Back to the Basics - This We Believe!
I Believe in Jesus Christ, His Only Son, Our Lord
August 31, 2008
Philippians 2:1-11
Today's scripture comes from Paul's letter to the Philippians. And before we hear what Paul has to say, let me give you a bit of background. You see, the Philippians were having a problem-they were not doing a good job of getting along. Despite the fact that they had a great love for Christ and had a great track record of ministry, the congregation was grappling with some issue that was tearing them apart. So Paul, believing himself to be a spiritual father to them, wrote them to chastise them a bit, to instruct, and to encourage.
It is the midst of this instruction on how to get along that Paul quotes these wonderful words about Jesus. Some say the words were part of a hymn and others say they were a part of one of the early Christian creeds, but in any case Paul's answer to the problem of conflict in the Philippians congregation was to remind them of whom it was they believed!
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.
Who do we believe in and why have we gathered here today? We are here because at some level we can say: "I believe in Jesus Christ, God's Only Son , Our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary." We dare to gather here because we believe in the God who humbled himself by becoming just like us-even to the point of dying! We believe in a God who so loves this world that he was willing to give up all that was his due-his right-for our sake. He didn't have to but he chose to. And he chose to do so out of love!
This is the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ!
During the 19th century an essayist was reflecting on how words lose their meanings and as an example he pointed to Christians whom he claimed could say the most remarkable things without meaning them. And here is one of those places where Christians make some remarkable claims about God and about Jesus and yet for the most part we live as if we don't really believe.
Maybe the problem is that we have heard the story too many times. We open our bibles to read it, but in the back of our head we see Linus instructing Charlie Brown on the true meaning of Christmas while the pathetic little Christmas tree perks up. We see the littlest angel grasping his rusty halo. We see Jimmy Stewart lifting a little girl up to place the Christmas tree topper on top of the tree as a bell rings because Clarence has just gotten his wings.
Not that any of these images are wrong. They all contain a bit of what the creed is trying to say. The problem is that they somehow tame the amazing claim of the faith into a sweet, pretty children's story complete with harmless looking angels, amazingly clean mangers, and a baby that doesn't even cry!
Given the way we normally tell the story of the birth of Christ, it is very hard to understand why the birth of that baby caused all of Jerusalem to tremble, for King Herod to send out his army to kill the child, and for the world to be turned upside down by his birth!
Yet, this is one of the most remarkable, earth-shattering stories ever told: we are saying that we believe God-almighty and creator of all this is-chose to take on flesh and dwell among us. The great, almighty creator chose to come into our world in the most vulnerable way possible-as a baby totally dependent on everyone around. Not only that but he was born in what would appear to be the wrong time (in the midst of a census that required them to be away from home!), in the wrong place (a dirty, stinky stable) and to the wrong person.
God came-and he experienced growing pains, adolescence, temptation, weariness and hunger. God came and learned what God could never normally have experienced-he learned what it was like to live as a human being made in his image but full of desires and weaknesses that God could never have known-except for Jesus.
And this remarkable claim tells us some very important things about God and about how we are to live individually as the image of that God and corporately as the body of Christ in this world!
To say we believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary is to say that in Jesus, God has acted on our behalf. Now it is very easy for us to get off track debating the possibility that a virgin could give birth or how the Holy Spirit could produce a living, breathing child.
But I believe that to do so misses the essential point of the claim. To say that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit is not to say that sex is bad or sinful, but it is to say that the conception of Jesus was the direct act of God and not a human. Jesus was not an accident, a surprise, or a mistake. Rather this child who comes at what appears to be an inopportune time to a most surprising choice of mother is, in fact, an act of God on our behalf.
To say we believe in the God revealed in Jesus is to say that we believe in a God unlike all the other so-called gods of this world!
This is not a God who is remote and uncaring. This is a God who wants to be in our midst, to understand our lives, our pain, our struggles and our temptations.
Nor is this a God who wishes to use his power to control us. The ancient world was full of stories of powerful gods-gods who played games with humans, gods who took advantage of women resulting in heroes who were half-human and half-god, gods who were concerned only with their rights, their power, and the things which made them happy. Yet, the God we meet in this baby born to a virgin is a God who doesn't play games with us; a God who rather than overpower us desires to empower us. This is not a God standing on top of a mountain somewhere looking down on us and laughing at our struggles. Rather this is a God who hears our cries for help and comes in our midst to rescue us from them!
This is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who hears the cries of his people and reaches out with a mighty hand to rescue them. This is the God of Moses, who wants a tabernacle so he can dwell in the midst of his people. This is the God, who Jesus called Father, who chose to change the world by giving up all power and glory by coming in the form of a baby.
This is a God who delights in using ordinary things to do the extraordinary. He uses a young powerless woman and a baby to change the world. He uses a criminal's cross to defeat death. He uses fishermen, prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, and even a self-satisfied Pharisee to tell his story. This is a God who uses water, bread and wine to change lives. And this is a God who chooses to change the world by using us!
