Philippians 2:5-11
"Holy Name" - Years A, B, C
"Passion" - Years A, B, C
How does intentional humility work? Is it humility or practice toward humility? Is it humility or the appearance of humility? Is it humility a taking advantage of humility? Is it simply humility?
To humble oneself in anticipation of a later benefit, seems just a touch proud.
These same questions come about the privilege to not claim one’s privilege.
Perhaps what is being driven at here is some transparency of motive.
Just before this text we hear of Paul’s joy in loving accord through a mechanism of looking out for other’s interests. This will probably have a helpful effect on oneself, but there is certainly no guarantee that those other interests will reciprocate and have our interest in mind.
Just after this text we hear the injunction to work out our communal health together—always a dicey matter. Look at the comments on nearly any blog and you won't have to scroll far to find flamers whose good pleasure seems to be in displeasing others.
Somehow humility here is not just a personal virtue, but a communal one. Living in a culture of humility would be transformative. So far our track record has been poor. It is difficult to be humble when you are a "city on a hill". We have caused more fear and trembling than actual healing.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/03/philippians-25-11.html
NRSV: "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who...."
NRSV footnote: "Let the same mind be in you that you have in Christ Jesus, who...."
There is past and present at play here as well as directionality. How do you talk about your relationship with G*D?
We can talk about the same G*D that was in Christ Jesus is in you and in me and in all. It is sort of digital. G*D is either present or not. However G*D is with Christ is the same way G*D will be with you or someone else. G*D drops pieces of G*Dself into everyone and everything.
We can talk about differing levels of maturity in Christ Jesus. To the extent you can see G*D in Christ Jesus, you can see G*D in yourself and in me and in others. It is sort of analog. G*D is present to a degree. That degree can be tuned further in or further out. The limiting factor is our vision. G*D never gives us more than we can handle and that includes limiting how much G*D we can handle.
Some folk will be drawn to the either/or nature of G*D, some to the both/and. There will even be some who are more comfortable with either/both and/or or/and.
Whichever way we go on these interesting permutations, there still needs to be the humility to not claim one's own proclivity as the standard for all people or for all time even for oneself. How easy it is to claim G*D as one's own, or the Gospel one understands, or the denominational polity one can leverage, or .... So what symbol is the equivalent of the colt of old in your life today?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/april2003.html
Offering oneself without regard to equality, much less advantage, is (as the lection proceeds into verse 12 and beyond) an experience of "working out our own salvation with fear and trembling."
The ideal of simply giving over to G*D that which is G*D's (that is, myself) is one thing that leads to loss of confidence (since we keep failing at that and reserving sections of life for ourselves) and to increase of guilt induction (by having an automatic blame game edge to not listen to anyone else because they are not completely empty of ego and disappear so there is only G*D).
Our experience is that this is not so much an exultation of Jesus Christ as it is a confession of who we have found ourselves to be - full of ourselves.
For whatever we bring of our part of the image-of-G*D to the table, we need to see how it fits into verse 4 and before - looking to the interest of others.
Our experience also can see this not so much an exultation of Jesus Christ as it is a commitment to build up the whole body by taking our appropriate place in such - we too can simply be present as an image-of-G*D without exploiting that reality.
As confession of being an exploiter and as commitment to not exploit any more this passage can lead us in a transformation of our lives. The result won't be glory to us, but satisfaction that we have lived up to that which has been given us in the situations we find ourselves.
Glory to G*D by being real - confessed and committed.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/april2004.html
This is not a passage that stands up well to the violent imagery of The Passion of the Christ. It is much more celebrative, more Palm Sunday-ish.
The humility of the cross is not something that goes over very well in today's digital age. We don't do nuance very well. If it is cross-oriented, the baggage of our religious institutions says it must focus on violence.
And so a question about where you find encouragement: Well?
It is out of the Palm or the Passion part of the story? Both together, you say. Then how would you weight them?
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Wesley (Blogger)
Here we may look primarily at the Palm story in light of creation.
In Mark the section ends with a rest. This punctuates the "it is good" refrain from the Word/Logos/Spirit of GOD moving over the deep with a singing retranslation of, "Peace on Earth" and with the days of an evolving ministry with periodic pronouncements booming retranslations of "you are my beloved" that finally come to this Sabbath when it is already late. Now we lay ourselves down to dream of an 8th day, an easter, if you will.
It is so easy to get caught in the fevered brow of nightmares to come. It is so hard to rest with friends in Bethany knowing this day has had troubles enough of its own without borrowing some from Thursday or Friday.
