Psalm 25:1-9
Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32
In some ways Paul’s letter to the Philippians stands out among his other correspondence in the New Testament. As one commentator writes: the letter “seems to have been written simply because Paul is fond of his Philippians….In the letter he opens his heart to them, and tells them of his joy and his sufferings”. Paul’s special relationship with the Philippians may have stemmed from the fact that they seem to have been the only Christian community from which Paul accepted financial assistance. It is more than likey for this reason that the image and language of partnership appears so often in this epistle. In the ancient world, partnerships were created on the basis of verbal agreements. The parties shared common goals, and – as the majority of these partnerships were commercial – the parties shared equally in the rewards or profits. Now, such “partnerships lasted only as long as the original parties were agreed about their common purpose and as long as all the original parties were alive, when these conditions ceased to exist, the partnership was dissolved.”
As we read the letter, it appears that it was within this social construct of partnership that Paul understood the relationship that existed between himself and the Christians in Philippi. In the epistle’s fourth chapter he makes this explicit: “You Philippians know that…no church shared with me in the matter of giving a receiving…Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that accumulates to your account” (Philippians 4:15, 17) – giving, receiving, profits, account, all the language of the a commercial enterprise. Moreover, Paul was in prison at the time of writing and there was a possibility of his death, so he is keen to encourage a common purpose among the Philippians in order that work of the partnership they have created will continue to prosper. So, as we heard last week, he writes at the very start of the letter, “live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ,..standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel.” (Philippians 1:27)
Paul’s emphasis on common purpose, as well as his partnership-resonant language would not have been surprising or unusual to the first-century residents of Philippi. However, as we hear today, he takes the elements of this contemporary social and commercial relationship, and places it within a new and deeper context – that of the relationship of the Church with Christ; and certainly, that is not a partnership that can be dissolved by Paul’s death, as the writer of 2 Timothy suggests: “if we are faithless, [Christ] remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13) So, Paul exhorts the Philippians first by alluding to the rewards and profits of this partnership: love, a sharing in the Spirit, compassion, sympathy; imploring them that if they have found any consolation in these, that is any spiritual rewards, benefits, dividends, as it were, then they should continue faithful to the partnership, they should continue in a common purpose, a common mind: “be of the same mind, having the same love,….Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2: 2, 5)
What is the mind of Christ? At its heart is a kind of humility that does not need to insist on its own way, but can be patient with others in charity; even accommodating one’s self to the needs and brokenness of the other in love. Paul urges the Philippians to have the mind of Christ; to do “nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others better than yourselves;…[to] look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others”. (Philippians 2:3-4) In order to highlight this point he quotes a primitive Christian hymn which pre-dates the letter, and with which most probably the Philippians would have been familiar, and might even have known by heart. In using the hymn, Paul wants to highlight that if anyone had the right to insist on his own way it was Christ who was himself “in the form of God” (Philippians 2:6). But Christ did not. He did not regard his “equality with God as something to be exploited” (Philippians 2:6), rather he humbled and accommodated himself to the mind of the Father and “become obedient to the point of death”. (Philippians 2:8) The partnership between Christ and the Father was everything, and so Christ deferred himself to the common mind of the partnership in which he and the Father were engaged.
When was the last time you deferred to someone, not just because the person was necessarily right, or simply to keep the peace, but because it was right; it was the right thing to do, because it served the common purpose, the common mind? To many of us today this idea of deferring to another, humbling ourselves in accommodation, may seem ridiculous and even self-defeating. It may seem to go against everything our culture tells us about the importance of our personal identity, the importance of the individual, the modern sense of our right and entitlements. And there is no arguing that simplistic ideas of humility and accommodation have been mis-used and abused, even in the Church, to keep certain groups of people down, women most notably. But the humility of Christ which we are called to imitate has nothing to do with that sort of self-abasement, but instead arises out of the partnership we have forged with him as a people, out of a desire to have with him a common mind of service and care for the other, out a desire to do the best for the Church and the world.
When I was practicing as a therapist I was working with a particular woman. She was a Christian whose mother, also a Christian, was domineering and expected her daughter to care for her exclusively. The mother dissuaded her marrying, even to point of frightening off potential partners or convincing her daughter of their unsuitability. This woman saw it as her duty in Christ to accommodate her mother and humble herself to the mother’s needs and desires. In the end, when the mother died the daughter was left friendless and dis-orientated. Does this scenario fulfill Paul’s plea for Christians to “look not to [their] own ineterests, but to the ineterests of others”? Does this partnership constitute a meeting of minds for mutual joy and benefit? Of course not! In fact, by accomodating the mother in such a way the women was not looking to the mother’s interests, but instead allowing the mother to indulge her self-centredness and self-importance. In the end, what the daughter realised was that her actions were more to keep the peace, than out of pure Christian humility. She came to the painful realisation that in her mis-guided idea of Christian humility and service she had done a dis-service both to herself and to her mother. Humility and service have nothing to do with being a doormat, but rather with the reality of striving for the interests of others because we know that in their well-being is our own. Our partnership as Christians, and even as human beings points to that. For this reason Paul stresses the importance of a common mind first, before we enter into the serious partnership of humility and service: “Let this mind be in you, that was in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)
As Christians we are all in partnership with each other and with God in Christ. That means we should always strive for a common mind. It does not mean we all have to think the same, but it does mean that that in humility we can sacrifice for one another and the world. It means that more than we usually do, we allow ourselves to be guided by the interests and well-being of others and not our immediate and private concerns. It means we sometimes defer to one another for the well-being of the whole, even if it challenges our own conclusions or personal tastes or temperament. But, at the same time, it also means that we are never alone. It means that others are doing the same for us, and that we can happily drop out of the rat-race of looking out for “number one”. It means we come to share in the benefits – the dividends, if you will – of the partnership: consolation, love, compassion, sympathy among them, and ultimately with Christ to share in the glory of God the Father in this world and in the next.
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