Think Like Jesus, Act Like Jesus.

Philippians 2:5-11

April 5 MMXX + Palm/Passion Sunday

I.

In this supremely important reading from the apostle Paul’s letter to the gospel community in Philippi, scholars believe he is probably quoting an ancient hymn of the early church.  That means that he is giving us something basic, elemental, primal, and fundamental about Christian faith.

First, this is not just a doctrinal statement like a creed to which we are supposed to adhere; it is, rather, pastoral encouragement, reminding the Philippians of something with which they would already be familiar from their worship life.  He is instructing the sisters and brothers in Philippi about how they need to think and behave.  He says, “Let the same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus, as we regularly sing about him.”

In other words, think like Jesus, so that you may then act like Jesus.  That, in short, is the basic point of our whole life: that we think and act like Jesus Christ.  If we were to reduce Christian faith to its bare essentials, it would probably be this.  Christians are people who want their lives shaped and governed by Jesus.

It seems obvious, but unfortunately this will come as news to too many Christians today.  The bumper sticker that was popular in the 90’s still sums it up: WWJD?  What Would Jesus Do?  Here Paul begins with what Jesus would think, what his mind would be about.  But the results are the same.  We are put on this earth to be members of his body, agents and extensions of Jesus Christ.  “You are Christ in the world,” is the way one Catholic priest colleague of mine used to say it.  We are to do what Jesus would do.  

The Theological Declaration of Barmen, from our Book of Confessions, has this marvelous and powerful affirmation: “Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.”  We are here to obey, follow, trust, and embody in our own lives the mind and work of Jesus.

Which means that we need to be asking ourselves all the time how to do that.  Which means that we need to invest a lot of our energy first of all in studying the gospels, the New Testament, and the rest of Scripture, because we can’t pretend to be doing what Jesus would do if we don’t know who Jesus is and what does.  

Our egos are so powerful and convincing that we can easily pretend that of course Jesus would do whatever we want.  We can and do build in our minds a case for Jesus wanting us to be rich.  We imagine that Jesus wants us to be happy according to our own desire.  Jesus wants us to have power and be popular.  Jesus approves of whatever we have to do to get these benefits for ourselves.  I mean, that Barmen statement was written in a time when most Christians in Germany imagined that Jesus wanted their race and their nation to dominate the world! 

That is why careful, self-critical study of Scripture is so important, especially the gospels.  That is why having a relationship with other Christians, especially some who are farther along the journey and who have some experience and wisdom, is also important.

II.

In case the Christians in Philippi have the same confusion, Paul then reminds them of what they already believe about the mind of Christ Jesus, as revealed by his life as expressed in their worship.  

First, “[Jesus Christ] was in the form of God,” but he empties himself, “taking the form of a slave,” obedient to the point of death, even execution by the Romans.  The mind of Christ, then, is not in any way about getting, keeping, having, or holding on to anything! 

So the mind of Christ is not focused in any way on what we can get for ourselves, on what we consume, on what we own and control.  Any human impulse and behavior in this direction is utterly opposed to the mind of Christ.  Christ’s mind is the opposite of the acquisitive mentality that always wants more of everything.   

Rather, his identity with God is expressed in his obedience, his willing self-sacrifice, his offering up of himself, first in his teaching, healing, and feeding needy people, and finally consummated in his giving of his life and shedding of his blood.  In other words the mind of Christ is about, frankly, losing.  It is about what we give, donate, contribute, offer, and let go of.

The mind of Christ is the polar opposite of that other bumper sticker I used to see: “Whoever dies with the most toys wins.”  Indeed, Jesus is the One who says the first shall be last and the last shall be first.  For him, whoever dies with the fewest “toys,” or possessions, assets, whoever owns for themselves the least amount of stuff, is the one who really wins.  Because that is the person who is the most pure, clear, empty vessel or channel for the love of God to pour through them into the world.

Jesus Christ empties himself for others.  In doing this he proves his divinity, for this is precisely what God is about.  The superabundant love of the Trinity overflows and pours out into the universe in the form of the creation, and then in the entrance into creation in Jesus Christ, and finally in the infusing of the whole creation with the Holy Spirit, God’s own Breath of life.  

If we are going to have the mind of Christ, this is what it means.  We have to share in the same blessed and divine losing, the same kind of self-emptying, the same generosity that we see in Jesus.  Which is to say the same compassion, forgiveness, humility, and love for all, even for enemies.  The same refusal to hold on to the fear, anger, greed, lust, gluttony, and negativity that characterize the normal human mind.

For to have in us “the same mind” “that was in Christ Jesus,” means first to lose, relinquish, let go of, and release this normal, small, limited, temporary, self-centered, self-righteous, self-obsessed fragmentary way of thinking, and allow the expansive mind of Christ to fill us as he pours through us.

III.

This is the only way to God.  This is the only way to be real.  This is the only way to life and salvation:  To make ourself nothing, so that we may be filled with everything!  To realize that we — that is, who we think we are — are nothing, so that God may emerge to be everything in us.  To make ourselves clear and open vessels, so that God’s grace may flow in and through us.