Might this be a humble story that also needs telling? Is this enough? Even if folks, like the disciples of old, run away from the Passion stuff and we are not there to repackage it for them?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/april2006.html
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Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 22:14 - 23:56
Passion:
There are different ways of emptying oneself. One way brings one to one's self (non-exploitation). Another way loses one's self (demanding). Both can be trancelike. Both are open to temptation and subversion.
We wrestle with this all the time. Is this a time to not respond? Is this a time to use every tongue at our disposal? What is obedience and what pride?
Pre-crucifixion, non-follower knees were unbent, goose-stepping toward mob rule. Post-crucifixion followers on bended knee demand a loyalty pledge be on the tip of everyone's tongue to roll off at a moment's notice.
We move from a passionate experience to being passionate about another's passion and, in turn, inflicting said passion upon others. What does it mean to follow one claimed to be non-exploitative and not exploit same for greater ends? This is an impossible line to walk without falling off on one side and then another.
So it is that someone's image of randomly handing some congregants a palm branch as they come to worship, while others receive a stone or nothing at all is a wonderful one. All of this: from exuberant praise, to stoning him softly with a cross, to not knowing what is happening or where to gain traction in the turmoil - is going on within and around us all the time.
May your right hand palm know what your left hand stone is doing that you might break both trances before they lead to one exploitation or another and someone ends up dead enough to require the preparation of spices and ointments. Such preparation is little enough sorrow and restitution for injuries done.
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rail and roil
tumultuous living
claiming privilege
demanding rights
sturm and drang
rule our hearts
parade our passion
and on a sabbath
night and noon
rest happens
creation blooms
again
slavery breaks
finally
we take the bodies
harmed and killed
in careful hands
and perfumed bands
to lay in pieces
our own brokenness
peaceless
on bended knee
confession rolls
as it has before
tongues promise
yet again
calamity remembered
still
and on a sabbath
night and noon
hope happens
creation blooms
again
slavery breaks
finally. . .
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
Passion Sunday
Philippians 2:5-11
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Mark 14:1 - 15:47
Palm Sunday
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Mark 11:1-11 or John 12:12-16
Palms: Here at least permission is directly given for the lending or leasing of a colt (perhaps because it only entailed one animal? [grin]). Or, a young donkey is "found".
It is instructive that the Gospels (at least part of them) are written from the perspective of the resurrection. Later folks remembered more than they knew at the time. This remembrance was just in time to be recorded as eternal truth for all time. In this circle we are freed, if we desire to live in freedom, to anticipate future insight as well as newly appreciating past experiences. It is helpful to both name the original understanding and the later revision. This grounds both in a larger reality of growth and allows a better appreciation of the witness.
A process of "midrash" is still of the utmost importance to breaking through the religious restrictions that have accumulated down through the years about expected meaning of particular passages. These midrash moments are appropriately responded to with, "Hosanna!"
Passion: Any of the numberless deadly sins could be used as a lens for this section. An easy one to use is that of greed. The set up is John's version of an anointing story and the harassing of the woman on the basis of perceived loss of revenue (greed excused as a good thing because it is "concerned" about the poor - not that they would have received any real help after an appropriate amount of administrative costs and overhead were taken out).
From there we can ask about greed of position, greed of power, and greed of control (all experiences can be commoditized).
We can also ask about generosity as we follow the story of a number of Marys. They offer their time and energy to a faithful presence. It is not as though they have any position, power, or control - they simply are witnessing. I am reminded of the women of the disappeared who publicly dance in solitude with the missing loved ones. To speak would be to be disappeared, but their act of witness is critical.
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looking back brings new insight
mining experience is valuable
we polish events
bringing their deeper significance
to the surface
standing quietly by
witnessing events is valuable
we avoid secrets
pushing common realities
into the background
hands over eyes, mouth, ears
quickly diminish values
we increase ignorance
keeping insight restricted
to authorized versions
looking standing vulnerable
caring presence is valuable
we join life
partnering common good
with uncommon good
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
Passion Sunday
Philippians 2:5-11
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Matthew 26:14 - 27:66
Palm Sunday
Matthew 21:1-11
Psalm 118:1-2,19-29
Ahh, the joy of choosing to walk a slow walk, even though many will not know how to slow down that long, and focus on Palm Sunday, or to take all of pre-Easter week in one big gulp and focus on the Passion.
