Scripture Philippians 2:5-12
You should have the same attitude as Christ Jesus had,
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore God elevated him to the highest place of Honor.
and gave him the name above all other names,
that 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.
Last summer after a lot of encouragement and prodding from
others I decided to look into publishing some VBS curriculum that I created.
There was a friend of a friend that has published a lot of youth group
curriculum, so I reached out to him and sent a sample of what I created. A month ago, he finally got back to me and
told me basically that it was pretty typical, ordinary stuff, nothing great
about it. I will be honest with you it was pretty defeating. I mean I knew it
wasn’t the best stuff out there, but I also knew I didn’t like a lot of the
stuff out there, and that was a big part of why I created the curriculum
instead of purchasing. So to hear that he thought it was just like everything
else, was kind of devastating.
Ordinary seems like a bad word these days for many in my
generation and especially for the ones after me. If you Webster it, it says,
things like common, not impressive, regular. In the day of reality TV, social
media, blogging, and pintrist, those things seems like a death sentence. Our
world today seems not so much about who you know but who knows you. How many
followers, likes etc. Have you seen pintrest? It’s a whole website of
collections of people being amazing. They turn toilet paper rolls into shelving
units, and cupcakes into sand castles, and every birthday party has fifteen
activity stations and a photo booth of home-made props. Nothing is ordinary.
There is so much pressure to be something extraordinary, to make your own mark.
It’s not about keeping up with the Joneses anymore, now it’s being the most
amazing and unique you. It’s kind of like packing up the Christmas decorations.
Your house is so festive and fun, and prettier, and now it has to go back to
just ordinary everyday. No special music, or cookies, or lights, just the
everyday.
But don’t pack up all the nativities yet. When you look at
the nativity, you are reminded that God isn’t about the famous and the well
known, he’s all about the humble and the ordinary. I think one of the best examples of that next
to the baby is Joseph. Joseph the guy in every nativity set that can barely be
told apart from the shepherds. He is
only even mentioned in 3 Chapters of the Bible and just a few verses in each.
You rarely ever see artwork of just Joseph and the baby Jesus. I showed an image of Joseph holding the baby Jesus, that I found in an image search to our youth group, and they were convinced it could not be Joseph it had to be adult Jesus holding baby Jesus. He was ordinary, hardly
worth mentioning, and yet he was a huge part of the story of Jesus. He stood by
Mary, probably saving her life. He remained celibate at a time when women were
treated like property and were expected to serve their husbands in that way. He
listened to God, trusted and followed and because of that he is not so famous,
but the love of Jesus is.
Joseph could have saved his reputation and divorced Mary, he
could have worried about himself, but instead he lived for God and for others.
As an ordinary man he was able to do something extraordinary, because he got
out of the way. In phillippians chapter
two, preceeding the verses we read, verses 3 and 4, Paul says, Don’t be
selfish, don’t try to impress others. Be humble thinking of others as better
than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an
interest in others too. Joseph did just that. He was content to be ordinary to
give up some status in the community, and follow God despite what others might
have thought.
Look at the nativity again, who were the first guests? The
plain, common, field rats, known as shepherds. God wanted them to be the
honored first guests. God valued them, even though they just watched someone’s
sheep. I wonder if God considered their life sacrificing service to their
sheep, the care Jesus talked about when he used them as examples of God’s love.
There was value and beauty in their everyday lives as they cared for the sheep.
Last week I watched the new, Ben Stiller version of the
Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I will confess that I have not read the short
story, or seen the Danny Kay version, so I can only go off of the one I saw. It
was fantastic by the way, but in it Walter Mitty lives a very ordinary life at
first glance. He is plain, not even noticed by many of his coworkers, and he is
told by an Eharmony tech support person, that he needs to do more things for
the things I have done and places I have gone portion of his online dating
profile. Walter is frustrated by what his life becomes and often retreats into
elaborate day dreams of a more high profile exciting life. Through the movie
though we start to see how extraordinary he really is in the way he loves the
people around him, and works hard at his job, which he takes very seriously. I
won’t spoil the movie for you, if you haven’t seen it or read the story, but it
is a wonderful picture of the beauty that comes in our everyday choices to
love, to serve, and to put others first.
