Global Access Conference 2015 Keynote. Philippians 2:5-11: The Servant of God Made Manifest. Dr. Kathy McReynolds

Transcription

1 Keynote Dr. Kathy McReynolds

2 Good morning, and as you've seen from your program, today is Christ day, so because of that, it seems most appropriate to spend our time focusing solely on Christ, first and foremost, as He is revealed in Philippians 2:5-11. And by discussing briefly, then, what the content of Global Access has to do with this particular passage, and there's quite a bit, actually, that has to do with it. So, Philippians 2:5-11, the royal servant of God revealed. Now, what we have to do for a moment is just step back and talk about, to get a context, to talk a little about the purpose of Philippians. What precipitated the writing of Philippians was a visit, if you remember the book, if you read it, from Epaphroditus, who became ill in the journey to see Paul while he was in jail. He had recovered and was going to return to Philippi, and that gave Paul an occasion to write this letter. So, there's four points to make about this. What this is, first and foremost, is a thank you note. It is a thank you note for the recent gift that was brought by Epaphroditus. Secondly, it is to reassure. The Philippian church was very concerned about Paul's situation, and for good reason. He was in jail, he had been jailed several times, so this was to reassure him, or them, about his prison circumstances. And you'll see this is highlighted here, because this is where we're going to spend most of our time on this passage. Paul wanted to highlight, as an apex, as a crescendo, of his book to the Philippians that humility of the exalted Christ. Now, there is a juxtaposition there, the humility of the exalted Christ, that we're going to talk about here, and its relevance to Global Access. And finally, he wanted to give them a warning against the Judaizing influence that was crowding in on Philippi at the time. Now, one of the reasons, too, why he addresses all these points is that Paul wants to call the church in Philippi, and of course all churches as well, to be humbled toward one another. And precisely because it was Christ Jesus Himself who humbled Himself and took on the lowly form of humanity, He took on that lowly form of humanity and so, it is this Christ-like humility that will bring unity to the church. That's one of Paul's points. And this kind of unity, and this is what's so relevant for us today, this kind of unity, will be a witness to all human communities, of the power of the risen and exalted Christ. So, I know that's a mouthful, but we're going to break it down by focusing on Philippians 2. There's a prominent theme that we want to bring out today, and talk about the practical implications of it. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, regarded His equality with God as committing Himself to a certain path. Four things here: Becoming a human being. Sacrificing Himself for the sake of all people, Jew and Gentile alike. Taking His rightful place as the universal King in the Church. Then encouraging the Church to follow in His footsteps, to follow His example. And Dr. Kathy McReynolds Page 1 of 10

3 these are the practical implications that flow from the fundamental truth about who Christ is, who He is. And so, Global Access You like those transitions? Just in case you want to know, if you're a professor, that's glitter, that's called glitter. It'll keep your students awake when they begin to fall asleep in class, and that's just a side note. We at Global Access want to align ourselves with this God who is revealed most clearly when He abandons His rights for His global Church and community. I hope you're seeing the themes here - Christ, Church, Community - come out. Right, we want to align ourselves with this God. Because this is the mind of Christ. The pattern of thinking that belongs to us because we belong to Him. It's all connected. It's all connected. Global Access seeks to express this Christ-like attitude toward people with disabilities by doing a couple things. Equipping the Church and community to include people with disabilities. Global Access - let me say that again, because it's an important point for the rest of the conference - Global Access wants to express this Christ-like attitude, humility, toward people with disabilities, by equipping the Church and community to include people with disabilities. That's what we're about here at Global Access. So, let me read the passage here. You can follow along. It'll set our context. Your attitude - Church, your attitude - should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death. Even death on a cross. Therefore - here's the juxtaposition - Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. That's a mouthful there, you guys. That is a mouthful. And so, let's look at Christ's credentials now a bit, as the risen King, as we see in Philippians 2:5-11. There's four points here that Paul's trying to communicate about our Lord, okay? Jesus demonstrates the meaning of divine kingship. Jesus has done what only God can do. He is the perfect self-expression of the One True God, right? The point of the passage, the main point of the passage, is that Jesus was already equal with God. Jesus already existed before He became a human being. So, the decision to become human, and become obedient to death, even Dr. Kathy McReynolds Page 2 of 10

