"Shift Happens" - Part 2

The kenosis hymn in Philippians 2 is the "new" church model for a culture enveloped in rabid, discontinuous change. The Greek word kenosis means quite simply to "empty." In the context of Philippians 2, Jesus "empties" himself utterly and completely for a purpose greater than himself - namely the salvation, reconciliation, and redemption of the world. Jesus "emptied" himself of his position, power, rights, and identity and replaced them with enslavement, human frailty, humiliation, torture, and mortality. His was an act of radical obedience.

We the church, the body of Christ, must embody individually and corporately the radical obedience modelled in Philippians 2. We must "empty" ourselves of the traditions, practices, and theologies that prevent us from becoming "obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross." Radical obedience may entail removing the pews and the hymnals that rest in them from the sanctuary. It may mean turning down the glitz and glamor of our rock-concert worship and turning up the Apostle's Creed. It may mean knocking down a few steeples and putting up a few homeless shelters. It may mean selling less "Church Growth" books for the senior pastor and buying more time catechizing new believers. It may mean closing the doors on hundred-year old-churches and openning our homes to the least, the lost, and the broken - people like you and me.

Radical obedience isn't a model for church growth. It isn't a formula for our "Best Life Now." It isn't a time capsule for "the way church ought to be." Radical obedience is a choice to seek emptiness, enslavement, humility, and death in hopes that our individual and corporate lives will truly embody the petition Jesus taught his followers,"thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

The pursuit of radical obedience isn't easy, but it is simple. I think it can be broken down into 3 steps: 1.) Read the Bible; 2.) Pray; 3.) Do what the Bible says. It seemed to work for Jesus (Yes I know Jesus did not have the New Testament, but he did have the Hebrew Scriptures.)