Becoming Human

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0:00 I don't know about y'all, but I am really glad to be with you centered around the gospel this morning. It feels like a normal week for me has a lot of things going on that I feel like I'm in over my head and I don't fully understand. But in times like this, it's even more amplified. I don't always understand the emotions I'm feeling. I don't usually know what the best thing to do is everything feels like a guess.

0:34 And so it's nice during this time of the week on Sunday morning to come back into the story of our people and see how the gospel brings concrete support to a confusing life. It really has been that for me this morning as I've spent some time in it. And I hope that it is that for you as well. I mentioned last week that I stumbled on this book that Jordan Crandall gave me this little

1:09 red book called Poverty of Spirit. I am a German theologian named Johannes Metz who just passed away this past December. The whole book is a meditation on poverty of spirit. And the crystallizing idea for me from last week was when he talks about God moving towards

1:40 our limitations. That so much of what we spend our time on, our energy on, is avoiding our own frailty. Whether that's denying it outright or entertaining it away or substituting, finding little microcosms of control in order to avoid the feeling of being out of control.

2:13 We run away from our limitations so often. And the last week the crystallizing idea was the notion of the God of the universe sitting in complete self satisfaction and limitless possibility and capability running towards human frailty and limitation. This notion of infinite potential and possibility and capacity running towards limited potential

2:49 capacity and possibility. And I love this image of while we continue to try and avoid our frailty, God moves towards our frailty. And I want to expand on that a little bit because the book does. And think about then how that happens, what it means to be a person that's limited and you see it fully in Christ. Paul in his letter to the church in Colossa says that Jesus is the image of the infinite

3:23 God, the first born among all creation. That Jesus is the full God and flesh in a person. And the first thought that came to me this week out of this idea is the posture that Jesus takes. We talked last week about his fast. Jesus fasts for 40 days and at the end of it is hungry.

3:55 The infinite God coming down into earth in order to demonstrate what full humanity looks like and he experiences hunger. The next thought was like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane where he's like confused. The infinite unbounded God comes down into the world to experience full humanity and he exposes himself to confusion and then he comes out in his bum that is three closest

4:30 friends can't stay awake with him. Jesus wants the companion, he needs the companionship of friends. Then the next memory was like this dude that comes and wants to help Jesus and he tells him he'd give us a place to stay because foxes have holes to hide in and places to lay down and the son of man has no place to lay his head. He just wants like a bed.

5:00 Then that made me remember the time when he's on the boat with the disciples and the wave is coming up and it's shaking the boat and there's water coming down in and Jesus is so tired that the storm doesn't wake him up. He's asleep on the boat like Jesus the infinite God comes down to express full humanity. He is now the living example of the pinnacle of humanity and he like needs to sleep.

5:33 Talking with my girls and Eleanor earlier this week and we were talking about how funny it is that we sleep. What happens when we sleep and why does it need to be there? I mean I don't know but I like the idea that Jesus when he's demonstrating to us the pinnacle of humanity doesn't obliterate our need.

6:05 He celebrates it by inhabiting it himself. So if to be fully human is to need people, to need food, to need rest, to need direction and mission, to need task and work, this is what it means to be fully human and human

6:41 is not bad. God himself embraced and elevated humanity. This is so compelling. It comes out in the Paul's letter to Philippians. That's our text for today. If you want to look there with me, of course it's in the New Testament it goes ax Romans 1st and 2nd Corinthians Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. If you're trying to find it in a paper copy, if you're punching into your phone, you just punching Philippians. It's not that hard to spell.

7:12 You can figure it out. Philippians chapter 2 is where we're looking and of course Paul's brilliant and each sentence is laid and it's like he loves to build logical syllogisms, arguments on top of arguments. But I want to look at verse 5 and chapter 2. I want to start there. He tells the followers of Jesus in the first century, hey have this mind among yourselves.

7:47 Be thinking in this sort of way, which is yours, this way of thinking belongs to you in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus brought you the capacity to think this way. And then he has a little aside. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, humanity.

8:19 And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death even, death on a cross. Paul is first off talking about, have this mind of Christ and then he says this little thing about Christ, who though he was equal to God, did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped. Instead he took this human form, which looks like obedience, even obedience all the way to death. This is what it means to be human, it means to be obedient to the God.

8:50 And I think that we covered some of that last week, but I want to pull that out for us again, but if you want to live into the fullest version of yourself, the story of our people for generations has said that is found in obedience to the God. And I got that part of it, every time I read that text I got that part, that Jesus demonstrates for us what obedience looks like, because he takes it all the way to its end.