So when Paul talks about the exaltation of Jesus, where his name is lifted up and worshiped by everyone “in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” it is not some triumphalist fantasy about our particular religious institutions coming to dominate the world, wiping out all other faiths even by violence if necessary.  Tragically, that is how this verse has been exploited historically by some in the church, and it is how it is too often heard, with good reason, by others.

But Paul is not talking about a religion here.  He is talking about a person: Jesus Christ, and the Truth he reveals about God.  It is that the destiny of all is to participate in the ultimate reality he reveals.

The One whom God exalts, lifts up, is the One who empties himself.  The One whose name is above all others, is the One who reduces himself to a slave.  The One before whom every knee will bend, is the One who comes into the world “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life… for many.”  

Until we have been through the way of self-emptying, the way of loss, the way of sacrifice, the way even of death, we have no business even imagining our exaltation.  In Jesus Christ, this exaltation and triumph happens in the self-giving.  His “defeat” is his victory.  His service is his Lordship.  His humility, his obedience, even his death on a cross, is his triumph.

We have his mind in us when we are looking around for what else we can give.  We have his mind in us when we find ways to give and even lose ourselves, as many crisis workers are doing today.

IV.  

This is a scary time we live in.  It is a time when we are tempted to think primarily about how we can keep what we have: our health, our life, our food, our toilet paper.  It is a time when many of us may be worried about our security, our jobs, our income, our pensions, our medical coverage.  Do we have enough ventilators?  Do we have enough masks?  Do we have enough ICU beds?  

It is a time when we are tempted to hoard things we think we might need.  People are buying up a drug called hydroxychloroquine based on a quack rumor, and thus depleting the supply for people suffering from Lupus who really need it.  And so on.

The mind of Christ is not about any of that… if we’re following the Christ we see in the Bible, and not one we invented for ourselves.  With Jesus Christ, it’s not about what we keep and gain; it is about what we give and lose.

Ironically, that is even how the church grows: by giving away its life.  By giving away what it has received from God.  By offering up itself as a living sacrifice, and demonstrating the great love that is to give life for others.

In these difficult, surreal, unprecedented, and challenging days, which will certainly become more so before they get better, from which we will emerge into an unknown new normal that will be very different from what we knew before, we who follow Jesus Christ need to have in ourselves his mind, the mind of giving, losing, donating, and serving, a mind of humility and joy, indeed, even a mind ready to identify with God the Creator, who self-empties that all may have being and life.

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"Set the Mind on the Breath."

Romans 8:6-11

March 29 MMXX

I.

“To set the mind on the flesh is death,” Paul writes.  “But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”  There are, then, two ways to go, two directions upon which we may set our minds.  The way of the flesh or the way of the Spirit.  We may go one way, or we may go the other way, but we cannot go both ways at once, because they are opposite directions.

One direction is called “flesh.”  That is, it is concerned with the desires, cravings, demands, health, longevity, and needs of the physical and temporal aspect of our human nature.  It is not that this part of who we are is evil or bad.  The human body is part of God’s good creation, as is all matter, from which it is made.  The problem is when we “set our mind on” it in such a way that what we physically need and want becomes primary, or even everything to us. 

For our mortal nature, of course, is just one dimension of who we are.  And when we become so focused on this dimension of our being that everything else is secondary or even disregarded, we have a problem.  That attitude, and the practices resulting from it, leads to death.  For our mortal body does not last forever.  Eventually it, like everything else in creation, stops working and gets reduced to its elements to be recycled, reconstituted, and renewed.  And if we have not become conscious of and shaped by the other larger, deeper, higher, more inclusive dimension of our being, what Paul calls the Spirit, then when our bodies give out, we cease to exist. 

Unfortunately, this view, that we are identical with and limited to our material bodies, is the way we usually think about ourselves.  “To set the mind on the flesh” is just normal.  It is the whole basis for our thinking and acting from our birth.  Indeed, any other way of thinking about who we are is almost inconceivable.  Our ego keeps telling us to think this way, and that this is the only way to think.

Paul goes on to say that “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.”  That’s because if we have dedicated our existence to getting what we want for ourselves, and for ours, we have shoved God out of the center of creation and placed ourselves there.  We think and act according to our own self-interest, rather than what God intends. 

This is indeed the whole basis for what we call civilization or Empire, and it is the foundation of our economy.  Paul is writing to the gathering of Christians in Rome itself, and they would have been acutely aware of living at the epicenter of imperial evil, the very heart of the beast, the apex of egocentricity manifest in the corruption, injustice, and violence of the Emperor and his minions.

Of all people, they would have understood that “setting the mind on the flesh” is the basis for the whole regime.  They know the the economic injustice that infects the whole Empire.  They know that the Empire demanded loyalty to the Emperor, who was the corrupt, narcissistic nihilist at the center of the whole system.  They know that setting the mind on the flesh is what the Empire is all about, how it stays in business.  If people stopped doing that, the whole regime would collapse.

II.

And that is precisely what Paul says they have to do, and indeed are already doing, having placed their trust in the Lord Jesus, and gathering with other followers of Jesus in a gospel community.  They are setting their minds on the Spirit.  They are living together in a different direction. 

