Lenten blog | March 21, 2024

That's old, but this is even older

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 21st:  Deuteronomy 16:1-8; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; and Philippians 2:1-11.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Philippi was one of the earliest Christian communities established by Paul.  We are dealing with a community that dates to the mid-first century.  This would be within a generation of Jesus’ death.  The Philippians are literally first-generation Christians.  The Epistle we share today in the form we have received may date to circa 60AD.  Philippians is among the earliest extant Christian writings we have.  And it still takes us even further back in time to the earliest of the early church.  I’m talking about Philippians 2:6-11.

At the Sunrise Service on Easter morning (you’re more than welcome to join us), those of us gathered will sing the hymn “Amazing Grace.”  It’s early, very early.  It’s outdoors.  There’s no accompaniment.  Most of us are not choir members.  We chose “Amazing Grace” because it is so well known.  The melody and the lyrics are quite familiar, and this makes our singing easier.

The earliest of the early Christian communities also had such familiar hymns.  Obviously, they were not gathered in a printed hymnal.  However, some hymns became so familiar that they became a part of the fabric of worship.  Every believer knew such hymns. 

Paul writes Philippians from prison.  His situation is uncertain and dangerous, but he holds onto hope.  In order to share this sentiment and faith with the community at Philippi, and in a way that they will recognize immediately, Paul incorporates an early and familiar Christian hymn in his letter.  In your Bibles, I imagine that Philippians 2:6-11stands out from the surrounding text.  It is probably printed as poetry rather than prose.  Paul is not the author of 2:6-11.  This is the hymn that in the early 60’s was already established.  This is the hymn that may date to the 30’s or 40’s.  This is the hymn that speaks of the earliest of the early church’s Christology, how believers thought of Jesus as the Christ and as the Son of God.

Jesus was in the “form of God,” but would not exploit His “equality with God.”  Accordingly, Jesus “emptied himself” of that divine nature, and that word from the Greek is catharsis.  Jesus replaces “the form of God” with “human form.”  The divine nature remains, but Jesus’ humanity prevails.  This is the will of God, that in Jesus God encounters the fullness of the human experience.  This is intentional.  This is the reason for Jesus.  This is why Jesus’ humanity must be protected and preached.  To believe in the premise of Jesus’ full humanity and the limitations it requires is not to deny Jesus’ divinity; it is to comply with the will of God that in Jesus the divine nature was emptied so that the human nature will be authentic.

It is in this authentic humanity, sings the hymn, that Jesus even accepts our mortality, that Jesus “became obedient to the point of death.”  Our shared mortality is probably where this stanza of the hymn concluded, but scholars postulate that it wasn’t enough for Paul.  Paul inserts another line:  “even death on a cross.”  Imagine singing “Amazing Grace” when somebody adds a new and unfamiliar line.  It will stand out.  When the Philippians read the words of their familiar hymn and then Paul’s addition, the cruel reality of “even death on a cross” jumps off the page.

As we move deeper into Lent, quickly approaching Holy Week, let us consider the teaching of the earliest of the early church that Jesus carries the divinity with Him, but Jesus does not exploit it, that Jesus’ humanity is full and authentic as He goes to the cross, as He carries God to the cross.  What does this say about Jesus, and what does this say about God?  And dare we even ask what is says about “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus”?    
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.