December 24, 2007 Christmas Eve
Sermon Title: “What is it?”
Series: Love Came Down At Christmas
Text: Phil. 2:5-11
Dr.
Delivered on December 24, 2007
“He…emptied himself, taking the form of a
slave, being born in human likeness.”
Philippians 2:7
What is it?
One of my favorite TV shows is called America’s Funniest Home Videos, which are basically home videos people have sent in that document some hilarious mishaps and miscues. I recently caught a AFV “Christmas show” which was an entire show dedicated to things that happened at Christmas, which, as you know, is one of the biggest home video times of the year. One clip in particular caught my attention. It showed a young boy, probably about 8 or 9 years old, coming downstairs on Christmas morning. He immediately spotted a very large present beside the tree and he ran over and began tearing open the package to see what was inside. The paper went flying and suddenly he broke into a crazy dance and went running and jumping around the room screaming, “Wow Just what I wanted I really love it. Yipee!” The interesting thing was, after awhile he calmed down went over to look at it again and said with a puzzled look on his face, “What is it?”
For some reason
that video spoke to me at a deeper level about our reaction to the events of
Christmas. Even going all the way back to that first Christmas when the angels
announced the birth of a new child, you know the story, the heavens opened up all
the heavenly host broke into praise heralding the arrival of the gift.
Shepherds went racing to
We’re puzzled by God’s gift. What does it mean? What happened that makes God’s gift to humanity at Christmas so special? What is it? Have you thought about that at all this Christmas season? I’m a huge fan of all the children’s Christmas specials on this time of year and it’s so interesting to watch those shows now from an adult perspective (well…from a fairly adult perspective!) to see what the message is they are promoting behind the shows. Most aren’t even remotely religious so they promote such wonderful things as the brotherhood of mankind, or the importance of diversity in our lives, or how our uniqueness makes us better people. But I ask you, is that the real meaning of Christmas? What is it? What does this gift mean? What’s it all about?
Well, this
evening we’re going to look at the very “unChristmassy” text I just read for
you to try and answer this question about our gift from God – “What is it?”
WHO HE WAS –
he was God
The first thing this passage tells us is WHO HE WAS. Paul writes that Jesus “was in the form of God…” (v. 6). The translation is clumsy, but what it means is that Jesus is God. He is pre-existent and divine. Jesus has always existed. Jesus claimed to be God, and he did things only God can do.
So why is it important that Jesus was God? What does it have to do with the gift? Well the short answer to that one is what I’d call “personal involvement.” God was personally involved in the giving of the gift at Christmas time – he was the gift!
A student at a
Bible college in the
A little later, the student noticed that the problem had been corrected, the
men’s room began to be spotless and without odor. Then one morning he got up
very early and went to the bathroom and saw a man from behind cleaning the
stalls. He was surprised to se the man there at such an early hour, but he
wanted to thank him for doing such a good job and so he spoke to the man. When
the “janitor” turned around to face the student he was amazed to see that the
man with the mop and pail in hand was the dean himself!
In telling other students what he had witnessed the student commented, "I thought that he would hire a janitor, but he cleaned the toilets himself. It was a major lesson to me on being a servant and, of course, it raised a question in my own mind as to why I hadn’t taken care of the problem!"
When the world was dying under the stench and filth of sin God didn’t hire somebody to clean up the mess. He rolled up his sleeves and probably held his breath and waded into our world himself to take care of the problem.
As Paul reminds us in Philippians, he “did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.” He could have stayed comfortable and clean in heaven in his celestial robes, but instead he took the difficult route – yes, difficult even for him – and he did something about it himself.
WHAT HE DID –
he emptied himself, becoming one of us
And that’s the second thing this passage tells us about the nature of the gift. It not only tells us who he was, it tells us what he did. Verse 7 says, “He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” Jesus, says Paul, literally made himself nothing, he emptied himself. He became fully human, just like you and me.
I took a comparative religions class one time and they taught us about several strands of similarity that run through the various religions of the world. For instance, most religions have a creation narrative as well as a flood story. Most have a concept of sin and salvation. One other similarity that I found fascinating has to do with what I’m talking about right here. Most religions have a story of god or the gods coming to earth disguised so they could freely move about the planet to observe what life is really like here.
For instance the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes once disguised themselves as poor slaves and came to earth to knock on doors to see who, if anyone, would offer them hospitality. When Zeus and Hermes found out all they needed to know, they threw off their rags and revealed themselves in all their Olympian splendor. They took on the outward form of a servant, but that was all it was, a disguise.
Jesus, on the other hand, did not take on the outward form of a slave, instead he became flesh – he was actually born in human likeness. When Jesus came in the form of a servant he was not disguising who God is. He was revealing who God really is, what he is really like. You know, actions like that speak much louder than words or first impressions.
