July 7, 2025 • 34 mins
What glasses are you wearing? How we view reality fundamentally shapes everything about our lives – our choices, our relationships, our definition of "the good life." In this illuminating exploration of Philippians 2, we dive deep into the ancient Greek concept of "phronesis" – a way of seeing that encompasses far more than mere thinking.
Paul challenges the Philippians (and us) to adopt a revolutionary lens: the self-emptying, self-sacrificial mindset of Christ. This perspective stands in stark contrast to both ancient Greek values and our modern American frameworks. While the Greeks prized virtue, reason, and reputation, we often define reality through success, comfort, individual freedom, and carefully curated image. None of these perspectives are inherently evil – they're just incomplete and distorted pictures of what's real.
The mindset of Christ – demonstrated through his willingness to empty himself, take on human form, and sacrifice himself on the cross – represents true reality. Remarkably, modern research confirms what Jesus taught: giving to others creates more happiness than spending on ourselves. The self-emptying love of Christ isn't just a nice religious idea; it's how the universe actually works.
This perspective necessarily happens in community. We can't pour ourselves out for nobody – the concept requires relationship. This is why Paul emphasizes "koinonia" (fellowship or partnership) throughout his letters. True Christian community isn't built on shared interests or political views, but on a shared reality that enables us to bear one another's burdens.
Ready to take off your distorted lenses and see the world as it truly is? Join us as we explore what it means to have the mind of Christ and build a community centered on his self-giving love.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm going to let you be seated.
Well, good morning.
It's tough to top Isla man.
She is something boy.
So we are in the middle of ourPhilippians series.
We're calling it Joy, anyway,and here's what I want to do.
I'm going to tell you this too.
By the way, sometimes when Ipreach a sermon, like I'm just
trying to share the good news orI want to explain some things,
this is one of those sermonswhere I want to just tell you
(00:22):
right from the jump that this iswho I want us to be as a church
.
So this sermon is like adeclarative kind of a sermon
where I want, at the end, likethis is what I want us to be as
a community.
And so, just know, in the front, I'm going to ask us if we can
kind of inch ourselves towardsthis way of being, and I'll
explain it.
But and look this, what I'mabout to say is really, it's
(00:46):
really really hard, if notimpossible, but by the Spirit,
you know.
So the Spirit is the one thatenables us to do anything, I
believe.
And so, if by the Spirit, Iwould love to ask that the
Spirit would allow us to be thiskind of a community.
It's my prayer for us thismorning that we're this kind of
a community that we read aboutin Philippians 2.
And oh, by the way, you shouldhave gotten a little card when
you came in.
On the one side of it is thatPhilippians 2 passage and you're
(01:09):
going to hang on to that.
You can take notes on the backor on the front of that and you
can underline certain things.
This is the main focus of ourtime this morning and here's why
when Paul writes this letter toPhilippians, it's a letter he
wrote.
He's in prison in around 62 AD.
He writes this letter to hisfriends at the church in
Philippi.
He planted this church 12 yearsearlier.
(01:30):
Philippi was a Greek city.
It's in Greece.
It was the very first churchplant in Europe, so it's the
first.
You know Lydia was the firstconvert in Europe.
It's incredible Christianconvert.
And he plants this church andthen he lets it go and then he
leaves.
But they stay connected, pauland the Philippians, and they
send him money, they support him.
They find out he's in prison inRome and they send him a gift
(01:53):
to like encourage him and aletter from with a guy called
Epaphroditus, so Epaphroditusfrom Philippians.
This is 12 years later.
They send him to go encouragePaul and, to you know, give him
a gift and just to bless him.
And he receives it.
He's so blessed because, like,oh man, I just love these guys,
the Philippians, they love me.
So he sends a thank you cardback with Epaphroditus and it's
(02:16):
this letter, the Philippiansletter, that we read today,
thousands of years later.
And in this letter, unlike manyof other Paul's letters, he
doesn't really develop a singleidea from beginning to end.
That's not what he's doing inthis letter.
Rather, he sort of arrangesthese beautiful short reflective
essays or thought bubbles andhe kind of gives them to the
church, but he arranges themaround this sort of center of
(02:39):
gravity, if you will like thishub, and that's Philippians 2,
which is this beautiful poem inPhilippians 2.
So it's on your sheet here, andso the whole book sort of
hovers around the center ofgravity which is Philippians 2,
this poem.
And in this poem Paul,beautifully and artfully, he
unpacks the incarnation, godbecoming a human.
(03:01):
He unpacks the incarnation, thelife, the death, the
resurrection and the exaltation,like the uplifting of Jesus.
And for centuries theologiansand pastors and scholars have
unpacked this chapter ofPhilippians.
It's like one of the main ones,because people for centuries
have tried to understand.
(03:21):
What does it mean that Jesus isboth fully God and fully human?
Those words, by the way, arenot in the Bible, but we have
this idea and this is one of theplaces we pull it from.
How is Jesus both divine andalso human?
How can that be possible?
How is it possible that God,the ineffable, the transcendent,
the unholdable, the ground ofbeing itself?
(03:43):
How can that ever become amaterial human being who walks
on the earth?
Well, paul beautifully andartfully describes it a little
bit, so I'm going to unpack itquickly for you guys.
But here's what he writes inPhilippians.
Oh, by the way, my title iscalled Phronesis and Other
Unpronounceable Miracles.
All right, good, I got thelaugh.
I was hoping for Wonderful here.
(04:05):
Here's philippians 2.
Uh, paul writes hey, look in.
In your relationships with eachother, have the same mindset as
christ, jesus who.
And then here's the.
Here's the poem.
It's beautiful how he'sdescribing the, the incarnation,
the life, death, resurrection,and in an exaltation of jesus.
And've got the whole thing onyour paper there.
But he's like hey, like Jesus,who didn't use his power to his
(04:29):
own advantage, jesus certainlyhad power.
If he was God in the flesh hehad all kinds of power.
As a rabbi, a first centuryrabbi, jewish male he had lots
of power but he never used it,for he was and also in your
you'll notice, he says he wasone in nature with God.
So, as God in the flesh, he hasthis power, but he never uses
it for his own advantage.
Also, jesus, he makes himselfnothing.
(04:51):
Your version might say he pourshimself out, he empties himself
.
The Greek word is the word.
So here's anotherunpronounceable miracle it's
kenosis.
Everyone say kenosis, it'sK-E-N-O-S-I-S.
Kenosis means like a pouringout or an emptying.
So God, when he becomes a humanthis is what scholars suggest.
By the way, for the fancytheologians in the room, this is
(05:11):
called kenotic Christology orkenosis so he empties himself.
So God empties himself of allthe things that are incompatible
with being a human, in order tobecome a human.
So, for example, god isomnipresent.
Like God is the ground of allbeing itself.
Right In him we live and moveand have our being In Jesus.
(05:32):
Though Jesus is not omnipresent,he's only in one place, at one
time.
He's like located, you know, infirst century Palestine.
He's not everywhere.
So that part of God that iseverywhere, god empties that
part of himself and and like,leaves it.
You know, with the Father andthe Spirit, and then goes into
Jesus and he's located.
Does that make sense?
Okay, other things likeomniscience, like God knows
(05:55):
everything Many scholars,kenotic, christologists, they
think that Jesus didn't knoweverything.
Or omnipotence, that he couldn'tdo anything.
He wasn't Superman, he only didthe things that the Spirit
empowers him to do.
He only knows things that theSpirit tells him, the same
Spirit, by the way, which isalso in you.
This is why John, in John 14,says that you will do even
(06:19):
greater things than I've done,he tells his followers, because
the same Spirit in me is in you,which is great.
So, anyway, point is Godempties himself and pours
himself out.
There's this act of kenosis.
Also, there's this he becomes aservant.
Yeah, this God becomes aservant to the world.
He humbles himself.
By the way, this is incredible,the Greek word for humble, or
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humility.
It did not exist in the Greeklanguage or wasn't prevalent at
all before the Christian era.
No self-respecting Greek wouldhave ever thought humility was a
virtue.
They shunned humility becausehumility, for the Greeks, was
very similar, if not the same,as humiliation, and they didn't
want to be humiliated.
