Water Parks and Church

 

Philippians 2.1-11

2If 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, 
⁶ who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited, 
⁷ but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, 
⁸   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross. 

⁹ Therefore God also highly exalted him
   and gave him the name
   that is above every name, 
¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus
   every knee should bend,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 
¹¹ and every tongue should confess
   that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father.

REFLECTION:

There's a Greek word that is central to the biblical understanding of the Christian life...and it doesn't have an easy, one-word translation into English. The word is "kenosis," and it means, "self-emptying." The word is used in the passage above in verse 7, where Paul is quoting an ancient hymn about Christ that speaks of God's self-emptying on the cross. (As an aside, I have been moved by this image for years, and back during my first call in North Dakota, wrote new words to a familiar hymn tune based on this passage...I have included that hymn at the bottom of this devotion).

Essentially, Christians are called to be like a leaky bucket...being filled from above, but then pouring out into the world. As a parent of two children who LOVE water parks, the first and funniest thing this makes me think of is the big bucket that is over many kid play areas at water parks...the bucket that fills over the course of several minutes, and then a bell dings to warn the kids its coming, and...WHOOSH...the bucket dumps all over the place. And it's a powerful, momentary flood. The smallest kids in the group are often knocked over by the power of the water. Then, the process begins again...

This image makes me smile when I think about the church functioning the same way. Week after week, at St. Luke and hundreds of thousands of others places around the world, Christians gather to be fed by Word and Sacrament. Babies are baptized. Those who have died are celebrated and remembered. Ancient words are spoken. Burdens are carried together. Strength is found. Grace is poured out. Bread and wine are shared. Hearts are strengthened. People are fed. We are filled from above.

Then, at the end of the service, WHOOSH...out into the world all the Christians pour. And across the world, cathedrals and churches, huts and houses of worship sit empty as the "church" (that's YOU) are out living, loving, and serving among the rest of the world's population.

Isn't this a beautiful vision of what we are called to be? A flood of grace into the world...a flood whose effect is FELT.

Today, may we mirror God's own self-emptying as we offer the strength we have for others, the love we have for others, the grace we've received for others.



PRAYER: 

God, give us the courage to empty ourselves out for the sake of the world. Help us to trust that you will always, always, keep filling us from above, so we can offer what we have without fear that there won't be enough. Amen.