4 death on the Cross, was not a decision about ceasing to be divine, it was a decision about what it really means to be divine. We'll talk about the context for just a minute, why this is so powerful, and has such practical implications. Let me say that again, okay? This was His decision, not about not ceasing to be divine, it was a decision about what it really means to be divine. In the context of the letter of Philippians, what Jesus accomplished stands in stark contrast to kings like Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus, who claimed some level of deity in this setting, in the first century. Jesus, Himself, who was the One True God, did not regard this equality with God as something to be taken advantage of, as other kings did in this setting. Rather, rather, He regarded His equality with God as committing Himself to a certain path. That of becoming a human being and dying for the world's evil. This, as opposed to Alexander the Great and Caesar Augustus, this is what it really means to be equal with God. And He is the God, then, of self-giving love that will, in time, to whom every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess. He's the God of self-giving love, and every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Now, why this is so important, is when you put him up against these other kings that would have been in the mind of the Philippians. Consider, for a moment, consider, for just a moment, the way the Philippians had thought of kings like Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar. When people in the ancient Greco-Roman world thought of kings, they thought first and foremost about their military might. Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar, who put an end to Roman civil war, and brought about peace to the known world, would have been at the top of their list, as kings. These leaders were especially meaningful to the Philippians because they were a military colony, and not just any military colony, they were a military colony of very high status. So, only when we understand this picture can we truly understand how radically counter-cultural Paul's message in Philippians 2 is about the crucified Jewish King who is the world's true Lord. He is the world's true Lord. A Lord that is known not by His pride and arrogance, but a Lord that is known to take His lowly position and redeem the world. And we know something about our Lord. He is a God of self-giving love who is no respecter of persons, who is no respecter of persons. The Roman kings used to have this practice, as a matter of fact, they had this practice of having poems written about them to solidify their legacy and immortalize them, if you will. Well, several centuries later, English poet Shakespeare poked Dr. Kathy McReynolds Page 3 of 10

5 holes in this practice. Scholar Martin Phillips says the following, The Romans used to say, Because of my poem, I will never die. Shakespeare says, Because of my poem, you will never die. What distinguishes, according to Martin Phillip, what distinguishes Shakespeare is he values the identity of the beloved. He recognizes that the beloved has a personal immortality that is in no way dependent on the poetry. He exists so far beyond the human culture, he exists on his own. And no one is more fitting of that description than King Jesus. Now listen to what Shakespeare wrote in sonnet 55, for instance. I have the words up here as well. (Voiceover): Not marble, nor the gilded monuments of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme, but you shall shine more bright in these contents than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time. When wasteful war shall statues overturn, and broils root out the work of the masonry, nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn, the living record of your memory. Against death and all oblivious enmity shall you pace forth, your praise shall still find room even in the eyes of all posterity, that wear this world out to the ending doom. So, till the judgment that yourself arise, you live in this, and dwell in lovers eyes. It is not Alexander the Great that Shakespeare had in mind, it is not Augustus Caesar, it is the One who exists far above us and does not depend upon us. But, He lowered himself to be like us. It's King Jesus. And so, King Jesus is exalted by the God of Israel. The God of Israel who will give His glory to no one else. Four points to make about that. As Paul tells us in Philippians, the God of Israel is sovereign and shares His glory with no one. Jesus is the glory of God in lowly human flesh. Jesus must be recognized then as the One who, from eternity, is equal with God. His death and resurrection is the perfect self-expression of the One True God. Again, in the context, He is not like the Roman gods, or gods and kings, who boasted of their deity in pride and arrogance. Let me tell you something. People in Paul's Gentile world, who had Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar in mind, were shocked at the idea that the One True God might be known at last in the person of a crucified Jew, who in His lowest state, redeems the world and gives eternal hope. He is the One, people. He is the One that stoops down to make us great. He is the One that stoops down to make us great. He is the One that we are celebrating all day today. It says, C.S. Lewis said about Him, Jesus comes down, Jesus comes down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity, down further still, to the very roots and Dr. Kathy McReynolds Page 4 of 10