For them, their reputation andhonor and their display was of
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utmost importance.
So they would put their deedson display.
They wanted you to recognizethem, to honor them, to venerate
them, to commend them.
So they would put all of theirdeeds, their actions on display
so that the public could seethem Like oh, that's a good man,
that's a good woman.
So you would never secretlygive something to somebody, like
in private.
You would never do somethinglike.
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You would never lower yourselfor humble yourself, because
that's the same as humiliation.
You would put all your works ondisplay.
This was not even a thing untilthe Christian era.
When Jesus starts doing thesekinds of things, he empties
himself, makes himself humble.
Isn't that amazing?
There wasn't even a word in theGreek language up until this
point.
He was obedient to the cross,even to the point of death on
the cross.
The cross was a humiliating wayto die.
It was sacrilegious, no punintended.
(07:49):
It was inhumane, it wasscandalous.
It was like one of the worstways you could die was death on
a Roman cross.
But here we go, god does thisand through that lowering and
emptying and humbling himself,god exalts him.
This is sort of the Christpattern.
It's lowering so that then hecan, through God, be exalted.
(08:13):
So Paul writes in yourrelationships with another, have
the same mindset as Christ.
Who then paints this picture ofwhat Christ is like.
The crucified Christ.
Make sense, are you with me?
So far?
All right, kelsey and Peter,let's go, the three of us, paul.
By the way, the word formindset here is the word
phronesis, and so everyone sayphronesis, that's
(08:36):
P-H-R-O-N-E-S-I-S and phronesis.
Mindset doesn't just mean likethinking.
So Paul doesn't have the samemindset as Christ, who does all
these things.
He's not just saying think thesame as Christ, he's saying it's
more like.
Phronesis means likeunderstanding or thinking, sound
judgment, wisdom.
It could also mean this.
(08:56):
It could also mean a way ofthinking that shapes your
character and your conduct.
So it's like wisdom that leadsto action.
This is what phronesis is.
So Paul writes hey, have thesame phronesis as Christ.
You could also word it this wayit's a pattern of thinking or
acting and feeling that engagesthe whole person.
So we in the Western world welove like cognitive thinking,
(09:18):
with our brains, reason.
But Paul's not just saying, hey, think the same things that
Christ thought with your brain,he's saying, no, like it's this
pattern of thinking, of acting,of feeling, that engages the
whole body, that shapes how yousee and think about everything.
It's practical wisdom, for sure, it's what phronesis is, but
it's like this discernment aboutwhat's good and right so you
(09:39):
can live a good life.
By the way, paul uses this word10 times in this tiny short
letter.
It's probably an importantthing that I pay attention to
that Paul uses he uses it anumber of times phronesis, it's
this way of like.
What does it mean to live thegood life?
This is a question that theGreeks would ask all the time.
So the Greeks including one ofthe famous ones, aristotle they
(10:01):
asked what does it mean to livethe good life?
So they would think okay, howdo we need to think in order to
live and shape our lives around,whatever this thing is, in
order to live a good life?
So the philosophers, aristotle,the Greeks, these people would
all wonder aloud what is thegood life?
How do we live it?
This is part of phronesis howdo we shape our lives around and
(10:22):
make it a good life?
And I would ask us the samequestion, right, because I told
you, I want this sermon to belike hey, this is who we're
going to be, this is what we'regoing to be about.
How do we know what the goodlife is?
What does the good life looklike?
What does it mean to flourish,to have joy, to have happiness,
these kinds of things?
What does true well-being looklike?
(10:44):
And how do you know?
How do you know?
That's what phronesis is.
Phronesis is like this thingthat you kind of it like, frames
everything in order that youcan see what is the good life.
And so, for Greeks, they wouldask this question what is the
good life?
But I would ask us the samething.
See, for the Greeks, phronesis,which is a very prominent word
in the Greek thinking.
(11:04):
See, for the Greeks, phronesis,which is a very prominent word
in the Greek thinking.
Phronesis really is just howyou see reality and what is real
life.
What is real reality and how doyou know what it is and what
does it taste like and feel like, and how do you frame it, how
do you talk about it?
It's wisdom that leads to howyou act and engage the world in
a deeply good way.
Does that make sense?
Okay, phronesis.
(11:27):
So what is the good life?
And because how you see things,by the way, shapes how you live
.
I learned this a couple ofmonths ago, me and the family
were out to dinner out inChicago and there was a bunch of
us at this dinner, at thisrestaurant, and we're hanging
out getting ready to have food.
I was ordering off the menu andas I'm ordering the menu, like
you know how at night they'lldim the lights to make it extra
(11:48):
romantic for everybody.
Well, like I can't see the menu, I'm like looking at the menu,
I'm like I can't see the menu.
It's so dark in here.
I was getting like I wasgetting disgruntled in my heart.
I can't why.
Certainly everybody else aroundmy table must be having the
same experience.
So I'm going to look up andthen complain about it with
everybody else and commiseratetogether, right?
(12:11):
So I look up, I can't believe,and I realized not everybody was
having the same experience.
There was a certain subset ofour table that didn't have a
problem seeing the menu.
These people you might callthem well, you might use like
the language you might say, youmight describe them.
You might say they were likeyounger people that didn't have,
(12:33):
and it was in that moment Ishook my fist at God.
I said no.
You said this would neverhappen, to which God said no, I
didn't.
You said that right.
And so we are on the table.
The folks you might say thatthe folks, maybe you might
(12:55):
describe us as the words, maybe,like the older folks are on the
table Couldn't see.
So I've resisted this idea thatmy eyes not me, but my eyes
were getting older.
I was like, well, that's notreally you know.
So like about a couple weekslater I'm reading a book at
night and I couldn't see thebook.
It was dark in our living room.
I'm like I gotta put the lightson in here and Katie goes hey,
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here, try these on.
I'm like I'm not doing that,try them on, try them on.
So I put these on.
I'm like we'll all be darned.
What kind of sorcery are these?
(13:38):
What is this?
I've never even what ishappening.
And where do you buy these?
Like, where do you find these?
So I put them on.
I could see.
That's what glasses do.
By the way, glasses help yousee things.
They bring things into focus,at least the right ones.
The wrong ones can make thingsdistorted, they can make things
blurry or fuzzy or bad for youto see, but glasses frame what
you see.
They help you see or not.
These are my Clark Kent glasses, by the way.
And glasses will help you seethings properly.
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They help you see reality as itreally is or not, and it really
depends on the glasses andwhich pair you're wearing.
See, we have a variety ofglasses that you can pick up and
wear.
There's a variety of ways tosee the world.
There's a variety of ways tosee the world.
We know this because we allhave different ways of seeing
the world and, believe it or not, we all have different ways of
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seeing reality.
We all have a phronesis, we alllive from phronesis, but we all
do it differently because ofour different lenses that we
have.
These are my Friday night.
I'm feeling funky lenses.
I hope you're laughing with me,not at me.
I hope you're laughing with me,not at me.
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These are Katie's Calm DownLeopard print.
Where did you even get theseLeopard print glasses we all
have?
How do I recover from this?
We all have different lenses,right?
And glasses that we all see anda variety of ways.
These are my I'm too cool forschool glasses, but they help us
see reality.
And glasses that we all see anda variety of ways.
These are mytoo-cool-for-school glasses, but
they help us see reality.
(15:08):
Now, many of you have inheriteda certain pair of lenses from,
maybe, your parents or yourupbringing.
These are my actual glassesthat I'm looking at now through
my contacts then through theglasses, so it's not a good deal
.
You might have picked some upalong the way.
Maybe you're at a certaincollege and you pick up some
glasses oh, I'm going to trythese babies on and a certain
way of seeing the world, acertain way of having a
(15:29):
phronesis or doing phronesis.
So you try them on and maybeswap them out.
Maybe you change and you grow.
You read a book I think I'vetried them all on here and you
try that, yeah, and you try onthese new glasses, but we all
have one.
You have a phronesis.
You have a way of living andseeing the world, viewing
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reality, a way of thinking, amindset, an attitude, a lens
through which you see everythingthat shapes how you behave in
the world.
