Let the Same Mind be in You - A Sermon for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, 2020

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” Phil 2:5

The struggle of the age we live in is: Who shall we be? We are in a time of uncertainty. We do not know what tomorrow will bring.  We do not know when this virus shall abate. We do not know when, or if, a vaccine will be available.  Our lives have been turned upside down and we cannot live the way we once did.  Is this forever?  Has the world irrevocably changed?

We do not really know the answer to this question, except to say that the world is always changing. Our circumstances are always being upset. Our worlds are always being turned upside down in one way or another.  The difference this time, is that we are all going through this change together.  Unlike the many individual changes all of us face on a daily basis and in various seasons of our lives, we are not going through this alone.  In this one, we are in it together.

But being in something together, while one may think it is easier that traveling through change and disruption alone, is not always as easy as it might seem.  While we journey through this time with a common purpose, to see the end of this virus, we are also journeying through this time with a shared anxiety and common trauma. We see it every day.  In my own ministry, I have found myself working with more people who are struggling with mental health issues, anxiety, and depression than ever before.  The weight of our common struggle on top of the individual personal challenges we all face, is causing many of us to break.  Perhaps you have also witnessed outbursts of anger and exasperation in public places.  Maybe, like me, you are one of those people who has an outburst from time-to-time, because the weight of the struggle is just too much.  Perhaps you have witnessed the denial of the situation we are in, and yes, like me perhaps you have participated in that denial from time-to-time and pretended there is no current threat.  Sometimes, when we are traveling under the weight of shared trauma, we need to take a break and live as if there is no crisis. But the crisis is still here whether we like it or not.

Many of our usual coping strategies have been taken away from us. We are limited in what we can do. And while my golf game has improved this summer, I deeply miss being able to dance.  I suspect each of us has something we are longing to do more than anything in the world when the virus finally abates.

This is all to say, as society, as a church, as workplaces, as families and as individuals, we need to cut each other a lot of slack. This can be difficult when we are wandering about in trauma-land.  This can be difficult when the weight of the struggle is so heavy. This can be difficult when the horizon seems so distant.

When St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, he was rotting away in a first century Mediterranean prison.  His situation was a difficult one.  Although it is difficult to know what exactly was happening in Philippi, they were facing some sort of struggle and crisis as a community as well. It is likely that some people weren’t exactly getting along. I know this seems impossible to believe that sometimes people in the church don’t get along but stay with me.  But what is the value, the feeling, the experience, that is first and foremost for St. Paul during his imprisonment? It is joy.  And he encourages his people in Philippi to bring his joy to completion through one simple admonition, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…”

who, though he was in the form of God,
   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.

Although Christ had every reason, every capability to avoid the suffering, to evade the struggle, he chose to empty himself of all his power and experience life in all its wonder and all its disappointments, even to the point of false accusation, trial, and death.

This mind of Christ is a humble mind. The life he lives is one of humility.  I think that in the day in which we live, our greatest enemy is pride.  We are a proud people. We are so proud as to think we are immune and invincible from a plague and even from death. It is not so.

It is pride that causes us to cling to a former reality, or perhaps even an unreality, when a new and more dangerous time has dawned.  It is pride that makes us lash out at others. It is pride that makes us deny the reality of the day. It is pride that divides us as a community.  St. Paul knew this and in a very different circumstance reminded the Philippians of the virtue of Christ’s humility.  Perhaps we need this reminder again today in our circumstances.

But how is it possible for us, mere mortals, flawed human beings, to be of this same mind as the flawless Christ?  How is it that his humility can be our humility?  To be sure, we can never be perfect in our humility, but we can recognize it as a gift that he offers us, both by example and by infusion and a goal for which to strive by his grace.  By meditating on his passion, and by participating in his life through our sacramental participation and asking him to transform us into his likeness, we stand a chance, for the story did not end on the cross:

Therefore God also highly exalted him
   and gave him the name
   that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
   every knee should bend,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
   that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father.

This little hymn from which St. Paul quotes ends with humility.  The humility of Christ is his victory, and our victory is humility.   The choice is ours as to whether or not we will embrace the humanity of that humility and find our true holy purpose, our true divine identity.  The question remains, who shall we be in the midst of trauma and crisis?  What shape will our lives take?  What will be our mind and our purpose during this time?  With the help of God in Christ, we can make a choice as to how we live. Will we be held hostage to our pride, or will we embrace the humility of Christ as our way?  St. Paul reminds us that we are to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling.  This is soul-searching work, but we have the sure and certain hope that as we do this work, God is at work in us enabling us both to will and to work for his good pleasure.