Sermon: Holy Remembering

 Philippians 2:1-13
Holy Remembering

James Sledge                                                                           September 27, 2020

 Quotes from Mohandas Gandhi, who led a non-violent campaign against British rule in India, often
show up on social media, although revelations of racist attitudes toward Blacks have damaged his reputation recently. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world” “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”  And though it’s not certain that he actually said it, I’m struck by this one. “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” 

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

The quote from Paul and the one from Gandhi seem incompatible. If Christians have the mind of Christ then how could we be so unlike Christ. Yet there is a ring of truth to the Gandhi quote. Too often, Christians do look very little like Jesus. Too often, no one would look at us and think they had caught a glimpse of Jesus, even though that’s what it means to wear the name “Christian.”

When you meet people from another country or culture, especially if it’s a place you’ve never been, you are likely to draw some conclusions about the country or culture from the people you meet. The reverse is true when Americans travel abroad. The way American tourists act in foreign countries gives people an impression of what America is like. 

Gandhi was not Christian but lived in a country that had been ruled by Christians for centuries. What he saw did not impress him. But he also read about Jesus from the Bible, and he was impressed with Jesus.

Gandhi is hardly the only one to encounter Christians who were nothing like Christ. One has to wonder how the Africans brought to America as slaves ever saw Jesus in those who brutalized them and regarded them as property like cows or sheep. How was it that so many slaves embraced faith in a Jesus whose mind was so rarely on display in their “Christian” oppressors? Sometimes I find it nothing short of amazing that anything even resembling the way of Jesus has survived, given how often Christians look nothing like Jesus.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

In his letter to the Philippian Christians, Paul is pretty clear what it looks like when our thoughts, our way of thinking, mirrors that of Christ Jesus. We do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit; we regard others as better than ourselves; we worry about other people’s needs more than we do our own.

We shouldn’t need Paul to tell us this. If we know the story of Jesus, we know that he cared little for earthly possessions, that he spent much of his time caring for others, that he hung out with the bottom tier of society, that he warned over and over about the dangers of wealth, that he was non-violent and called his followers to love their enemies and “turn the other cheek,” that he gave himself for others even to the point of death on a cross, and called his followers to embrace this self-sacrificial way of the cross. We know all of this, so why don’t we look more like Jesus?

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

I suppose one possible reason we’re not more like Jesus is that it seems to us an impossible task. Wasn’t Jesus sinless and perfect? What chance do we have to be the same? But I don’t think Paul expects the Philippians, or us, to become perfect, yet it is clear he thinks we can be very much like Christ. And this is not simply a matter of us trying harder. Rather it is about the new life that comes to us in Christ.

When Paul urges the Philippians saying, “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…” he means that encouragement in Christ, consolation from love, and sharing in the Spirit are indeed present. The word translated “if” in our reading is a Greek form which implies that this is true. Some translators even prefer to render Paul’s words, “Since there is encouragement in Christ, consolation in love, sharing in the Spirit…”

And this isn’t the only interesting translation issue. When Paul quotes an early Christian hymn about Christ who did not regard equality with God something to be exploited, he introduces it with, Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. But this could just as well be translated, Have this same mind in yourselves that you also have in Christ Jesus. 

Given the way Paul often speaks of how we become something new in Christ, I actually wonder if this isn’t a more likely translation. Paul is not urging the Philippians to try harder to be like Jesus. He is calling them and us to live out who we actually are in Christ. The good news that Paul declared long ago to the Philippians is they have become new people in Jesus. They have died to sin and been reborn to new life. God is now at work in them, enabling them both to will and to do the things that honor God. Paul is not simply giving a motivational pep talk. Rather he is urging them, and us, to remember who we truly are.

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Perhaps some of you saw Disney’s live-action remake of The Lion King last year. I loved the original, animated version. That means I’ve probably shared this before, but I think it fits so well with what Paul is saying that I’ll use it again.

If you've not seen either version, the story revolves around Simba, the cub of the lion king, Mufasa, and heir to the throne. But Mufasa's brother Scar, the villain, hatches a plot where Mufasa is killed and Simba convinced that he is to blame. Racked with guilt, Simba runs away into self-imposed exile, leaving the pride to the evil rule of Scar. 

At a pivotal moment in the story, Simba’s old girlfriend comes to plead with him to return, to take his place as king and overthrow Scar before it is too late. Simba resists, but with help from Rafiki, a mandrill who is a mix of priest, prophet, and wise sage, Simba experiences a vision of his father. Mufasa tells his son, "You have forgotten who you are, and so you have forgotten me... Remember who you are." 

I wonder if when people look at Christians and see very little of Jesus, we don’t need an experience similar to Simba’s, which may well be what Paul is trying to give the Philippians. In our case it would be Jesus who speaks. "You have forgotten who you are, and so you have forgotten me. Remember who you are.”

I’m reminded of a favorite quote from John Calvin. “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: knowledge of God and of ourselves.”[1] If we have forgotten who we are and so forgotten Jesus, forgotten God, we are indeed lost.

But the good news is that correcting this is not about mustering up tremendous courage or remarkable fortitude and commitment. Correcting this is instead about holy remembering. Remember that in your baptism you were joined to Christ, and the Holy Spirit now dwells within you. Remember that in Christ the power of sin over you has been broken, and you are able both to will and to do that which honors God and shows Christ to the world.

And oh, how the world needs us to remember. How our nation needs Christ-minded people to show the way. For too long the church has been a faithful part of the status quo, a status quo that thinks shooting Breonna Taylor in her bed is “justified,” a status quo where people like most of us are advantaged and privileged by the color of our skin, a status quo where all lives matter, but Black lives, Latino lives, female lives, LGBTQ lives are not quite fully an “all.”

Jesus was never part of the status quo. He didn’t get executed because he was nice, a good citizen, or part of the religious establishment. Jesus was a trouble maker. He scared people. He hung out with those on the margins, those left out by the status quo and looked down on by good religious folk. And he proclaimed that their lives mattered, that they would enter the Kingdom ahead of the nice, upstanding, respectable, church going folk.

We are called to be his followers, to walk in his ways, share his mindset, think like him. And so you must remember. God is at work in you. The Spirit is stirring in you. You are in Christ and have within you the mind of Christ. Look deeply inside yourself, and remember who you are!

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[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, LCC (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960) p. 35.