Yesterday’s Sermon was interesting. The lecturer who took it, not our usual preacher (I live in a university town. Half the congregation have PhDs, and this man teaches at the local theological college) started out by noting that modern theologians consider Phillipians to be about division and conflict, and in his work, with one of the leaders of the Baptists in NZ, the amount of divisions within the church has become apparent, with people leaving congregations… and ending up with us.
He then talked about not this text but another, that Christ chose not to stand on his power but took a lowly form, to save us.
Today, instead, we talk about worship. For that is what Mary did, when she broke the jar of nard over Jesus’ feet. And why Christ is worthy or worship.
And why the opposition hates worship, but loves virtue signalling. Look at the words of Judas, all about the poor but really about lining his pockets.
1Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
9When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, 11since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.
1Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.
2Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! 3For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh — 4even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.7Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
When we go to church we need to park our ego outside. It is not about us, it is about bearing witness to Christ crucified and risen, even at the cost of our lives. I won’t show the gore of the most recent terror attack in that majority Muslim country (the house of peace, within Islam, is a house of continual violence) but the aftermath is clear from the Mail article.
We are be threatened. We are told that we are despicable, that we are divided, and that we are prey. The devil speaks his narrative, and his minions move like dingos, descending like packs on the faithful. Showing their virtue to others.
True worship concentrates on Christ. It is not about us. It is costly. If not nard, then blood.
“… that Christ chose not to stand on his power but took a lowly form, to save us.”
I’m not sure about this at face value.
I look at the resurrection, from whence salvation and new life springs, and see power, great power, power to raise the dead. God tells us this is great power. Christ may have been fully man but he was never less than fully Christ and that is why his death is such a big deal. His form is never lowly except in visual comparison to what He looks like normally – as in His transfiguration. Nothing lowly could do what He did.