2014A 16 Pentecost Humility for Love (Phil 2:1-13)

Nancy S. Streufert
28 September 2014 Proper 21
1
. . . be of the same mind that was in Christ Jesus . . .
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There once was a great king who fell in love with a humble maiden. But instead of being filled
with happiness, the king was sorrowful in his heart. You see, he was faced with a dilemma: 1) if
he were to go to her in all his kingly splendor and ask her to marry him, she would obey him as
a loyal subject and not because she truly loved him; 2) if he were to pretend to be a country
swain by dressing the part, she would see through his disguise, and love cannot abide deceit.
For the couple to become united in true love, the king realized that he must relinquish his royal
nature and, humbling himself, truly become one of her own kind. For this is the unfathomable
nature of boundless love, that it desires to be equal with the beloved.
This is my paraphrase of a little parable written by Soren Kierkegaard, the 19
th
century Danish
Christian philosopher and theologian. His parable is most certainly based on our Epistle lesson
today, in which Paul pleads with his beloved church at Philippi to be of the same mind that was
in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a
slave, being born in human likeness.
Pauls theological concept here that God humbled himself through self-emptying to become a
human being led to scholarly speculation and debate still going on today about what
happened to Gods divine attributes while he walked the earth as Jesus. But Paul isnt
concerned about this at all. Instead, his focus is on God the Sons decisive act by his will and out
of love to become one like his creatures to accomplish the work of reconciling humanity.
As I reflected on this passage over the last couple weeks, I tried to imagine what it would be like
for God to become like one of his created beings, like one of us.
I wondered what it would mean for me to become what I had created in like form. If I were a
potter or a cook or a writer, I could become a clay pot or a tossed salad or an essay. But these
are inanimate things, products of our human minds and hands. They have meaning but how
would they be any different if I took their form? What could it mean to empty myself in a
Christ-like way?
In a powerful insight, I suddenly remembered a book I had read in high school by John Howard
Griffin called Black Like Me.
Griffin, a white man and a writer living in Mansfield, Texas, was concerned about racial
discrimination in the Deep South during the 1950s. Believing that blacks there lived pretty
much like whites with certain inconveniences caused by discrimination and prejudice, he
decided to test his theory in a bold experiment. After darkening his skin with the help of a
dermatologist with oral medication and a sunlamp, he traveled through LA, MS, AL, and GA by
hitchhiking and by bus to experience daily life as a black man. He kept a journal that became a
series of magazine articles and then a book.
2014A 16 Pentecost Humility for Love (Phil 2:1-13)
Nancy S. Streufert
28 September 2014 Proper 21
2
Griffins deepest shock came not from inconvenience but as a total shift in reality:
On Chartres Street in the French Quarter, he writes, I walked toward Brennans, one of New
Orleans famed restaurants. Forgetting myself for a moment, I stopped to study the menu that
was elegantly exposed in a show window. I read, realizing that a few days earlier I could have
gone in and ordered anything on the menu. But now, though I was the same person with the
same appetite, the same appreciation and even the same wallet, no power on earth could get
me inside this place for a meal.
What is especially revealing about the project was Griffins purpose for risking his health, his
life, and the safety of his family in obedience to his religious ideals.
A Roman Catholic, Griffin considered his work not a vocation that is specifically black and
white, but a deeper spiritual quest that he called a vocation for the reconciliation of
humanity. If I could take on the skin of a black man, he said, live whatever might happen
and then share that experience with others, perhaps at the level of shared human experience,
we might come to some understanding that was not possible at the level of pure reason.
The insight I had when I remembered the book is that, in a sense, Griffin emptied himself of his
whiteness to become incarnate as a black man for the purpose of fostering understanding
and some reconciliation between the races in the Deep South in the 1960s, just as God became
incarnate in Jesus to reconcile all of humanity.
And in a sense, we are of the same mind that was in Christ Jesus as Paul urged the
Philippians to be when we empty ourselves and become incarnate in others by sharing in
their lives out of love.
As I thought about how Griffins experiment could apply to life in Humboldt County, I
remembered a series of articles that ran several years ago about the CalFresh initiative.
Formerly known as the food stamp program, CalFresh provides low-income residents with a
debit card each month to pay for groceries. Three Times-Standard reporters had partnered with
Food for People to take the CalFresh Challenge, a pledge to eat on a food stamp budget for one
week. At the time, that budget was $34.31 per person per week, or about $5 a day. The
reporters wrote about their experiences for the newspaper.
All of them ended the week with leftover food. They all concluded that the Challenge was
doable, but not very fun or enjoyable because of the lack of variety in their meals and the extra
time needed to shop and plan meals. By undergoing the Challenge, however, the reporters
realized how difficult it is for those in our community who rely on CalFresh benefits to eat a
basic and healthy diet.

And that is what I see as the incarnational aspect of the Challenge. By sharing in the experience
of those living below the poverty line nearly 18 percent of Humboldt County residents the
reporters were inspired to do something about it, not only through their reporting but through
their own personal actions to help alleviate hunger in our community.
2014A 16 Pentecost Humility for Love (Phil 2:1-13)
Nancy S. Streufert
28 September 2014 Proper 21
3
I thought of some ways we might humble ourselves to share our lives in solidarity with those
who are challenged differently in their daily lives.
- We could take the CalFresh Challenge ourselves.
- We could shower for a week with a trickle of cold water and feel what its like for millions,
maybe billions of people around the globe.
- The next time you or I have a headache or stub a toe, we could wait a few hours before taking
a Tylenol and experience what it feels like to the thousands who live with chronic pain and cant
take pain medication.
- We could volunteer this holiday season to be a bell-ringer for the Salvation Army, even for two
hours on a Saturday, sharing in solidarity with all those who daily experience being stared at,
glared at, and the humiliation of being ignored and shunned and even ridiculed. But hopefully,
there will also be sharing in the blessings by those who will greet us warmly and who will give
us the opportunity to tell them why we are serving.
I want to be clear about something. I am not suggesting that you or I should feel guilty because
we have plenty to eat, or because we are relatively pain free, or because we enjoy our hot
showers. What I am suggesting is that if we share humbly in the lives of others who face some
of the challenges we dont have, we will understand better what its like to face those
challenges and be more likely to take action, to join Christ in his mission to reconcile the world.
Just as God became one of us to share in our common humanity for the purpose of
reconciliation, so can we be the incarnation of Christ in the lives of others out of love.
Be of the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Share a life.