18th Sunday after Pentacost A 9/27/26 2nd Homily

Philippians 2:1-13; Matthew 21:23-32   

G. Miles Smith+

You’re either going to love it…or hate it.

And even if you love it…sometimes you’re probably still going to hate it.

And yet…there…is our salvation.

I’m talking about the truth of God… as told by the hymn…or poem…to Christ in the Philippians reading. Whether Paul composed it himself, or was quoting from others…this hymn-poem is one of the oldest forms of a creedal statement about Christ in the New Testament and in Christian history...far predating both the Nicene and the Apostles’ Creed. And it is, as we will see, a completely counterintuitive--and wild--image of God. Take a look at the text again:

“Let the same mind be in your that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,did not regard equality with Godas 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 himselfand became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted himand gave him the namethat is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesusevery knee should bend,in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confessthat Jesus Christ is Lord,to the glory of God the Father.”

So, let me get right to it and say why I think this vision of God in Christ could be hated…or if not outright hated…then at the very least viewed as troublesome. For that was how it was often received within the Roman culture of the apostle Paul’s time. For all practical purposes, in that era of human history, the Roman Emperor was god. Well, technically, caesar was conceived of as a mortal descendant of the Roman goddess Venus. The point is that it was unimaginable in Roman culture to conceive of divinity in any way other than absolute power…like the Roman gods wielded…like the caesar wielded…all of who were expected that they would do whatever they pleased for their own fickle and selfish ends.

But that is not the image of divinity that Paul testifies to. Paul sings…declares…a mysterious poetry about Christ…of an image of power…that is displayed in humility…a divine descent into the world within a peasant class of human life…the glory of such divinity mostly hidden now but to be ultimately revealed when all peoples are united in this God’s great love.

The distinction between the two types of divinity was clear-as-day in the time of Paul. And it increasingly made Christians a persecuted outlier in Roman society…a nuisance if not threat to a culture of absolute power…when Christians were reviled for not giving due honor to caesar as the definitive representative of divinity.

But that “clear-as-day distinction” between caesar and Christ would begin to get blurred a few centuries later…when Christianity--in one of the wildest twists of history--became the religion of the empires of the caesars. And the distinction between the caesars of the world…and Christ…has been blurry ever since.

Once that happened, it was no longer necessary within empires of power to despise Christ in his radically humble descent into human life. Instead, what Christians so often have done…is to privatize Christ within the human soul…so that the real public tension between caesar and Christ was obscured.

It is a predictable…and understandable…sidelining of Christ…given the real struggle it is for everyone to survive in an endlessly contentious and dangerous world. It is easy to prefer a caesar of power…than the Christ of humble descent…when it comes to living in the world. It is easy to prefer trying to control people…rather than trying to do the hard work of descending into difficult relationships with people…like Christ did.  

So, this is the thing. Even if you are a Christian who can consciously love the Christ who descends to us in humble descent…the Christ who calls us to the same kind of humility…there are going to be plenty of times when we will love Christ for such a descent for our personal salvation…but we will want to draw the line when it comes to others…however you define who the “other” is…whomever we take to be a bother, a threat or an enemy. We will want to try to restrict who Christ is…and what Christ does…and try to control Christ with our words…so that we can be more comfortable living in a world of raw power which seems inescapable.

We will find ourselves over and over again…getting caught on the horns of a dilemma…just as Christ displayed in his parable of the two sons…where one son knew how to say the right thing…but failed to do them. This dilemma of faithfulness to Christ is not a liberal vs. conservative Christian thing. It is an every-Christian thing.

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We are truly blessed…if we have arrived at a place in our lives where we can adore the Christ of humble descent. The Christ of humble descent is, frankly, a great deal of what keeps drawing me to Christ over and over again. It is an incredibly sobering and yet beautiful and hopeful vision of Christ. It can give us hope in our lives in this difficult world. The Christ of humble descent is the only hope I can imagine for our personal futures and the future of the world.

But then, to actually join with Christ in his humble descent…having the same mind in us…as is in Christ…having the same love…and doing nothing from selfish ambition or conceit…but in humility regarding others as better than ourselves…well…that is hard. It involves how we treat each other…our families…friends…this church…this community…our work lives…and our governments. It involves everything…for a Christian. Well, it is supposed to.

All Christians are caught in the same bind. It is difficult for any of us to be…doers for Christ (James 1:22) in his humble descent. But despite endless obstacles and messy attempts at faithfulness…the endless persistence and uncanny ways of the Holy Spirit keep inviting us into the inner circle of love of the Father and the Son…and we can do something.

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I’m going to tell you a little story about a man and a church. I read about this Friday morning. So, all of this man’s family live far away from where he lives. Some years ago, on a trip to visit, one of his relatives there invited him to their church. Now, I’m not going to tell you the denomination—you can make it whatever you want it to be. But this man was reluctant to go…because he knew that he had all kinds of issues with that kind of church. So he did not really want to go and be in that particular group of Christians.

But he was also curious about what was going to happen…because he was invited to help at a food bank at that church. So he went with his relative and for a few hours he joined in with those others…working together…bagging up groceries for lots of visibly bedraggled people who came. And he was amazed to discover that this was something they did for their neighbors seven days a week as best they could. He was unsettled that…from his point of view…there was a bunch of Christians whose theology and worship he often disliked…and yet whose humility…whose loving descent into the pain of their community…was so tangibly real. In terms of Jesus’ parable, you could say that…from his perspective anyway…these were Christians who did not say the right things about God…but they somehow managed to do a right thing for God.

This is where it is so important to have some idea of the Holy Spirit…because that is exactly the kind of thing that the Holy Spirit does in the name of Christ…ever so invisibly crossing all our carefully defined boundaries…and drawing straight with our crooked lines.

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As important as it is…that there be carefully reasoned theology and prayerful worship…and as important as it is to have our own opinions about the grave concerns of our time...it is far from enough to have all that… and then have little humility…and love for others.

But the Holy Spirit keeps calling forth the mind and work of Christ…in the most unexpected people sometimes… including us…and even despite ourselves. Christ descended to us in great humility and love. And that will be the ultimate power that saves us from our sins…and will save the world.

In the meantime, the world continues to be the world…in its endless quests for absolute power and control…endlessly dividing Christians from each other...and dividing our own minds and hearts.

And so we need to anticipate, as Paul also said, that to be a follower of Christ…we will need to bear many things…working out our salvation…while yet believing and hoping in the Christ…who continues to descend to us in his great humility.