Now for the Greeks.
They had their own phronesis,their own way of seeing the
world and what it meant to livethe good life.
For the Greeks it was this.
This was their lens, theirframe.
It was virtue.
The Greeks loved virtue, andthe four virtues that were most
prominent were courage,temperance, wisdom and
discipline.
So if you did those things, youwere living a good life.
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That's what framed theirreality.
If you do those things, you'llbe good.
They also had this, as is oneof their frames reason If you
were, if you could think andreason, that led to the good
life.
So if you had a problem, justreason it out.
That's how you lived your life.
So this is your phronesis.
They also thought aboutreputation Again.
If you did good deeds, you wantto put them on display.
Let everyone see your deeds indisplay, because that's what
makes you a good person andlives a good life.
(16:37):
So your honor, reputation thiswas an honor and shame culture.
Lastly, there was this the willof the gods, their frame, one of
their frames, like, hey, youknow what?
The gods control everything.
We're at the whim of the gods,we're at the mercy of the gods
and they don't really have a lotto do with us other than you
know we're kind of likebystanders.
Often their stuff pours overinto our.
So you know, they would govisit oracles, they would have
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sacrificial rituals and prayersand these kinds of things.
They lived with a certain levelof anxiety because they didn't
know what the Greek gods were upto, but it was all fate.
You couldn't escape your fate.
That was the way that they sawthe world.
Their reality was you couldn'tescape fate.
Now, this is ancient Greece.
Now we also, in modern dayAmerica, have our own lenses.
Are you ready for some of theones I suggest we have?
(17:19):
Buckle up, I don't know, maybewe like to view our lives as a
good life through success.
If you're successful, you kindof have done the right thing,
you're a good person, you livethe good life.
Success.
So we drive, and we're drivento success and to achievement.
And so we want to achieve more,because if you achieve more,
you kind of win the game.
How about this one?
Individual freedom, oh, anylibertarians in the house today?
(17:46):
No, this is part of the fabricof our culture, here at least,
in America too, because we loveindividual freedom, like, don't
tread on me these kinds ofthings, so my own authority, I
can make my own decisions.
We love these kinds.
It's the lens through which wesee reality in this country.
Comfort, oh, we love ourcomfort.
Don't mess with my comfort.
How about this one Image,especially on social media?
(18:11):
I'm not bagging on social media,but I will for a minute.
This is all you see on socialmedia most of the time is image.
It's not a real image, it'ssomething, it's a facade, it's
something promoted, it'sproduced.
But we love image.
If you have a good image, youlived a good life, pleasure.
We love pleasure.
If it feels good, do it.
We're often told this in manyways, either overtly or covertly
.
But how about your politicalidentity?
This is the new religion thesedays, if you haven't noticed,
(18:33):
but politics is our new religion.
You might have heard, like mytruth, this is how we Americans
are going to see the world.
It's the lens through which wesee reality.
Now, here's the thing.
These are not bad.
Okay, they're not bad in and ofthemselves.
The problem is they'reincomplete.
They're not showing realreality.
They're a little bit distorted,they're a little bit fuzzy.
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It's not real, true reality.
It's something distorted, it'spart of like.
It's not really the full thing.
So Paul says this to the Greekshey, have the same mindset.
They immediately knew what hewas talking about.
Oh yeah, I know what he'stalking about Phronesis.
I know what that is.
So I will frame my reality in acertain way.
The twist comes when Paul sayshey, your mindset shouldn't be.
(19:17):
Let me go back here.
It shouldn't be these things.
This shouldn't be your frame,your reality.
Oh sorry guys, there we go.
Usually we have two services,so I can get like all the kinks
out of the first one, but notthis time.
Don't put on these lenses.
Paul says have the samephronesis, live from the same
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phronesis as and, by the way,not these ones either as Christ,
as Christ crucified.
This would have been anabsolute curveball for the
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Greeks.
What are you talking about?
We don't even speak abouthumility in our, in our language
.
You don't have that word in ourlanguage.
Being humble, a god who lowershimself, pours himself out?
No, no, thank you.
One who trusts that god willexalt him, but in the meantime
he just lowers himself and pourshimself out for other people?
No, thank you.
My job is to put my own workson display so everyone can see
(20:23):
me.
I'm not going to lower myself,I'm going to raise myself up.
Paul's like no, no, have thesame phronesis as Christ.
Let your lens be theself-giving, self-sacrificial
love of Jesus on the cross, theself-emptying and pouring out.
Adopt this way of living andthinking and seeing the world,
because this is the real reality.
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Everything else is incompleteor distorted or blurry or fuzzy.
Let this be your real reality.
So Paul redefines a number ofthings in this text.
He redefines humility and honorand image and community and
success.
What is the good life?
(21:07):
Yeah, he redefines it.
Success the good life lookslike pouring out yourself.
Now I said this is hard.
I didn't say it was easy.
This is really hard, if notimpossible.
But check this out, this ideaof the good life being like a
self-emptying, pouring out ofyourself, self-sacrificial,
lowering it kind of works.
(21:30):
So there's a study done in 2008by a woman named Dr Dunn I think
Elizabeth Dunn is her firstname.
It's published in Science inthe Science Journal and in 2008,
she does a study with hercolleagues and they go out into
the public realm and they givepeople either a $5 bill or a $20
bill and they tell themrandomly.
They have two different groups.
One group like hey, spend yourmoney on yourself.
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This is like the self-spendingcondition.
And the other group is like hey, spend this money on other
people.
They call this the pro-socialcondition, and they have to do
it today.
You spend money right now, here, today.
This is the pro-socialcondition and they have to do it
today.
You spend money right now, heretoday.
So one group spends money onthemselves and one group sort of
gives the money away and theygo back and check in on all of
them and this is published.
You can read this article.
It's incredible, read this dataand they try to discern who was
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happier at the end of the dayand the next day and the week
later and guess who it was?
Yeah, the people who gave itaway, to which we're all like,
oh yeah, for sure, for sure,yeah, yeah, yeah.
How fun is Christmas?
It's pretty great, right?
Mostly because I think we getto give stuff away Now.
Little kids aren't there yet,but they'll get there one of
these days.
(22:39):
Yeah, there's something aboutlike what Paul is tapping into
is the fabric of reality itself.
So when he says, hey, adoptthis as your reality, it's
because it really is real.
It's the way the world works,it's the very fabric of the
universe and how you werecreated and made to be.
When we empty ourselves andgive ourselves away, sometimes
it hurts, but that's what thegood life really is all about.
(22:59):
Paul is saying theself-emptying, sacrificial love
of Christ that he puts ondisplay on the cross.
So for Paul, of all the lensesyou can pick up, and there's
lots of them, and we have ourown, you have your own.
But of all of them and now youmight have to like keep
reminding yourself and takingthose ones off but of all of
them, adopt the lens, thereality of Christ on the cross.
(23:21):
So when he says, have the samemindset, he's not just saying
hey, think the same thoughts asChrist.
He's not just saying just say aprayer or sing a few songs.
When he describes the Christiancommunity, the Philippian church
, what it means not justthinking, it's no, adopting this
(23:42):
vision of reality and livingfrom this, it's a for many of us
it's a brand new reality.
It really is like beingunplugged from the matrix.
You know like, oh, now here'sthe kicker.
I love this.
This is what Paul goes on towrite.
Paul suggests and actually thenature of the word is that this
happens in community.
(24:03):
You can't pour yourself out forthe sake of nobody.
It doesn't work that way.
The calculus is bad.
It has to happen to otherpeople.
There are other folks involved.
So, church, the self-emptying,the lens of reality is
community-oriented.
It's a community enterprise.
It's emptying for others,phronesis, is never a sole
(24:23):
endeavor, it's not.
So Paul writes us right beforehe says that beautiful poem you
have in your hands.
He's like hey, look, guys,philippians, hey, make my joy
complete by being like-minded.
Guess what word that is?
Phronesis, having the same love.
So he's like hey, have thephronesis which he's going to
(24:44):
explain in a minute, which isthe cross.
Have the same love.
He knows that love is themeaning of everything Paul
writes.
