Give It Up!

Philippians 2:1-8

March 9, 2008 – ©Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes

Introduction

In a 4^th grade class the teacher introduced The Balloon Stomp game. A balloon was tied to every child’s ankle, and the object of the game was to pop everybody else’s balloon while protecting your own. The last person with an unpopped balloon would win the game. The idea was that if I win, then you lose. The 9-year-olds entered into the game enthusiastically. The battle was over in a matter of seconds. Only one balloon was still inflated. Of course, its owner was the most disliked kid in the room.

A second class came later that day and was asked to play the same game—only this time the class was one of developmentally disabled children. The instructions were given, but the only idea they got was that the balloons were to be popped. Instead of fighting each other off, the children thought they were suppose to help one another pop balloons. One little girl knelt down and held her balloon carefully in place while a little boy stomped it & then knelt down and held his balloon still for her to stomp. All the children helped one another in the great stomp. When the very last balloon was popped, everybody cheered—and everybody won. The question we ask is this: “Who got the game right?” [PreachingToday.com, “Balloon Stomp Game Raises Interesting Question” Citing Robert Roberts, An Essay in Aid of Moral Psychology (Cambridge University, 2003)].

I tell that story because it reminds me of the church – all churches. Which group that played The Balloon Stomp is most like the church? Do church members try to win by stomping everyone’s balloon or by helping one another? What are the rules for “playing church”? Jesus gave us the rules. He told us how to “play church.”

God gave up life for us.

Paul reminds us of these rules in Philippians 2:5-8. “In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human being, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

Jesus Christ is God, the very nature of God, completely God. Jesus didn’t stop being equal to God. He gave up using his equality with God. Jesus didn’t use his power to force people into obedience. He used his power to show people God’s way.

Humans think of power as means to control or manipulate people. God used love to change people. Jesus told his disciples in Mark 10:42-45 that the rulers of the Gentiles used their power to lord it over them. They were not to imitate them. He said, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus gave up the use of his power as God.

Jesus also gave up looking like God (whatever God looks like). He came to earth as a human being, was born in human form. In a mortal body, Jesus humbled himself and gave up his glory by taking on human flesh. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and lived among us.”

However, Jesus gave up even more these. Jesus told his disciples in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth and the life.” Jesus was the life, the giver and author of life. Yet, Jesus gave up his life. Paul said, “He humbled himself, and became obedient even to death.” [Php.2:8].

Jesus, God Almighty, humbled himself and gave up his power, gave us his glory, and gave up his life on the cross. So, you and I have received new life because our God gave up his life for us. We did not have to give up anything to receive this life. God did it all. And Jesus says that this is how we are to play the game of “church”.

Give up your life for God.

Philippians 2 begins, “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,  then make my joy complete.” 

Because of what God has given up for us:

· we receive encouragement, comfort and love from one another;

· We find acceptance and compassion from one another.

All this is from God, through Jesus Christ. It is God’s gift to us, and our gift to one another.

So the church is where we laugh with those who are laughing and weep with those who are weeping. The church is where we extend Christ’s comfort with a hug, Christ’s peace with a kind word, Christ’s love with an act of service. Love given and received is what church is about.

God’s love for us is seen in Jesus. First John 4:9-10 says, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

God loved us first and showed us what love really is. Love is about giving up what is rightly ours for the sake of another. Love is an act of giving for the sake of others.

How do we do that? Paul writes in Philippians 2:2-4: “by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interest of the others.”

I think of an orchestra when I read that, or any musical. There may be 20 – 80 people in an orchestra. There is only one conductor or leader. Each person plays their instrument with the others in mind. The flute player doesn’t get up in the middle of a concert and go out for a snack because he’s hungry. Some players don’t decide to play faster than the rest so they can finish first. When everyone else is playing softly, one person doesn’t decide to play loud so everyone notices them.

All keep their eyes on the conductor who is directing the music and helping them work together. They submit themselves to the one who brings them together. They don’t compete with one another. They humble themselves, serving one another, for the good of the whole.

That’s how a church is supposed to work too. We all have opinions about how the church should work. However, the goal is to submit our opinions to the one who is head of the church, Jesus Christ. So when the people of God keep their focus on God, they are of one mind and spirit.

However, we don’t always agree. N. T. Wright tells an old Jewish joke that says “if you’ve got two rabbis you’ve probably got three opinions, and often the church seems like that as well.” [Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: the Prison Letters (St. Louis, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004) 97]. Churches disagree about theological issues, worship styles, Bible translations, leadership styles, standards of morality, and lots of other things.

Each person here today could decide that their way of “doing church”, from their tradition or culture was best. We might insist that things change and the church do things “our way” or we will leave. We might try to convince others that our way’s the best way so we can get our way.

Just because I’m the pastor doesn’t mean I can insist on my way. My goal is to help all of us follow Christ’s way.

However, when we insist on our own way, we’re thinking only of ourselves. We forget that Jesus is in charge and that we are to submit to God’s plan. Ephesians 5:21 says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

· Rather than trying to stomp on everyone else’s balloon so that we win the game, we need to help each other so that we all win.

· Rather than competing for 1^st place in the church, we should help others be all they can be for Christ.

· Rather than trying to win the race, we need to help one another so that we all get there together.

Ephesians 4:13 says that our goal is to “all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Humility, submission to others, and valuing others above ourselves, are not duties to be carried out, but responses to God’s love. It’s an attitude that comes from a heart that has submitted to Jesus Christ.

We don’t become servants of one another just because it’s a nice thing to do. We become servants of one another because Jesus became a servant for our sake.

Jesus then paid our ransom, the price to set us free, by his death on a cross. Therefore, even though we are now free, we live as servants of Christ and one another.

What can we give in return for this precious gift? We can only give what we have received – the love of Christ.

Jesus told his disciples in John 15, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

As love has been given to us, we are to give love to others – freely, sacrificially. As we have been made one with Jesus Christ, we are to be one with others in the family of God.

How can we love others as Christ has loved us? How can we be of one mind and have the same love?

The only way is by keeping our eyes on Jesus Christ.

When we are all following Jesus’ lead, when we submit our lives to God’s Word and way, then we will have the mind and attitude of Christ. Jesus said, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” [Mt.16:25].

So, give it up–give it all up–for Jesus’ sake.

· Live in humility and love with one another.

· Seek to promote others above ourselves.

· Encourage others to be leaders.

· Work together for the good of others.

Conclusion

· When you consider what God has done for you, are you amazed?

· Do you find it hard to believe that God actually gave up everything just for you?

· Are you humbled by the knowledge that Christ loves you so much he died for you?

Then follow Christ’s example. Give it up for God.

· Serve others in humility.

· Love as you have been loved.

· Live as one in mind and spirit with all God’s people.

Give up your life for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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This sermon is copyright ©2008 by Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes, Immanuel Evangelical Covenant Church, Chicago, Illinois.