Thanks to the wisdom of Robert Frost you are encouraged to take whichever path is least traveled by you and/or your community of faith.
Palms: There is still hospitality in the big city. Someone needs your donkey and colt, you lend it. That's the happy spin.
Less happy is the implication of an entitlement to have one's needs met. There is no reporting here of a question being asked when the disciples followed Jesus' command and took the animals. This is the moral equivalent of stealing. Just being Jesus doesn't get anyone off the hook of the commandment.
From there we are on to Hosanna and a recognized, but too easily passed over, understanding that Jesus is a Prophet. It would be clarifying to counterpose Palms and Prophets.
Passion: Where we usually look at the Passion of Christ and focus on his suffering, we might also look at the Passion against Christ and focus on what it is that drives people to participate with the principalities and powers.
In this vein we would investigate the commonalities between Judas, Chief Priests, (Peter, John, James and the other disciples who choose betrayal after a first betrayal), a crowd ready for violence with swords and clubs, false witnesses, Governor Pilate, a crowd still ready for violence with voice, military cohort, and guards. What passion sustained them, one to the next, until passion led to passion, in not a good way?
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Thief Jesus dies alongside thieves
like calls to like
Messiah Jesus dies alongside thieves
like calls to like
do you like the call you're calling?
who are you living with?
do you like the call you're receiving?
who are you living with?
like still calls to like
like still lives with like
better like what you like
better like what you like
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
Who else besides Jesus is in the "form of God"? You? Me? Them?
It may not be "form", per se, that is the issue, but what we do with it.
Issues of exploitation abound in a domination system. Not exploiting is an antidote to such a system.
It is not that Jesus became obedient to a god requiring blood sacrifice, but who followed the internal logic of non-exploitation in an open fashion, thus revealing a domination system for what it is and willing to receive a consequence of such revelatory behavior.
A tricky part in all this is that if Jesus would not exploit his relationship with G*D, why would there be an expectation that he would receive kneeling and confessing?
Would there not, rather, be a hope that others would be encouraged to find a way to be non-exploitative in their relationships with one another and Jesus and G*D and the universe?
So, in honor of Maundy (obedience) Thursday let us image a servant that doesn't kow-tow, but reveals a new way of interacting with others, non-violently, non-exploitatively, on the way to living a mandate to love-one-another.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html
Hey, you. Yes, you. Though you are made in the image of G*D, how are you doing at keeping that in check?
Been lording it over some other image of G*D?
Here's the thing, when your name is mentioned, do folks take a moment to acknowledge G*D within and beyond your image? Perhaps it would help others have this moment of kneeling if you were to show the way by honoring their image of G*D.
What is your moral equivalent of humility over such a long haul that death, even, if it should be, death on a cross, is embraced by you? When you get to some clarity about such, your name, too, will be a tangible opening to a glory of G*D.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html
My preference would be for this pericope to continue to verse 13. In this manner we are not simply left with a creedal statement, but we can see Life continued through us. In the absence of creed we work out our own salvation (wholeness) with fear and trembling - wrestling with G*D within us, attempting to burst through - yearning for us to become G*D.
If we are simply going to deal with the first eleven verses, then it is most helpful to deal with the first four verses, not the last four. Again the rubric is avoiding the creedal statement to find unity with G*D and Neighbor (as well as Self, One Another, and Enemy).
The beginning list is as good as any to evaluate our present work, done with "fear and trembling", toward a preferred future. How do you rate your receiving and offering the following?
Encouragement
Consolation
Sharing
Compassion
Sympathy
Joy
Unity
Love
Accord
Humility
Helping
These are far more lively processes than bowing and kneeling at the tolling of a name. In fact, it is these characteristics whereby "glory" is revealed.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/03/philippians-21-11.html
Ahh, humility rewarded. Surely my humility will be likewise recognized for its quality.
Somehow we have lost track of an antecedent. To what was Jesus “obedient” and in regard to what was he “humble.”
Our tendency is to return to a system of dominion. G*D has it, Jesus didn’t, you don’t. Jesus knelt better than you do. G*D wants proof of Jesus’ submission, of your obedience. This is the test of Abraham being submissive and obedient enough to slaughter Isaac taken to the next level. Are you willing to have G*D kill you? That is what the whole bloody substitutionary and obediently humble atonement theories would have you desire.
So back to the question of antecedent. To what was Jesus obedient? What would be a sufficient call to you that would result in your obedience to it? I would hope it is more than some bowing of the neck to fate, to meanness, to our lowest common denominator, to power, . . . .
