This month Peggy Graff is producing a series in which a hymn is performed each day by someone in our congregation. She is calling it Hymn-a-Day May. Last week in my weekly Tim Talks I also started a series about hymns. I pointed out that there are a number of hymns in the Bible, and you can find one of those hymns in the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, verses 5-11. This hymn, usually called the “Christ Hymn,” will be our focus this week in Sanctuary worship as we continue our series, A Healthy Spirituality for Our Time.
Here’s the hymn that Paul quotes in this scripture:
5 Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus:
6 Though he was in the form of God,
he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
7 But he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
9 Therefore, God highly honored him
and gave him a name above all names,
10 so that at the name of Jesus everyone
in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow
11 and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Paul says, “Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus.” That is the Common English Bible translation of the text. The more familiar translation is “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
The kind of attitude we have, the frame of mind we have is a critically important aspect of a healthy spirituality. What does it mean to have the mind of Christ in us? Or, to put it in the words of the CEB, what does it mean to adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus?
I look forward to exploring these questions on Sunday in Sanctuary worship, live-streamed at 11:00 am.
Grace and Peace,
Dr. Tim Bruster
Senior Pastor