6 seabed of the nature He has created, but He goes down only to come up again, and bring the whole ruined world with Him. He stoops down to make us great. And rarely do we think about what we owe Him, for stooping down to make us great. Think about, for a moment, what this must have meant to the first members of the Philippian church. Think about who they were. These early converts in Philippi were a diverse, unlikely, and lowly group of folks. Look at them. Lydia, Gentile convert to Judaism. A former demon-possessed slave girl. A Gentile jailer and his family. The point is that Christ, being equal with God, committed Himself to this lowly path, to welcome an unlikely and insignificant population into His Church. The Philippians had come to embrace this Jesus, the world's true Lord, who in His lowly state bends down to lift them up. Let me ask you, how many of you know - and I know there's a lot of you out here who have a lot of experience in disability ministry - how many of you know that disability ministry can oftentimes be considered lowly, insignificant, inferior, not worthwhile? How many of you know that, have experienced that? Well, in light of who Jesus is, you are in good company because they thought the same thing of King Jesus who is now exalted above the heavens. Amen? Can I hear an amen for King Jesus? He understands. He understands what it's like to be considered lowly and insignificant. And in light of who He is, and what He has done, Paul encourages the Philippians to practice what? A Christlike attitude in humility. Even as he says later on, in Philippians 2, even as Timothy and Epaphroditus did, you need to practice that Christ-like humility. In fact, look at the admonitions that come from Paul. Therefore - in light of who Christ is- Therefore, dear friends, as you have come, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything - do everything- without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God, without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe, as you hold out the word of life. And let me tell you something, as Paul was sitting in his prison cell, he was beginning to grasp the cost of this Christ-like behavior and attitude. He was grasping the cost of this. I mean, check out his credentials. Check out the Apostle Paul's credentials for just a moment. You know what he says about himself. He's of the tribe of Benjamin. He's a Hebrew of Hebrews. He's a Pharisee. Persecuting the church, what zeal! As for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But, what does he say further about his experience? Dr. Kathy McReynolds Page 5 of 10

7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes from faith in Christ. The righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ - he's sitting in his prison cell, people - I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Paul, too, along with Timothy and Epaphroditus, is becoming like his Lord. From his jail cell. He internalizes the fact that the God of Israel stooped down, took on a lowly posture, and made salvation available to all, Jew and Gentile alike. So, therefore, because of that, Jesus is worth suffering for. He's worth it. He's worth it. Do you know why? Because King Jesus Himself counted the cost to stoop down to make us great. This is what He did. This is a God, this is a God who recklessly abandons His rights for the sake of the world. In Global Access, this is what we're here, for the entire week, to do. Global Access seeks to align itself with this God. And to express a Christ-like attitude toward people with disabilities by equipping the Church and community to include, at all times, and in every way, people with disabilities. So, as we take a look at Global Access, we recognize now, based on this passage, and many others, that there is a vertical and horizontal aspect to Global Access. Christ, now, is that vertical heaven to earth foundation for the conference, so the horizontal aspects of the conference, global Church and Community, can be established and represented. Christ, then, is the foundation on which Global Access is built. So, let's look at how it's built. This is what we're going to be doing for the rest of the day, focusing on Christ Himself, like we're doing right now. His Lordship, and His self-giving love. As we move through the day, we'll explore His mission and evangelism to people affected by disabilities. Then, at the end of the evening, we'll contemplate Christ's sufferings and His meaning in the life of the Church and global Community. As we move in tomorrow, on the Church day, we will begin by exploring Luke 14, where Jesus invites people with disabilities to His banquet. And we will continue to reflect upon the idea of weakness turned to strength in the life of the Church. And we will end the evening with Pastor Shawn and a celebration of God's heart for the downtrodden and kingdom reversals. Dr. Kathy McReynolds Page 6 of 10