If I do all these things, thesewonderful things, but don't
have love, it's meaningless iswhat he writes later on, and he
explains in Corinthians whatlove looks like.
So, have the same love.
Being of one spirit, it couldsay.
It could be rendered one soul,or being one souled.
(25:06):
Remember, aristotle describedfriendship as having one soul.
It's beautiful, actually.
So, have one soul, be of onesoul and one mind.
Guess, with that one mind, whatword that is?
Again, phronesis.
Everybody say phronesis.
Good, in case I was losing you,I'm going to draw you back in by
making you talk out loud.
Okay, like mine, good, awesome.
(25:27):
So, by the way, note this thisis awesome.
Hey, this is what makes his joycomplete.
Hey, if you guys do this, Iwill be full of joy.
Church, if you could do this,it would give me joy.
Joy not if you grow and you getbig and you have four satellite
campuses and an onlinestreaming service.
(25:49):
It's the top notch, and whereyou know where you have all
these con.
No, what makes him full of joyis if you are of one mind, if
you adopt the same reality andyou love each other and you're
one soul.
That will give me joy.
I love it, but, like Soniamentioned, this does not mean,
(26:12):
though, that we have to have thesame interests.
This is vitally important.
I know this is not rocketscience, but raise your hand if
you love tacos in this room, yes, okay, look around, good,
awesome, great, you're my people.
Just so you know.
Raise your hand if you'd prefera hamburger in this room, okay,
look around.
How dare we worship in the sameroom with all you people?
(26:37):
Okay, hold on, hold on.
Raise your hand if you're aVikings fan in this room, okay,
okay.
Careful, ryan, careful, okay,raise your hand.
If you're a Packers fan, grace,it's all grace.
Okay, yeah, raise your hand.
If you're neither, raise yourhand if you don't like football.
(26:58):
Who doesn't like football?
How dare we all be in the sameroom together?
I can't believe that we'redoing.
Raise your hand if you're amorning person.
Yeah, my people.
All right, let's go Raise yourhand.
If you're a night owl, okay,listen, unity community does.
Oh, by the way, who did youvote for in the last?
No, I'm kidding, I'm not goingto do that, but I'll tell you
(27:21):
what.
If I did, it would not beunanimous, just so you know.
I'm telling you.
So what?
The foundation of our reality isnot what you like to eat.
It's not when we gather aroundthis room.
It's not gathering around whoyou voted for, it's not.
There's a reason why we don'tget into partisan politics.
(27:42):
Now, everything's political andI get it, but like, because
it's not, it doesn't.
That's not what we're.
We're not unified around that.
My identity as who I voted for,or my identity as a sports fan
those are tribal identitymarkers and fine, but we don't.
We're not a tribe.
It's not tribalism in here.
We.
What unites us is adopting thesame reality, or at least trying
(28:05):
to.
We're all aiming at the cross.
We have the same lenses on.
Does that make sense?
We're trying to share the samerealities, all we're trying to
do in this room.
So I love this.
Yeah, okay, I said that already, but this is the next one.
At the second gathering.
I got that right, okay so.
And relationships are vitallyimportant.
So one scholar says hey,entering into friendships is not
(28:27):
simply an added benefit to theChristian life, it is the
Christian life.
You can't have a phronesis byyourself.
No man or woman is an island.
We're not.
We're not in almost every wayAt the macro level, even at the
micro level.
You, we're not in almost everyway At the macro level, even at
the micro level.
You cannot live in an organismor a system of organisms without
affecting it or impacting it.
We're meant to be infriendships together.
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And that does mean, becausewe're not the same interest, you
might have disagreements.
So what Paul says we all look atthe world through the lens of
Christ, which means thatfriendships are not for your own
pleasure at this level.
Now, some levels they are like,you know, it's fine.
This is also why I won't saythat I'll skip that.
But like Paul uses the word,here's another unpronounceable
(29:13):
miracle.
This is the word koinonia.
Everyone say koinonia.
He uses it 19 times in the NewTestament, 13 times in all of
Paul's letters.
Three times in this letter it'sdescribing what that community
looks like.
It's a sharing, a partnership.
We share everything.
We share life, faith, resources, mission.
(29:34):
We sacrifice and we share thoseburdens.
This is what unity andcommunity looks like.
We share these things, notsharing our same interests or
who we voted for, or what kindof car we drive or our looks
like.
We share these things, notsharing our same interests or
who we voted for, or what kindof car we drive or our bank
accounts.
We might have some rich folksand you might have some poor
folks.
Fine, what coin in the airlooks like is that we all adopt
the same reality and we shareeach other's burdens.
(29:56):
That's what it means to live inChristian community.
So my dear friend Kim, who was apart of my house for a long
time, one of my great friends,she's not here.
Is Kim here?
Okay, love Kim.
She would frequently, at oneseason of her life, needed a lot
of prayer and she kept askingus for prayer and she kept
feeling bad about it.
(30:16):
She's like I'm so sorry toburden you guys.
I'm so sorry to burden you guys.
Finally, I said stop, kim, lookat me.
You are burdening us, butthat's what we're doing here.
We want to share your burdens.
Great, we're sharing each ofthose burdens.
That's what Christian communitylooks like.
I don't mind that you bringyour burdens to me.
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I don't.
I have another dear friend whowas just diagnosed with cancer
and I can't fix it.
But I'm like, hey, I just meanI'm with you.
Whatever I can do to help, I'mwith you.
I want to share that burdenhowever I can.
Now I can't do it, for I knowI'm the pastor I can't do it for
everybody, so we do it for eachother.
You don't really need me inthis way.
When Paul's in prison, thePhilippians don't just say, hey,
(31:01):
thoughts and prayers, no,that's fine, that's not a bad
thing.
Okay, they send Epaphroditus,they send one of their own to
Rome with a gift to sit withPaul while he's in prison.
That's koinonia.
They're sharing in Paul'sburdens.
I've told this story before, butI love this story.
I've got to get out of here.
(31:22):
Oh, my gosh, I do.
I'm sorry.
I'm going to tell it, then I'llget out of here.
Okay, let's do the end.
So years ago I was tubing withmy son Gavin.
He was five at the time and ifyou know, casey Stanley, casey's
dad was the boat driver onCasey's lake up in Twigg and he
was the boat driver, and Casey'sdad's a maniac and I go.
His name is Bomber.
(31:43):
I go Bomber.
His name is Bomber, he's amaniac.
So I go Bomber.
Gavin's never been on a tubebefore he's five years old.
Just go easy.
No problem, ryan, I got you, hedidn't get me.
We're on the tube, gavin's underme, I'm on top of Gavin and we
start start going.
Fair enough, the beginningstarts pretty mild and pretty
low, key, low speeds.
But then after about he musthave gotten bored because after
(32:04):
about a few minutes Bombercranks up a notch.
I'm like, oh, and Gavin has noidea.
He's laughing, he has no cluewhat danger awaits us, you know.
And so Bomber keeps ratchetingit up even more.
I'm like, dude, I told you toslow down, but he didn't.
He couldn't hear me.
Finally, at one point we'reteetering and I'm like 200
pounds.
I'm going to flip this thingover because I'm so heavy and I
knew if I flipped it over or ifI flew off, that Gavin would
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probably fly off the other wayand end up 20 feet from me.
By the way, I was sharing thisstory with Gavin last night, and
Gavin's going to be an engineer.
And he goes oh, actually, dad,because of the physics and the
laws I world, nobody cares aboutthat Gavin Physics and all that
.
I'm like if I fly off, he'sgoing to fly up the other way
and be miles away from me and Iwas like I was scared for him.
(32:53):
So I'm like, what am I going todo?
And as he kept ratcheting thespeed up, oh my gosh, we're
going to flip.
All I knew to do is you knowwhat?
If he's going down, I'm goingdown with him.
So at the last minute I let goof the tube and I grabbed him.
He had a life vest on and Irolled over and we fell into the
lake together.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
And the minute we hit the waterI could feel his little arms.
(33:16):
You know what I mean?
Katie said maybe it was yougrabbing onto him, right, and we
came up and he's like screaming.
