is really hard work.” It is not just a matter of deciding this is how I am going to act and it naturally happens! It does not automatically happen because our “stuff” the human ego, keeps showing up especially when we are scared or threatened, angry or confused. Then we tend to not make very good decisions. We treat others like we would not want to be treated. We get defensive and rude. Our agenda becomes the only thing that is important. It is hard to see the greater good for the whole because we become so focused on the desires of the self. Please know I am not aware of this only because I have observed it in others. Ever since I was a little kid and learned the stories about Jesus there has been an innate desire, a yearning to be compassionate and kind, to think and act and treat others like Jesus. And ever since I was a little kid, and I would read the stories of people like Anne Frank or Helen Keller, Martin Luther King, Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi, and “I would wonder who would I be in those situations?” I still do that today when I read the newspaper and hear about so many who make decisions and act in very selfless and heroic ways for just causes or to help or save others and I wonder, “Could I ever be one of those people?” And the reality of my life is I do not always do a very good job of “having the mind of Christ” even in the little day to day activities of my life, let alone the BIG challenges. My desire and my behavior are not always in sync. Maybe you know what I mean. So, what do we do? Paul, in the next few verses of Philippians talks about Jesus emptying himself in order to become obedient to God. It is another way of saying that Jesus always made room for God to be present within him. But that had to be a conscious decision. It was not something that automatically happened because he loved God. If you couple the idea of emptying your ego self to make room for God, with Jesus words in the Gospel story when he said…”those who lose their life for my sake will find it” we may be getting closer to understanding how it is possible to have the mind of Christ. Because I have had a special interest in prayer and spiritual formation over the years, I have studied and read, gone to classes and taught classes on prayer. The truth is I probably talk about prayer more than I practice prayer. When I think about “having the mind of Christ” I do not know how to do that apart from continually inviting God into my awareness, my life, my thinking and my actions through prayer. Richard Rohr, priest, contemplative and social activist, in his book, “Contemplation in Action” says it far better than I. He says, “On my better days, when I am ‘open, undefended and immediately present,’ I can sometimes begin with a contemplative mind and heart. Often I can get there later and even end there, but it is usually a second gaze. The True Self seems to always be ridden and blinded by the defensive needs of the false self. It is an hour-by-hour battle, at least for me. I can see why all spiritual traditions insist on daily prayer, in fact, morning, midday, evening and before- we- go- to –bed- prayer too! Otherwise, I can assume that I am back in the cruise control of small and personal self interest, the pitiable and fragile ‘richard’ self.” He goes on to say, “Only after God has taught us to live ‘undefended’ can we immediately stand with and for the other, and for the moment. It takes lots of practice. Maybe that is why many people even speak of their ‘spiritual practice.’” If we are going to have “the mind of Christ” we need to figure out what spiritual practice will help us empty ourselves, center ourselves and get us in touch with the presence of God within each of us. Philosopher Philip Brooks said, “It does not take great (people) to do great things, only consecrated people.” We can do this. We can help one another do this. This is who we must be as the Church, to help one another discover those practices that will transform us, hold us accountable so we will be able to live having the mind of Christ. Diana Butler Bass, is a name you will be hearing a lot more about in the next few weeks because she will be with us here at St. Andrew the first weekend in November. She has written several books on what makes Christianity such a viable, hopeful, transformational way of life. In her most recent book, “Christianity for the Rest of Us”, she says, “Being a Christian is not a one-moment miracle of salvation. It takes practice. It is a process of faith. And it can be a long walk. Practices invite weary nomads to join the journey, to find home, to create a different kind of village, to enter the memory of Jesus.” Did I tell you that we did get out of the elevator? Cell phones are a marvelous thing…although it did take two calls to the front desk to get someone to come and get us. We survived the experience and the people. And it was a good opportunity to take a look at ourselves…not just the other people. And perhaps that is always where we need to begin…looking at ourselves to see if there are those things we need to face, to change, to let go of, so there will be more room for God. Elaine and Elizabeth Ann are going to share a song with us with words that seem so fitting for what it means to live having “the mind of Christ.” May it be our prayer for us as individuals. May it be a prayer for this congregation.
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