Philippians Hymn                                                                                                             June 1, 2014 

           Carla and I were in Boston last weekend for our nephew’s high school graduation.  It was great.  I’d never been there before, and as I did a little research, I found that if you only have a day, you have to do the Freedom Trail.  Many of you may know by now I was a history major in college.  I read big thick boring biographies and history books for fun.  And so this was right up my alley.  We saw the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides, which 200 years ago led the Navy to its upset victory against Great Britain.  

Not only does it still float… it’s an active ship with currently enlisted sea men and women.  They take it out for a spin every year turn it around and park it back in its slip the other direction so that it weathers evenly.  The Freedom Trail took us from Old Ironsides to the monument for the Battle of Bunker Hill to Paul Revere’s house, to the Old North Church, to Faneuil Hall.  I had a great time.  But more than one of the stops on the trail are devoted to graveyards.  

And not just so that people of today can see where Samuel Adams and the parents of Benjamin Franklin are buried.  Seeing these thin stone tablets stuck in the ground without much planning, and how they’re all leaning this way and that, and seeing how the centuries have worn away the engraving… it can be easy to let the modern city that has grown around these cemeteries make you forget the original context of this area… but those graveyards keep it real.  On the stones you see most people didn’t get past 40 years old.  Lots of kids didn’t reach 10.  And, of course, on each stone was not only the name and dates of birth and death, but an epitaph.  “Devoted mother and loving wife.”  “faithful servant of God and one of public spirit.”  You know there are some great epitaphs of famous people, too.  Mel Blanc, the creator of Bugs Bunny; his gravestone says, “That’s All Folks”.  

Merv Griffin, the TV icon, his says, “I Will Not Be Right Back After This Message.”  People like Thomas Jefferson needed more space for their epitaph.  “Author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia.” An epitaph is typically written in stone, so you can’t get too wordy most of the time.  An obituary boils down a person’s life into a couple paragraphs.  But an epitaph is just one word or phrase.  What would yours be?  Freda Benton’s stone says, “Granny chick”.  William Hahn's says, “I told you I was sick.”  

Or would yours include your most important relationship: devoted wife, husband, parent.  Maybe you’d list your work like Thomas Jefferson.  Or a quote you liked to say that reveals a lot about your way of looking at life.  I know some of you have already bought your stone and thought through this.  But for most of us, this seems hard to do: describing ourself with just one word or phrase. 

            Could you do it for God?  Maybe not an epitaph, because of course, Jesus doesn't stay dead.  But could you describe all that God is about with just one word?  Creator, omnipotent, omnipresent...  Hope, Peace, Love?  St. Paul, in this letter to the Philippians tries to get at the heart of who God is, so that he may explain what our hearts and minds could be capable of.  Paul would not begin to list God’s accomplishments like Thomas Jefferson.  He would not name God’s greatest quote.  But, with one word he’d be able to lift up God’s sense of humor.  He’d be able to get at God’s occupation.  And with that one word he would explain how God relates to every daughter and Son on earth.  Describe God with one word or phrase: Paul would say “Grace”.  Grace requires a sense of humor.  Grace is what God does.  And grace is how God relates to all of us.  Though guilty of sins galore, we are saved through his love and mercy.  That’s grace.  Who was Mel Blanc: the Man of 1,000 voices.  Who was Thomas Jefferson?  He can be identified by documents he wrote.  Who is God?  1 John says God is love.  But grace takes that definition a step further.  Grace refers to the kind of love that persists through everything… even death. 

            Paul tells the Philippians, “have that same kind of love.  Do nothing from selfish conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”  We are baptized into Christ.  Into his death.  Into his resurrection.  And here, Paul says that means we are put in Christ’s very mind.  “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”  He finishes this portion of his letter by saying, “for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”  We are in Christ and God is in us.  We celebrate that every week at communion.  That we are all one together and together we are in Christ. 

            So, how might that affect our actions?  This is a letter about attitude as much as anything else.  And attitude affects action.  This is not just a letter trying to teach these people in Philippi how to think.  Paul is not trying to get them to wrap their minds around the truth that they are in Christ and God is in them.  Paul wants them to take on Christ’s attitude knowing that attitude affects us one way or the other. 

            Just think of the different mindsets people have, and how it affects their work, and their lives.  All week we’ve been hearing those blue angel jets overhead as they've been practicing for the Air Show this weekend.  Do you think jet pilots have a certain kind of attitude, typically?  Did Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer teach us nothing in Top Gun?  

To fly a plane like the Blue Angels do, you need to have a certain kind of attitude.  Confidence, a desire to be precise.  Or to be a surgeon.  We have a neighbor who is a cardiothoracic surgeon.  And there’s a certain attitude that one must have when taking the heart of a living human being and attempting to fix it, while also trying to not kill the person.   My attitude in an operating room would dwell on the don’t mess up, more than the “I’m saving this guy”.  Teachers need an attitude of kindness, clarity of direction, and a passion for educating.  Entrepreneurs have an attitude that says, “I can., I will.”  Attitude affects actions.  Wake up groggy and spill some milk and you’re unable to find your backpack.  You put your, “It’s going to be a bad day” attitude on and you are just a joy to be around.  Put on a thankful attitude and you come across to other people much differently. 

            Now, this sermon could devolve right now into a fluffy, “Keep your chin up” sermon where I say Jesus wants you to have a happy attitude.  Stay positive.  But that’s not the attitude Paul has in mind.  Is God always happy?  Is God always positive?  No.  So there must be space for other feelings.  Remember, the one word Paul would use for God is, “Grace”.  That’s the kind of attitude Christians are called to have at all times and in all places.  We are called to be gracious.  Sadness, grief, illness and even depression happen.  It’s not about cheering up.  Having an attitude of Grace persists through every broken part of life.  Prosperity, joy, perhaps even wealth and good fortune may happen for you.  For many of us that is true.  And we are easily tricked into thinking those are life’s goals.  “Have an attitude that achieves those goals.” Is what the world tells us to do.  But grace moves us to not prosper only for our own sake; but to share our joy, and our wealth, and to worship the one responsible for our good fortune.  Grace tempers our accomplishments and carries us through our failures.  A gracious attitude moves us to selflessness: regarding others as better than ourselves, looking to the interests of others.

            To carry his point home, Paul invokes a well-known hymn of his day, “Though Christ was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.”  In Christ, we are capable of that kind of attitude: to not regard our forgiven status as something to be exploited, but to empty ourselves for the sake of others.  Gracious.  TBTG.  Amen.