February 23, 2025 ~ Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Rev. Beckie Sweet ~ COURAGEOUS
Do you remember how neighborhood kids used to pick teams for a game? Typically, the organizing ultra-athletes would quickly ascend to the rank of captain. Then, the captains would alternate picking members of their respective team. In my elementary age neighborhood in Clarks Summit, PA, we didn’t usually have enough kids to fill out two teams for football, soccer, or baseball, so each team member was needed to play a couple of positions.
When I was in fourth grade, I was built like a seventh grade linebacker. That served me well when we were playing football. And in baseball, I could hit long and hard. Running…running was another matter. Let’s just say I was far from being the fastest member of any team, and I was more than a little clumsy. While I might get picked first in football and early on in baseball, if the chosen game was soccer, I might be chosen last.
Do you remember what that feels like? There was one little guy in the neighborhood who was ALWAYS chosen last when we were playing football. When the captains got to the last couple of potential team members, he would just hang his head, turn, and walk home. He told me one day that no one wanted him to play on their team anyway. He was feeling unwanted, rejected, weak, and perhaps a bit ashamed and embarrassed. The Baptist pastor’s son would yell toward him, “Aw suck it up. You know what Jesus says, ‘The first shall be last, and the last shall be first!’” That did not help one bit!
And yet, it may call to our minds that Jesus has chosen to be on the side of those chosen last! In the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, whether one was hired at daybreak, mid-morning, noontime or late afternoon, they were all to be paid the same. Because Jesus has chosen to be on the side of those chosen last.
The other day as I was driving on Elmira Road, one of our unhoused neighbors was standing beside the road with his sign asking for donations, and the person driving the car in front of me lowered his window and shouted, “Get a job!” a statement which was followed by some obscenities. It was not difficult to see who was first and last in that setting even if that did defy the driver’s assumptions.
Paul, again writing from prison to the divided church at Philippi, begins this section with words to soothe the open wounds of conflict between neighbors. “If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” First Paul addresses the joy in living and loving as a Christian. Throughout Christ’s ministry, he was constantly making it his business to see the overlooked, to show mercy and compassion to the outcast and downtrodden, to break the social norms and even religious laws just to love, heal and save people. He was challenging everyone’s assumptions about the other, and providing a means of reconciliation.
Paul says to us in this text, that there is an unspeakable joy that comes with living and loving like Jesus: When we push past the pressures of society and the busyness of life and take time to actually SEE people and to SHOW them some genuine compassion; When we choose not to be afraid to stand up for people, to celebrate others. There is the true joy that comes with that!
And, it’s not about US! Paul stresses in the next verse the importance of doing for others, but making sure that when we do, that it’s not about us. So often, people give money, do community service, help others….for recognition and personal gain. There may even be times in our own lives when we have been guilty of helping someone else or standing up for someone else so we can get noticed or perhaps some get sort of pat on the back or hear our name in the news. But Paul reminds us of the challenge to be blessed by serving with humility, “to regard others as better than [our]selves.”
And then there is the mind of Christ. The last verse of this brief but powerful passage calls us to “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” Reading on (as we did a couple of weeks ago) Paul continues to explain that Christ was so humble and so committed to serving others, that he took on human form, and was obedient to the point of death on a cross, and because of this, God highly exalted him. Christ’s relationship with God deepened and Christ found even more favor in the Creator’s eyes because all that he did was for the good of others, bringing glory to God.
This is the mindset that we should all aspire to have, to serve with joy and humility, to have the mind of Christ that boldly stands up for others, the mind that has the courage to speak up and show compassion and mercy, the mind that seeks out and sees the overlooked. This is the mind of Christ, the mindset that brings glory to God. So, what is God calling you to do in this text? Who are you to serve or stand up for? Or is this the text that admonishes us to self-evaluate how we’re serving to ensure that we’re doing so with humility and joy and with the mind of Christ?
When my daughter, Marthalyn was in middle school, she developed a love of running. Who would think that MY daughter would love running?? Some of her friends from church had signed up to be part of the modified cross-country team, and so Marthalyn did, too. She learned a lot about herself and running during the first couple of years. In her characteristically disciplined way, she trained faithfully in all seasons. And, she continued to improve her race times. But in those early days, just finishing the race was a huge challenge.
I did not know much about how cross-country meets were scored. But, at one point a coach held a meeting for parents where that, and other things were shared with parents. We learned about proper training and nutrition for runners, about mental and emotional tides with distance runners, the dangers of energy drinks, and we learned that the runner on each team that finishes fifth for their team is one of the most important team members. Fifth? Really? Why? Because the Federation, which sets the rules, declared that a team MUST have at least five finishers to have a valid score. If a team only had four runners finish the race, they, in essence, forfeited to the opposing teams. In some of our smaller school districts there were only five girls on some of the teams. So, while the onlookers cheered wildly for the first place finisher, the cheering was just as boisterous for the team member who finished fifth for her team, even if she was in last place for the whole race.
Jesus has chosen to be on the side of the last. Shouldn’t we do that too? That is what Christ’s great reversal is all about. There is much that is more important in life than winning according to human standards. There is great blessing in regarding others as better than ourselves, as worthy of our time and efforts, as deserving of being cheered-on, as worthy of God’s love and ours.
There is room for all of us to grow in the way this text calls Christians to live and love. And there is room for all of us to be blessed, both by serving and thereby deepening our relationship with God. So, let us begin to discern how God is calling us to serve, to love, to reach out, and let us pray for the mind of Christ as we do!