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This past Sunday, January 28, I found myself ascending steps up to the pulpit of our Saint Mark United Methodist Church, delivering a sermon message for the first time since November of last year.
It was an amazing blessing to stand in our beautiful, historic sanctuary, speaking to people who have welcomed me so graciously, with arms wide open!
My spirit is still ringing with joy on this crisp and windy Monday afternoon.
What I had forgotten in the past two plus months is how hard sermon writing can be! Even when it is a joyful task, it is still hard.
And I am always amazed by homileticians like Pastor Carolyn who can do it so well and make it seem almost effortless – for I know that it is not. (FYI “homiletician” is theology-school-speak for one who engages in the “art of preaching.”)
As I prepared for this past week’s message on the 4th of our UMC membership vows, “SERVICE,” I kept thinking about how one of the hardest things in preparing a sermon is actually common to all writing tasks: namely, what do you leave out?
What ideas are central, essential to your message, and which ones are extraneous, fodder to be chewed upon later or rabbits for future chasing? Sometimes the best ideas lay right in the interstices between the essential and the extrinsic, which makes the task even harder.
On Sunday evening, as I watched and listened to the service online (a practice that I’ve had to discipline myself to do, because it is quite easy to become very self-critical when watching oneself so soon after preaching) I kept thinking about what I had shared about the “Kenotic Hymn.” Several people spoke to me after the service and said they were planning to learn more about it.
In an effort to assist those who are interested, the specific scripture reference is to the Epistle to the Philippians, chapter 2, verses 6-11. In many bibles you’ll find that the section beginning with chapter 2 includes the editorial sub-heading “Imitating Christ’s Humility.”
As with anything, you can find a great deal of information about the “Kenotic Hymn” online, as well as a great deal of commentary on the second chapter of Philippians. I encourage you to use your judgment in discerning which perspectives will assist the Holy Spirit in opening up the scriptures to the benefit of your soul. As always, if you find one author or source’s take on the subject you are researching to be jarring or controversial or simply exactly what you already thought, it is usually a good idea to look for an additional, differing opinion. I’ve found that to be a helpful methodology for many, many of life’s deep questions.
For myself, I believe that the “Kenotic Hymn” contains some indispensable truths about Christ Jesus. I believe that a Christology rooted in Jesus’ “self-emptying” character and choices is the key to unlocking what Christian humility looks like as a virtue., and how it bears upon the Fruits of the Spirit recounted by Paul in Galatians.
If you are interested in further reading beyond what you will encounter online (or in your own study bibles or commentaries), here are the names of two books that I am looking at currently:
- The Work of Love: Creation as Kenosis - edited by John Polkinghame
- Exploring Kenotic Christology: The Self-Emptying of God - edited by C. Stephen Evans
It is a pleasure to serve a thinking, inquiring, learning church like Saint Mark, and I look forward to thinking and inquiring and learning right alongside of you!
Grace & Peace –
Andy
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