8 All of our workshops and panel discussions and round tables are built around these themes. We will end this conference by giving our attention to social justice for people with disabilities. We will continue to reflect the whole day through on Jesus, who is Lord over every nation and community. And we will end the conference with Joni Eareckson Tada, giving us a call to accelerate disability ministry to the ends of the earth. Let me ask you something. Are you excited about this? Is this why you came? Is this why you came? Yes, too, we're excited about it. Now, in closing, I would be remiss to not mention one of the main themes of the book of Philippians, which is joy. But, we have joy in the Savior, who stooped down to make us great. In fact, the word is used, in various Greek forms, 16 times through that short letter. Jesus, the point is, Jesus brings joy. Listen! Where's Paul writing from? A jail cell. Jesus brings joy in any circumstance, wherever He is worshiped. So, I want to close this talk with a riveting example of this. The setting of this short radio drama. The setting is Haiti. Shortly after the January 12, 2010 earthquake, there was a group of doctors, who were not Christians by the way - keep that in mind, as you listen to this radio drama, they were not Christians - and they went to donate their time and talents to help the victims there. And what they discovered, what they discovered while they were there, changed their lives forever. And it is a most appropriate way to end a presentation focusing on King Jesus and the joy He brings in any and every circumstance, where He is acknowledged. Okay, take a listen. (Voiceover): It's been six months since the earthquake hit Haiti. In that moment, and in the days after, over 220,000 people died. Three hundred thousand were injured. David Pitcher is an orthopedic surgeon, one of the doctors who flew in to help. The second day I was there, I saw a guy, he was quadriplegic, he couldn't care for himself and I padded up his elbows, padded up his ankles, padded his head, padded his sacrum, bent down to give him some water, and I said, What is your name? And I'll never forget, he said, My name is Lewis. And later on that night, someone pronounced him dead. Well, when we were taking him out to the morgue, the U.N. morgue, he woke up. He suddenly woke up, he wasn't dead. And he looked around and he said, The fresh air feels good. And then he died. Dr. Kathy McReynolds Page 7 of 10

9 David and the other doctors went to Haiti to help the injured. And that's what they did. While they were there, they also got a lesson in resilience that none of them expected. In the days after January 12th, no one knew how many people had died in Haiti, or even how many were missing. It soon became clear, though, that over a million were without homes and hundreds of thousands were in a state of extreme medical emergency. Among the many people who rushed in to help were four healthcare workers from Miami. Their recollection and what they learned is all captured in this radio feature from WLRN in Miami. I remember flying over Haiti and being amazed, because it was actually very cloudy over the island itself, and it was getting towards sunset. The way the light hit the clouds was just so beautiful, and I can vividly remember the stark contrast between the break in the cloud cover, and going down underneath the clouds and seeing the island. I had been in the army and I'd done all kinds of medical triage in mass casualty and I don't think there is anything that could have prepared any of us for something like this. We landed at night. We arrived in tours and soldiers from all different countries. We smell all this airplane fumes. Darkness everywhere except the generator lights around the airport. We took a SUV to the compound to the tent hospital. The tent hospital is basically comprised of four large tents, like huge carnival tents. Like a small circus tent, but instead of amusement, you have literally cot to cot to cot, rows and rows, of basic cots of patients. One hundred twenty five people and they're all injured. The vast majority of the wounded crush injuries. Crush injuries to the upper extremities, lower extremity, crush injury to the pelvis. Open, huge holes in skin, legs, back. Broken femurs, broken tibias, and they couldn't get up. The temperature was about 90 degrees, mosquitoes were everywhere. The smell was all mixed in together. It smelled like rotten flesh. Like dead rats. Smell of massive humans, of urine, stool, unchanged bandages. The wounds, blood, of, I would say, dirty ones. No running water, no toilets, and we only had morphine tablets in our pockets that we would peel off and put in the patient's mouths. You're feeling and you're hearing souls that have just been cracked and crushed and it's very heavy. How could you not be completely exhausted? We all felt overwhelmed with worthlessness as physicians and realized that this was a catastrophe that was beyond anything we had ever even imagined. And then this happened. It was probably between, I don't know, 9 or 10. Probably 8:30 or 9, or maybe even 9:30. It's in the evening, I don't know what time it was. I was dressing wounds. I Dr. Kathy McReynolds Page 8 of 10

