Date: 3/30/2004
Time: 6:29:49 AM
Paul quotes from an early Christian hymn that describes Jesus' humble obedience, even to death, and his exaltation as Lord of all.
Paul is likely quoting an early Christian hymn or poem, so these words connect us to the early church. Paul urges the Philippians to imitate Jesus. Though "equal with God," Jesus "emptied himself" by taking the form of a servant.
Date: 3/30/2004
Time: 12:56:27 PM
slave-to the Greeks, the lowest form of human existence, and something that no one in his right mind would voluntarily choose- the most ungodlike state that could ever be
and yet, this is precisely the form that Jesus takes, pouring out (kenosis) his entire being on our behalf- and this is what God honors?
Apparently so. What does this say to a society that separates itself on grounds of race, position, power, and priviledge?
Maybe it just tells us that we are all equal in God's sight "for we no longer regard anyone form a human point of view"
revgilmer in texarkana
Date: 3/30/2004
Time: 2:02:24 PM
Our adult Sunday School material has been focusing on the Passion of Christ, and I have made the statement several times that we are not saved by resurrection, but by crucifixion. I get some funny looks when I say that- because it comes across as saying that we are not saved by the eventual success (?) of God's program, but by its darkest moment (oh, wait a minute, that's what Scripture says, too!)
In Robert Farrar Capon's wonder-full book on Parables, he talks about right-hand directive, and coercive power as the one we are most familiar with and as the one we think will accomplish the most-"And the beauty of it, is it works. From removing the dust with a cloth to removing your enemy with a .45, it achieves its ends in sensible, effective, easily understood ways.
"Unfortunately, it has a whopping limitation. If you take the view that one of the chief objects in life is to remain in loving relationships with other people, straight-line power becomes useless... At some very early crux in that difficult, personal relationship, the whole thing will be destroyed unless you- who, on any reasonable view, should be allowed to use straight-line power- simply refuse to use it; unless, in other words, you decide that instead of dishing out justifiable pain and punishment, you are willing, quite foolishly, to take a beating yourself."
Capon calls this left-handed power (a phrase he borrows from Martin Luther- I think Moltmann, in The Crucified God, uses the same reference) and goes on to say this about left-handed power, the imaginative, intuitive use of power
"the only thing it does insure that you will not- even after your chin has been bashed in - have made the mistake of closing any interpersonal doors from your side. Which may not, at first glance , seem like much of a thing to insure, let alone like an exercise worthy of the name power. But when you come to think of it, it is power - so much power, in fact, that it is the only thing in the world that evil can't touch. God in Christ died forgiving. With the dead body of Jesus, he wedged open the door between himself and the world and said, "There! Just try and get me to take that back!" - found in Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus (Eerdman's, Grand Rapids, 2002) pp. 18-19
So perhaps one way of preaching the cross is say that to us, it looks all the world like failure, like a senseless act- a desperate act of a God who loves so deeply that God is willing to take on any pain, any thing at all to bring us close to him- The cross tells us that God is crazy in love with us- that God is a fool for love, perhaps even a fool for you and I. (this would also fit very well with the kenotic hymn in the epistle reading)
grace and peace;
revgilmer in Texarkana