H. Michael Brewer
Crescent Springs Presbyterian
25 September 2005
THE SAME MIND
Philippians 2:5-11
Some passages of Scripture are so rich and deep and full that you can lose yourself in them, like
those six verses from Philippians 2. Paul is apparently quoting a Christian hymn about the nature of
Jesus Christ, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to
be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.”
Whole books have been written on this so-called Christ Hymn, piecing together what the early
church believed about the incarnation of God. Scholars have argued over nearly every Greek word in
the song, wrestling to uncover the meaning of something that may ultimately defy human understanding.
Fortunately, one doesn’t need to be a Greek scholar or a philosopher/theologian to understand what
Paul is saying in this passage. Paul points to Christ as an example of how Christians should live. The
Son of God gave up his safe and secure place in heaven in order to meet us where we are. Christ
emptied himself of divine privilege so that he could reach out to us.
It’s this reaching out, this movement in our direction that Paul has in mind when he says to the
Philippian Christians, “You should have the same mind in you that was in Christ.” Actually that feels
passive to me, and the Greek in this passage is quite active. We might get closer to Paul’s meaning if we
translate it, “You should think the same way Christ thought; you should care about the same things that
mattered to Jesus.”
What mattered to Jesus? Reaching out, crossing the distance, bridging the gulf. We can bring this
principle to bear in every area of life.
We could seek the mind of Christ in our marriages, being willing to lose the argument if it helps us
reconnect.
We could practice in our families the notion that reaching across our differences matters more than
nursing our injuries.
In our workplaces what would happen if we were as determined to honor the needs of others as to
protect our own turf?
What kind of church would we become if each of us really took to heart Paul’s advice: “Do nothing
from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of look
not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”
It is inevitable that divisions grow up among us. We are all so fallible and forgetful. We hurt those we
love without meaning to, sometimes without knowing we did it. And we get hurt; often we are much too
fragile, growing self-righteous, indignant, and vengeful over something we should have simply shaken
off. Divisions are inevitable, but the mind of Christ impels us to reach out in spite of our hurts, to reach
across the divisions, to forgive or make amends and to do better next time.
If I discovered I had five minutes left to live, I know exactly what I’d do. In fact, I’d do the same
thing you would. I’d grab the nearest phone and I’d spend my last five minutes of breath saying, “I love
you,” to as many people as I could possibly reach.
Here’s some good news for you. You’ve got more than five minutes, a lot more. Make good use of
it. How foolish we are to expend so much energy raising fences instead of building bridges.
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus who came so far and stooped so low so he could
reach out to you and me. This why left the church behind, so we could keep on reaching out in his name
after he returned to heaven, so could keep alive the mind of Christ that longs for connection and
reconciliation.
But we haven’t done that well, have we, at cultivating the mind of Christ. A reporter once asked
Pope John XXIII, “How many people work here in the Vatican?” to which the Pope answered, “Oh,
about half, I guess.”
I wish I could be that optimistic! I’d love to report that half the members at CSPC are really
working to reach out in the spirit of Jesus. I don’t know a single pastor who wouldn’t be thrilled to find
that half the members of her congregation intended to invite friends to worship, intended to speak
openly about faith in Christ, intended to think the thoughts and lift up the priorities of Christ. Half the
Christians in worship today at St. Joe’s and the Church of God and the Baptist Church and all the
others reaching out with the love of Christ? Half would be wonderful. Half would change the world.
Let me share a few numbers with you. According to the statisticians, approximately 97% of the
people in the world have heard of Coca-Cola. 72% of the world has seen a can of Coca-Cola. And
over half the world’s population has tasted Coca-Cola. The church has been around roughly twenty
times longer than Coke, but they seem to be reaching a lot more people than we are. Maybe all the
churches in the world ought to quit giving to mission, pool our money, and hire Coca-Cola to spread
the love of Jesus.
Except it’s not Coca-Cola’s job, is it? It’s our job—the job God gave us and the job God equipped
us for.
Maybe you’ve heard of William Carey. He invented the modern missionary movement. Carey was
an English shoe-maker and in the late 1700’s he got it in his head that the church should be spreading
Christianity to the ends of the earth. He had to start a voluntary society for missions because the
churches wouldn’t back him up. No, the churches simply told him all the reasons his plan was insane.
The church leaders said, “We can’t take Christianity to India or Japan or China or Africa because those
places are too far away. The expense of these missions would be prohibitive. Language is an
insurmountable problem. And how could we ask people to face the hardship and danger involved?”
Carey said, “I admit that all those are serious challenges. How odd that we overcome all those
difficulties in order to buy and sell with these faraway nations. You’d almost think that making money
was more important than spreading the love of Christ.”
The Directors of the East India (trading) Company brought a resolution to the British Parliament:
“The sending out of missionaries into one Eastern possession is the maddest, most extravagant, most
costly, most indefensible project which has ever been suggested by a moonstruck fanatic.”
Need I tell you that the Presbyterians were not quick to jump on the world mission bandwagon? In
1796, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland issues this public statement: “To spread the
knowledge of the gospel amongst barbarians and heathens seems to be highly preposterous.”
In spite of so much resistance from so many churches, world mission established itself as a crucial
Christian effort to reach across the distance in the name of Jesus. Indeed, African Christianity is now the
fastest growing branch of the Christian family. I am proud that Presbyterians are in the forefront today in
carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth. Now if could just convert our own nation.
Did you hear the story of the fellow who applied for a job as a handyman? His prospective
employer asked, “Can you do carpentry?”
The man said, “No. No carpentry skills.”
“How about bricklaying?”
“No, I’m afraid not.”
“What about electrical work or plumbing?”
The man said, “No, I’ve never tried my hand at either of those.”
Finally the interviewer said, “What is your qualification to be a handyman?”
The fellow said, “I live just down the street. I think that’s handy.”
You’re probably not called to talk about Jesus in Nepal or the Congo. But God would find it very
handy if you would say a word or two to the people on your street, in your office, at your bus stop.
Maybe you remember the motion picture Gandhi in which Ben Kingsley played the part of the Indian
leader. Kingsley spent months preparing for the role, visiting the various Indian locales Gandhi had
frequented. He even learned to spin cotton thread on a wooden wheel while holding conversations as
Gandhi did. And the physical resemblance between Gandhi and Kingsley was almost startling. After
filming a scene in a village south of Delhi, Kingsley stepped out of a car, and an elderly peasant knelt to
touch his feet. Embarrassed, Kingsley explained that he was merely an actor playing Gandhi. “We
know,” replied the villager, “but in you he surely lives again.”
This is our calling and our great blessing—that our Savior should live again in us, that the love of our
Savior should be available from us, and that the hands of our Savior should continue to reach out
through us—within our families, within our congregation, and within our neighborhoods. When that
happens, the world will know that we have the mind of Christ.
Soli Deo Gloria!