Willapa United Methodist Church

Listen to the “sage” advice I received from the United Methodist Book of Worship in preparation for this service:

This service embodies the sharp contrasts of Holy Week. In the Entrance with the Palms we experience the joyous demonstration of loyalty to Jesus as he enters Jerusalem, including festive Palm Sunday music. In the Proclamation and Response we confront and respond to the story of Jesus’ passion, including somber Passion Sunday music. [Thanks to Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” most of us now know that Christ’s “passion” was his arrest, trial, torture and crucifixion.]

It is important not to let the celebration of Palm Sunday crowd out the observance of Passion Sunday. The passion narratives in Scripture are highly unified and dramatic, and we need to experience the story in its wholeness before we reflect at greater length on its various parts during the following weekdays. We need to remember that many persons who attend on Passion/Palm Sunday will not be in church again until Easter Day. Going directly from the lesser joy of the entry into Jerusalem to the joy of Easter, without being addressed by the passion and the cross of our Lord, misrepresents the gospel. There is no triumph without suffering, no crown without a cross.

So, apparently, my job in this sermon is to get you suitably depressed to begin Holy Week. Well, have no fear, I’ll try to be gentle and let you down easy! Please pray with me.

May the words of our mouths, the meditations of our hearts, and the conduct of our lives, be always acceptable to you, O God, our strength and our blessed redeemer. Amen.

Philippians has been called the “epistle of joy and encouragement in the midst of adverse circumstances.”[1] Paul’s affection for the church in Philippi is apparent throughout the letter and the congregation’s affection and concern for Paul is also evident. Paul wrote this letter to the First Christian Church of Philippi from a prison cell, probably a prison cell in Rome. Our text for this morning is a hymn to Christ’s humility and obediance. 

If you were following along in your pew Bibles as John [Jayme] read, you may have noticed that verses 6 through 11 are printed like a Psalm, or a poem. In the original Greek that’s what they were. Paul’s purpose in writing this beautiful prose was to urge the Christians in Philippi to follow Christ’s example of humility and obedience, to unconditionally surrender themselves to God’s plan as Jesus did. Paul is trying to help his favorite church to become even better, to become perfect.

John Jewell shares a poem that’s been around for awhile about the perfect church. We don’t know who the author is:

If you should find the perfect church,

without fault or smear,

please, don’t join that church,

you’d spoil the atmosphere.

If you should find the perfect church,

where all anxieties cease,

then pass it by lest joining it

you mar the masterpiece.

If you should find the perfect church,

then don’t you ever dare

to tread upon such holy ground,

you’d be a misfit there.

But since no perfect church exists…

made of imperfect women and men,

then let’s cease looking for that church,

and love the one we’re in.

Of course it’s not a perfect church,

that’s simple to discern.

But you and I and all of us

could cause the tide to turn.

So let’s keep working in our church

until the resurrection,

and then we each will join God’s church

without an imperfection.[2]

Paul probably knew that no church is perfect, but he wanted the church in Philippi to keep striving toward that goal. The reality is that we are called to work toward a goal that we will never reach in this life. Remember the story of the rich young man who was told by Jesus that he needed to sell all that he had to be saved? Remember the disciples reaction: “Who then can be saved?” Jesus’ response was: “It’s not possible for a person, but all things are possible for God.” That reality is a major part of Paul’s theology and it is a major part of our heritage as Methodists. 

For over two hundred years every Methodist pastor has been asked 19 questions before they are admitted to ordained ministry. The first four questions of the historical examination are:

1. Have you faith in Christ?
2. Are you going on to perfection?
3. Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?
4. Are you earnestly striving after it?

Speaking of pastors and perfection, a perfect church needs a perfect pastor. I want to turn to John Jewell once again who shared this anonymous e-mail chain letter about ministers:

The results of a computerized survey indicate the perfect minister preaches exactly fifteen minutes. He or she condemns sins but never upsets anyone. He or she works from 8 AM until midnight and is also a janitor. He or she makes $50 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books, drives a good car, and gives about $50 weekly to the poor. He or she is 28 years old and has preached 30 years. He or she has a burning desire to work with teenagers and spends all of his or her time with senior citizens. The perfect minister smiles all the time with a straight face because he or she has a sense of humor that keeps him or her seriously dedicated to his or her work. He or she makes 15 calls daily on congregational families, shut-ins and the hospitalized, and is always in his or her office when needed.

If your minister does not measure up, simply send this letter to six other churches that are tired of their minister, too. Then bundle up your minister and send him or her to the church on the top of the list. In one week, you will receive 1,643 ministers and one of them will be perfect. Have faith in this procedure.

One church broke the chain and got its old minister back in less than three weeks…so don’t break the chain.[3]

You’re laughing! Why aren’t you depressed yet? I guess I’m not doing my job very well. Maybe if I return to our text…

But, there’s a happy ending to Paul’s hymn about Christ: “Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth [Under the earth? Don’t pass lightly over that one. Jesus Christ is Lord of heaven, earth and hell.], and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” You know there’s always a catch in the way God reveals his plans to us. In this case it comes at the beginning and the end. 

Let’s start with the end. Why will every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? Not to glorify Jesus, but to glorify God the Father. Talk about humility, at the moment of victory over sin and death, Jesus gives all the credit to God the Father. 

Now let’s go back to the beginning of verse 9 and there we find that pesky word “therefore”. “Therefore” tells us that there was a reason that God highly exalted Jesus and we are forced to look at the price that Jesus had to pay to get to that happy ending: Jesus had to empty himself of his pride and majesty as the Son of God and leave heaven behind. Jesus had to become a human, and a human of low estate at that. He had to suffer physically. He had to suffer emotionally. And, yes, he had to suffer spiritually. He had to suffer the humiliation of a public trial and execution. He had to die on a cross, the method of death normally reserved for common criminals. The price that Jesus had to pay was so great because all of us were included in the bargain!

That’s how Holy Week is, too. We need to suffer right along with Jesus in order to appreciate and celebrate his victory on Easter morning. Easter doesn’t come without the doubt and humiliation of Maundy Thursday. Easter doesn’t come without the pain and suffering of Good Friday. Resurrection doesn’t come without death. The cross was so heavy because all of us were included in the bargain.

So, I invite you to unconditionally surrender to God’s plan for your life as Jesus did. I invite you to follow Christ’s example of obedience and humility. I invite you to really experience the words of our closing hymn and not just sing them. I invite you to forget about the joy of Easter morning for the next six days, and focus on the price that Jesus paid during those six days. I invite you to read the daily lectionary readings on the back of your worship bulletins. I invite you to attend Maundy Thursday and Good Friday worship services and to observe an Easter vigil on Holy Saturday. If you will do those things for the next six days, I promise that your joy on Easter morning will be much greater than it would be if you lived this week like any other week.

This Holy Week, let’s strive for perfection. Let’s empty ourselves of our pride and prejudices, and allow God to fill us with the humble and obedient Spirit of Christ.