Mennonite Church Peace Resources for Youth

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God

did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross.

Therefore, God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

(A song from Philippians 2:5-11)

Memorizing Philippians 2:5-11 recently, I began to wonder: who had the courage to write this song? Paul may have likely written it himself and given it as a gift to the congregation in Philippi. Or, he may have been quoting a song which was already in the bloodstream of the Philippian congregation. This song was sung in a community with street-level concerns of human trafficking, suicidal desperation, aspiring women leaders, baptism upon confession of faith, prison terms, spirit-possession, gospel preaching, natural disasters, and persecution. Some of the early believers from Philippi are remembered in Acts 16.

Lydia: The church in Philippi, a city in Macedonia, began rather humbly with a group of women praying by a river. One business woman, Lydia, listened to the message of Jesus that Paul was preaching and her mind was changed. Her life was changed. She was baptized with her whole household and became a leader in the Jesus movement. Her home became a hub of church life.

Freed-slave Woman: Another woman in Philippi had been a slave, but when Paul the evangelist spoke in the name of Jesus Christ she was freed from her situation of exploitation. No longer spirit-possessed, no longer a commodity, she was in her right mind. She was a person again.

Jailer: There was also a jailer in Philippi. This man was responsible for guarding Paul and Silas after they were thrown into prison for disrupting Philippian commerce and social order with the message and actions of Jesus. During an earthquake, the chains fell off the prisoners and the doors flew open. This jailer, knowing that he would be held responsible for any escapees, was so scared that he drew his sword and was on the brink of suicide. But in love, Paul told him not to kill himself. The jailer was saved. He and his family started acting with Christian love and compassion-they took care of Paul and Silas who had been beaten up the day before. The jailer and his household were all baptized as believers in Jesus Christ.

Imagine that the former slave girl wrote this song. She once called out in the street after Paul and Silas: "These men are slaves of the Most High God who proclaim a way of salvation." (Now that was the voice of a malevolent spirit exposing Paul and Silas-and the evangelists dismissed the spirit. Acts 16:16-18). However, once she was free, that girl may have found her God-given voice and used it to sing. The song praises the Lord who refused to grasp or exploit, but took the form of a slave. A young woman set free exploitation, by a Lord willing to take her form, might have the profile of a powerful songwriter.

Imagine that Lydia wrote this song. She was the first in Philippi to recognize that in worshiping Jesus Christ as Lord, she was joining in worship of the one supreme God. And wouldn't it be appropriate for a successful business woman who was becoming a leader in the church to praise the Lord whose alternative way of leading had changed her whole mindset?

Might the jailer have recorded this song? In the story of the jailer being saved from death by his own sword, he falls trembling before Paul and Silas as he realizes that the prisoners he was meant to guard are guarding him with love. Can you picture him kneeling-shaken by the earthquake, shaken by his scrape with death? I can imagine the jailer transposing his trembling fear into the rhythm of this song. Every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and even under the earth-even in the bowels of a jail.

Paul prompts the Philippian 'choir' saying, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." Later in the same letter Paul blesses the congregation saying: "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." With the mindset of Christ, God's peace, we receive the courage to kneel, to speak, to praise, to lead, to live in contrast to our society's norms of status-seeking, and selfish ambition.

In January I was sitting in my office writing a sermon about the call of Jeremiah. When the mail arrived it included a stack of letters from the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC. Adam Schiff, one of our representatives in Congress, replied by letter to a dozen folks from Pasadena Mennonite Church who wrote to him during Advent because we were concerned about conditions for kids in Bethlehem who can't always get to school, live in poverty, and are surrounded by violence because Israel occupies land where Palestinians live and there is a great deal of hostility between the two groups. We were urging Rep. Schiff to advance policies that support justice and peace in the Middle East. We've done this before, but the difference this time was that the individuals who had written to Adam Schiff were all under the age of 15!

Well, this sort of thing has happened before. Jeremiah was only a teenager when he heard from God directly. Here is the message Jeremiah heard: Before you were born I knew you and called you to be a prophet to the nations. I imagine that Jeremiah was a plucky kid. The prophet-to-be's parents named him "Jeremiah", which means: The Lord is exalted! It's kind of like naming your child: Praise the Lord! You might think a name like this would make it easy for Jeremiah to get on board with God's plan for his life, but young Jeremiah didn't shout out 'yes', when God called. His first comment is Ahhh! (That is a literal translation of the Hebrew!) Ah! Lord God, truly I do not know how to speak. I'm only a kid.

God worked with Jeremiah on the fear factor, but ultimately told him:

See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,

to pluck up and to pull down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.

Now Jeremiah's way of uprooting and pulling things down was nonviolent and often theatrical. He used words and actions that God gave him to address violence, injustice, and idolatry and to warn his people that judgment was coming. But this prophet was also called to build and to plant-to build a new community, and plant a government of peace. I think the letter-writing kids in our church who spoke to our government on behalf of kids in Palestine were experimenting with prophetic work-an internship with Jeremiah.