When Christians Disagree (Part 3)

Philippians 2:1-8

            During this series, we have been introduced to a church that Paul loved, that was being torn apart because of a conflict between two people. They each wanted to rally the church to their side. Last week we saw that Paul was disturbed by the strife that this disagreement caused and by the spiritual immaturity that these people and possibly others in the church had demonstrated because of this. To help them set aside their differences so that they could find the unity they once had through their relationship with Christ, and to instruct them on how they could grow up in Christ, Paul first invites them to remember the wonderful gift that their relationship with Christ was for each of them. He then exhorted them to change their outlook on life, by setting aside selfishness and empty conceit and by changing their minds. Replace their mind which evaluates everything based on personal self interest, with the mind of Christ. As they do this, they will grow into the mature relationship that God longs to have with them and that God longs for them to have with each other. So what is this mind of Christ?

            The first thing that needs to be noted is that having the mind of Christ does not mean that we will be mimicking Jesus. In order to do this, we don’t need to start wearing ancient middle eastern dress, and walk around gazing toward the sky, like in the movies, trying to walk on water and, like Amy is called upon to do at times on Wednesday night, feed lots of people with just a little food. Having the mind of Christ is about how we seek to live our lives. What we make as our top priority. His life was the perfect example of how we are to live in relationship to God and to our world.

            Now, I know what you are thinking, I am not Jesus. He was the Son of God. He had a DNA advantage on us. While it is true he is the Son of God, our passage tells us that his coming to earth was as much about God understanding and empathizing with our situation as it was about helping us understand God. You may have heard of the TV series Undercover Boss. The premise of the show is that the CEO of a company, sheds his or her fancy suits and business lunches and with a fabricated history, goes to work as an entry level employee in his/her own company for one week. During that time, the CEO will learn about the working conditions the average worker has to face and the effects that their proclamations from on high have on morale and productivity. At the end of each episode the CEO goes away with a new respect and compassion for the people who work for their company.

            Verses 6 and 7 tell us that the CEO of the universe, set aside the power and authority that made Him God in order to understand our life, Jesus was in control of his very existence.  In Colossians we are told that it was Jesus who created "all things" and it goes on to say that he even was responsible for all things "holding together."  So, when verse six says that Jesus existed in the form of God, it is saying that He was the almighty, the one we know as the second person of the Trinity.  He was God.  Stop and think about that.  He had no need to change who he was.  He was the ultimate being in the universe.  There is nothing that He had to prove to anyone. 

            But in verse seven it says that he emptied himself, taking on the human form.  That word emptied, describes the emptying of a container.  Imagine a jar full of giant jaw breakers (At Wall Drug I saw some advertised as dinosaur eggs) and each jaw breaker represents an attribute that is unique to God.  Jesus willingly reached in to the jar and took out each one, setting it aside, His omnipotence - the power that he had to create the world and hold it together, His omniscience - the ability to know all and see all, past present and future, His omnipresence - the ability to be everywhere, not being constrained to a body, these were just some of the things that he gave up to take on human form.  What he got in exchange was a frail human body with all of it's weaknesses, wants, needs, and desires, exactly like ours. 

            He went from a being who was complete and perfect in every way to a being who's form was weak and susceptible to hunger, thirst, injury, fear, grief, the pain of rejection. He was also, capable of anger, lust, hatred, greed, selfishness, haughtiness, and any of the things we are tempted by on any given day. So, when we are tempted to look at Jesus and say, it was easy for you, because you are God, we need to remind ourselves that when he was on earth, he set all of that aside. Likewise, if we are ever tempted to say to God you don’t understand what it is like for us, through Jesus, the Trinity understands all of our frailties and short comings.

