Our Sunday Message

Emptied and Exalted: Philippians 2:5-11
Rev. Dr. Kenneth A. Corr
April 1, 2007
Palm Sunday

  Today is Palm Sunday. Today is the day that we remember that first palm parade into Jerusalem. Imagine that we are following Jesus into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. As we follow, we can’t pretend that we don’t know what is going to happen to him in Jerusalem, because we do know. We know that he is not going to leave the city. We know that he will be rejected by the scribes and Pharisees. We know that he will be crucified, a horrible and inhumane form of execution. We know that he will be buried and on the third day rise again. We follow, knowing all of these things.
  But knowing this, what does it mean to follow Jesus? Our palm parade today is not just a re-enactment, but a remembering. We remember so that its meaning can impact our lives today in 21st century Memphis. So imagine that we following Jesus into the city.
Notice the crowds as they line the entrance, pushing and shoving to get the best places along the parade route, growing in size and in enthusiasm as we get closer to the city gate.
  Notice the sounds as they begin to chant, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” The sound begins to swell as you get closer to the city.
  Notice the disciples as they try to keep some kind of order, surrounding the colt, spreading the garments and palm branches in front.
  Notice the growing anxiety and tension on the faces of the religious leaders. “Tell the crowds to be silent,” they say. “It’s blasphemous,” they claim.
  Notice the smell of freshly cut palm branches, and the choking smell of dust, and the mixed smells of the city.
  These are the things that are easy for us to notice. But also notice what is being emptied out as Jesus approaches the city. You will have to use your imagination to see it. The text does not say it. If we were simply re-enacting the story, we would not see it because they did not see it that first Palm Sunday. But we are not re-enacting, we are remembering.
  Look again at the story. What is it that Jesus is emptying out? I need to warn you that it is easy to miss because some part of us doesn’t want to see. We have an ability not to see what we don’t want to see. Isaiah warned that having eyes doesn’t mean that we can see.
But the apostle Paul saw it. Paul said, “Although he was in the form of God . . . he emptied himself.” There it is. Can you see it? Riding into the city on the first Palm Sunday, Jesus emptied himself. With every step that took him closer to the city, closer to his enemies, closer to his final destiny, he emptied himself. Can you see it now?
  It is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. The epistle lection today instructs us to have the same mind in our selves as Christ, who emptied himself. What does that mean for us? What does that look like today?
  We certainly know what it means to be “full of ourselves.” At least, it is easy to recognize that in others. It is never a pretty picture. The disciples had journeyed with Jesus during these last weeks arguing the whole time about who was the greatest, jockeying for position in the administration of the new kingdom, securing for themselves some material benefit or reward, “After all, we have left everything and followed you,” they said. They were full of themselves.
  The Pharisee came to the temple and prayed, “Lord, I thank you that I am not like other people, like this tax collector.” He was full of himself.
  The politicians that are running for office today enjoy going on TV to confess their sins. They are full of themselves.
  It is easy to recognize that in them. But what would it mean for us to be emptied of ourselves?
  Apparently, the apostle Paul was quoting an early Christian hymn. These words were probably sung every Sunday morning in the church at Philippi as they came together to worship. Euodia was one of the leading women in the church there at Philippi. She was there with her hymnal singing the words. Across the aisle was Syntyche. She was also one of the leading women in the church. She had her hymnal and sat across the aisle because Euodia and she weren’t talking. Paul used this hymn as a teaching tool because it was already familiar to them.
  These two women had had some kind of falling out in the church and now Euodia sat over there with her friends and Syntyche sat over there with her friends and it was threatening to split the church. But they both sang with their hymnals open to this text, “Though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself.”
  Paul was not writing a theology textbook for seminarians. He was writing practical instructions to a real live congregation that was struggling to get along.
  We don’t know what these women were divided over. Maybe it was over an interpretation of Scripture. Maybe it was over organizational or administrative details. Maybe it was over the color of the new carpet in the sanctuary. It happens in every church.
  And there is Euodia and her crowd over there, and Syntyche and her crowd over there, all singing out of the same hymnal.
  What does it look like to empty ourselves? Paul begins by saying, v. 2, “Make my joy complete: be of the same mind.” You will have to forgive me, but I hear this as a parent. It is as though Paul is saying to his quibbling children, “Ya’ll get along.” Has any parent here ever said that to your children?
  Paul then instructs them saying, v. 3, “Do nothing from selfish ambition.” To empty ourselves means that we give up selfish ambition. Jesus did not want to ride into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday. We know that because on Thursday night, he prayed, “Father, take this cup from me, but not my will.” Do you hear that? It was not his will to die. If Jesus had any ambition for himself, he emptied it out on the way into Jerusalem.
  We are following him today. What selfish ambition do we need to empty out this morning? Where do we say, “I am determined to have my way regardless?”
  Then Paul adds, v. 3, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.” To empty ourselves means that we give up conceit. How will this look on my résumé? Who will notice if I do this? Will this help me get ahead? If Jesus had any conceit, he emptied it out on the way into Jerusalem.
  We are following him today. What conceit do we need to empty out this morning?
  Finally, Paul said, v. 4, “Let each of you look to the interests of others first.” Jesus rode into Jerusalem that last time, not because he needed it, but because we needed it.
  A little boy modeled this for us. It was the boy who came to listen to the evangelist, bringing his sack lunch with only two fish and five loaves. It was not much, but he offered to share it with others, looking first to the interests of others.
  Imagine it again, but this time notice not just the crowds, the noise, the smells, the disciples, the faces of the religious leaders, but this time notice the mind of Jesus. Notice that with every step, he is being emptied of selfish ambition and personal conceit.
  “Have the same mind in you.”
  “He humbled himself . . . Therefore God also highly exalted him.”