Can you believe that? Do you believe that?
Because if you do, then everything changes. Everything-the way you view the world, the way you live your life, how you use power, how you treat others-everything must change in light of what God has done for us in Jesus!
If we believe-if we truly believe-then we will want to have the same mind as Christ Jesus. In other words, we will desire to want the things Jesus wanted, to love the things Jesus loved, to do the things Jesus did. If we truly believe and have experienced the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ, we will want to share that love and grace with others.
Is it no wonder that people outside the walls of our churches are confused about Jesus? We talk about these remarkable things-virgin births, resurrections, forgiveness, love, grace, and trust-on Sunday mornings and then we live our daily lives as if we don't really believe!
We spend an hour (or if we are really committed two or three) talking and studying about a God who enters into our messy world and acts on behalf of the poor, the elderly, the lost, the sinful, the broken and then we go home and take care of ourselves.
We speak of a God who forgives our sins and grants us new life. Then we go home and judge our neighbor and doubt whole groups of people can ever be changed.
But if we truly believe, how can we not live differently!
The great Wesleyan theologian, Albert Outler, once observed that for years he thought the heart of the Christian faith was all the things we had to do: We had to love God with all our heart and soul and strength. We had to love our neighbor as ourselves. We had to feed the hungry, cloth the naked and visit those in prison. We had to forgive our enemies. And we had to worship God. Then one day, he realized that he had always had it wrong, the heart of the Christian faith was not having to do anything. For those who believe, the heart of the Christian faith is that we get to love God and neighbor. We get to care for those God cares for. We get to work together in this funny thing called the church to make act on behalf of the world God so loves. The heart of the Christian faith is that the Christian life is a "Get To" and not a "Got To!"
This is what Paul was talking about with the Philippians. It isn't that we have to get along. It isn't that we have to live moral lives. It isn't that we have to love our enemies as well as our neighbors. But if we truly believe, then gratitude should so fill our hearts that we will want to have our lives, our will, our hearts shaped like the one whom we believe in. We will want people to look at us and say, "If that is what a Christian is, then I want to know that Christ!"
I'm sure you've all heard the story of the little girl frightened in the middle of the night by a thunderstorm. The lightening and the crashes of thunder so frighten her that she screams for her parents. Her mother comes up to her room and comforts her by saying, "Don't you believe Jesus is with you always?" The little girl replies, "Yes." So the mother tells her to remember that when she is afraid and then goes back to bed. But within a few moments there is another crash of thunder and the child screams again and the mom goes back up to her room and asks, "Didn't you say you believed that Jesus was with you?" And the little girl responds, "Yes, but right now I need a Jesus with skin on!"
When we stand and say we believe in Jesus Christ, God's only son, Our Lord, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, we are saying that we believe first that God truly took on skin in order to show us that he truly is with us in the midst of the storms of life. But it is also to say, that if God would so humble himself as to take on skin to be present with us, then we as his people-those who share his heart, his mind, his will, have the holy privilege and responsibility to be Jesus with skin on for this world!
Unfortunately, it's almost a cliché-one of those phrases that has lost its meaning because we say it but we don't do it. We are surrounded by a world hungry for Jesus, but he remains a distant historical figure, a great teacher, or an impossible concept because we are not out in that world fleshing out the claims of our faith!
To stand and say that we believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary is not to say like the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland that we will believe six unbelievable things every day before breakfast. This is not a biological or philosophical riddle to be solved. Rather these are the truths by which we live. This is the power that can transform our lives. This is the radical new vision of the world we are called to proclaim. If God in Jesus took on flesh on our behalf, if God in Jesus acted to save us, if God in Jesus forgave us before we even knew we needed forgiveness, then surely we would want to do the things that God in Jesus did.
Tomorrow is Labor Day--another phrase which has lost its meaning for us. But as we reflect on what it means to believe in a God who would take on flesh and dwell in our midst, I believe it is an excellent time for each of us to reflect on how we can be Jesus with skin on in the midst of our daily activities.
Does the way you do your work reflect the detail of God's creation? Does the way you treat your co-workers reflect the grace and love of Christ? Does the way you treat the guy no one likes, the obnoxious boss or ex-spouse, the dirty, smelly child reflect the acceptance of Jesus? Does your lifestyle-your daily activities, the way you spend your spare time and your spare money-reflect the lifestyle of Jesus? Do you do the sort of things Jesus would do? Do you avoid the sort of activities that Jesus would avoid? Do you show love and compassion? Do you regard others as better than you? Do you give up your power, your rights for the sake others?
If we truly believe then all these things will not be obligations that we must fulfill but gifts of thanksgiving to the God who acts on our behalf. The Life of Christ will be a GET TO and not a GOT TO. And the world will look at us and say, "If that is what a Christian is then I want to know their Christ!" so that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!
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