The Mind of Christ
Have the mind that was in Christ Jesus:
Though he was in the form of God,
he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
But he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings.
This is one of the oldest pieces of Christian writing we have. It appears in one of Paul’s earliest letters (written years before any of the gospels), and most scholars now believe Paul was quoting a popular Christian song someone else had composed. You could say this is the earliest Christmas hymn — the earliest song telling the story of Jesus’ birth.
Years before Luke wrote about shepherds or Matthew wrote about Wise Ones we had this song about Christ becoming human. Decades before Roman Christians decided to adopt the birthday of the Sun-God Sol as the birthday of the Child-God Christ, centuries before German Christians adopted Christmas trees, ages before St. Nicholas lived (and ages more before he transformed into Santa Claus), we had these words. It would be almost two thousand years before the Victorians invented Christmas as we know it, and decades still before New York ad managers made it the huge commercial success it is today.
Yes, long before all of that, we had this simple Christmas message: Have the mind of Christ who though he was one with God chose to become a human, enslaving himself for the good of others.
I’ve been thinking about this passage a lot lately, as I see our society trying to enroll us once again in the slaveholder mindset. The slaveholder mindset is the original sin of this nation. The slaveholder mindset says, “My comfort is more important than anyone else’s suffering, and my peace-of-mind requires that the suffering be hidden from me.”
It is the slaveholder mindset that tells us we need lots of cheap, shiny, new toys for Christmas, no matter who suffered to make them. It is the slaveholder mindset that tells us masks are too much discomfort to protect the lives of others. It is the slaveholder mindset that tells us we should have our traditional Christmas sing-along, because even if we get sick the nurses and doctors are there to take care of us. It is the slaveholder mindset that says we church-people should flex our constitutional rights and flout the rules intended to protect the lives of our neighbors. But the mind of Christ, the mind we’re told to imitate in this earliest Christmas story, is the exact opposite of that.
This Christmas, I invite you to celebrate the birth of the baby by taking on the mind of Christ. Resist the slaveholder mindset that demands power and privilege, and have instead a Christmas-mind that lets go of power and privilege for the sake of others. In so doing, you won’t be singing Christmas Carols in your sanctuary, but you will be singing in harmony with this most-ancient Christian hymn.
As always, thank you for being the church for this time and this place.
Blessings,
Tyler
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