The very place in which Jesus was born is an image from God
of the beauty in the humble, and the common, even in suffering. Had Jesus been
born in the last century in a hospital room, somehow, I don’t think we would
have hospital bed scenes in our Christmas displays, even though they are
ordinary. They aren’t nearly as humble. The Lord and savior of the world was
born in a manger, in a stable. He was born in the midst of animals and poop. He
was wrapped in simple cloth, not in a fine robe.
In Paul’s nativity story here in Philippians, he tells us
that Jesus’ attitude, was to not think that being equal to God was something to
cling to, he gave up divine priveleges and became slave as a human being, born
to die for others. It was in that which God gave him honor. And it was in that
where we really saw God’s love and mercy. He became ordinary for us. He gave up
heaven for us. The baby, the humble,
vulnerable baby is how God chose to come and dwell among us. It was the best
way to display his love and his message of grace.
It’s often in the everyday, small acts that a great amount
of love and sacrifice is displayed. We reward police and firefighters when they
do something we deem exceptional, but it’s the everyday stress, training and
work that they go through that makes them true heroes. It’s the busy mom, that
still gets the notes in the lunches and makes the special meals for her family
when she can that is a hero. It’s the retired person that gives their time as a
volunteer and touches hundreds of lives by just showing up each week, to serve
food, read to a child or so much more. We may not elevate them, but make no
mistake, love is shone through their actions and has an impact, whether they
see it or not. When we live for Jesus, it’s even more, because we are pointing
to something even bigger, a love like no other.
Actors have dozens of awards they can win for their work,
the guy who works in an office cubicle unfortunately does not, he may never get
recognition. But his years of faithful service, his attitude of humility and
following Jesus by showing care and compassion to his fellow coworkers are
better than any movie those actors could make. He may not touch millions, but
he shows Jesus to those around him.
Reading through the Bible you see that God doesn’t go for
celebrity, he goes for ordinary, not exceptional, average. He had a faithful
family man lead the effort to save mankind and the animal kingdom on a boat. He
used a stuttering murderer to lead the nation of Israel to freedom. He chose a
young shepherd to be the giant slayer and become king. They were ordinary
people, but they displayed the power of God. They pointed people not to
themselves, but to Him. They became extraordinary, not on their own, but by
following God. And those are just a few.
There is beauty in the very ordinary. I will admit, when I
got the feedback from that youth curriculum writer, I was upset. It made me
question who I am and what I have done, as silly as that may sound. Silly
thoughts ran through my head, Who am I if I don’t get published. All I will
ever be is average. Why did I waste my time, only to make something ordinary.
But then I thought more rationally about it, God’s way of thinking broke into
mine, and I realized, I didn’t write that for me. I didn’t sit down and think,
I want to write something to make some money or get notoriety. I wrote something to meet the needs of our
kids, to give them a fantastic, fun, week that made them understand there is a
God who loves them, and a fantastic book that tells his story. I wrote it to
help kids of every learning style have fun and get that, and so teachers and
helpers could enjoy the process. According to the feedback I got from kids,
parents and volunteers in the two sites we used it, it did those things. It
showed them God, it helped them understand and remember the love of Jesus. So
who cares about me and my role in that. I was a part of something for God, he
worked through me. Isn’t that enough?
There are heroes all around us, that will never be
recognized for the amazing work that they do to shine the light of Jesus love
into others lives. I get to work with a lot of them, Sunday School teachers and
youth leaders. They show up, every week, and sometimes all they do is talk to
one kid, or hang out with one teen, and I think in God’s eyes, that is
extraordinary, it might be his favorite event of the week. Just that they
showed up to love that person. They inspire me.
The nativity inspires me. So I say, don’t pack it. Or get it
out. Why do we just have crosses and Jesus as a grown up stuff out. Leave a
nativity up all year somewhere. Be reminded everyday, that God is extraordinary
in the ordinary moments of our lives. That he doesn’t care how many people know
who we are, he knows who we are, and he lived life as an ordinary person for
thirty years, so that he could understand us, and truly sacrifice himself for
us, so that he could suffer and be with us. Ordinary is okay, because it allows
room for God to be extraordinary through us. Extraordinary, extremely good,
very unusual, different, impressive.
