"Jesus: the Descending God" Philippians 2: 6-11

This week we reflect on Jesus, the descending God.  I'm trying to shift the sermon style a bit to break away from the pattern of the last few weeks.  Maybe more stories, if I can find them.  I don't want the sermon series to become too much like the class on this topic.

1.      Nouwen begins his thoughts on Jesus, the descending God, by sharing the sermon he heard in which the minister referenced the “Huge round window of stained glass and said, ‘It is a work of art made by human beings.  But unless God’s sun shines through it we see nothing’” (39)

a.        We know about stained glass windows at FPC, Troy, so we can see [literally] his point, although I find that even without sunshine on a gloomy day, the stained glass windows reveal themselves.

b.      Nouwen’s topic will be “the love of God made visible by Jesus in his life” (39).

2.      Nouwen shares how L’Arche, the home for handicapped men where he is staying and working, reveals this truth.

a.       Jean Vanier, the founder, had grown up in an aristocratic environment in Canada, served in the navy, and then became a very popular professor St. Michael’s College in Toronto.

b.      When the success left him unsatisfied, he fell “called to another kind of life:  simpler, poorer, and more centered on prayer and commitment to service” (40).

c.       He thought about becoming a priest, but instead discerned that he was being asked to return to France to live with mentally handicapped people (40). Although he does not make this point explicitly, it is informative for us to note the role in which another person played in his spiritual discernment.  The reminder that being connected with others is critical to our discernment process.

d.      Vanier asked two men, Philippe and Raphael, to leave an institution to join with him “in a simple life in imitation of Jesus” (40).

e.       His initial efforts grows into “a worldwide movement with homes for mentally handicapped people not only in Western Europe, but in Asia, Africa, and the Americas as well (41).

f.        Vanier invited Nouwen to leave his teaching at Yale and come to L’Arche to make it his new home.

3.      Nouwen sees Vanier’s movement in life as an act of descending to the weak and poor, instead of ascending the ladder of success (41).

     

a.       For Nouwen, “it has become very clear to me that the further you descend, the more your eyes are opened to the brokenness of our humanity (41).

b.      The love of God in Christ arrives in this same way – “it is made visible in the descending way… God has descended to us human beings to become a human being with us; and once among us, he descended to the total dereliction of one condemned to death” (41)

c.       Initial reaction – even when we think about Jesus becoming human, we think of him descending to us, but don’t really ant to push our thought to Jesus descending to the worst of our humanity.

d.      Second reaction – not sure Nouwen’s concept of God’s descending love fits with the prosperity gospel that is preached in many of our churches (and to look in the mirror, is probably felt by many of us).

e.       Nouwen picks up on these two reactions when he notes “We don’t mind paying attention to poor people from time to time, but descending to a state of poverty and becoming poor with the poor – that we don’t want to do. And yet it is the way Jesus chose as the way to know God (42). That comment of course, challenges us to the core.

Conversation starter: From your own life, what are signs of how you ascend the ladder of success; what are signs of descending?

4.      Nouwen references the early church hymn that is found in Paul’s letter to the Philippians 2: 6-11.

a.       Jesus was not a “masochist in search of misery,” but he was descending as “the way to new fellowship in which we human beings can reach new life and celebrate it together” (42).

b.      Nouwen notes that wealth does not lead to a new sense of community. Instead, “there is more competitiveness, more envy, more un3est, and more anxiety” (42-3). 

c.       He notes that “success has isolated a lot of people and made them lonely” (43).

d.      At the core of who we are lies this question:  “Am I really loved?” (43).

e.       Nouwen suggests that one reason he left Yale to come to L’Arche was his “hope of staying closer to the love that lies concealed in poverty” (44).

5.      Nouwen makes the point that Jesus did not just choose the descending way of love once, but that he chose it over and over again (44).

      a. Examples of Jesus descending:  Even though at twelve Jesus could question the authorities at the Temple, he stayed at home until he was thirty; even though Jesus was without sin, Jesus joined with the sinners being baptized at the River Jordan

            b.  Jesus continually “opts for what is small, hidden, and poor, and accordingly declines to wield influence” (44)
            c.  Jesus descent culminates on the cross when Jesus cries out “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?”  “Only then do we know how far God has gone to show us his love. For it is then that Jesus has not only reached his utmost poverty, but also has shown God's utmost love” (45). 

            d. I would note that if we concur with the Apostles' Creed that Christ “descended into hell,” then God goes farther than Christ's death on the cross.

Conversation starter:  Is Christ’s death on the cross something that happened that saves us only, or can you envision how we might join Christ in dying for others in our daily lives?

6. Nouwen notes that we can only apprehend the mystery of Christ descending to his death through prayer.

            a. “God's way can only be grasped in prayer. The more you listen to God speaking within you, the sooner you will hear that voice inviting you to follow Jesus the way of Jesus.

            b. Again we see this outward push from Nouwen – what we claim for ourselves about God, we extend to others.

7. The descending way of Christ is both a mystery and a paradox.

           

            a. “It is the way of suffering, but also the way to healing. It is the way of humiliation, but also the way to resurrection.  It is the way of tears, but of tears that turn into tears of joy.  It is the way of hiddenness, but also the way that leads to the light that shines for all people.  It is the way of persecution, oppression, martyrdom, and death, but also the way to the full disclosure of God” (46).

            b.  “the descending way of love, the way to the poor, the broken , and oppressed becomes the ascending way of love, the way to joy, peace, and new life.  The cross is transformed from a sign of death into a sign of victory, a sign of despair into a sign of hope, from the sign of death into the sign of life” (47).

8.  Nouwen notes that each person has to find his or her own way to live out the descending way.

            a. Nouwen believes it can best be done through prayer and through life in a community of faith that is grounded in the Eucharist.

            b. Nouwen suggests that when we eat of the bread and drink of the cup we participate in Christ's descending way (49).

Conversation starter: How might prayer reveal to you the way of descending?

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Resources:  Letters to Marc:  Living Spiritually in a Materialistic World, Henri Nouwen