Joint Lenten Worship Service
PioneerCare Center, Fergus Falls, MN
March 20, 2013
Philippians 2:5-11
In
the name of Jesus. Amen.
So
Lena calls Ole on his cell phone while he’s out driving on the freeway. And Lena says: “Ole, be careful out dere! I yust heard on da
radio dat some nut is driving his car the wrong direction on one half of da
freeway.”
To
which Ole replies: “Yiminy Christmas,
Lena, it’s not yust one nut driving da wrong vay—dere must be hundreds of dem doing
dat out here!”
Thirty-two
years ago I actually found myself in a similar situation, and believe me, it
was no joke.
My
wife, my mom and I were driving down an entrance ramp onto Highway 36 in
Roseville, when we hit a patch of ice, spinning our car around 180
degrees….leaving us facing right into oncoming traffic.
FORTUNATELY
that oncoming traffic was still about a mile away from us at the time, giving
us just a few seconds to scoot out of the roadway and off onto the shoulder.
But
for one terrifying moment--frozen in time--we knew how frightening and
disorienting it was to be heading the wrong direction on a one-way road.
That
image might help us make sense of what our Lord Jesus experienced as Paul describes
it here in Philippians.
…because
what Jesus did was to travel the wrong direction on a one-way road. That’s what got him betrayed, framed, strung
up, killed and tossed in a borrowed grave.
And
it wasn't one of those situations where the DOT or the street department pulls
a switcheroo and suddenly makes an old familiar two-way street into a new
one-way street, either.
No,
Jesus didn't get caught unawares here. Rather:
Jesus deliberately headed the wrong direction on a street that had
known nothing but one-way traffic forever and ever...
The
street Jesus went the wrong way down, had been a one-way street ever since the
serpent slithered up to Adam and Eve in the Garden and hissed: "You
will not die; for God knows that when you eat of [this fruit] your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Gen.3: 5)
On
that day, lost to us now in the mists of our primeval past....our first parents
set us all on a course we've been traveling ever since. It's a one-way street from emptiness to
fullness, from humility to glory, from earth to heaven...and all who travel it
(ourselves included) assume that by following this one-way road we’ll somehow
"become like God."
This
one-way street that is stretched out before us...always seems to be leading us
onward and upward. Signs along the way tell
us to: "Make your own
decisions. Chart your own course. Claim your destiny. Be full!
Grab some glory! It’s all within
your grasp!
Here
in Philippians 2 Paul tells us that it was on this road that Jesus set out to
travel, deliberately heading the opposite direction on that one-way
street.
"Let the
same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus," Paul writes, "who, though he was in the form of
God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied
himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled
himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross."
All
the road signs screamed: "Grab
it. Seize the advantage. Get ahead.
Enlarge your holdings!"
But
Jesus didn’t even notice those signs….because
he was heading the other way on that one-way street. So Jesus didn't exploit his position—or grab
and hang onto his divine prerogatives.
Jesus
chose to walk straight down the middle of a one-way street, heading in the
wrong direction.
But
three days later....something astonishing happened. (To hear the full story you’ll have to show
up for worship a week from this coming Sunday.)
But
for now, let’s just say that three days
after Jesus got “creamed” on that one-way street....everyone woke up--including Jesus!--only to
discover that in the darkness of the night Someone had switched all the road
signs. Someone had turned the
one-way street arrows around 180 degrees.
And
when God did that--lo and behold!--we began to see what God had intended for us
from the very start.
Here--we
had it all wrong! The one-way street we
human beings had been traveling was heading in the wrong direction all
along. It was never meant to run from
earth up to heaven. All along...God the
Almighty Creator, God the Consummate Self-Giver...all along God had intended it
to be a road from heaven down to
earth.
And
Jesus traveled that road faithfully, courageously for you and for me. Jesus headed in what seemed to be the wrong
way on a one-way street....so that we might see, finally, with eyes wide open, that
Jesus was actually traveling the right
way, the only way on God's royal highway...traveling down for us from heaven
to earth, down from mastery to slavery, down from glory to
disgrace—and then back again to glory.
"Therefore
God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and
under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father."
Amen.
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