September 23, 2020

Philippians 2:1-13

1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Ghandi famously is to reported to have said, ” I like your Christ but I do not like your Christians.” He made this observation in a fight for justice, in a fight to change a culture that oppressed those who were poor. I can only imagine what it was like for him to hear followers of Jesus tell him that his fight for those who was oppressed was un-Biblical or not Christ like. It’s not so different from the ways Jesus and the Bible are being thrown around in this election year.

The truth of the matter is we are called each one of us in our baptism to seek to be “Christ-like” to be imitators of Jesus in the way in which we live out our day to day lives. The way we live our lives is supposed to help all those whom we encounter to see the image of Christ in us. I feel like 2020 has made it difficult for people to see the image of Christ in me. Every outing is an ordeal, I’m tired, my patience for others is wearing thin, I just want this pandemic to be over. In my overall 2020 sate I’ve said and done things that were not very Christ-like at all, and maybe you have too.

The good news for us is that the call to be a reflection of Jesus, is not a call to perfection. Thanks be to God. But it is rather, an invitation to realize that God is active in our day to day and up to something special and unique in each and every person. It’s God’s call to us to live counter culturally, to respond when everyone around us is screaming, “the sky is falling!” with hope and grace in our current circumstances. It isn’t easy and yet the world knows that we are Christians by our love, not our ambition, not our competitiveness, but our love for all the beautiful unique people God has made.