But I wanted him to know I'mwith you, I've got you, we're in
this together and I'll absorbsome of that burden of yours.
That's koinonia, that's our jobtogether, and we don't have to
(33:40):
have voted for the samecandidate or eaten at the same
lunch place or root for the sameteam in order to share koinonia
.
Central Lutheran Church.
May you indeed have the mindsetof Christ.
May you adopt the same realityas Paul did the self-emptying,
self-sacrificial, lived-outexperience, embodiment of Jesus
(34:02):
on the cross.
May we share in that togetherand this morning.
May the Spirit enable each ofus to do that.
Amen.
I'm going to let you be seated.
Well, good morning.
It's tough to top Isla man.
She is something boy.
So we are in the middle of ourPhilippians series.
We're calling it Joy, anyway,and here's what I want to do.
I'm going to tell you this too.
By the way, sometimes when Ipreach a sermon, like I'm just
trying to share the good news orI want to explain some things,
this is one of those sermonswhere I want to just tell you
(00:22):
right from the jump that this iswho I want us to be as a church
.
So this sermon is like adeclarative kind of a sermon
where I want, at the end, likethis is what I want us to be as
a community.
And so, just know, in the front, I'm going to ask us if we can
kind of inch ourselves towardsthis way of being, and I'll
explain it.
But and look this, what I'mabout to say is really, it's
(00:46):
really really hard, if notimpossible, but by the Spirit,
you know.
So the Spirit is the one thatenables us to do anything, I
believe.
And so, if by the Spirit, Iwould love to ask that the
Spirit would allow us to be thiskind of a community.
It's my prayer for us thismorning that we're this kind of
a community that we read aboutin Philippians 2.
And oh, by the way, you shouldhave gotten a little card when
you came in.
On the one side of it is thatPhilippians 2 passage and you're
(01:09):
going to hang on to that.
You can take notes on the backor on the front of that and you
can underline certain things.
This is the main focus of ourtime this morning and here's why
when Paul writes this letter toPhilippians, it's a letter he
wrote.
He's in prison in around 62 AD.
He writes this letter to hisfriends at the church in
Philippi.
He planted this church 12 yearsearlier.
(01:30):
Philippi was a Greek city.
It's in Greece.
It was the very first churchplant in Europe, so it's the
first.
You know Lydia was the firstconvert in Europe.
It's incredible Christianconvert.
And he plants this church andthen he lets it go and then he
leaves.
But they stay connected, pauland the Philippians, and they
send him money, they support him.
They find out he's in prison inRome and they send him a gift
(01:53):
to like encourage him and aletter from with a guy called
Epaphroditus, so Epaphroditusfrom Philippians.
This is 12 years later.
They send him to go encouragePaul and, to you know, give him
a gift and just to bless him.
And he receives it.
He's so blessed because, like,oh man, I just love these guys,
the Philippians, they love me.
So he sends a thank you cardback with Epaphroditus and it's
(02:16):
this letter, the Philippiansletter, that we read today,
thousands of years later.
And in this letter, unlike manyof other Paul's letters, he
doesn't really develop a singleidea from beginning to end.
That's not what he's doing inthis letter.
Rather, he sort of arrangesthese beautiful short reflective
essays or thought bubbles andhe kind of gives them to the
church, but he arranges themaround this sort of center of
(02:39):
gravity, if you will like thishub, and that's Philippians 2,
which is this beautiful poem inPhilippians 2.
So it's on your sheet here, andso the whole book sort of
hovers around the center ofgravity which is Philippians 2,
this poem.
And in this poem Paul,beautifully and artfully, he
unpacks the incarnation, godbecoming a human.
(03:01):
He unpacks the incarnation, thelife, the death, the
resurrection and the exaltation,like the uplifting of Jesus.
And for centuries theologiansand pastors and scholars have
unpacked this chapter ofPhilippians.
It's like one of the main ones,because people for centuries
have tried to understand.
(03:21):
What does it mean that Jesus isboth fully God and fully human?
Those words, by the way, arenot in the Bible, but we have
this idea and this is one of theplaces we pull it from.
How is Jesus both divine andalso human?
How can that be possible?
How is it possible that God,the ineffable, the transcendent,
the unholdable, the ground ofbeing itself?
(03:43):
How can that ever become amaterial human being who walks
on the earth?
Well, paul beautifully andartfully describes it a little
bit, so I'm going to unpack itquickly for you guys.
But here's what he writes inPhilippians.
Oh, by the way, my title iscalled Phronesis and Other
Unpronounceable Miracles.
All right, good, I got thelaugh.
I was hoping for Wonderful here.
(04:05):
Here's philippians 2.
Uh, paul writes hey, look in.
In your relationships with eachother, have the same mindset as
christ, jesus who.
And then here's the.
Here's the poem.
It's beautiful how he'sdescribing the, the incarnation,
the life, death, resurrection,and in an exaltation of jesus.
And've got the whole thing onyour paper there.
But he's like hey, like Jesus,who didn't use his power to his
(04:29):
own advantage, jesus certainlyhad power.
If he was God in the flesh hehad all kinds of power.
As a rabbi, a first centuryrabbi, jewish male he had lots
of power but he never used it,for he was and also in your
you'll notice, he says he wasone in nature with God.
So, as God in the flesh, he hasthis power, but he never uses
it for his own advantage.
Also, jesus, he makes himselfnothing.
(04:51):
Your version might say he pourshimself out, he empties himself
.
The Greek word is the word.
So here's anotherunpronounceable miracle it's
kenosis.
Everyone say kenosis, it'sK-E-N-O-S-I-S.
Kenosis means like a pouringout or an emptying.
So God, when he becomes a humanthis is what scholars suggest.
By the way, for the fancytheologians in the room, this is
(05:11):
called kenotic Christology orkenosis so he empties himself.
So God empties himself of allthe things that are incompatible
with being a human, in order tobecome a human.
So, for example, god isomnipresent.
Like God is the ground of allbeing itself.
Right In him we live and moveand have our being In Jesus.
(05:32):
Though Jesus is not omnipresent,he's only in one place, at one
time.
He's like located, you know, infirst century Palestine.
He's not everywhere.
So that part of God that iseverywhere, god empties that
part of himself and and like,leaves it.
You know, with the Father andthe Spirit, and then goes into
Jesus and he's located.
Does that make sense?
Okay, other things likeomniscience, like God knows
(05:55):
everything Many scholars,kenotic, christologists, they
think that Jesus didn't knoweverything.
Or omnipotence, that he couldn'tdo anything.
He wasn't Superman, he only didthe things that the Spirit
empowers him to do.
He only knows things that theSpirit tells him, the same
Spirit, by the way, which isalso in you.
This is why John, in John 14,says that you will do even
(06:19):
greater things than I've done,he tells his followers, because
the same Spirit in me is in you,which is great.
So, anyway, point is Godempties himself and pours
himself out.
There's this act of kenosis.
Also, there's this he becomes aservant.
Yeah, this God becomes aservant to the world.
He humbles himself.
By the way, this is incredible,the Greek word for humble, or
(06:41):
humility.
It did not exist in the Greeklanguage or wasn't prevalent at
all before the Christian era.
No self-respecting Greek wouldhave ever thought humility was a
virtue.
They shunned humility becausehumility, for the Greeks, was
very similar, if not the same,as humiliation, and they didn't
want to be humiliated.
For them, their reputation andhonor and their display was of
(07:05):
utmost importance.
So they would put their deedson display.
They wanted you to recognizethem, to honor them, to venerate
them, to commend them.
So they would put all of theirdeeds, their actions on display
so that the public could seethem Like oh, that's a good man,
that's a good woman.
So you would never secretlygive something to somebody, like
in private.
You would never do somethinglike.
(07:28):
You would never lower yourselfor humble yourself, because
that's the same as humiliation.
You would put all your works ondisplay.
This was not even a thing untilthe Christian era.
When Jesus starts doing thesekinds of things, he empties
himself, makes himself humble.
Isn't that amazing?
There wasn't even a word in theGreek language up until this
point.
He was obedient to the cross,even to the point of death on
the cross.