            Jesus then has come to understand our life, so how did he live it differently than every other human on the planet. Verse eight says that he humbled himself. How? Not by looking out for his own interests, which is the normal human condition. Jeff Strite, shared a story about a pastor who was shopping at the supermarket when a lady came down the aisle heading straight for him. She screeched to a halt within a few feet of him, wagged her finger, and said, "I left your church. I left your church". So I said, "Well, if it’s my church, I think that was a very wise decision. If it’s my church, I think I’m going to leave too." She said, "Don’t you want to know why I left?" I said, "No, not particularly, but I think I’m going to find out." And I was right. She said, "You weren’t meeting my needs." I answered, "I don’t ever recollect seeing you before, let alone talking to you, let alone knowing your needs. Did you ever tell anyone specifically what your needs were?" She couldn’t recall that she had, so I raised another question. "Can you tell me, if we have 5,000 people sitting in that church, ALL with your attitude, how is anyone’s needs are going to be met? If you reserve the right to have that attitude, then you must give everybody the freedom to have that attitude. And if everybody has that attitude, who on earth is going to do all the need-meeting?" (From a sermon by Jeff Strite, Love Me Nots, 2/21/2011) This is spiritual immaturity. This is living a life guided by self interest.

            Jesus on the other hand chose to first be dependant on the other members of the Trinity and say “I trust you completely to use me in what ever way is needed to reach these frail, lost, hurting people that we love. I will even face the agony of death.” Remember those words in the Garden, “If there is any other way to do this, please do it. But not my will, but your’s be done.” This was the mind of Christ. God, use me in any way you see fit. And he meant it. The reason he was able to say that was he trusted in the Love of God, not only for Himself, but for us. He was willing to offer himself as a sacrifice so that the greatest good can come out of the worst evil. He was able to set aside his needs and put our need, the need for forgiveness and salvation, ahead of his own. From a human perspective I can not begin to imagine the awful choice that Christ had to make. But he made it because he trusted that through his suffering, great good would come.

            This is the key to spiritual maturity. The spiritual infant/child is only concerned about their own needs, to make sure their needs are met, to make sure that things are done their way, to control the money they give to God, to make sure that the world conforms to the way they think it should be. But spiritual maturity comes from giving ourselves over to God, doing what God asks of us and trusting, trusting, trusting that God has a better design for our world and our place in it.  As Warren Wiersbe put it, "Self-preservation is the first law of physical life, but self-sacrifice is the first law of spiritual life." It is only when we take the steps to trust God to use us that we will take those steps toward spiritual maturity.

            Back to the people at Philippi. Paul is asking them to stop putting their own need to be right and in control aside, humble themselves and become obedient in the same way that Christ was, to let their need to control die and then in its place put a desire to let Jesus shine through. They needed to trust that as they followed Christ’s example, that God would work all thing out according to God’s plan.

            So when I disagree with a Christian Sister or Brother, the issue comes down to wether I desire to remain a spiritual infant or not. In the movie “Chocolate” (pronounced shaw-co-lot) there is a man, the mayor of a small town who’s life is a falling apart. But he does not want people to know. Rather than admit that he needs help, he seeks to control everything around him. He seeks to control the behavior of the people of the town, declaring the new chocolate shop in town to be off limits to “good” people. He even goes so far as to edit and often rewrite the priest’s sermons so that they say what he wants them to say. He needs to control everything. He can not trust that the Grace of God might shine forth from the people of the town if he were to admit his need. Instead, he seeks to use God, not allow God to use him, to control his world. He is seeking that “Self-preservation”.

            But if I desire a more mature relationship with God, I stop trying to use God to bend people to my wishes, and say like Jesus, not my will but your will be done. I need to trust that God will work all things out. I simply need to obey.

            So, in those times when we find ourselves disagreeing with one or more of our Sisters and Brothers in Christ, trust that God will work all things out according to God’s will and hear Paul’s invitation to the Philippian church to do the spiritually mature thing and “Have the attitude which was also in Christ Jesus”. AMEN.

Part 3 of a sermon series at St. Mark Presbyterian Church given on Sept. 29, 30, 2012