Henrietta United Church of Christ

Rev. David Inglis Third Sunday of Advent

Philippians 2:1-11

“The Power of Vulnerability”

When God was preparing to send Jesus into the world, what if He had had a top-drawer PR agent on retainer who could help Him strategize this pivotal divine intervention in human history?

“Okay, Your Highest Almighty Glorious Eminence, you’re planning to send your only begotten Son into the world to draw the human race back to you, is that your objective here? Okay. Obviously this is an ambitious project. But I have a plan. We’ll need to start with someone whose name is already a household word, somebody who’s got the money and power to command everyone’s respect, and who’s got access to a state-of-the-art communication and transportation system . There’s one person who meets all these criteria, and that’s Caesar Augustus. Unfortunately, Caesar Augustus already thinks he’s God, so we have to find a way to make him get over himself and acknowledge the son he’s going to raise as your son. So we need a miracle here. That’s your department, of course, but I was thinking you might do something like this: Have an angel appear to Caesar and inform him that Mrs. Augustus will conceive and bear the son of God, who will rule the world. Caesar will be very proud until he’s told that it won’t be his son, but the son of the Highest Almighty Glorious yada, yada, yada. When he protests, the angel will proclaim that he’ll be hereby paralyzed from his neck down until he tells the world who his wife’s son really is and commands that they worship and revere him. He’ll still be able to give commands from his bed, so he’s likely to have his wife locked up and guarded by eunuchs so that there’s no funny business while he’s incapacitated. But she’ll miraculously conceive anyway, and Caesar will be forced to acknowledge that your power is greater than his. Since he’ll want to get his strength and the use of all his body parts back, he’ll have no choice but to spread the news throughout the world that the one true God’s son is coming into the world through his wife. Everyone will be prepared to listen to your son, because if they don’t, there’s no telling what Caesar might do to them, or what might happen to their body parts. Pretty clever, don’t you think?”

That sounds pretty outlandish, but think about it. Wouldn’t we expect the High Almighty King of the Universe to enter the world something like this if we didn’t know the real Christmas story? It’s always a wonder to me how different the real story is. Who can’t be touched by this story about God’s Son coming into the world through two poor, young nobodies–not connected to Caesar except for being oppressed by Caesar. As they made this arduous journey to Bethlehem, don’t you suppose they were worried? Cold? Homesick? Lonely? Exhausted? Frightened? Don’t you suppose they wondered if God had abandoned them or misled them somehow? From his first days of living in a stable and his first years as a refugee from King Herod’s murderous jealousy in Egypt, he entered into the depths of our human vulnerability. Shepherds, who were kept near the bottom of the social ladder, felt comfortable approaching with him as he lay in a feeding trough. Later it would be lepers and tax collectors and prostitutes and Samaritans who would look to him as their friend. He erected no barriers between himself and any other human being, and by doing that, he demonstrated that God erects no barriers either.

He was truly “Emmanuel,” which means “God with us”--not as intimidating might, but as loving compassion, as forgiving mercy, as healing hope, as transformative wisdom, as an empowering vision of the new life we can live and the new world we can help God create.

Jesus’ mission was to be “the way, the truth and the life.” But he didn’t fulfill that mission by ascending a throne and making commandments and pronouncing divine truths. As Paul said, He humbled himself and became obedient and vulnerable all the way to death–even a humiliating, powerless, tortured death on a cross. Into this pit of suffering he followed the way of humbly yielding totally to God’s will, not his own. He stretched out his arms on the cross and embodied the truth that God’s love embraces us all, even in our sin. He breathed his last and gave up his life so that we could see that the life God gives us is not bound by our bodies, but lives on in resurrecting power to free us from death in all its forms.

No human mind would have ever imagined that the God who created the mountains and the oceans, filled the earth with life, and created the vast universe would enter our world, not with displays of power and might, but with utter, naked vulnerability. But because God comes to us without coercion, but in love for me and for all of us, I don’t tremble before God in fear. My heart opens to God in trust. It’s only God’s vulnerable love that has the power to do that to every heart. And so Paul says “at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend ... and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” My knees bend and my tongue confesses Jesus’ divinity willingly and gratefully, because my soul recognizes in Jesus a self-less love whose desire is to set me and all humanity free.

So Paul exhorts us to “let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus.” Wow! That’s a pretty tall order–to have the mind of Jesus! But “mind” here means “inward disposition” or “attitude.” From his birth in a stable in Bethlehem to his mingling with the sinners and tax collectors to his death between two thieves, it becomes clear, doesn’t it, that what keeps us from having the mind of Jesus is not our worthlessness but our pride. We’re afraid of being that humble, that vulnerable, that trustingly open to God and life and other people.

I want to end with an example of one young man named Kent Keith who demonstrated something of “the same mind that was in Jesus.” In 1966 he was elected to be both president of his student council and the president of his states association of student leaders. Since he couldn’t find any training programs or manuals on being a student council president, he developed his own leadership style, based on caring about every person in his school. His leadership style was very effective at resolving conflicts and bringing out the best in people. While still in high school, he founded a Student Leadership Institute for his state, and throughout his college years "he gave more than 150 speeches at high schools, student leadership workshops, and state student council conventions in eight states. These were the turbulent sixties, when student activists were seizing buildings, throwing rocks at police, and shouting down opponents. Kent provided an alternative voice. In his public speaking, Kent encouraged students to care about others, and to work through the system to achieve change. One thing he learned was . . . students tended to give up quickly when they faced difficulties or failures. They needed deeper, longer-lasting reasons to keep trying.”¹

So at age 19 he wrote a book for student leaders titled The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council. In Chapter 2, which he titled “Brotherly What?”, he wrote words he called the Paradoxical Commandments. They have been widely quoted, sent around the world in countless e-mails, and even attributed to Mother Theresa. Millions of people have read about these commandments in his books, including the latest Jesus Did It Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments for Christians, which was just published last year.² As you listen to these Paradoxical commandments, see if you don’t recognize the mind of Jesus, which can also be our minds too.

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway. . . .

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest [people] with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest [people] with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.

Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway. . . .

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

If our PR agent had caught up with Jesus on his last trip to Jerusalem, he would have grabbed him by his robe and said, “Look, Jesus, if you go on preaching about a new kingdom that’s based on freedom and love instead of on obedience to the authorities who are running the current kingdom, you’re going to get yourself killed.” But Jesus went on preaching anyway.

In the short term, the world may reject the way, the truth and the life that Jesus embodied. But the citadels of power and pride and greed secretly tremble in the face of it. Because the way of humble submission to God links us to the power of God that inspires visions of a whole new order. The truth of God’s all-embracing love can break through all the prison walls of oppression and abuse and awaken each soul’s eternal worth. And the force of life that God gives us is bigger than our physical existence and lifts us above our fear of intimidation, punishment or death.

And so the baby who was born in a stable and who grew up to die nailed to a cross, lived the most powerful life the world has known, and he shows us how to live in touch with the same power that, if we really tapped it, would really change the world.

Some people see Jesus only in terms of the creche and the cross. Their theology is that “Jesus was born to die.” But for me, it’s the life in between that gives the creche and the cross their meaning. And it’s that vulnerable, powerful life that gives our life meaning too–as we follow Jesus on his way of God-centered humility, as we live in his truth of God’s unbounded love, and as we become filled with his life that never ends.