Palm/Passion Sunday, Year C | Philippians 2:5-11
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
April 13, 2025
the Rev. Jonathan Hanneman
To watch the full service, please visit this page.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 2:5[1]
The book of Philippians is a bit of an oddity among the early Pauline epistles, in that it doesn’t seem to be addressing any particular problem. In I Corinthians, Paul is both responding to questions he had received and rebuking some inappropriate behavior taking place in that congregation. In II Corinthians, he’s working to reconcile with that same group after a major fall out. Galatians warns people against the need to adopt foreign customs in order to be “real” Christians, while Romans flips the coin on its head, telling that church that they shouldn’t try to force Christians from other cultures to adopt customs that might be offensive to them.
Philippians, though, doesn’t really involve much, if any, corrective instruction. Based on comments within the letter itself, it appears to be something of a farewell. Paul sounds convinced that his years of luck are about to run out, and the Roman government is going to put a final stop to his Gospel travels. Within that somber context, it seems that he’s using his remaining time to reach out to a group of people he truly loved and admired.
Philippians is also unusual in that it contains what might be the oldest extant Christian hymn—the passage that we read today. I don’t think anyone knows for sure where it came from—maybe Paul was feeling poetic; maybe it was a song he and the Philippians used to sing together—but these six verses function both as an ode to Jesus and as a reminder of what being a Christian truly means. And with so many loud voices falsely claiming the label “Christian” right now,[2] it’s vital to remind ourselves exactly what that is.
To be Christian is not to think the right things about God or to have gained a sort of moral advantage or superiority. It is not found in legislation of so-called “biblical” standards,[3] in demanding one’s individual rights, or in imposing one’s will or preferences on others. No matter what 1700-ish years of Christendom might try to tell you, genuine Christianity has never accompanied itself with the use of force, coercion, or cruelty. As I said to our Episcopal 101 class a few weeks ago, if it isn’t kind, it isn’t Christ.
To be a Christian involves one thing and one thing only: following Jesus. A Christian listens to Jesus’ words and finds creative ways to turn those words into a lived reality. A Christian watches Jesus’ practical example and works to emulate what they’ve seen as they encounter the world around them. A Christian steps outside of mere theology—beyond the mental realm, the world of knowledge and imagination—to embody Love, bringing that core reality of God’s own being into the physical world. Other traits might identify people as belonging to particular traditions of Christian practice, but without these core activities, one cannot even pretend to be like Christ and, therefore, cannot truly be Christian.
To be Christian isn’t to focus on the second half of the Philippians’ hymn—that sort of glory and exaltation may be a hope, but they’re also clearly stated to be God’s work. A Christian life is one that embraces the first half of Paul’s song:
“…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.”[4]
Jesus didn’t simply reject stolen, corrupt, or coercive power. He set aside his own legitimate, natural power, which was already far beyond anything the greatest of our societies could ever offer him. Jesus didn’t enter our world as a conqueror, quelling human rebellion as the rightful king has the authority and prerogative to do. But being born in common with people, he took on the most basic historical human form—that of a slave. Discovering himself to be one of us, he abased himself, the core essence of Life becoming subject to all of life’s natural processes, including death.
As Lent draws to its conclusion in Holy Week, just as I did in Advent, I ask you to fight the urge to skip ahead. Keep your attention turned from anticipated joy and celebration and focus on the reality of what it takes to get there. Our commitment to following Jesus is not about the reward. Nor is it about attaining some sort of magical afterlife. To be Christian is to emulate the reality we find revealed in the Gospels and in the Philippians’ hymn. To be Christian is to remain on God’s pathway, even when—not if—that route leads to straight to death.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
[1] All Bible quotations are from the NRSVue unless otherwise noted.
[2] Including churches
[3] Be very wary when something in our society claims to be “biblical” (biblical standards, biblical family, biblical marriage, etc.). It is most likely a theological conception which even its author has not learned to distinguish from the words of their sacred texts.
[4] Philippians 2:6-8