Humble and Triumphant

September 25, 2011
Humble and Triumphant
Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Year A
Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32


Intro – Coaching that teaches us to be victorious
The crowd cheered the team on – We are number one! The football team was winning. They were ahead and the crowd did their job to keep them motivated to keep winning. It worked, the team won the championship game, and everyone was excited. That is, everyone except the coach. When they got into the locker room afterwards, the coach encouraged them not to listen to the crowd. To not get so caught up on winning the game, but to celebrate their victory. One team member asked, but I thought you wanted us to do our best. Isn’t that our whole goal – to win the championship and to be the best team around? The coach assured them that was all true. I want you to be your best, and I want you to be the best. But I don’t want you to concentrate on being winners. Because if you win, that means that someone else lost. If you are number one, then hat relegates another team to being number 2. When you celebrate your victory as opposed to your win, then everybody wins. Victory is inclusive; it is about your efforts contributing to the good of others. It is about you being able to share what you have achieved – with others. Celebrate your victory, not your win.
That coach was trying to teach his team to be different, a step above the lessons of other coaches. It is a valuable lesson in being humble and graceful in our victories. It is also a lesson that Jesus would give to us, as the church. Our victories are victories for the world. What we accomplish not only benefits us, but also the rest of the world.

Like the coach, Jesus wants us to be victorious. He wants us to succeed. But he also wants us to be conscious of the way we celebrate our victories.

What does it mean to be a Christian?
I want you to think for today about what it means to be a Christian. When we say we are a Christian what does that mean? And what authority does Christ have in my life?
Why Philippians is important
Paul would have understood the concept of being a part of a team. His concept of training and working together in order to achieve a common goal. He too considered himself coaching his churches.

Philippi would have been a small town of retired roman soldiers. Even though Paul talks about unity in his letter to the church. The letter does not mention anything specific going on the needed to be addressed. He just reminds them of what it means to be a victorious team – be of the same mind, the same love and on one accord.



How do we treat others?
We are not Christ, but we can be like Christ in the way we treat one another and our work. Be humble, putting the needs of others instead of ourselves in everything that we do. Winning is about our needs, being victorious is about the needs of everyone involved.

What does it mean to be a Christian – it means to live your life in the service of others. More importantly, it means to live our lives in the service of God and not ourselves.
God is not interested in what church we go to, or how we worship, -God is interested in the way we live our lives and the way we treat one another. And the way we celebrate our victories in life.

Kenosis
I love Philippians for a number of reasons. But it is a beautiful book with some of the most powerful phrases in the bible. Paul says that Christ was the ultimate winner – he had it all and he did not need to share it with anyone. And yet he did not view equality with God as something to be exploited but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. He emptied himself of his divine self and took on the body of a person like you and me.

The official term of this is called kenosis. Kenosis means emptying yourself of what’s inside, and opening yourself up to the flowing of the spirit of God. The point of kenosis is that if Christ can empty himself of being worshipped as the king of the universe for our sake, then surely we can empty ourselves of our pride, and need to control, and need to be in the spotlight in order to empty ourselves for God. When we are full of our own thoughts, then God has no room to give us new thoughts. We are determined to win and gain the glory for ourselves; there is no room for us to work together as a team.

Work out your own salvation
And then there is that line of Philippians 2 that we have all heard – work out your own salvation in fear and trembling. This does not mean that we are to think for ourselves – but that we are to let Christ think for us. the work that we do is not about us – it is about the holy spirit working within us. but finally it is also means that we are not to just hear a sermon, but we are to find ways to live it out.

Frog story
2 frogs were hopping around a dairy farm. They were a nuisance for all of the workers, but they kept coming. One night after all of the workers had left, the frog felt that were free to hop wherever they wanted. They went into one of the stalls, and hopped into a bucket of cream. Both frogs realized that they were I grave danger, as the walls of the bucket were too high to jump over. One frog realized the obvious – were doomed and we will never get out of here. There is nothing we can do – he sank to the bottom of the bucket and drowned and died. The other frog looked at him and said to himself, I don’t know how to get out of here, but neither do I want to die. So he started kicking as hard as he could, he kicked and he kicked and he kicked. He kicked all night – his legs got very tired, but he refused to give up, and he continued to kick. He kicked until the sun came up – and he realized that the liquid cream had turned into soft but consistent butter. He was able to get his grounding, and hopped out of the bucket and hopped on into the rest of his life.


It is not our work that makes the difference, it is the work of the holy spirit. But in order for the holy spirit to do his work – we have to do ours. We have to be willing to put what we claim to believe into action.
It is what we do in our life that makes us a Christian, not what we believe, or what we hear. Having the mind of Christ is about action. It is our integrity in doing what we know Christ would have us do in that situation that makes the situation easier. Our determination to do the right thing is like the cream in the bucket the upheld the frog. It is a really cute story – but the reality is that beating milk all night doesn’t turn it into butter, but the holy spirit can do anything. If we do what we are supposed to do, God always makes a way.
And what are we supposed to do – be a Christian in all situations. Be like Christ – be humble, think of others, count our victories as triumph of the lord and not of us.

What authority does Christ have in your life?
We are almost at the end of the sermon – and I am not going to dwell too much on the gospel, other than to say that it proves Paul’s point. An interesting fact about Matthew - is that for the next few weeks Jesus is in Jerusalem talking to the Pharisees. They are testing his knowledge, and he gives them a parable to prove his point. In today’s passage they ask him what authority he has to teach the world about God. Keeping in mind Paul’s world of him emptying himself of glory in order to live and understand our world – I want to ask you what authority do you give Christ in your life. How do you respond to the presence of the holy spirit in your life?

Parable of the two sons
And Jesus tells this story of two sons. One who was asked to help in the farm, he said no – but changed his mind and went. And the other who said that he would- but never showed up. Which pleased his father? Which was right? Jesus point was that there are a lot of people who don’t go to church, who will get to heaven before those of us who go to church every day. Because when they finally do hear the gospel it changes them, some of us have heard it for so long – it doesn’t mean anything to us anymore.

The ears that made it to heaven
There is an old Japanese legend that tells of a man who died and went to heaven. Heaven was beautiful--full of lush gardens and glittering mansions. But then the man came to a room lined with shelves. On the shelves were stacked piles of human ears! A heavenly guide explained that these ears belonged to all the people on earth who listened each week to the word of God, but never acted on God's teachings. Their worship never resulted in action. When these people died, therefore, only their ears ended up in heaven.

Jesus is dealing with a bunch of "earless" religious folk in this passage, and it would be to our benefit to listen in on the conversation. It's so easy to mistake self-righteous attitudes for true belief in Jesus as Savior. Any one of us can be guilty of it. This passage packs a powerful message, telling us...


The signs of salvation
Paul says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. In Philippians the six signs of salvation in our lives –effective actions as a response to God, fear and trembling, a humble attitude toward others and God, serenity and harmony, purity in our thoughts and words, and a determination to do the work of God.
What does it mean to be a Christian? To be humble, to love others, to do the will of God and to celebrate the victory of Christ in our lives.