The cross was a humiliating wayto die.
It was sacrilegious, no punintended.
(07:49):
It was inhumane, it wasscandalous.
It was like one of the worstways you could die was death on
a Roman cross.
But here we go, god does thisand through that lowering and
emptying and humbling himself,god exalts him.
This is sort of the Christpattern.
It's lowering so that then hecan, through God, be exalted.
(08:13):
So Paul writes in yourrelationships with another, have
the same mindset as Christ.
Who then paints this picture ofwhat Christ is like.
The crucified Christ.
Make sense, are you with me?
So far?
All right, kelsey and Peter,let's go, the three of us, paul.
By the way, the word formindset here is the word
phronesis, and so everyone sayphronesis, that's
(08:36):
P-H-R-O-N-E-S-I-S and phronesis.
Mindset doesn't just mean likethinking.
So Paul doesn't have the samemindset as Christ, who does all
these things.
He's not just saying think thesame as Christ, he's saying it's
more like.
Phronesis means likeunderstanding or thinking, sound
judgment, wisdom.
It could also mean this.
(08:56):
It could also mean a way ofthinking that shapes your
character and your conduct.
So it's like wisdom that leadsto action.
This is what phronesis is.
So Paul writes hey, have thesame phronesis as Christ.
You could also word it this wayit's a pattern of thinking or
acting and feeling that engagesthe whole person.
So we in the Western world welove like cognitive thinking,
(09:18):
with our brains, reason.
But Paul's not just saying, hey, think the same things that
Christ thought with your brain,he's saying, no, like it's this
pattern of thinking, of acting,of feeling, that engages the
whole body, that shapes how yousee and think about everything.
It's practical wisdom, for sure, it's what phronesis is, but
it's like this discernment aboutwhat's good and right so you
(09:39):
can live a good life.
By the way, paul uses this word10 times in this tiny short
letter.
It's probably an importantthing that I pay attention to
that Paul uses he uses it anumber of times phronesis, it's
this way of like.
What does it mean to live thegood life?
This is a question that theGreeks would ask all the time.
So the Greeks including one ofthe famous ones, aristotle they
(10:01):
asked what does it mean to livethe good life?
So they would think okay, howdo we need to think in order to
live and shape our lives around,whatever this thing is, in
order to live a good life?
So the philosophers, aristotle,the Greeks, these people would
all wonder aloud what is thegood life?
How do we live it?
This is part of phronesis howdo we shape our lives around and
(10:22):
make it a good life?
And I would ask us the samequestion, right, because I told
you, I want this sermon to belike hey, this is who we're
going to be, this is what we'regoing to be about.
How do we know what the goodlife is?
What does the good life looklike?
What does it mean to flourish,to have joy, to have happiness,
these kinds of things?
What does true well-being looklike?
(10:44):
And how do you know?
How do you know?
That's what phronesis is.
Phronesis is like this thingthat you kind of it like, frames
everything in order that youcan see what is the good life.
And so, for Greeks, they wouldask this question what is the
good life?
But I would ask us the samething.
See, for the Greeks, phronesis,which is a very prominent word
in the Greek thinking.
(11:04):
See, for the Greeks, phronesis,which is a very prominent word
in the Greek thinking.
Phronesis really is just howyou see reality and what is real
life.
What is real reality and how doyou know what it is and what
does it taste like and feel like, and how do you frame it, how
do you talk about it?
It's wisdom that leads to howyou act and engage the world in
a deeply good way.
Does that make sense?
Okay, phronesis.
(11:27):
So what is the good life?
And because how you see things,by the way, shapes how you live
.
I learned this a couple ofmonths ago, me and the family
were out to dinner out inChicago and there was a bunch of
us at this dinner, at thisrestaurant, and we're hanging
out getting ready to have food.
I was ordering off the menu andas I'm ordering the menu, like
you know how at night they'lldim the lights to make it extra
(11:48):
romantic for everybody.
Well, like I can't see the menu, I'm like looking at the menu,
I'm like I can't see the menu.
It's so dark in here.
I was getting like I wasgetting disgruntled in my heart.
I can't why.
Certainly everybody else aroundmy table must be having the
same experience.
So I'm going to look up andthen complain about it with
everybody else and commiseratetogether, right?
(12:11):
So I look up, I can't believe,and I realized not everybody was
having the same experience.
There was a certain subset ofour table that didn't have a
problem seeing the menu.
These people you might callthem well, you might use like
the language you might say, youmight describe them.
You might say they were likeyounger people that didn't have,
(12:33):
and it was in that moment Ishook my fist at God.
I said no.
You said this would neverhappen, to which God said no, I
didn't.
You said that right.
And so we are on the table.
The folks you might say thatthe folks, maybe you might
(12:55):
describe us as the words, maybe,like the older folks are on the
table Couldn't see.
So I've resisted this idea thatmy eyes not me, but my eyes
were getting older.
I was like, well, that's notreally you know.
So like about a couple weekslater I'm reading a book at
night and I couldn't see thebook.
It was dark in our living room.
I'm like I gotta put the lightson in here and Katie goes hey,
(13:16):
here, try these on.
I'm like I'm not doing that,try them on, try them on.
So I put these on.
I'm like we'll all be darned.
What kind of sorcery are these?
(13:38):
What is this?
I've never even what ishappening.
And where do you buy these?
Like, where do you find these?
So I put them on.
I could see.
That's what glasses do.
By the way, glasses help yousee things.
They bring things into focus,at least the right ones.
The wrong ones can make thingsdistorted, they can make things
blurry or fuzzy or bad for youto see, but glasses frame what
you see.
They help you see or not.
These are my Clark Kent glasses, by the way.
And glasses will help you seethings properly.
(14:02):
They help you see reality as itreally is or not, and it really
depends on the glasses andwhich pair you're wearing.
See, we have a variety ofglasses that you can pick up and
wear.
There's a variety of ways tosee the world.
There's a variety of ways tosee the world.
We know this because we allhave different ways of seeing
the world and, believe it or not, we all have different ways of
(14:23):
seeing reality.
We all have a phronesis, we alllive from phronesis, but we all
do it differently because ofour different lenses that we
have.
These are my Friday night.
I'm feeling funky lenses.
I hope you're laughing with me,not at me.
I hope you're laughing with me,not at me.
(14:48):
These are Katie's Calm DownLeopard print.
Where did you even get theseLeopard print glasses we all
have?
How do I recover from this?
We all have different lenses,right?
And glasses that we all see anda variety of ways.
These are my I'm too cool forschool glasses, but they help us
see reality.
And glasses that we all see anda variety of ways.
These are mytoo-cool-for-school glasses, but
they help us see reality.
(15:08):
Now, many of you have inheriteda certain pair of lenses from,
maybe, your parents or yourupbringing.
These are my actual glassesthat I'm looking at now through
my contacts then through theglasses, so it's not a good deal
.
You might have picked some upalong the way.
Maybe you're at a certaincollege and you pick up some
glasses oh, I'm going to trythese babies on and a certain
way of seeing the world, acertain way of having a
(15:29):
phronesis or doing phronesis.
So you try them on and maybeswap them out.
Maybe you change and you grow.
You read a book I think I'vetried them all on here and you
try that, yeah, and you try onthese new glasses, but we all
have one.
You have a phronesis.
You have a way of living andseeing the world, viewing
(15:53):
reality, a way of thinking, amindset, an attitude, a lens
through which you see everythingthat shapes how you behave in
the world.
Now for the Greeks.
They had their own phronesis,their own way of seeing the
world and what it meant to livethe good life.
For the Greeks it was this.
This was their lens, theirframe.
It was virtue.
The Greeks loved virtue, andthe four virtues that were most
prominent were courage,temperance, wisdom and
discipline.
So if you did those things, youwere living a good life.
(16:15):
That's what framed theirreality.
If you do those things, you'llbe good.
They also had this, as is oneof their frames reason If you
were, if you could think andreason, that led to the good
life.
So if you had a problem, justreason it out.
That's how you lived your life.
So this is your phronesis.
They also thought aboutreputation Again.
If you did good deeds, you wantto put them on display.
