Simon’s reflection for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost
What do you find encouraging in today’s readings? I invite you just for a moment to reread the verses of the letter to the Philippians, verses 5 – 11; the ones that begin: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus….” There, have you read them? Good, then I’ll continue.
Now, I’m no biblical scholar and I don’t know enough to assess the different arguments among scholars about biblical texts. I do however believe that understanding the bible properly and with the help of good scholarship can strengthen our faith rather than weaken it, but what I want to say is what I know of that passage deepens my faith and is something that really encourages me. I’ll tell you why but first a bit of background.
The letter to the Philippians may consist of 3 letters put together. The letter or letters were written around the mid-50s AD, around 20 odd years after the death and resurrection of our Lord. Paul is writing them from prison, probably in Ephesus, and his purpose is partly to encourage the Christians of Philippi to bear with the sufferings they face and to see God at work through them, just as Paul, as a prisoner, is doing.
Many people think that the verses you read at the beginning were part of a hymn that was known by Christians at the time. There is a theory that this hymn was written in Aramaic, the language Jesus would have spoken. Paul of course wrote in Greek. Whether the words were written in Aramaic or whether St Paul composed it, I do not know, but, here’s what I’m trying to write about, what I find amazing is the things those Christians believed about the man, Jesus of Nazareth, so soon after his death!
Of what human being would anyone say that they were in the form of God and had some sort of equality with God; that they “emptied themselves” first by being born, which implies that they existed with God before birth and secondly by dying on a cross? To what human being would God give all power and authority? How did these first Christians come to believe such remarkable things about a human being? What had happened to make them believe such things?
Now some may say that people believed all sorts of things in those days. Well yes that is true. Other ancient cultures were inclined to call their ceasars or their pharoahs or their emperors “gods” but I don’t know of an example from antiquity of anyone describing a convicted criminal as a god, do you? After all, one of the main things that is corroborated about Jesus’ life outside the bible is that he died on a cross. Jesus suffered a humiliating and degrading criminal’s death; the ancient equivalent of the scaffold or the electric chair! I suspect those who died in such a way in those times would normally be thought of as life’s losers rather than “gods.”
Moreover, the people who first started thinking these things about Jesus were not Greeks or Egyptians or Babylonians but Jews. They were steeped in a culture which didn’t accept that men or women were “gods.” They had a strong history of opposing idolatry. Their own kings, even the greatest ones like David and Solomon, were not described as gods in the bible but, rather as very fallible human beings.
So, I still find it amazing. Something must have happened which made those people believe such things and I believe that something was the resurrection.
Paul says that the power that was in Christ can be in us. So while he is asking the Phillipians to imitate Christ’s humility and self-sacrifice, he is also saying more than that. “Let the same mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus” He speaks of the sharing of the Holy Spirit among Christians. He is saying that God can form us into more Christ-like people and a more Christ-like community, if we let Him.
Now perhaps in a way that can sometimes be even more difficult to believe, that God can be at work within us especially when we get things wrong so often.
But it does say that Christian discipleship is about more than simply being loving and kind to one another. It is definitely about that, but in order to do that we need to believe and trust in the one who emptied Himself out of love for us. We need to work at loving our neighbour and loving God at the same time as they both feed into each other. We need to let Jesus teach us what genuine love and genuine authority are and we need to learn from him.
Maybe discipleship is a bit like learning to dance. To do it well we need to learn and practice the steps but who wants to dance without music? Our relationship with God is the music. Amen.