This fall I spent another two weeks in Africa in an area of Ghana that had a reputation as being an unsafe area inhabited by mean-spirited people (especially as compared to other areas of Ghana). I went with my guard up at all times. One afternoon I toured a flooded area near a village and I was in mud up to my ankles as we trudged along. When we returned to a nearby village I was offered refreshments and told to rest a while because I looked exhausted (and I was). I took off my muddy shoes and socks sat them outside the cool mud dwelling I was to rest in because I didn’t want to mess up the dirt floor of the hovel which had been swept as clean as a whistle. When I awoke I reached outside the door for my shoes and they were gone. I remember a flash of anger, first at the villagers for stealing my shoes and socks, and then at myself for my stupidity at putting $75 dollar shoes nicer than any of them had ever seen – despite their muddiness – outside for anyone who wanted to steal them. Thankfully, whoever had taken them at least had the courtesy to leave me their worn-out flip-flops. I put them on and went to the lean-to that was in the center of the village.
Imagine my surprise – and my sheepishness – when I saw a three villagers, two men and a woman, furiously cleaning my tennis shoes and socks in water they had carried about a half-mile from a nearby river. They hadn’t stolen my shoes and socks. They felt bad that the white man had gotten his feet so muddy in their field. All they knew to do was to work as hard as they could to “make it right” – to clean my shoes and socks. I felt so bad for assuming the worst. When I left the village that afternoon, guess which pair of shoes I had on?
That villager could have scoffed at me and even laughed, knowing that as an American I probably have a closet full of Nikes. Instead he did his best to clean up my shoes. God, looking upon the mess you and I have made of things down here could have said, “That’s their problem.” But instead he humbled himself and became a servant, even to the point of dying for something he never did.
Our story has told us who he was – he was God.
Our story has told us what he did – he emptied himself of his divinity, he became a slave to humanity. He cleaned the urinals and the muddy shoes of humanity, and worse.
WHY HE DID IT
The story also tells us why he did it. He did what he did, according to verse 10, “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
So what does that mean? Does that mean that God has some inordinate need to be worshipped? That God has such low self-esteem that he must have every knee bow and every tongue confess him as Lord?
No, what that means is that God wants every human being on earth to be connected to him in a vital, loving relationship, just as the God the Son and God the Spirit, and the God the Father are connected in loving fellowship.
It means that there is but one way out of here and God knows the way and he is reaching out his hand for us to follow and that he wants each and every one of us to follow him and to live!
There was a remake of an old 70’s movie that came out this year called the Poseidon Adventure. It’s about a cruise ship that is flipped over by a rogue wave and had begun sinking bow first, upside down in the ocean. Several groups of people have escaped the initial carnage as the big ship rolled over and they are now trying to make their way to the surface, which since the ship is upside down, is actually towards the bottom of the ship. There’s a crucial scene in the movie where the group of survivors the movie follows have just begun to work their way through the ship when they reach a point where they must decide whether to go towards the bow or the stern of the ship. Two strong charismatic leaders have emerged and, naturally, one wants to go one way, and the other one wants to go the other. Those viewing the movie know which way to go because we’ve seen the ship listing in the water and so we know they should all go towards the stern. In the end the group splits up, and a group of them, the larger group actually, heads off towards the bow of the ship and certain death.
Listen – God has seen our “ship” from the outside. He knows the right direction to go. He wants more than anything for “every knee to bow and every tongue to confess” that Jesus is the one we should be following. Sadly, it appears the larger group is following someone else…going another way.
WHAT TO DO
ABOUT IT
The final thing our passage teaches is what to do about it. Well obviously the author hopes we will cast our lot with Jesus, that we will pronounce him our Lord and Savior and begin following him. But there’s actually more to it than that. The “What to do about it” is actually found at the very beginning of the passage where we read, “Let this same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” (v. 5).
What does that mean? What does it mean to “have the mind of Christ” in us? It means we are to empty ourselves and to serve others as He did. It means we are to forgive our enemies and to turn the other cheek, and if someone asks for our coat we are to give them our shirt as well. In a nutshell it means we are to love one with the same kind of self-sacrificing love Jesus showed us on the cross.
It means that this gift we’ve received at Christmas, the one we opened and hooped and hollered around the room about before asking, “What is it?” – it means that gift isn’t just for us – it’s for everyone. It’s a gift that we receive that forms us so that we become the gift for others.
And so this evening I want to encourage you to receive the gift that has been given. The gift of God’s love to you. And then let that gift form you so that you extend the gift to others.
Allow yourself to be broken and molded into his image…have this mind in you… the mind of Christ.
Amen.