10 was doing something. I'm outside the tent. I was in the tent. I'm not sure why I was there. I was treating a pediatric case because we were just so short-staffed. Had been basically up 34 out of 36 hours. We had amputations to do, we had debridements, some cleaning out, infected wounds. I'm kind of mentally preparing myself to go round all the patients that were there in the tent hospital. It all started up in the upper right side of where the tent was. The guy just walks in with his guitar, takes this makeshift chair that we have, and he sits down and he just starts to play his guitar. And then you hear people around the guitar beginning to harmonize, or sing something. And then each row started to sing. Swelled louder. Louder. And louder. And louder. Louder, louder, and as I open up the door, the sound is triple. Everybody. Every Haitian in the tent. Everybody is singing these words. It stopped everyone, it stopped all of us. All the sounds of trauma just went away. It felt like it consumed all of Port-au-Prince. It was that loud. I remember panning my camera around and I just see this crowd of people singing and dancing in the center of the tent. People are jumping up and down. People with head wounds. People that couldn't get up because of their injuries, they were still singing and clapping along. We had one little boy who, he wouldn't get up because the pain was just so debilitating, and his mother helped him stand up so he could dance on his one leg. I, to this day, have no idea what those folks were singing. It was obviously a chorus that they knew. It's so hard to describe. Something that was not familiar to me. Something that sounds almost religious. Until I heard the word Jesus. And we turned to one of the translators, and said, What are they singing? He said, They're singing, Jesus, Thank You For Loving Us. It was like a knife hitting us. After what we had seen - we have teens, kids - and when they sang that way, and the joy and the happiness they had, it was a tipping point. Things changed after that. It's extremely humbling to be around a people that, in the worst time of their life, have it in their hearts to give gratitude for what they have left, which is basically dust. I was so brokenhearted myself, just so tired, so sweaty, so fly-ridden, really, and in the process of pulling themselves up, they were pulling the nurses and the doctors up. Giving us a great sense of hope. I decided at that moment that what I had witnessed was just such a beautiful example of human courage that I would do anything in my power, in my life, to help Haiti rebuild. And so, I quit my job. I left my family, which is my immediate family, I have an identical twin, two older brothers and an older sister, my mother and father. And so I am living in Haiti, I took a position at Partners in Health to support local Haitians to heal themselves. I think, at that moment, they gave Dr. Kathy McReynolds Page 9 of 10

11 us the opportunity to really understand them and their pain and their strength and their belief. I don't think anybody in that room will ever be the same. (End Voiceover). So, the question is for us at Global Access, Are you ready? Are you ready to count the cost to be an example, a Christ-like example, wherever God calls you, and to worship this God of joy in the midst of suffering? Are you guys ready? Are you ready? Are you ready to worship this God, this Jesus, who brings such joy and makes Himself known among a people who didn't even know Him? He made Himself known. This is Global Access, this is why you're here. So, thank you guys, thank you guys for listening. And worship King Jesus today as you go about. Thanks for listening. Dr. Kathy McReynolds Page 10 of 10