Palm Sunday-The Sunday of the Passion Year A

The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday Year A April 13, 2014 “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” What are we supposed to make of this famous instruction of Paul to the Philippians after just having heard the Passion Gospel on this beginning day of Holy Week? “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” First, when we read this lesson in the context of Palm Sunday, it is especially important to remember that Paul is writing to the entire community at Phillipi because the great temptation of Holy Week, I think, is to make the event a one time, historical event. In that way, we can never really and truly let the same mind be in us individuals that was in Christ Jesus because none of us is called to death and crucifixion as Jesus was. But in Philippians, Paul is reminding the community of two things. 1. The drama of the crucifixion is placed in the context of the cosmic drama of Christ’s self-giving. It is not just a one time act that happened a long time ago. Instead, Christ’s self-giving has cosmic implications, and it happens over and over and over again—past, present, and future. 2. Paul’s words are written not to the individuals at Phillippi. This is not about individuals working out their own salvation individually. Paul is writing to the community. He is reminding them to be united as a community, to not let divisions distract them from living into the fullness of their calling as followers of Jesus Christ. As Christ humbled himself by taking human form and being obedient to God, so the Philippians must also humbly look to the interests of others. Their salvation is all bound up in each other and even with people outside of their immediate community. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” A 20th Century Welsh cleric and poet, R.S. Thomas captures this cosmic mind of Christ (and what we are being invited into this Holy Week) in his poem the Coming. I will share it with you in closing today: The Coming by R.S. Thomas And God held in his hand A small globe. Look he said. The son looked. Far off, As through water, he saw A scorched land of fierce Colour. The light burned There; crusted buildings Cast their shadows: a bright Serpent, A river Uncoiled itself, radiant With slime. On a bare Hill a bare tree saddened The sky. many People Held out their thin arms To it, as though waiting For a vanished April To return to its crossed Boughs. The son watched Them. Let me go there, he said. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” Where there is suffering, “let me go there, he said.” May it be so with us, as well.