St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church-WELS

Sermon by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Palm Sunday, April 1, 2007 Philippians 2:5-11


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 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 on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.


People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

I read this week about a man named Shawn. Shawn lived in St. Louis. Shawn used Methamphetamine. Do you know much about Meth? Making Meth requires lots of ingredients. That’s partly why when you want to buy some cold and sinus medication—you have to go to the counter—and prove who you are—and sign some papers—so you aren’t buying tons of an ingredient for Meth. Meth also includes such poisonous deadly chemicals as battery acid, drain cleaner and fertilizer. How desperate would you have to be—to put battery acid, drain cleaner and fertilizer in your body—to make yourself feel better? Well—this man named Shawn took Meth again and again—to the point that it actually literally stopped his heart more than once. He took Meth so many times—his body was only 34 years old on the outside—but 70 to 80 years old on the inside! Shawn made a movie—a 29 minute movie—to warn people—don’t make the same mistakes I made. Be warned! Don’t do what I did—abuse poisonous—addictive—life and family destroying drugs. Look at me and my life—and don’t make the mistakes I made! This Palm Sunday—we remember how Jesus rode up to Jerusalem—to pay with his life of drug abuse—and for our sins and mistakes. In the light of Jesus’ forgiving love:

God Gives Us A New Attitude

1. Be in awe of Jesus’ humility

2. Confess and glorify him!

This week and last week—we concentrated on part of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Remember? Krenides—“Fountains”—renamed Philippi after Philip II of Macedonia—father of Alexander the Great. Remember—the battle by Philippi—Brutus and Cassius against Mark Antony and Octavian—Caesar Augustus. Caesar Augustus—issued a decree—that all the world should be taxed—and baby Jesus was born. Remember the captivity letters—Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon? Remember—it is a priceless blessing to be a citizen of these United States. How much more wonderful is this—that our citizenship is in Heaven!

The Holy Spirit moved the apostle Paul to write: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus… Our attitude—by nature—is nothing near the same as that of Christ Jesus! Our attitude—if the truth be told—is terrible! Our attitude is ME first! I don’t want to wait! I’m important. I’m in a hurry! Go faster if you are ahead of me. Go slower if you are behind me. Don’t tailgate me! Give me the remote! Be quiet—I’m trying to hear this! I want to eat what I want to eat—when I want to eat it. I want to have what I want to have—even if I can’t afford it. I want people who offend me—to be hammered and pounded. I want to point out all the mistakes people make on TV—people who get their grammar wrong—and say I when it should be me and me when it should be I—reading the news in their Armani suits and shirts with the wrong colored collars. I want bad people punished severely while I would appreciate lots and lots of patience and compassion when I make a mistake. Cut me some slack! I have a bad attitude—thinking about myself—as if all the planets moved around me! That’s sinful. That’s hurtful. That’s wrong! It’s sin—nothing less than damnable sin!

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. Jesus did not consider equality with his Heavenly Father something to be grasped—something to hold on tightly! Not something to be held on to at all cost! Jesus made himself nothing! That’s hard to understand. You can make yourself less—for a little while—if you want. You can pretend you are blind. You can cover up your eyes with your fingers—but you can still see kind of between your fingers. You can put on a blindfold—but you can kind of see light through the bottom. You can go in a dark room deep inside—with no windows and no lights—and be completely in the dark—for a little while. But you know you can come out of that darkness into the bright light any time you want. The same with your hearing. You can plug your ears—put on those headsets. You can go somewhere soundproofed—and be sensory deprived for a while. But again—any time you want to—you can hear again. Theoretically you could give away all your things and stuff—but who’s going to really do that? Ask people today and they will tell you they can’t go a single day without the necessities! And those necessities include cell phones, cable TV and Internet e-mail! These things have become necessities? More and more cars have more and more comforts—heated seats—CD players and DVD players for people in the back seat and global positioning—somebody telling you when and where to change lanes and where to turn! It’s pretty much impossible to understand how Jesus—eternal—without beginning and without end—existing before the creation of the world—should 2,000 years ago—be a little unborn baby in the Virgin Mary’s womb! How is it possible that the eternal Son of God should be a little baby—nursed and bathed and changed—taught to walk—learning to talk—learning lessons like “hot!” How is it possible that the almighty—indestructible Son of God—should die! How can God die? I don’t know! But he did! Jesus died so that we might live!