9:23 He obeys God even when God says lay down your life for humanity, people whom you don't know and won't appreciate it. But there's a new thing that occurred to me, this time that I got into the text, and it's part of what this, our author, poverty or spirit wants to pull out for us. And it's in this line, that little aside about who Christ is, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped. I always read that and thought that Paul was like patting Jesus on the back, as though

9:55 Jesus needed Paul's affirmation. That Jesus was equal to God and credit to him, he didn't like lord that over us. He didn't come down and say, I don't have to do what you have to do because I am equal to God. I always read it that way. But I'm reading a little bit differently this morning because I'm thinking about the celebration that Jesus is fully embracing humanity. And then I see that Paul is giving a shot across the bow with that phrase to all of the followers

10:28 of Jesus. He's saying even Jesus, though he was equal to God, did not consider equality with God, a thing to be grasped. Why oh people, from one generation to the next, do you think you can be God? Why do you think you can correct all of your worst inclinations on your own?

11:06 Why do you think you can subvert all of your frailties by yourself? Why do you think you can solve all your need all alone? If Jesus needed food for the human, then we do. But he submits that need for food to God.

11:37 We so often just use food for whatever way it helps us meet some need. We don't like feeling. If Jesus needed companionship because to be fully human is to have deep, committed, authentic friendships. He's submitted himself to the friends that God brought and let them be fully themselves and express frustration and joy with them.

12:09 We so often just use people, take from them just the things that we need. Jesus elevates our humanity by showing us how to submit it to God in obedience. We so often try and take the place of God in light of our need, solve the problem ourselves. Come up with the best reasoning for why we might be feeling this need and address it ourselves

12:42 instead of obedience to God. Paul says, hey you have available because of Christ Jesus, the mind of Christ, which means he can be fully obedient. I want to skip down now because he goes on, if you look in verse 12, therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed. So now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

13:18 This is the beauty of what it means to be fully human, that Jesus demonstrated for us ourselves. It's not the obliteration of me, it's the celebration of me with the grace and generosity of God. He, Paul is saying, hey, work out what it means that you are a resurrected human with God. God is willing to adapt your will and move your work into obedience with him.

13:53 So your need comes up, your frailty comes up, right? Your need for love and acceptance, your desire for work and mission, your inbuilt capacity for generosity and mercy, your desire to have companionship and celebration. All of this comes up and what do we do with it? He's saying, we go to God with it and ask God, what do I do with my need?

14:24 And in obedience, we respond because God is willing, it has the capacity and loves to change your will so that you're not grasping for equality with God. You're celebrating what it means to be a fully resurrected human. This truth is liberating for me.

14:58 And it is hard. It's liberating for me because I have learned that there are simple examples of the way that notions about how to live become fuller around other people. We last week had a new drain field put in our backyard. It was a long build up to it. We felt like we were waiting forever. And we were so excited when they fixed the drain field.

15:30 Now, all of the water from all of the places drains out of our house, effectively, efficiently, silently, just goes away. And that's fantastic. And also then when they covered it up, they tore up our whole yard. I mean, the whole thing, it looked like a construction zone with a big bobcat and I was so frustrated, I didn't know what to do. And I had some ideas, but usually when I get confused, one of the few people I'll call

16:02 is my dad. Because dad is good, he'll just listen to me complain for a while. So I did. Just complained and he's like, oh, yeah, man, that sucks. He'll agree with me that it sucks. But then in conversation with my dad, an idea emerges out of the air that was not his or mine. It was just a better idea than anything that had come up with before because this companionship, something emerges out of it. That's a human example of what can happen in our connection to the divine God.

16:35 You have need for companionship, for love, for accomplishment, for purpose, for direction. You can come up with solutions, but they will pale in comparison to what happens when you take your need and submit it to the God and the two of you together move forward in life, Jesus of Nazareth through the cross and the grave out into resurrected living demonstrates that you and I, as people, have the capacity to live with the original spirit of life.

17:05 And when we do, not even death will slow us down. Gosh, I pray that you and I can be people who in increasing frequency and depth of life of intent take up God on his offer to live collaboratively in the world, empowered by his resurrecting, life-giving spirit, animating and amplifying our humanness so that we are

17:43 powered to be fully ourselves with God. I want a piece of that this week. Let me pray that we would be people who embrace that. Hey Lord, make us into people who are not afraid of our need, our frailty, the shortcoming, but with courage and patience submit the need to you.

18:13 In order that like Christ, Lord, we might experience the power and the joy, the glory of what it means to live enlivened by your spirit. But in Jesus' name, before his sake, that we pray.