Philippians 2:1-8

If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty 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, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.

Matthew 5:13-20

 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.  People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven

Seeking the Mind of Christ

 This morning I want to share with you a very beautiful text. Our first reading, from Philippians, to me, is one of the most beautiful passages in the New Testament, because, to me at least, it shows us exactly what it means to be a Christian. This reading brings us right into the experience, the freshness, the aliveness, the reality of God. Not the idea of God. Not all the talk about God. But the direct reality, the here and now of it. So let’s take a look at this scripture reading.

Paul is writing to the church that he started in Philippi. Paul travelled all over the Mediterranean World, telling people about Jesus, preaching the Good News. And people gathered around him to hear this good news. This is how he started the church in Philippi in around 50AD. The ancient ruins of Philippi are in northeastern Greece, and you can visit them today. It’s a major archaeological site. I would love to go there someday.

 So Paul started the church in Philippi, and later he wrote a letter to that congregation to encourage them in their faith. And the amazing thing about this letter is that Paul wrote it while he was in prison! The congregation in Philippi had heard about his imprisonment and they were worried about him. So Paul wrote this letter from prison to reassure them, and to thank them, and to encourage them in their faith. But not only this. Paul wrote to express his undiminished joy. Undiminished joy. Even in those circumstances. He was in prison. And yet, he wrote to the church in Philippi to express his undiminished joy. He writes, “Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.” (Phil 1:18-19)

Now, let’s just take a minute to think about this. I mean, if you were in prison, would you be able to write a letter like this? How is he able to write this? And the answer is, because he has taken on the mind of Christ. And this brings us to our first reading, to the passage I want to share with you, the passage that expresses all that is good and true and the best of what the Christian faith is all about.

It’s in chapter 2:1-8

“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, and sharing in the Spirit, and compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or 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…”

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

This is what it means to be a Christian. We aspire to put on the mind of Christ. We aspire to be of the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.  And how do we know what that mind is? Well, a good place to start is by reading the Gospels. And in Matthew’s Gospel, we have an excellent description of the mind of Christ. Especially, in this famous and beloved text called The Sermon on the Mount.

Our second reading this morning is from the Sermon on the Mount. And for the next few weeks, I’m going to talk about the Sermon on the Mount. So we’ll step away from exactly following the lectionary because I really want to look more in depth at the Sermon on the Mount and spend some time with it, as we continue to focus on Matthew’s Gospel this year.

The Sermon on the Mount is the first of five collections of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew. There are five major collections of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew. And this number five is significant. Matthew deliberately organizes his Gospel this way. Remember we talked about Matthew writing to a particular community of Jewish Christians, probably a group in Antioch. And one reason scholars think that Matthew is writing specifically to a group of Jewish Christians is because of this number five, and the five-fold structure of Matthew’s Gospel. There are five collections of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew is highly structured, highly organized as a text, and it’s organized around these five collections of Jesus’ teachings.

And the reason for this is that Matthew wants his Gospel to resemble Jewish scripture, that is, to resemble the Torah. And there are five books in the Torah, that is, the five books of the Hebrew Bible. And these five books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In the Rabbinical Jewish tradition, these five books are called the “Written Torah.” The word Torah is a Hebrew word that means “instruction,” “teaching,” or “law.” So, you may have heard Jewish scripture described as “The Law and the Prophets.” So this is the Law. Torah is the Law part of the Law and the Prophets. And of course, we know these books as the first five books of the Christian Old Testament.

So, Matthew wants to parallel this five-part structure, and so he arranges Jesus’ teachings into five collections, knowing that his Jewish audience will recognize the structure, and hence the connection to the Torah. And the first of these five collections in Matthew is The Sermon on the Mount.

Like the Torah, the Gospel of Matthew is a book of instruction. These are instructions on how to be a disciple of Jesus. And so when we are looking for the mind of Christ, we can find this mind expressed precisely in the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is a direct manifestation of the mind of Christ. Remember what epiphany is. Epiphany is a manifestation of the divine. So here we the mind of Christ manifested, beginning in Chapter Five and running through Chapter Seven. Chapters Five, Six and Seven are the Sermon on the Mount. And we can read this text as an epiphany reading, a manifestation of the mind of Christ.

Salt of the Earth, Light of the World

Jesus has just begun his ministry in Galilee, he has called his first four disciples, and he is beginning to attract crowds of people. And now, at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, he takes his disciples up onto a mountain top to get away from the crowds, and there, he teaches them how to be his disciples.

“You are the salt of the earth,” he tells them. “You are the light of the world.” Here, Jesus gives his disciples their mission. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Their mission is to transform the world. Salt and light are things that transform the world. To be salt: salt that transforms food from bland into delicious. To be light: light that transforms dark times into light, so that people can see again. This is the Christian mission, the mission of all Christ’s disciples: to be salt; to be light. In other words, to be a positive force, to do good, to help people, to bring goodness into the world, to transform the world: to be salt, to be light.

Let’s bring this closer to home. What does this look like? To transform the world sounds like a big project. It sounds like we have to do something big, you know, “Change the World.” But really, just by being here, we change the world. We can change the world with our attitude. We can look for ways to bring light into darkness. When you smile at someone in the grocery store, for example, you change the world. Or when you make some delicious food and feed your family, or share your delicious food with a neighbor, you transform the world. When you take care of washing the dishes, or putting gas in your car, or shoveling snow off the sidewalk. When you walk outside and you look at the stars, you change the world. These simple things change the world. Just by being alive, you change the world, when your heart is full of gratitude, you change the world. You are salt. You are light. And this is the mind of Christ.

The mind of Christ does not wait for everything to be perfect. The mind of Christ is joyful in the here and now, just as things are. Like Paul in prison, the mind of Christ expresses undiminished joy, a kind of joy that is not contingent on circumstances, but is ever renewed, ever sustained, through prayer and meditation, even in the midst of great suffering, the mind of Christ is quietly joyful, through the direct experience of God, the God who is our strength, our love, our grace. And so we say together with the apostle Paul, Let this same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.

In the next few weeks, we will go deeply into this wonderful text, the Sermon on the Mount, and find great nourishment for our souls, so that we can be the salt, so that we can be the light. Amen? Amen.