Philippians 3:17-21 (NRSV)
Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
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"The context of this admonition is Paul's counting as loss his Jewish credentials and achievements — which he labels as “confidence in the flesh” — and then he owns a righteousness based on the faith of Jesus Christ, a righteousness which is from God based on faith (3:9). What Paul then desires, as mark of this righteousness, is to know the power of Jesus' resurrection and to share in Jesus' sufferings, thus “becoming like him in death” (3:10). These twin points of analogous experience are pursued further in vv. 11-16. Then follows this language of imitation and example in w.17-18.
"Clearly, given the preceding context of sharing in the sufferings of Christ and the immediately following reference to the cross of Christ, this use of imitation and example is oriented to the cross and suffering. It is also striking that Paul completes this thought by pointing to a heavenly reward for this kind of earthly life (vv. 20-21). He then addresses a conflict between two sisters in the community, Euodia and Syntyche, a manifestation of [imitative] rivalry in the sisterhood. He speaks highly of their contribution to the missionary enterprise and is confident that this conflict can and will be resolved.
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... (Phil. 2:5-11)
"Even though this text does not use either of the key terms, imitation or type, it clearly portrays the believers patterning their conduct after the suffering and obedience of Christ Jesus. [...] The context of this foundational confession on Jesus' self-emptying and humbling to the cross is Paul's admonition in vv. 3-4 to put away conduct that proceeds from [imitative] rivalry: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” Then follows: “let the same mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.”"
- Willard Swartley, “Discipleship and Imitation of Jesus/Suffering Servant: The Mimesis of New Creation,” in Violence Renounced (Studies in Peace and Scripture), pp. 225-226
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"What does it mean to keep our gaze focused on God? What does it mean to live as a friend of the cross? (I'm using the “face of God” and the “cross” interchangeably.) What does it mean to live as an enemy of the cross? Sometimes when we talk about these things we use the vocabulary of ethics and morality. But doing so surely reduces and legalizes the Christian life to a right ethic, a right set of morals. So, in an attempt to capture the dynamic aliveness of following Jesus, I'm going to use the language of economics.[1]
"What does it mean to live as a friend of the cross? The capital of the cross is love, self-giving love. The economy of the cross is a gift economy. Love and mercy, grace and forgiveness are given as gifts. They can't be purchased, or earned, borrowed or deserved. They're already ours. They are already everybody's. And they are distributed in generous, abundant, even gratuitous measures.
"In God's economy, there are no assets to protect, no risks to be concerned about, nothing to be afraid of. Anyone can be a shareholder. In fact, everyone is a shareholder … we've only to claim our shares! In the economy of the cross, stocks never lose their value, and the market never crashes. It's a stable, secure economy. The Living God is always pouring love into it. God who is love is always generating more capital - more grace and mercy and beauty and forgivingness than we know what to do with!
"When we live as enemies of the cross, we participate in an economy of the belly, an economy of desire. This is an economy of scarcity. Its currency is fear. We invest in this economy, expecting dividends that will satisfy personal self-interests, dividends that will keep us safe and secure, investing in assurances that nothing bad should ever happen to us, dividends that will pay out what is rightfully ours, what we're entitled to get. In the economy of desire, there is never enough. When this is the currency that's making our living, we fear not having enough, not being enough, not knowing enough, not doing enough. In the economics of scarcity, competition and rivalry thrive. Others become threats to our wellbeing. This economy sees the world through eyes of scarcity and problems. And like everything else in this economy, hope and solutions are scarce.
"The currency of the cross is love, generosity, gift. Its dividends are transformation, freedom of being and freedom of expression, and sanctuary in the very heart of God. As Jesus journeyed to the cross, he freely exchanged in the currency of love, lavishly giving and receiving gifts. He wasn't selling insurance or solutions to personal or societal problems. He saw and named brokenness, personal and communal brokenness. But instead of telling people how to fix their problems, he opened hearts and spaces for God's love to transform bodies and lives. He opened eyes to see the beauty of God's face. And when individuals saw the face of God, they saw their own reflections; they saw themselves as beloved daughters, beloved sons of God. Jesus told people new stories about themselves, and in doing so, he gifted them with hope, with new, life-saving and life-giving possibilities for their future.
"In the economy of the belly, the economy of fear and scarcity and problems, the cross is interpreted as a solution—the cross fixes the problem of human sin. Except it doesn't. The cross as a fix-it solution didn't … and it still hasn't … fixed the problem of human violence. It hasn't shut down the economics of scarcity and fear and rivalry. Rather, the cross exposes human violence … and into that violence, God's gift economy flows.
"The cross, instead of a solution, is an opening into hope, into a new future. When we watch Jesus on the cross, he's still indiscriminately handing out gifts of love and mercy and forgiveness. And the gifts are generous, gratuitous even. This is what God's economy looks like! We can be sure that Jesus is keeping his eyes fixed on the face of YHWH, trusting God's beauty, trusting God's aliveness and love, knowing that even as he is being killed, even then he is being sheltered by eternal and endless love, knowing that he will see the beauty of God in the land of the living.
"Back to Paul's invitation to imitation. It may seem odd or uncomfortable for us to think about imitating someone or something, even if it is God's economy. Imitation doesn't take thinking or understanding; it's rote. But the thing is, the economy of desire is so pervasive that we who want and intend to follow Jesus, without meaning to we find ourselves living as enemies of the cross. Everywhere we look, our eyes land on the economics of scarcity and fear and problems and unwittingly, unknowingly we find ourselves imitating the economy of desire.
"That's why we imitate God's economy. We simply practice, every day, every moment, exchanging gifts of love and mercy, generous and abundant gifts of grace and beauty. We see the brokenness of the world around us, not as problems to be fixed, but as hearts and spaces for God's economy to flow, for God's gifts of love and mercy to be distributed, freely shared, generously exchanged.
"And so, as we journey to the cross, let us imitate God's economy. As we are “marching in the light of God,” let us practice generous and abundant gifting. May we keep our eyes fixed on God's face, on the beauty and sweetness that is God."
Suella Gerber, from 2016 sermon "Journeying to the cross … in Sabbath" (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Gerber-Lent2C-2-21-16.pdf)
[1] Peter Block’s, Community, the Structure of Belonging, inspired this conversation of economy.
[Source of Willard Swartley quotation and link to Suella Gerber sermon, and for further discussion and reflection on the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/lent2c/]
[The Gospel text for Lent 2C in the Roman Catholic lectionary is Luke 9:28-36 (The Transfiguration), which was the text 2 weeks ago (Transfiguration Sunday) in the Revised Common Lectionary. See my post for that week: https://daveroberts.blogspot.com/2025/03/from-lectionary-for-2-march-2025.html]
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