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New Thoughts, New Actions In Christ

The Rev. Thomas W Simmons

Have I mentioned how much I like our mission statement here at St Peter's?  We are Building Christians for Service.  This statement shows us what we are doing and where we are going as a congregation. It is the compass point to which all of our programs, ministries, budget expenditures and activities are oriented. 

Building Christians for service means many things and I think it's going to be fun unpacking it together in the years ahead here at St Peter's.  Today I'd like to focus briefly on what is it to build Christians for service .   When you build you start with something small, with raw material, and build it up into something more, something grand. 

Change and transformation and progress and growth are at the heart of the process as each Christian is made into something more than they were before.   To be a part of St. Peter's Church is to participate in this process, starting from wherever you are and ending up as a Christian who serves God, each other and the world.

Our passages this morning deal with that process by addressing how we think and what we doas Christians.  How you think influences how you live.  You'll hear me say it 1000 times.  Ideas have consequences.  In our lesson from Philippians Paul shows us that and urges us to think and act like Jesus does. 

He says, “Let the same mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who,

Though he was in the form of God,
            He did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited
                        But 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.
                                                            Therefore God highly exalted him
                                                And gave him a name above every name
                                    That at the name of Jesus every knee should bend
                        In heaven and and on earth and under the earth
            And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
To the glory of God the Father. 

I wish the scripture insert in your bulletin showed this text in poetic stanzas so you could see it's highly crafted symmetry. There are six lines at the beginning and six at the end of the poem with one line in the center on which the beginning and the end hinge.  It is “even death on a cross.”  Just think of the structure of the poem as six steps down to the cross, and from there, six step up to glory.  That's the cosmic trajectory of Jesus' life and work and it reveals how Jesus thinks and acts, and how we should, too.

It starts with the Son of God in glory, in the form of God and equal with God in every way.  But when he thinks about his stature he regards it as something not to be exploited, grasped or used to his advantage, though he could freely command the universe to serve him. 

Instead,the Son thinks of his divine eminence as an opportunity to serve others - to serve us.  Ideas have consequences and the consequence of this particular idea is that me must step down to our level, by “being born in human likeness.” He came here to serve us and save us from ourselves.  He came to die for us in the lowest and most degrading way: on a cross.

When he took that last humble step into the abyss, God was there to bring him out again.  That's good to know when you are in the abyss. In the structure of the poem, he took six steps down to death.  He now takes six steps up to glory.  God exalted him, gave him his name above all others, so that now every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Do you see the path to glory?  It is through self-giving love and service to others.  You start high, then go low to serve others and after that comes the glory.  That's probably a very different path than you learned growing up, isn't it? The typical trajectory of success in today's world is to start low and aim high. 

Through ambition, hard work, cleverness, luck and maybe stepping on a few people along the way you climb ever upward to meet your goals and grab the ring: senior vice president.  Along the way you exploit every advantage you have to get ahead. 

We Christians are called to a very different way of life.  Paul says, "Let this mind be in you."  He wants us to think and act like Jesus: to not exploit our advantages and put ourselves above others, but to empty ourselves and put others first in our relationships with our spouse and kids, with our brothers and sisters in Christian community and with the people we rub elbows with in the world. 

But that's hard to do, isn't it?   This calling goes against our upbringing and our very nature, which typically looks out for number one.  So how do we do it? How do we get there from here?  Well folks, that's what building Christians for service is all about. 

Paul says, "God is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure."  Thank God he doesn't just tell us what to do and send us off to do it on our own and then smack us when we mess up.  That’s how many people view their relationship with God.  Instead, God is actively at work in us, equipping and empowering us to serve him. He changes us so that we will desire his will and put our effort into achieving it. 

We are like the son in Jesus' parable who initially tells his father “no way.”  But then his heart changes and he ends up willing and working for his father’s good pleasure.  Remember that when you feel tempted or weak or just plain don't want to obey.  God is at work in you and will help you change your heart.  Just yield to him, open the door a little and let him do his thing. 

But unfortunately people often fail in the Christian life because they are only ever told of their responsibility to be a good Christian and they feel guilty and hopeless about their inability to fulfill it. 

It's a recipe for burnout and neurosis.  You've heard of Catholic guilt and there's also Baptist guilt.  I guess there's not a lot of Episcopal guilt, but hey, there's still a lot of people in Episcopal churches who, when they realize that they're not this perfect Christian, just give up trying. 

But Paul is giving us a recipe for successful Christian living.  Paul describes how God is building Christians for service, how he is building YOU for service in the likeness of Jesus.  God works in you so that you can work for him. 

So that's what the Christian life is about.  God calls us, and is actively at work assisting us, to join with Jesus, to adopt his mindset and way of life, to share these gifts with others.  We are to treat people well, by giving ourselves to them, as Jesus does. And as we think and act this way together we will be building Christians for service. 

We are becoming a Christian community.  Paul describes us. “Be of the same mind” which is the mind of Christ, “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.” 

Today ten families are committing to membership and joining are our community here at St. Peter’s. All of you new members are committing to become part of this process of transformation and mutual service.  And all of you seasoned members are committing to be this kind of community for those who are new, to welcome them into your church and into your hearts and into this process of building Christians for service.    And we will all do it with God’s help. AMEN