Email from Church of the Redeemer

Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

September 13, 2023

Invitatory

Thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, “I dwell in the high and holy place and also with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Reading - Philippians 2:1-11

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 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. 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.

Meditation - Winnie Smith

Jesus is not my friend.

Yes, you read that correctly. Jesus is not my friend.

I understand many people’s desire to see Jesus this way, to express a close relationship with their Savior, one that feels like an intimate friendship. Jesus is who we can turn to in times of difficulty, the one who is always by our side. In John’s Gospel account, our Lord and Savior even calls people friends: “you are my friends if you do what I command you…I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father” (John 15:14-15). But still, I do not call Jesus a friend, because of the truths embodied in the words of Paul to the people at Philippi.

Known as the Christ Hymn, the last six verses of today’s reading describe the christology of Jesus - his divinity. Scholars have long debated these verses: Does being “in the form of God” mean being equal to God? Or does it mean being made in the image and likeness of God, making Jesus lesser than God rather than equal? When Jesus emptied himself, did this lower him to a status below God, or did his divinity remain even then?

Every time I wrestle with these questions, I come to the same conclusion: in the end, Jesus is a Savior, is divine, is God. Jesus is not my friend. And I’m okay with that!

I have friends, and I love many of them. Some I depend on. Some depend on me. In every case, our relationship is somewhat transactional. I give, they take, then it reverses. Not so with Jesus, who gave unconditionally, asking nothing.

I am awed by Jesus. Each year when we walk the painful way of the cross with him to his crucifixion, I am awed again by the power of his story. Man and God, human and divine. Jesus isn’t my friend because he is so much more than that, and that is what we affirm every Sunday when we recite the Creed and celebrate the Eucharist.

The Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those

who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever. Amen.