Setting our minds on the Spirit is the opposite of setting our minds on the flesh, not because it is to set our minds on some other thing, but it is to set our minds on everything.  For the Spirit is God and God is the Creator of all things, and all things bear God’s voiceprint and signature.  “The Earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and all those who dwell therein.”    

To set our minds on the Spirit is to think and act in terms of the wholeness of life, rather than on our individual “flesh,” which is small, temporary, and limited, and therefore puts me, my family, my nation, my race, my agenda first.  Instead of seeing everything through the distorted lens of our own egocentric fear and craving, thinking and doing only what is in our own self-interest, in the Spirit we come to see from God’s perspective what is good for everyone.

Setting our minds on the Spirit means getting ourselves out of the way and radically broadening our vision.  And it starts in this inclusive, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic community of Jesus’ followers.  What binds them together is their trust in the Jewish Messiah whom Rome crucified for sedition, but whom God raised from the dead, thereby negating Rome’s destructive power, and who now lives with and in the community by his Spirit.

The Greek word translated as “Spirit” also means “breath,” and I find it instructive to imagine how the same breath with which God speaks the world into being, God’s very Spirit, infusing creation, animates all of us — plants, animals, and humans — unifying and giving life to all. 

The followers of Jesus also know this breath of creation as “the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead,” God’s liberating, redeeming power at work in the world for justice.  The new community of Jesus’ followers knows, through him, the essential unity and oneness of the whole creation.  They know that the Spirit or breath that dwells in us is not our private, personal possession, only given to us and our particular institution or religion.  Rather, the Spirit connects us to all and gives life to all.

It is this Spirit — his Spirit — upon whom the disciples set their minds, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus that Paul says dwells within them.  This Spirit gives them new life as experienced in the way they live together according to God’s inclusive, forgiving, restorative justice.  The Spirit then gives them power and energy to share that new kind of life with all.

III.

Of course, these days we are more acutely aware than ever that we are all connected, breathing the same air, and therefore exchanging the microbes that the air is carrying, including the deadly virus to which we are now subject.  Never before has the whole global population been made so profoundly conscious of our connectedness, as we unwittingly share this virus from person-to-person around the planet.  It is our connectedness which appears to be killing many of us, and threatening all of our health.

  

We find ourselves reflexively panicking, setting our minds on the flesh, in particular monitoring our own bodies for signs of infection, and keeping our distance from other bodies.  We have become literally toxic to each other.  

Indeed, this crisis has given some the excuse they need to compound the toxicity, weaponizing our technological connectedness by spewing into the atmosphere a torrent of mindless and hateful conspiracy theories, pathetic screeds of paranoia and xenophobia, empty wishful-thinking, and just plain mis-information.  It has spawned hoarding and profiteering, as well as a crisis of leadership.  This was the week we even heard some politicians express a willingness to let people die for the economy.  It is hard to imagine someone’s mind more set on the flesh, on mammon or money, than that. 

But can we move in the other direction that Paul talks about, setting our minds instead on the Spirit of God?  Can we transform this staggering new awareness of our global connectedness into something beautiful and life-giving?  Can we suggest that, if we can communicate disease to each other so easily, maybe we can also communicate blessing, peace, justice, forgiveness, and acceptance?  Can we communicate life and love?  Can we be agents of healing and comfort in an age of polarization and mistrust?

If a virulent virus can rage around the world in a few months, why can’t the good news of God’s love for the world in Jesus Christ flow around the world as well?  Why can’t generosity, compassion, forgiveness, humility, and non-violence spread just as quickly?

Our Presbyterian saint, Fred Rogers, when disturbed by scenes of civil crisis, remembers how his mother would advise him to “look for the helpers.”  If we did that now we would see thousands who are putting their lives at risk, sometimes with inadequate protection, for the sake of others.  In addition to doctors, nurses, and EMTs, ordinary people are sewing masks, distributing food, comforting the lonely, donating blood, sharing good information, supporting those whose lives are disrupted, and encouraging other helpers. 

This is what setting the mind on the Spirit looks like.  To set our minds on the Spirit means getting to work embodying our shared humanity in service to those in need.  It means recognizing that we all share in the same Spirit, we all breathe the same air, we are all together in this life.  And the fact that this is the Spirit of Jesus’ resurrection means we need not fear even death.  Some are indeed showing that greatest love, which is to give one’s life for one’s friends.

IV.

That is what Paul’s final words in this passage tell us.  He says: “[The God] who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”  The Spirit of God is the Spirit of all life.  This life extends far beyond the liabilities of our mortal nature.  It reaches beyond even our death, delivering us to a place of comprehensive oneness, where not even death can touch us.  

To know the Spirit and to set our minds on the Spirit is to be conscious of the truth that we are all connected in God’s life which can never be defeated.  That Spirit enlivens even our mortal bodies.  Which is why we need to put our mortal bodies to work in the power of that Spirit to follow Jesus Christ in lives of service, healing, forgiveness, and love.

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