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. Jesus became true man to save us—from the forever fires of hell! There was a terrible fire in Long Beach, CA on the 18th story. It was a horrible fire—with flames blowing out the window—and no sprinklers in the ceiling! There was a little grandpa in the fire. He waited for rescue until he couldn’t any more—and finally jumped. There were people all around watching. When he jumped people screamed—but no one could do anything to save him. How tragic is that? How horrible would you feel—to cry out—and at the same time to be utterly helpless to do anything! That fire in CA burned up two floors of apartments—plasma TVs and couches—groceries and toothbrushes—beds and blankets and pillows—pictures on the wall and photographs in boxes. Immortal souls are in danger from the forever fires of hell. Only Jesus could rescue us. And he did—by laying down his life for us. Jesus became a servant—literally a slave—taking our place to redeem us—to buy us back. Instead of staying in the safe warm sanctuary of Heaven—Jesus came into this sin infected world to save us. Jesus became a slave—to rescue us—so we can spend forever in the safe warm sanctuary of Heaven!

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Jesus humbled himself—and became obedient to a painful tortured death on a cross. Again—how different from us! The other day a very famous fashion model—a person judged so beautiful they literally pay her millions of dollars—simply to put on very expensive clothes—to walk up and down a catwalk was found guilty of throwing her cell phone at her maid! I’m always intrigued by the question—what is a just punishment—when a person pleads guilty to being frustrated and throwing your cell phone? Does it matter if the bad person is rich or poor? Should it? Apparently the punishment is to pay the medical bills of the person you beaned—that being $363! I don’t know if that would buy you an x-ray and some stitches—or lots of aspirin! $363 isn’t very much money for a person who is filthy rich—kind of like $3.63 if you are a multimillionaire! But then comes the second part of the punishment—5 days of community service—sweeping and mopping some filthy places in NY City! Oh, Naomi said—she was willing to do whatever she had to do—but she would really prefer to do her cleaning inside. If she had to do it out in public—well—that would just be too humiliating! You know what I mean? For someone famous for looking as perfect as is humanly possible—to mop a place that is filthy—is humiliating. That’s the whole idea! Again—if you are truly and sincerely sorry for what you did—you will bear that shame willingly! Jesus loved us so much—he bore the shame of death—even death on a cross—to pay for my sins and your mistakes. Jesus bore that burden without complaint. He suffered that utter humiliation—to pay the price to forgive us!

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. There is a program I have never seen—on the Discovery channel—all about Dirty Jobs! There is this guy named Michael—who goes around doing the world’s dirtiest jobs. How dirty and disgusting—you ask? Like picking up dead animals beside the highway. I have stopped—and scooped animals off the street—people’s pets—so that forever and a day—people on their way to school or the store don’t have to go past this—again and again and again and again. But it’s hard to imagine doing that all day—every day. That’s what they do every day. The same with noodling catfish—catching up to 100 pound slimy fish skin—getting bit by fish—again and again. There are people who catch rattle snakes—go out into the wilderness trying to find rattle snakes. People who clean out fish guts—until their hands are pruny and worse. People who remove bees that have infested homes—attics and roof peaks. People who go looking for bees—then smoke them and move them! There are people who go through the sewers under NY city looking for rats. How disgusting is that? But all these dirty jobs are nothing—absolutely nothing—compared to all that the holy Son of God endured to rescue you and me. Jesus became one of us—took upon himself our flesh. Then suffered, obey and endured. Then he sacrificed himself—gave up his life—to wash away all our sins!

The day is surely coming when 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. Giving glory—honor, thanks and praise—to our Savior and our King! How do you do that—show thanks and praise? If you have lunch at our school with the little people—part of that time—they listen to a piece of classical music. It’s kind of music appreciation while you are eating your mini corn dogs, broccoli and cauliflower and little cup of pear pieces. The music is announced and explained—the triangle and chimes give the effect of folk dancing—the strings are little fairies dancing. Then the piece is played—three minutes or so and it’s over. Now what? I asked some little 2nd graders—do we clap—do we applaud? Oh, they said—we used to—but the Kindergartners get carried away. Can you imagine that? Little kindergartners clapping and clapping! How will we thank and praise Jesus in Heaven? We will sing to him. We will kneel—literally kneel before him. We will join the angels in reflecting his glory! We will praise him every moment of eternity—glorifying and thanking our crucified and risen Savior. Amen!

To God alone all glory!

Rev. Anthony E. Schultz