UNEXPECTED CHRISTMAS

Jesus turns the way of upward mobility and aspiration around to downward mobility.

The great irony and beauty of the Gospel of Christmas is that the one Being in the universe who really is more exalted, more lofty, and more powerful than anyone is the same Being who, far from using his lofty position as a platform for pride, once upon a time stooped lower than low so as humbly to save us from our sinful pride.

The greatest story ever told is not a rags-to-riches tale but the universe’s premiere riches-to-rags-to-glory story.

In his letter to the Philippians (2:5-11), Paul uses the text of a great hymn of praise to the humility implied in birth of Christ. This is the unexpectedness of the Christmas story. Paul tells the Philippians that they could find consolation by imitating Christ, who could have been content to remain a part of the Trinity, divine, removed from human pain, but who chose to take on life as a person, Jesus of Nazareth, for the sake of the world. This way of Christ did not seek to further His own aims, but instead emptied Himself out for the sake of love. The Greek word that refers to emptying, kenosis, means love, giving everything, and holding back nothing.

The self-emptying Paul describes can be a difficult idea to embrace. Jesus did not erase the self he possessed, he offered it. The giving of the divine Christ, entering into human life as he loved the disciples, the sick who came to him for healing, the crowds who flocked to his stories, was that pouring out of the love he had to give, extended as a gift, an offering. Perhaps it was for Jesus and should be for us, that in the pouring out the gift, we find it. It is like the waters of abundant life, welling up to regenerate the love freely offered.

In a world of self-preservation, self-promotion, and just plain selfishness, we might be perplexed by the words of Philippians 2:5-11. With so many people striving for power, why would Christ surrender his right? This question sits behind the text and invites the readers to reimagine a reality far different from the one often understood and experienced. What if God is more concerned about saving humanity than about condemning them? What if human power is supposed to look more like Christ’s actions than those of the various world leaders in power today? What would happen if we seriously embrace this image of God in our world?

In other words, Paul reminds us that through Christ we are no longer defined by our earthly genealogies, worldly histories, or even by our societal and cultural norms. Instead, Christ exemplifies the heart of the Godhead showing that God has always been a God of love and relationship; a God willing to suffer humiliation and death for the sake of reconciliation and restoration.

And it is in the face of all this that Paul says to the Philippians and to us, “OK, got the picture? Good, now go and be like that!” Few challenges could be greater. Of course, the reason the challenge is so great is precisely because pride is the dead opposite of God. Instead we are called to humility—a humility that, unlike pride, connects us to others. Pride isolates. Pride claims everything to one’s self. Humility alone leads to service, to love, to kindness—indeed, to life itself. Pride isolates whereas humility connects. Pride is interested in the self at the expense of others whereas humility is interested in others at the expense of self. Humility is always extending itself toward God and others in a life of service that finally results not in a pile of ego but in a gloriously extended self, open toward others like a flower in full bloom and so, as with Jesus, is glorious for all to see.

Indeed, perhaps the biggest surprise of the hymn in Philippians 2 is the idea that after his emptied-out life and death of service, the Son of God arrived at a higher point of exaltation than what he had enjoyed before he became human. Philippians 2 says that it is possible because now not only is Jesus God but he is the acclaimed Lord of lords. Humility, Paul is saying, can and has changed the world!

May you and your loved ones have a blessed Christmas and be prosperous in 2018!

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