Let everyone see your deeds indisplay, because that's what
makes you a good person andlives a good life.
(16:37):
So your honor, reputation thiswas an honor and shame culture.
Lastly, there was this the willof the gods, their frame, one of
their frames, like, hey, youknow what?
The gods control everything.
We're at the whim of the gods,we're at the mercy of the gods
and they don't really have a lotto do with us other than you
know we're kind of likebystanders.
Often their stuff pours overinto our.
So you know, they would govisit oracles, they would have
(16:58):
sacrificial rituals and prayersand these kinds of things.
They lived with a certain levelof anxiety because they didn't
know what the Greek gods were upto, but it was all fate.
You couldn't escape your fate.
That was the way that they sawthe world.
Their reality was you couldn'tescape fate.
Now, this is ancient Greece.
Now we also, in modern dayAmerica, have our own lenses.
Are you ready for some of theones I suggest we have?
(17:19):
Buckle up, I don't know, maybewe like to view our lives as a
good life through success.
If you're successful, you kindof have done the right thing,
you're a good person, you livethe good life.
Success.
So we drive, and we're drivento success and to achievement.
And so we want to achieve more,because if you achieve more,
you kind of win the game.
How about this one?
Individual freedom, oh, anylibertarians in the house today?
(17:46):
No, this is part of the fabricof our culture, here at least,
in America too, because we loveindividual freedom, like, don't
tread on me these kinds ofthings, so my own authority, I
can make my own decisions.
We love these kinds.
It's the lens through which wesee reality in this country.
Comfort, oh, we love ourcomfort.
Don't mess with my comfort.
How about this one Image,especially on social media?
(18:11):
I'm not bagging on social media,but I will for a minute.
This is all you see on socialmedia most of the time is image.
It's not a real image, it'ssomething, it's a facade, it's
something promoted, it'sproduced.
But we love image.
If you have a good image, youlived a good life, pleasure.
We love pleasure.
If it feels good, do it.
We're often told this in manyways, either overtly or covertly
.
But how about your politicalidentity?
This is the new religion thesedays, if you haven't noticed,
(18:33):
but politics is our new religion.
You might have heard, like mytruth, this is how we Americans
are going to see the world.
It's the lens through which wesee reality.
Now, here's the thing.
These are not bad.
Okay, they're not bad in and ofthemselves.
The problem is they'reincomplete.
They're not showing realreality.
They're a little bit distorted,they're a little bit fuzzy.
(18:54):
It's not real, true reality.
It's something distorted, it'spart of like.
It's not really the full thing.
So Paul says this to the Greekshey, have the same mindset.
They immediately knew what hewas talking about.
Oh yeah, I know what he'stalking about Phronesis.
I know what that is.
So I will frame my reality in acertain way.
The twist comes when Paul sayshey, your mindset shouldn't be.
(19:17):
Let me go back here.
It shouldn't be these things.
This shouldn't be your frame,your reality.
Oh sorry guys, there we go.
Usually we have two services,so I can get like all the kinks
out of the first one, but notthis time.
Don't put on these lenses.
Paul says have the samephronesis, live from the same
(19:40):
phronesis as and, by the way,not these ones either as Christ,
as Christ crucified.
This would have been anabsolute curveball for the
(20:01):
Greeks.
What are you talking about?
We don't even speak abouthumility in our, in our language
.
You don't have that word in ourlanguage.
Being humble, a god who lowershimself, pours himself out?
No, no, thank you.
One who trusts that god willexalt him, but in the meantime
he just lowers himself and pourshimself out for other people?
No, thank you.
My job is to put my own workson display so everyone can see
(20:23):
me.
I'm not going to lower myself,I'm going to raise myself up.
Paul's like no, no, have thesame phronesis as Christ.
Let your lens be theself-giving, self-sacrificial
love of Jesus on the cross, theself-emptying and pouring out.
Adopt this way of living andthinking and seeing the world,
because this is the real reality.
(20:46):
Everything else is incompleteor distorted or blurry or fuzzy.
Let this be your real reality.
So Paul redefines a number ofthings in this text.
He redefines humility and honorand image and community and
success.
What is the good life?
(21:07):
Yeah, he redefines it.
Success the good life lookslike pouring out yourself.
Now I said this is hard.
I didn't say it was easy.
This is really hard, if notimpossible.
But check this out, this ideaof the good life being like a
self-emptying, pouring out ofyourself, self-sacrificial,
lowering it kind of works.
(21:30):
So there's a study done in 2008by a woman named Dr Dunn I think
Elizabeth Dunn is her firstname.
It's published in Science inthe Science Journal and in 2008,
she does a study with hercolleagues and they go out into
the public realm and they givepeople either a $5 bill or a $20
bill and they tell themrandomly.
They have two different groups.
One group like hey, spend yourmoney on yourself.
(21:51):
This is like the self-spendingcondition.
And the other group is like hey, spend this money on other
people.
They call this the pro-socialcondition, and they have to do
it today.
You spend money right now, here, today.
This is the pro-socialcondition and they have to do it
today.
You spend money right now, heretoday.
So one group spends money onthemselves and one group sort of
gives the money away and theygo back and check in on all of
them and this is published.
You can read this article.
It's incredible, read this dataand they try to discern who was
(22:19):
happier at the end of the dayand the next day and the week
later and guess who it was?
Yeah, the people who gave itaway, to which we're all like,
oh yeah, for sure, for sure,yeah, yeah, yeah.
How fun is Christmas?
It's pretty great, right?
Mostly because I think we getto give stuff away Now.
Little kids aren't there yet,but they'll get there one of
these days.
(22:39):
Yeah, there's something aboutlike what Paul is tapping into
is the fabric of reality itself.
So when he says, hey, adoptthis as your reality, it's
because it really is real.
It's the way the world works,it's the very fabric of the
universe and how you werecreated and made to be.
When we empty ourselves andgive ourselves away, sometimes
it hurts, but that's what thegood life really is all about.
(22:59):
Paul is saying theself-emptying, sacrificial love
of Christ that he puts ondisplay on the cross.
So for Paul, of all the lensesyou can pick up, and there's
lots of them, and we have ourown, you have your own.
But of all of them and now youmight have to like keep
reminding yourself and takingthose ones off but of all of
them, adopt the lens, thereality of Christ on the cross.
(23:21):
So when he says, have the samemindset, he's not just saying
hey, think the same thoughts asChrist.
He's not just saying just say aprayer or sing a few songs.
When he describes the Christiancommunity, the Philippian church
, what it means not justthinking, it's no, adopting this
(23:42):
vision of reality and livingfrom this, it's a for many of us
it's a brand new reality.
It really is like beingunplugged from the matrix.
You know like, oh, now here'sthe kicker.
I love this.
This is what Paul goes on towrite.
Paul suggests and actually thenature of the word is that this
happens in community.
(24:03):
You can't pour yourself out forthe sake of nobody.
It doesn't work that way.
The calculus is bad.
It has to happen to otherpeople.
There are other folks involved.
So, church, the self-emptying,the lens of reality is
community-oriented.
It's a community enterprise.
It's emptying for others,phronesis, is never a sole
(24:23):
endeavor, it's not.
So Paul writes us right beforehe says that beautiful poem you
have in your hands.
He's like hey, look, guys,philippians, hey, make my joy
complete by being like-minded.
Guess what word that is?
Phronesis, having the same love.
So he's like hey, have thephronesis which he's going to
(24:44):
explain in a minute, which isthe cross.
Have the same love.
He knows that love is themeaning of everything Paul
writes.
If I do all these things, thesewonderful things, but don't
have love, it's meaningless iswhat he writes later on, and he
explains in Corinthians whatlove looks like.
So, have the same love.
Being of one spirit, it couldsay.
It could be rendered one soul,or being one souled.
(25:06):
Remember, aristotle describedfriendship as having one soul.
It's beautiful, actually.
So, have one soul, be of onesoul and one mind.
Guess, with that one mind, whatword that is?
Again, phronesis.
Everybody say phronesis.
Good, in case I was losing you,I'm going to draw you back in by
making you talk out loud.
Okay, like mine, good, awesome.