To be humble one might be expected to reject any kowtowing to the excellence of one’s humility. To do otherwise, to accept adulation as expected, is to deny the focus one had on bringing love of G*D/Creation together with love of Neighbor/Enemy. Humility here is intended to bring everything possible together and to laugh at the resulting response that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is simply 42. Humility here would get up on its high horse, in high dudgeon, to say, “Wrong, G*D, we are all exalted or none of us are!”
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Reader Response:
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Are you willing to have G*D kill you? That is what the whole bloody substitutionary and obediently humble atonement theories would have you desire.
It is also the problem inherent with the "Creator God" (or father god or mother god or anything resembling "a being" of some kind) theory. If such a "Creator God" indeed created this whole bloody mess, and all the rules and parameters that govern it, then it follows that death is part of the deal since it appears to be happening all over the place quite apart from human sinfulness, and indeed if accept that we live only by the will of G*D then we have no choice other than to be willing to have G*D kill us whether by the attrition of age, the assault of cancers and viruses or the impact of accident.
Or, we are forced to let go of some comforting notion of a great being up there who is somehow in control of all of this and accept that it may be quite a bit more complicated, and "obedience" is a dead metaphor like the Trinity, relevant only in a feudal society, the army, or corporate amerika.
So back to the question of antecedent. To what was Jesus obedient? What would be a sufficient call to you that would result in your obedience to it? I would hope it is more than some bowing of the neck to fate, to meanness, to our lowest common denominator, to power,
Maybe it's a Conservative Tea Party G*D. From George Lakeoff (substitute "G*D" for "conservatives" and "government"):
"Conservatives believe in individual responsibility alone, not social responsibility. They don’t think government should help its citizens. That is, they don’t think citizens should help each other. The part of government they want to cut is not the military (we have over 800** military bases around the world), not government subsidies to corporations, not the aspect of government that fits their worldview. They want to cut the part that helps people. Why? Because that violates individual responsibility."
So the bloody "substitutionary and obediently humble atonement theories" are obedient to the creed of rabid individual responsibility. That makes sense.
To be humble one might be expected to reject any kowtowing to the excellence of one’s humility. To do otherwise, to accept adulation as expected, is to deny the focus one had on bringing love of G*D/Creation together with love of Neighbor/Enemy.
What if it is impossible to bring "love of G*D/Creation" together with "love of Neighbor/Enemy" BECAUSE... PRECISELY BECAUSE... they are already together and have never been apart? Not ever? Not for one nanosecond? What then? Who's been wrong?
Humility here is intended to bring everything possible together and to laugh at the resulting response that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is simply 42. Humility here would get up on its high horse, in high dudgeon, to say, “Wrong, G*D, we are all exalted or none of us are!"
I believe it is an accurate paraphrase of at least part of John Wesley's theology to say "No one is saved, there is no salvation for anyone, not one, until there is peace and plenty for everyone, bread on every plate, justice in every land." Humility here means, to me, that we don't know SH*T about G*D.
Tom
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Tom -
I'm humbled at the depth of your response. Thank you for taking the time and energy to share your life experience. I have no trouble with your expansion of my comments. I particularly appreciate the much better rejection of a separation between loves as a background for our living. I keep getting caught in current gaps and thus experience a need to rejoin that, which at some level, was never separated.
Peace and Joy do abound, take plenty and some to pass around.
Wesley
What to do with privilege is an ancient question with ever present significance.
Are teachers privileged? Americans? Wealthy (those who can’t spend what they make and whose money makes more money than they can)? Merciful (revealers of unexpected and undeserved kindness)? Christians?
Is privilege a natural resource to be strip mined? A commodity to be bought or sold or otherwise invested for one type of power or another? In limited supply during a zero-sum game? A gift for oneself or for the benefit of others?
Interesting how humanity is here not privileged (in G*D’s image), but imaged as being slaves (of Satan?, sin?, status quo?). Where did this come from? If humans are made in the image of G*D, when has G*D not been found in human form? Seems there is a wrong question being asked if slavery is the outcome.
At the name of Jesus, a standing ovation and then a getting back to work of living seems more in order than doing a Tebow. We don’t get to confession or affirmation through guilt or creed. If Jesus carries G*D, so can any human. If Jesus can live fully enough to engage current laws in anticipation of their change, so can any human. So give Jesus his due, he revealed a G*D within. To honor this revelation, an appropriate response is not acquiescence but imitation.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/03/philippians-25-11.html