Seeing the Face of Christ in Holy Week—Easter Sunday

Philippians 2:1-11

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ²make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. ⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited, ⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, ⁸he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death —  even death on a cross. ⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

As a child one often would dream of “super powers;” you know, like the ones that super heroes had: vision that could see through walls, strength that could topple mountains and buildings, brains that could solve any question of the universe or invent a cure for any illness, and so forth.   Listen to a child, and you might hear such things as, “If I could fly like birds, then I could….”.  Last week I heard similar stories when talking with adults, but it had a different take.  There was a craze about the Mega Million Lottery: who was going to win all that money?  What would you do with that much money if you won?  Would winning that much money solve all things or would it just create new worries?  It really doesn’t matter what stage of life we are in, or what blessings and talents we possess, or the size of our bank accounts or credit limits; we all have hopes, dreams, and uncertainties to navigate in our lives.  As we explored all of our limitations and opportunities throughout our Lenten journey and “blogging”, at the core was the very real human factor of our limits as being created in God’s image, and God’s limitlessness, being God.

This Philippians passage and the Easter Story, remind us most fully of God’s depth and breadth.  This passage and Easter invite us into the offering of God’s Son on the cross so that where there is doubt, faith; where there is brokenness, healing; where there is despair, hope; where there are dead ends, new life.  To be in full accord with God, with Christ, is to rest assuredly and confidently in a faith that emulates Christ for others.  It is when we ourselves give selflessly as Christ has died for us, that our “faith” is no longer a noun, but is a verb.  It is then that the Gospel of Jesus Christ being risen indeed, is not just a catchy phrase, but Easter is a joy completed within us and shared with others.   Amen.

Pastor Kent 

For reflection:

What does it mean, to name faith a “verb?”

How can you “live the resurrection,” now?

Christ is risen; he is risen indeed.  Alleluia!  Seize the opportunity each day to proclaim this awesome truth!