These are some thoughs for the second Sunday of Creation, when I'm focusing on the second lesson. This was sent electronically to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church.
Philippians 2:1-8
2 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
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who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
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but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
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he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
I love the letter of Paul to the Philippians. It is warm and personal. These were people Paul knew and loved.
When studying the epistles or letters in the New Testament in seminary, our prof brought up something really interesting. These letters were not just sent to the churches to be physically read by everyone, but rather someone was sent to perform them. The person acted the message out as though the apostle was there with them. What an impact that must have had on the people!
Look at the first word of this passage, “If.” The Greek of the New Testament is written with an assumption. “If there is any encouragement in Christ AND THERE IS. if any consolation from love AND THERE IS etc. So, instead of seeing an “if” there, let’s use “since” because that’s the meaning.
It is because of all these things that there are in Christ for us that Paul can ask us to be unselfish and humble in the way we treat people. In this second Sunday of Creation, it is Humanity Sunday. God made us as part of God’s beloved creation. We should not trash the rest of that creation that God declared as good.
Christ did come to die for us and to redeem us, but not only us. The whole creation will be freed and redeemed on the last day. As Paul wrote in Romans, “…the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). Since Jesus cared that much for creation, shouldn’t we?
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