We decided that the nativity we will keep out this year, is
one made by someone who we think is quite extraordinary, because she lets Jesus
love shine through her. Sherri Kessler made a nativity quilt for us. She faithfully serves our elementary school youth
group, Good News Tues and has done so for years. She loves those kids and cooks
amazing food for them, mails letters to them, talks to them when she sees them
outside of youth group, sets a table for them as if they were honored guests.
She does the same for all of us at coffee hour every week between services. She
loves and encourages our family too. The way she serves God by serving all of
us is extraordinary. So we will keep the quilt up this year, as a reminder to
us, to be ordinarily extraordinary like Sherri.
We got stuck in the airport for a couple of days in Phoenix,
and it was awful, but I saw some pretty extraordinary things. Things that
weren’t touted over the loudspeaker, or recognized by flight crews, but they
were significant in helping people get through a challenging time. I saw a guy
ask a woman soldier to take his seat in a very over crowded gate. I saw a woman
watching the cellphone of a stranger, so it could be charged at an outlet in
the overcrowded gate and not get stolen. I saw people sharing what information
they had, when the airlines wouldn’t. A woman opened her bag full of special
treats she was taking home and offered them to anyone who was hungry as all the
food vendors had shut down hours before. I experienced the grace and compassion
of a baggage clerk who looked into my tired eyes and took five minutes to try
and track down my bags for me, so that I wouldn’t have to worry about tracking
them down when we finally got home, even though the line was out the door with
exhausted, angry people needing their bags to be there in Phoenix. Maybe he was just doing his job, but he was
doing it well, very well under the circumstances. I don’t know if any of those
people followed Jesus, but their actions spoke God’s grace to me in those
moments, and challenged me to show that same compassion.
I want to leave you with one last image, go to Pink Tutu Project, when you are done reading. It’s of a man I
think is very Joseph like. I shared his story with our youth groups a few weeks
ago, and I just can’t get him out of my head, in part because his images are so
memorable, but also because the love he conveys is so extraordinary. His name
is Bob Carey and he created the Pink Tutu project. Bob’s wife has battled
cancer twice now. When she was first diagnosed, he as a photographer, started
posing and taking self portraits in this pink tutu. Now as you will see he has a
very ordinary, and average body. Outside of his tutu, he would not be given a
second look. These images brought joy to his wife. So he would send her to her
chemo treatments with these images, and she would laugh as she looked at them.
She started sharing them with her neighbors in treatment. Bob saw that his
images had the power to bring them laughter, and healing in the midst of awful
sickness, so he decided to make more. He put his averageness on display,
humbled himself and walked into more public places in his tutu, taking more
shots. He then decided to give a book of his image to every cancer treatment
center he could. Then he went a step further and started a foundation to help
women pay for the things insurance doesn’t cover in cancer treatment, and now
sells his images to fund the foundation.
He did these pink tutu photos for years before he ever got
recognized. He poured himself out in a
pink tutu for others, not for himself, but as a sacrifice of love.
As you reflect on last year, and work up resolutions for
this year, know that you are loved no matter who knows what you have done or
how great you are. Whether you can list out accomplishments or create an
amazing repined pintrest board, your life is significant. What you do, if you do it, as a sacrifice of
love for God and for those around you, is extraordinary, no matter how ordinary
it may seem. Don’t worry this year about
whether others recognize what you do, don’t even worry about whether you are
making a difference. Follow God, listen to his words for you. Live out his command to love him and love
others, and know that if you do, he will do extraordinary things with you.
Others may not know, but they will see God in you. What an awesome opportunity
we have. How exciting to think that every thing we do can have meaning and we
may not even know it. If God could use a
baby, he can use you. If he sees significance in sheepherding he sees
significance in caring for your grandchildren. If he can use a carpenter to
help save the world, he can use the work you do in your office, the compassion
you offer the stranger and the smile you give the salesperson.
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