Pentecost 18 | September 27, 2026 | Philippians 2:1-13 | Ryan Mills |

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ²make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. ⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
⁶who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
⁷but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
⁸he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.

⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
¹²Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:1-13, NRSV).

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit.

When our girls were littler than they are now, and bedtime came in our house, Kathleen and I had to warm up our voices and drink a glass of water beforehand because the only way they would go to sleep is to be accompanied by singing. It was sort of like the late-night all-request hour on the radio, but the hits we were asked to sing as they lay falling asleep were such classics as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” “Jingle Bells,(no matter the month or season)”, but also “Amazing Grace” or “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.” Singing relaxes us, no matter our age, singing comforts us and makes us feel safe, singing lets us express love and joy and faith that it’s otherwise hard for us to put into words. And Lutherans love to sing—one of our members tells the story of attending a funeral at another church, and the priest stopping him afterwards, saying, “Welcome, I knew you weren’t one of our members, but must be a Lutheran, because you were actually singing!”

So it should come as no surprise to us that our second lesson from Philippians today, is actually a song, is actually the first Christian hymn that we know of, that probably pre-dates the Bible, it’s a song, it’s a hymn, that the very first Christians sang about our Lord Jesus, a way they could put their love and faith and joy about Christ into words that were more than words, a way they could sing about all that Christ has done, and what God has for us through him.

This ancient hymn that today we call the Christ Hymn begins with, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 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.”

Jesus was equal to Father in every way, he was with the Father from all eternity, but he did not exploit that, he did not hold that over anyone, he did not hold onto and grasp that.  If you and I were equal to God it’d be like that old movie Bruce Almighty, we’d use our powers to get what we want, for our own gain, to keep the spotlight on us.  I asked our Confirmation kids once what they’d do if they were God, and the first answer was that they’d turn everything into ice cream.  There you go.  We’d use our powers to make unlimited ice cream and climb up high, to stand on our mountain of Rocky Road, because we’re not only addicted to sugary desserts, but we’re addicted to glory, to the seeking of ourselves, and no matter how much we have it’s never enough! But Christ, gloriously equal to the Father in every way, instead emptied himself, emptied himself of all glory and descended all the way down, he poured himself out to complete nothingness, and was born in a manger, in an animal feed-trough. He took the exact same form as you and me, the song says, 10 fingers, 10 toes, fully human, but the form that Philippians tells us today Christ really took on was the form of a slave, a slave to sin.

Slaves to sin? Not me, we say! But we just confessed it, didn’t we? That “we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves,” and that our world, our everyday lives, our families, our country all show us what just living for yourself gets you, what worshipping just me and mine gets you, what our addiction to glory and putting ourselves in the place of God gets you—it’s empty, it’s demonic, it’s destructive, it’s never enough, it is a living death.

But when Christ was found in human form, like a slave, even that wasn’t low enough for him. No, the song says, he had to go lower, he had to lower himself down as far as possible, he had to renounce and lose all glory, so he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a Cross.

The one who was equal to the Father in every way emptied himself and humbled himself… becoming a friend of tax collectors and prostitutes, spending his days with the sick, the starving, the sinners, there was nowhere too low, nowhere too humble for Christ to go.  And so he emptied himself all the way down, even to death on a Cross—loving you more than he loved himself, Jesus emptied himself out for you, poured himself out, poured every drop of himself out, so that on the Cross there was nothing left. He emptied out his lifeblood, in order to save yours, he poured himself out and cried “I thirst,” so that your cup would overflow and your life be filled. And if that wasn’t low enough, we also confess every week that he descended into hell! Christ went all the way into the deepest depths of the lowest and worst and most godforsaken place, so that wherever you are in life, however low you’ve fallen, however low or far from God you feel today, Christ has been there, you are not alone; wherever you are, Christ is there too.

Therefore, the song says, God also highly exalted him. Super-exalted him, is the literal translation. Because the last shall be first, because the meek shall inherit the earth, because God is close to the brokenhearted, because God brings light out of darkness and life out of death, because Christ lowered himself and made himself nothing, God highly exalted him and made him everything! God raised him up and gave him the name that is above every name, Jesus, the name that charms our fears and bids our sorrows cease, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, so that at the name of Jesus everything, everywhere should bow down and worship, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So the one who started off at the right hand of the Father, equal to the Father in every way, and came down for us, as low as he could go, is now back at the right hand of the Father, back to where he started in the first place, but he’s back there having emptied himself in love for you and me and the world, he’s there having borne the sins of the world, he bears the scars of the nails in his hands, his feet, and his side, he is seated in glory, but it’s a glory that has paid the price, it’s a glory that has sacrificed everything in love in order to fill everything with love.

And that’s the life you and I now get to live, one overflowing with his grace and glory and love.  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, this amazing hymn began: let his grace which has claimed you and shaped you get to work in you! You are called to follow him, you can start to live like Jesus Christ lived! How?

With this hymn in our ears, filled with the grace of Christ who emptied himself for us and has been raised for us, well, now the way up is down. The late Pastor Tim Keller once said, “The way up is down. Now to be rich is to give your money away. Now to have power and influence is to sacrifice your power for other people. Now to be happy is stop thinking about your own happiness but to help others be happy. Now to rule over others is to serve others.”[1] The way up now is down, let the same mind me in you as Christ Jesus, who emptied himself.

This past week we said goodbye to our brother Todd—Todd who was a beloved part of this congregation, always ready with his greeting of “Happy Sunday to you!”  Todd who emptied himself, gave himself away as a good husband, a good father, a good grandfather, and who died at peace and fearless, full of faith in his Lord Jesus.  As we gathered this past weekend for Todd’s last rites, the Commendation of the Dying, we got to the end and kind of sat there in silence, when you, Bettina, his beloved daughter-in-law, said, “Can I sing?”  And you started singing hymns for him, to praise our God, to soothe his soul, to invite God’s closeness and comfort and peace, singing him into the Kingdom.  Thank you for doing that.

As we come to our time for Communion now, we’ll sing our faith here, we’ll sing about how God, his Son not sparing, sent him to die, and to empty himself for us.  Empty himself into one last meal, empty himself into the bread and wine. So that you can be filled. Filled with his forgiveness, life, and salvation, filled with his peace, filled so that our cups runneth over, filled so that we can empty ourselves out for our neighbors, so that we can give ourselves away like He did, we are filled to the brim this morning so that we can empty ourselves out for those around us, following Christ who emptied himself for us and became obedient to the point of death, even to death on a Cross.

So, let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus….who emptied himself.

And the Peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Ryan Mills
New Haven, Connecticut

[1] Pastor Timothy Keller, Sermon on Humility, Philippians 2. X Post, “Nutshell:” March 2, 2021.