On this last Sunday in Lent, we are setting aside Luke’s Gospel and reading from John. You will be pleased, though, that I’m not going to give into my obsession with the Fourth Gospel. I’m not going to mention the fact that a pound of nard is the equivalent of 17 gallons of perfume and that, today, it would cost over a hundred thousand dollars.
And we won’t discuss that, at the time of Jesus, slaves were the ones who washed a guest’s feet – and that a woman would never let down her hair in any public situation.
I also won’t go on about how in John’s Gospel, unlike the synoptic Gospels, this story is not about an anonymous woman anointing Jesus’ feet before dinner, but rather about Mary – the sister of Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead – preparing Jesus for burial. John underlines this point by calling Judas a “thief,” the same word used to describe the person who takes the life of the Good Shepherd in chapter 14.
Now you may conclude that, in John’s Gospel, Jesus’ death on the cross is the primary point and that this crucifixion is actually God’s exaltation of Jesus and the gift to us today of God’s extravagant generosity and abundant life. But all that would be your business.
Early Christian Writing
No, today, I’m going to talk for just a few minutes about our second lesson from Philippians.
Why Philippians?
Philippians isn’t Paul’s earliest letter, but it is among the earliest Christian texts we have, perhaps 54 to 58 AD, less than a generation after Jesus’ death and resurrection and a full generation before John’s Gospel. It’s striking that the earliest documents we have are not about what Jesus said or did, but rather discussions about the impact of this person who was killed a few decades earlier.
This letter is also important because Philippi is the first city in Europe where the Gospel is preached, the starting point of Christianity in Western Civilization.
And, as elsewhere in Paul’s letters, we see that women play leadership roles. In fact, Lydia and Paul were co-founders of the congregation there. As the conclusion of the letter states, Paul prays for two women who are key leaders in the congregation.
Even Earlier Text: the Christ Hymn
Philippians is perhaps best known because it includes an even more ancient piece of Christian writing: the so-called Christ hymn in chapter 2 [verses 5-11]:
“Have this mind among you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
This hymn shows that the incarnation was part of the earliest understandings of Jesus, not a later post-Apostolic invention. And, in expressing this concept of incarnation, the hymn writer uses language from Second Isaiah and the Suffering Servant poems, which we read in our First Lesson. Philippians is evidence that, for the first Christians, Isaiah played a pivotal role in making sense of who Jesus is.
Letters to Each Other
As we come to the end of Lent and see Easter on the horizon, we should note that Philippians is a letter, a reminder that we have our faith because someone else has written – and is writing to us. In a lesson we read a while ago from 2 Corinthians, Paul stated, “you are my letters…” In effect, when we gather together, we are writing letters to each other.
You and I are the beneficiaries of letters from our senior warden, Laurie, and we all depend on the weekly newsletter put together so ably by Amy, our parish administrator. In a real sense, the weekly worship folder prepared by Becky is a letter that informs and inspires us. And, for me, Jesse and other musicians send us beautiful letters that fill our hearts and minds.
At the memorial service for the noted church historian Martin Marty last Saturday, Marty was called the Thomas Jefferson of Church History because of the thousands of letters he wrote. Many people, myself included, were recipients of Marty’s letters and notes. His brother and sister traded letters every week.
The Mind of Christ – A New Goal and a New Guide
Marty wrote those letters because, like us, he had been given the “Mind of Christ,” which changes how we regard everything.
In this mind of Christ, the past – while significant – isn’t what defines or determines us. Rather, our mind has been changed because we have a new goal – what lies before us – and, most importantly, a new guide.
This guide has suffered for us, humbled himself to the point of death on the cross. And, in our baptism, we have been pulled down with him into that death so that, with him, we too are raised to new life. In this future, the heavenly seat next to the father is actually a very big bench – with room for all of us.
This heavenly seat – where Jesus is Lord and where we sit with him as part of his new family – isn’t some geographical location that we get to far in the future. No, it is how the Scriptures picture being next to God, sharing in God’s grace and glory.
Setting Aside the Past for What’s Ahead: Easter
In our lesson today, Paul suggests that what keeps us from enjoying this “new placement” – on the bench with the Risen Christ – is our attachment to the past. To be sure, some of us are proud of our past accomplishments or hold on tight to our record of trying to love our neighbors.
Perhaps, more prevalent and pernicious, is our struggle to let go of our younger, healthier, more active selves. We feel we’ve lost so much vitality, mobility, and opportunity.
But the good news is that because Christ humbled himself to death, we have been given his mindset. The mindset that trusts the future that God has set before us, that delights in sitting on the Christ bench – as we write letters to each and as we sing with and hope.
The words that open Paul’s letter to the Philippians are worth hearing as we finish our Lenten journey and prepare for what’s ahead:
“I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the very first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me.” [Philippians 1:3-7b] May it be so.