(25:27):
So, by the way, note this thisis awesome.
Hey, this is what makes his joycomplete.
Hey, if you guys do this, Iwill be full of joy.
Church, if you could do this,it would give me joy.
Joy not if you grow and you getbig and you have four satellite
campuses and an onlinestreaming service.
(25:49):
It's the top notch, and whereyou know where you have all
these con.
No, what makes him full of joyis if you are of one mind, if
you adopt the same reality andyou love each other and you're
one soul.
That will give me joy.
I love it, but, like Soniamentioned, this does not mean,
(26:12):
though, that we have to have thesame interests.
This is vitally important.
I know this is not rocketscience, but raise your hand if
you love tacos in this room, yes, okay, look around, good,
awesome, great, you're my people.
Just so you know.
Raise your hand if you'd prefera hamburger in this room, okay,
look around.
How dare we worship in the sameroom with all you people?
(26:37):
Okay, hold on, hold on.
Raise your hand if you're aVikings fan in this room, okay,
okay.
Careful, ryan, careful, okay,raise your hand.
If you're a Packers fan, grace,it's all grace.
Okay, yeah, raise your hand.
If you're neither, raise yourhand if you don't like football.
(26:58):
Who doesn't like football?
How dare we all be in the sameroom together?
I can't believe that we'redoing.
Raise your hand if you're amorning person.
Yeah, my people.
All right, let's go Raise yourhand.
If you're a night owl, okay,listen, unity community does.
Oh, by the way, who did youvote for in the last?
No, I'm kidding, I'm not goingto do that, but I'll tell you
(27:21):
what.
If I did, it would not beunanimous, just so you know.
I'm telling you.
So what?
The foundation of our reality isnot what you like to eat.
It's not when we gather aroundthis room.
It's not gathering around whoyou voted for, it's not.
There's a reason why we don'tget into partisan politics.
(27:42):
Now, everything's political andI get it, but like, because
it's not, it doesn't.
That's not what we're.
We're not unified around that.
My identity as who I voted for,or my identity as a sports fan
those are tribal identitymarkers and fine, but we don't.
We're not a tribe.
It's not tribalism in here.
We.
What unites us is adopting thesame reality, or at least trying
(28:05):
to.
We're all aiming at the cross.
We have the same lenses on.
Does that make sense?
We're trying to share the samerealities, all we're trying to
do in this room.
So I love this.
Yeah, okay, I said that already, but this is the next one.
At the second gathering.
I got that right, okay so.
And relationships are vitallyimportant.
So one scholar says hey,entering into friendships is not
(28:27):
simply an added benefit to theChristian life, it is the
Christian life.
You can't have a phronesis byyourself.
No man or woman is an island.
We're not.
We're not in almost every wayAt the macro level, even at the
micro level.
You, we're not in almost everyway At the macro level, even at
the micro level.
You cannot live in an organismor a system of organisms without
affecting it or impacting it.
We're meant to be infriendships together.
(28:49):
And that does mean, becausewe're not the same interest, you
might have disagreements.
So what Paul says we all look atthe world through the lens of
Christ, which means thatfriendships are not for your own
pleasure at this level.
Now, some levels they are like,you know, it's fine.
This is also why I won't saythat I'll skip that.
But like Paul uses the word,here's another unpronounceable
(29:13):
miracle.
This is the word koinonia.
Everyone say koinonia.
He uses it 19 times in the NewTestament, 13 times in all of
Paul's letters.
Three times in this letter it'sdescribing what that community
looks like.
It's a sharing, a partnership.
We share everything.
We share life, faith, resources, mission.
(29:34):
We sacrifice and we share thoseburdens.
This is what unity andcommunity looks like.
We share these things, notsharing our same interests or
who we voted for, or what kindof car we drive or our looks
like.
We share these things, notsharing our same interests or
who we voted for, or what kindof car we drive or our bank
accounts.
We might have some rich folksand you might have some poor
folks.
Fine, what coin in the airlooks like is that we all adopt
the same reality and we shareeach other's burdens.
(29:56):
That's what it means to live inChristian community.
So my dear friend Kim, who was apart of my house for a long
time, one of my great friends,she's not here.
Is Kim here?
Okay, love Kim.
She would frequently, at oneseason of her life, needed a lot
of prayer and she kept askingus for prayer and she kept
feeling bad about it.
(30:16):
She's like I'm so sorry toburden you guys.
I'm so sorry to burden you guys.
Finally, I said stop, kim, lookat me.
You are burdening us, butthat's what we're doing here.
We want to share your burdens.
Great, we're sharing each ofthose burdens.
That's what Christian communitylooks like.
I don't mind that you bringyour burdens to me.
(30:37):
I don't.
I have another dear friend whowas just diagnosed with cancer
and I can't fix it.
But I'm like, hey, I just meanI'm with you.
Whatever I can do to help, I'mwith you.
I want to share that burdenhowever I can.
Now I can't do it, for I knowI'm the pastor I can't do it for
everybody, so we do it for eachother.
You don't really need me inthis way.
When Paul's in prison, thePhilippians don't just say, hey,
(31:01):
thoughts and prayers, no,that's fine, that's not a bad
thing.
Okay, they send Epaphroditus,they send one of their own to
Rome with a gift to sit withPaul while he's in prison.
That's koinonia.
They're sharing in Paul'sburdens.
I've told this story before, butI love this story.
I've got to get out of here.
(31:22):
Oh, my gosh, I do.
I'm sorry.
I'm going to tell it, then I'llget out of here.
Okay, let's do the end.
So years ago I was tubing withmy son Gavin.
He was five at the time and ifyou know, casey Stanley, casey's
dad was the boat driver onCasey's lake up in Twigg and he
was the boat driver, and Casey'sdad's a maniac and I go.
His name is Bomber.
(31:43):
I go Bomber.
His name is Bomber, he's amaniac.
So I go Bomber.
Gavin's never been on a tubebefore he's five years old.
Just go easy.
No problem, ryan, I got you, hedidn't get me.
We're on the tube, gavin's underme, I'm on top of Gavin and we
start start going.
Fair enough, the beginningstarts pretty mild and pretty
low, key, low speeds.
But then after about he musthave gotten bored because after
(32:04):
about a few minutes Bombercranks up a notch.
I'm like, oh, and Gavin has noidea.
He's laughing, he has no cluewhat danger awaits us, you know.
And so Bomber keeps ratchetingit up even more.
I'm like, dude, I told you toslow down, but he didn't.
He couldn't hear me.
Finally, at one point we'reteetering and I'm like 200
pounds.
I'm going to flip this thingover because I'm so heavy and I
knew if I flipped it over or ifI flew off, that Gavin would
(32:33):
probably fly off the other wayand end up 20 feet from me.
By the way, I was sharing thisstory with Gavin last night, and
Gavin's going to be an engineer.
And he goes oh, actually, dad,because of the physics and the
laws I world, nobody cares aboutthat Gavin Physics and all that
.
I'm like if I fly off, he'sgoing to fly up the other way
and be miles away from me and Iwas like I was scared for him.
(32:53):
So I'm like, what am I going todo?
And as he kept ratcheting thespeed up, oh my gosh, we're
going to flip.
All I knew to do is you knowwhat?
If he's going down, I'm goingdown with him.
So at the last minute I let goof the tube and I grabbed him.
He had a life vest on and Irolled over and we fell into the
lake together.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
And the minute we hit the waterI could feel his little arms.
(33:16):
You know what I mean?
Katie said maybe it was yougrabbing onto him, right, and we
came up and he's like screaming.
But I wanted him to know I'mwith you, I've got you, we're in
this together and I'll absorbsome of that burden of yours.
That's koinonia, that's our jobtogether, and we don't have to
(33:40):
have voted for the samecandidate or eaten at the same
lunch place or root for the sameteam in order to share koinonia
.
Central Lutheran Church.
May you indeed have the mindsetof Christ.
May you adopt the same realityas Paul did the self-emptying,
self-sacrificial, lived-outexperience, embodiment of Jesus
(34:02):
on the cross.
May we share in that togetherand this morning.
May the Spirit enable each ofus to do that.
Amen.
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