Proper 21 Year A 9/27/2026
Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16; Philippians 2:1-13; Matthew 21:23-32
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Today, in our second reading we have one of the most profound portions of scripture in the whole canon of the Bible…
Not only is it the reading for today…
But our Lectionary prescribes it as the epistle reading for…
Every Palm Sunday (each year)…
The Feast Day of the Holy Cross (every September 14th)
And the Feast Day of the Holy Name (every January 1st)
In other words, the good folks who designed the Lectionary felt that it was a good thing to hear this reading from Philippians 2 (at least) three to four times a year.
Most scripture is read on a given Sunday once per every three years.
So it is one of the most important texts of Holy Scripture…
And it is a clear outline of our faith…
our belief.
It just clearly shares who Jesus is…
What he did…
And why he is important.
Simply, it’s the Gospel in a nutshell.
Many scholars believe that verses 5-11 are an early and ancient hymn…
Or an early poem of the church…
With creedal implications about what we believe about Jesus.
I’m going to read these verses again…
This time from The Message paraphrase…
St. Paul wrote:
[Christ Jesus] had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all.
When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!
Having become human, he stayed human.
It was an incredibly humbling process.
He didn’t claim special privileges.
Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever,
so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ,
and call out in praise that he is the Master of all,
to the glorious honor of God the Father.
It is a description of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…
At least what he did. You have the…
The Incarnation – God in Jesus became man.
The Life of Christ – humble, obedient, selfless.
The Death of Christ – the cross.
The Resurrection of Christ – God lifted him.
The Coming of Christ & the Judgement – at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
And the text also expresses the heart of God.
Which is Missional.
The Missional heart of God…
God is missional.
The Father sent the Son, and the Father and the Son sent the Spirit.
And because God is missional…
He has called us…
He has designed us to also be missional.
And in this very scripture we are called to be like Christ in this mission.
It is an example of the life we are to live.
You see before the Christ Hymn…
Before St. Paul writes about the mission of Christ, he writes this:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,
but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests,
but also to the interests of others.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God…
And then it goes into the rest of the text.
So, we are to have this missional mind of God…
We are to be seeking people to come to the faith.
Just as St. Paul and the other early disciples did…
they shared the good news of God in Christ Jesus to the world around them…
through their words and by their actions they pointed people to Jesus.
But there is a character trait that they exhibited to the world.
The same character that Christ exemplified.
It’s throughout the text…
It’s humility.
Christ humbled himself taking the form of His creation.
Christ humbled himself even to the point of death.
Is what the text says.
We are to share the good news of Christ Jesus to the world…
Not with arrogance…
Not with weighty philosophies…
Not necessarily with great displays of power…
But in humility.
Unfortunately, we so often miss this as the people of God.
The Church often exchanges acts of humility for power plays,
for displays of wealth,
for political advantage.
Where does the church get off track?
More pointedly, where do we get off track?
What do we do that blocks us from humility?
Today, I am going to suggest three ways…
Three things that we might do that work against the humility we find in Christ Jesus.
First.
We forsake a life of humility with our desire to be right.
To have it our way.
To always have all the answers.
Years ago, I was listening to the radio…
And Steve Brown shared a story on his segment You Think About That…
He said:
In the late 1800s a bishop at a conference said:
Man has invented everything that can be invented.
A man stood up and challenged the bishop…
So, the bishop said, “Give me an example.”
The man replied, “I believe in the next 50 years man will fly.”
“Nonsense!” the bishop said, “That’s blasphemy… only angels fly.”
Steve Brown goes on to say that the man who challenged the bishop was Milton Wright.
Who had two sons:
You guessed it – Orville and Wilbur.
Sometimes, the Church assumes it has all the answers.
And it only makes the Church look arrogant and foolish in the eyes of the world.
We certainly do have the most important answer, which is Jesus.
But we certainly do not know everything about God’s creation.
If we are to follow the example of Jesus’ mission – to reach the world through humility…
we will have to leave our desire to always be right…
the desire to always have all the answers.
Humility is willing to say, “I don’t know… I’m not sure…”
A second way we forsake a life of humility is by complaining…
Not just giving a complaint…
but complaining…
the constant attitude of complaining…
which is often really self-absorption.
Playing the victim…
The desire to be heard…
to let your annoyance be heard.
Often, we hold others to a standard and get sick of there complaining, but lower that standard for us…
justifying our complaints because (well, you know) our situation is really tough.
We don’t see this in the life of Christ…
He doesn’t give us example of complaining…
You won’t find in the Gospels a story where Jesus sat down with his disciples and went off about how draining and difficult it was especially with those Pharisees around.
What we do see is humility…
the opposite of self-absorbed complaining.
And finally, a third way we fail to walk humbly is by not repenting.
Which is basically pride…
Whereas Pride blocks humility…
Repentance invites humility.
To repent is to turn around and go the other way.
If we believe in Christ as our Lord and Savior…
yet our life has not changed in any substantial way…
we fool ourselves…
Faith is not a mere intellectual assent to a new theory of religion which can be held while one’s life remains the same as it was before.
Faith is the acceptance of a new source of life…
the life of Christ…
And we receive this life through God’s grace when we come before him and repent…
being changed…
transforming…
into his likeness.
Roland Allen who was an Anglican missionary in the early 1900s…
Wrote this about repentance:
In repentance [we] recognize [our] weakness;
in faith [we] find strength by the Spirit of God.
In repentance [we] confess the way in which [we] have walked is a way of death;
in faith [we] find in the Kingdom of Christ the way of life.
In repentance [we] break with a sinful world;
in faith [we] enter the Church.
You see, repentance is an act of humility that turns us toward a life of humility.
This does not mean that we just walk around and do nothing but walk in humbleness…
No, remember, we are mission minded…
Just like God our Father…
We still as St. Peter wrote in his epistle:
…Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect… (1 Peter 3:15)
We still as St. Paul wrote in Romans (10:14-15)
…how are they to hear without someone preaching?… As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!…
We still as Jesus – God in the flesh – said:
Go… make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20)
So, we share our hope, preach the good news to everyone, and teach the words of God…
but not with prideful arrogance…
not with divisiveness, not by complaining,
but with humility.
God’s mission is our mission.
And he fulfilled his mission with humility.
We are saved by God’s grace which is an act of humility.
The cross – the sacrifice for salvation – is an act of humility.
And we are reminded of this every time we gather for worship.
Look around.
What do you see?
You see the very act of humility.
The cross…
Above the altar.
The 14 stations of the cross circle around you.
We process the cross into the church…
And then back to the Narthex…
We cross ourselves in prayer.
We wear the cross around our neck.
The Christ poem said:
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
It is the very image of humility.
In a few moments, we will share in the body and blood of Christ…
A cup of humility.
But also, a cup of strength…
nourishing us to walk in humility in this world…
The Sacramental grace of God.
St. Paul wrote:
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…
The humility of Christ Jesus is our life blood…
The humility of Christ Jesus is also our mission.
May we share the good news of God in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
