Philippians 2:1-11
Being Imitators of Christ
1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, and compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
So I'm sitting at a table at McClung Middle School and I hear very loudly from the table behind me: "I love Jesus because...DUDE DIED FOR MY SINS."
A little backstory to this: In an effort to better get to know the students we are helping at McClung Middle School we gave each student a questionnaire that asked things such as their favorite color, favorite food, what you like to do in your free time, and most importantly finish the statement: "I love Jesus because." Nineteen students filled out the form and we got answers such as: He gave his life to save me, He created me, He's the reason I'm here, He's my savior, He loves and forgives me, He always has my back, He helps me get through crazy things, and as stated above- the excited shout of DUDE died for my sins. Interestingly enough everyone answered the question and no two answers were the same. Their answers were all different but they were also correct. This despite the fact that the students are primarily "unchurched." If they are unchurched how do they know these things about Jesus?
I'm guessing it's similar to what Paul says to the church in Philippi that we must strive to be imitators of Christ. I believe these students have seen examples of people being Christlike throughout their lives: in their families, loved one, daycares, etc. They have heard of Jesus and seen Christ modeled for them. They have at least seen small examples of lives lived that are worthy of Christ's gospel of self-emptying love.
I know of one specific example of this and that is the teacher in charge of the after school program, Mr. Conderway. During our volunteer orientation we had to discuss and figure out the whole separation of church and state thing. Simply put we couldn't force our beliefs on the students, but if they asked we could share. While talking with Mr. Conderway about how we could share about our faith with the students he said (and I'm paraphrasing): "I've been doing that for 11 years so why wouldn't you? It's exactly what they need to hear. It's exactly what they need to see modeled." How freeing. How uplifting. This teacher in a real sense has been risking his job for 11 years to share his faith. It shows that you don't have to be theologically educated to reach others for Christ. Sometimes we can make it to complicated.
Paul tells the church in Philippi that they must empty themselves as Jesus did and we can do that by being entirely open to reaching them in any way that we can by sharing Jesus' message of love. We can model our lives by showing Christ's self-giving love. Our desire must be, as Paul says, that we love others more than ourselves.
While serving at McClung I have seen that time and time again. I've seen teaching that involved division by using fruit roll up wrappers. Throwing a football with a student for an hour to the point where you let me know on Sunday morning (three days later) that you are still sore. It's as simple as living a life worthy of the gospel of Jesus and sharing it with others, no matter the differences in age, race, and upbringing. Moving forward we can reflect Christ and help these young people understand that God is doing something special within each one of them.
As long as we continue to reflect Christ in this new endeavor, I believe everything else will take care of itself. Just think, if we live a life worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ-people will see that DUDE JESUS in us.
Grace & Peace
Kevin
