Scripture Reading: Philippians 2:1-11 (from The Message paraphrase)
1-4 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.. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He 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.
9-11 Because of that 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.
Sermon: “From Head Trip to Heart-Warmed” (#6 in Weird Church series)
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church back in the 1700’s, had a couple of life-changing, spiritual experiences. The first occurred on a sailing ship headed to America. During a powerful storm, so powerful that most people on board thought they were going to die, the only people who seemed at peace were a group of Moravian Christians (Moravians were a Protestant denomination that originated in an area that is now part of the Czech Republic). While everyone else on the boat--including John Wesley, who at the time was an Anglican missionary--were at the mercy of their own panic, the Moravians were calmly gathered in faithful prayer. John Welsey saw them and realized that he wanted what they had: an experience of God’s loving presence that grounded him even in the midst of crisis, rather than a faith that was based only on intellectual beliefs.
The good news is that John Wesley and everyone on board the ship survived the storm, and Wesley began a friendship with the Moravians. He worshipped with them and studied with them, and when he returned to London, he found a Moravian mentor. Long story short, one night at a study group with the Moravians, Wesley felt his heart, in his words, “strangely warmed.” The authors of Weird Church describe Wesley’s experience as follows:
“…he experienced a different kind of faith…a sure trust and confidence that even he was a beloved child of God--a personal experience of God’s grace!” (p. 55)
The authors of Weird Church contend that most people today--particularly the “spiritual but not religious” crowd--are looking for what John Wesley experienced back in the 1700’s: “heartwarming experiences of the Holy.” (p. 48) Further, “They are interested in … practices that will help them to grow in the ways of love as well as make a positive difference in the world.” I am guessing that most of us feel the same way. This is what we want, too, isn’t it?! In the words of Franklin Federated Church’s Purpose Statement-- which is both descriptive and aspirational, we are “A Community of Abundant Welcome to All, Growing together in Christ and Serving with Love.” We want a faith that consists of a combination of intellectual belief and spiritual experience that leads to actions that make a positive difference in our world.
The challenge is that the Western institutional church as a whole, both Catholic and Protestant, has focused MUCH more on intellectual belief than we have on heartwarming experiences of the Holy. And the intellectual belief that traditional Western Christianity has focused on most is the belief that God sent Christ as a sacrifice for our sins. As you may know, this is called “the doctrine of substitutionary atonement,” and it grew out of a primitive, tribal theology dating back thousands of years. Basically, this doctrine sees God as a punitive king whose anger at humanity’s disobedience can be satisfied only by a perfect blood sacrifice, which is where Jesus comes in.
More and more people these days are rejecting that view of God and the shame that comes with it. And most of them are leaving the church! This book invites those of us who are still part of the institutional church to think about the theology we are proclaiming--in our sermons, our liturgies, our hymns. Is it a theology that focuses heavily on Jesus’ blood sacrifice? If so, is this a theology we still believe in and want to proclaim? Have we thought much about it? [There is a wonderful, easy-to-understand book that looks at the various Christian theories of atonement (which is becoming “one” with God--"At-one-ment”), including the one I just described, and explains how each has arisen, along with the implications of each. It’s worth reading if you want to do more research on this topic. It’s called Making Sense of the Cross by Dr. David Lose.]
Interestingly enough, Weird Church points out that while the Western institutional church (Catholics and Protestants) focused on morality, sin, and sacrifice, the Eastern institutional church (Orthodox Christians) focused instead on “divinity and death.” Page 56 of Weird Church described the focus of Eastern theology like this:
“Jesus shared in our suffering and death so that we can share in his divinity through the resurrection. In essence, our journey to God is dying to this life and waking up to God in us… In the Christianity of the East, Jesus was Ma-hy-ana, the Life-Giver, the Enlightened One. The focus was on the Way of Jesus, which was a path that we can follow to become enlightened as well.” (p. 56)
Today’s Scripture reading from Philippians chapter 2 emphasizes that understanding. Christ, in this passage, is seen as an example of self-giving love, which is different than self-sacrifice. Verse 5 in the Message paraphrase says, “Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status…he didn’t claim special privileges.”
So, if that’s the ways Christ behaved, then his followers should follow suit. Verse 4 puts it this way, “Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.”
Let me talk about the main difference I can see that this makes.
If we proclaim a self-giving theology rather than self-sacrifice, we are not inviting people to feel shame or saying that the self is bad and steeped in sin. We are instead saying that there are times when everyone needs to set their ego aside in order to help someone else. It is mutual caring for one another so that we can all enjoy the good gifts of God, not some people making huge sacrifices so that others can live a privileged existence.
This self-giving way of living can make a significant, positive difference in our world, especially right now where it feels very “dog-eat-dog” out in the world. Over and over, we hear stories in the news where one person or one group or one political party promotes only their own agenda, seeking to exploit any advantage they can, to the detriment of the other. There is not nearly enough focus on listening, learning, compromising, caring for and meeting the needs of all concerned, not just the winner.
If we truly followed this Scripture and the self-giving example of Jesus painted here, we would set our egos aside for long enough to hear what others want and need. And, when a whole group of people do that in a church, it can make a powerful, positive impact in our community and world.
This summer, can we--can I--focus on following the self-giving example of Christ, praying for ways we can “forget ourselves long enough to lend a helping hand?” And in the words of Kathy’s song earlier, can we:
- celebrate each life.
- let hate go.
- let love grow.
May it be so!
Would you please join me in singing, “Pass it on,” a song written in 1969, that celebrates the heart-warming experience of God’s Love…
Let us pray.
Loving God, you call us to follow the example of Christ, to set our egos aside and give of ourselves to help others grow and flourish. You call us each and all to heart-warming experiences of the Holy. You call us to discover the gifts and talents that make our hearts sing, and to joyfully pour ourselves out using those gifts and talents to make our world a better place. Help us to do just that. And give us the added gift of discernment, so that we know the difference between self-sacrifice, which leads to resentment and burnout, and self-giving, which leads to building up both others and ourselves.
And, God, Hear now our prayers for our community and our world…
- For people all over the world who are contracting the virulent COVID Delta variant. Bless particularly those who are on respirators struggling for their lives-- and those need to be admitted to the hospital but cannot be because there is no room for them. We pray that more resources can be found.
We pray for health care workers the world over who continually pour themselves out to help others--keep them safe, keep them strong, give them the rest they need.
- Bless also people who have are eligible for the vaccine but have not yet chosen to get it. May their decisions be based on factual information and not mis-information. May they do what is best for BOTH themselves and their community.
And may those who are intentionally spreading misinformation about this health crisis recognize the error of their ways and stop doing so.
[LOOK AT PHONE]
- Moment of silence…lifting up in prayer those we hold in our hearts.. others in this room and in our livestream… [PAUSE]
- O God, bless the sick… those who are struggling… those who are grieving…caregivers… Give them strength and healing…. In Jesus name, Amen
PLEASE JOIN ME IN THE LORD’S PRAYER
- Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven
- Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts
As we forgive our debtors`
- And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. AMEN
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA