One hot afternoon on a beach, someone noticed a young girl struggling in the water, called for help and they were able to bring her to shore. A crowd gathered. An old man from a nearby cottage hurried over to the girl. Just as he was bending down to perform CPR, a guy ran up, and ordered the crowd to step aside, including the old man, exclaiming: “I was trained to do CPR. Get out of the way!
The old man stood up and stepped aside and watched quietly while he performed CPR for the girl. After almost a minute, the little girl regained consciousness. Relieved, the crowd applauded. The old man congratulated him as well.
Two hours later, the guy who saved the little girl suddenly felt fatigue. He started to have difficulty in breathing and suddenly became unconscious. Again, people called for help and the old man came forward and did CPR. A few minutes later, the guy woke up in an ambulance. Beside him was the old man he saw earlier at the beach now checking his pulse rate. Seeing him awake, the paramedic said, “You are going to be ok. You are so fortunate that Dr. Anderson was there to give you CPR when you became unconscious.”
The guy looked at the old man and said, “You’re a doctor? Why didn’t you tell me?”
The doctor just smiled and answered: “A precious life was in danger. We had the same goal, and that was to save the girl. She needed CPR immediately. I was watching and you did CPR correctly. That was what was important, not who did it. You see, I became a doctor, not for fame, or my ego but to save lives.
Humbled, the man looked at the doctor and said, “Thank you. Today you have not only saved my life, but taught me how to live.”
Teaching others to live by holding up Jesus Christ as our example is what Paul is doing in his letter to the Philippians and us.
Paul’s words are inspiring – but sometimes this passage feels more aspirational than practical. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” feels a bit ambitious. Although I don’t love all of Eugene Peterson’s paraphrases, in this passage it does a good job of revealing, in ordinary language, Paul’s deep concern over the way that the church members are interacting with one another. He writes:
“if Christ’ love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, ….love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
The humility that Paul is encouraging is what the doctor did in stepping aside to let someone else perform CPR rather than get into a fight over authority or credentials. The doctor remembered the goal – getting care for the one who was in need.
So what gets in our way of living as Christ would have us live?
Sometimes it is fear. This past week I got a text message: “Lisa, John gave me your new number. Would you like to go golfing with us?” I’ve gotten a lot of SPAM messages lately, so I immediately thought it was SPAM and was about to block it. But… then I read it again. It sounds like it was just a wrong number. So I thought… how can I respond without giving any of my personal information but still let the person know that it is the wrong number. I wrote back. “Wrong number. Wrong person.”
But then, I got back a sweet note of apology, “Oh, I’m so sorry to have ruined your day. I just wanted to connect with my friend.”
And then… I reread my response. “Wrong number. Wrong person.” It sounded really rude and I felt about an inch tall. She wasn’t asking me for anything. What was I afraid of? I could always block the number if it turned out to be something different. So, I wrote back. “I hope you are able to connect with your friend. I thought your note was spam.” And she writes back: “Thank you for your gracious reply. If you are ever in San Diego you can join us for a round of golf! LOL.” I smiled. I was humbled by her response.
This was just a simple exchange over a wrong number. I have gotten spam notices before and I know some of our members have actually lost money and gotten into financial trouble. So, we do have to be careful. But… I realized that I was responding rather rudely out of fear and was not letting “the same mind be in me that was in Christ Jesus.” I could have simply written: “There is no Lisa at this number. Kindly check your number and try again.” How we speak and act and respond to others, even those who we do not know, matters, and we cannot let fear or our ego or our own comfort or tradition get in the way of living as Christ would have us live.
In the introduction to his book, Having Nothing, Possessing Everything, Rev. Mike Mathers writes, “I began my work as a pastor committed to addressing the scarcity that I saw in the lives of the poor and marginalized, and now I often feel overwhelmed by the abundance I see, riches where I had thought there was nothing. … My journey so far has been well worth the challenges, and I expect that I will continue to grow and learn in this life.” (p. xii). Mike realizes that having “the same mind as Christ” and learning to live as Christ is a journey that takes our whole lives. Showing Christ-like hospitality is perhaps where we begin.
Mike recounts his first lesson in Christian hospitality. His brother, Alan, 6 years old at the time, was riding his bike in front of the house. Suddenly there was the crash of metal followed by his brother’s screams. He had been hit by a car. Someone called an ambulance and a babysitter and his parents took off with his brother Alan to the hospital.
Two days later, Alan was back home, all bandaged up. It was his birthday and they were just about to light the candles and sing when they heard a knock on the door. His father went to answer the door and brought back a young man, hat in hand, shoulders drooping. He said, “I have come to say I’m sorry to you.” His brother Alan, perhaps realizing that this was getting in the way of his eating birthday cake, and, after all, he was fine and it happened a long time ago - two whole days was a long time for a boy who was looking at his cake -- and so he said, “ OK. I forgive you.” And looked back at the cake.
But then, his mother said to the young man, “Please stay and have some cake with us. It is Alan’s birthday.”
The young man looked surprised and then, still feeling the shame of what he had done, he shook his head no. But Mike and Alan’s parents insisted. So, the young man sat down. They all sang Happy birthday. Alan got the first piece and the young man got the second piece. Mike writes, “I don’t remember any other cake from my childhood. But I remember that one.” (P 77-78)
It was the grounding of his understanding of what it meant to live as Christ would have us live. His parents response taught him how to show hospitality to a stranger, even one that had hurt someone you loved.
Mike learned that living as Christ would have us live means practicing hospitality that goes beyond welcoming someone who comes to church or giving an umbrella to a member who gets caught in a rainstorm on the way out of church. Hospitality goes beyond taking a welcome gift to a newcomer. Showing hospitality, learning to live as Christ would have us live, is inviting the stranger to the table, and treating the outsider, the neighbor, as a fellow child of God with gifts to share. Having the same mind as Christ and living as Christ would have us live means that we ask for God’s love and direction for ALL of our words and in ALL of our actions so that we may recognize Jesus Christ in one another and especially in the one that we do not yet know.
Learning to live as Christ would have us live is a life-long journey. And, it is one that is best done in community of faith, a community that is learning to live as Christ together. And so, let us invite God to be the love to search and keep us and to surround us with God’s grace and mercy and love not only for ourselves but also for all of our neighbors. Let this is our prayer and our song. Amen.