Have you ever noticed that even those who are repulsed by Christianity are very taken by Jesus? Have you ever noticed that when you are talking with those who consider themselves not or nominally religious that while they may not be able to stomach church folks, they really like hearing about Jesus? Why is that?
If we look at the mind of Christ, we will notice that Christ looks at the world in a different manner than many of those who are seeking to live in the name of Jesus. Put another way, the church has not always cultivated the mind of Christ in the everyday living out of the faith. How can we cultivate the mind of Christ?
Not sure if you have the mind of Christ or a human-focused mind? Let’s take this quick quiz together.
– Do you find yourself responding in compassion or anger when you are interrupted?
– Do you find yourself wondering about someone’s wellbeing or their sanity when their driving is not up to par?
– Do you find yourself answering your kids, spouse, and family with exasperation or love when the same topic comes up for the forty-second time that hour?
If you found yourself, primarily angry, frustrated, exasperated, disengaged in conversations and encounters with other, you may have a human-focused mind.
As Paul is writing to the Corinthians, he proposes the most incredible truth at the end of this chapter, “we have the mind of Christ.” In our series together about living as the body of Christ, we have been talking primarily about actions, what are the fruits of your faith? How can someone from the outside see God in your life? What are your feet doing? Are the nose hairs doing their job? Are you caring for each of the parts of the body by listening with the ear of your heart? This morning, that focus shifts slightly.
The letter to the Corinthians is not the only place that Paul entreats the fledgling church to cultivate the mind of Christ. In his letter to the Romans, he says in 12:2, The New Living Translation has it this way: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” In this letter to the Philippians, Paul says “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5, KJV). In His final words to His disciples Jesus says, “Everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). The Spirit of God has taken up residence in us (1 Cor. 2:12). In some mysterious way we now have a capacity for divine wisdom that no Ph.D. degree or natural experience could ever provide. Having the mind of Christ enables us to see life increasingly from God’s perspective.
So, how do we move from the well-intentioned, but off-putting church folks who give Christianity a bad name to the faithful folks who seek to have the mind of Christ? This morning, I want to suggest two essential ways to cultivate the mind of Christ in yourself.
The first of which is you need to be in the scripture. Are you encountering the Word of God? Are you reading the Bible? Are you spending time in Bible Study with others? What are your habits around reading the Bible?
It is always interesting to me that Bibles more often have a place of honor in the living room bookcase than a place of convenience beside the bed. It is always telling when the Bible has a much dust as the top of the bookshelf and probably sees about as much use. You might be thinking to yourself, I pick up the Bible every now and then. I hear scripture in church (and boy, does this pastor have us listen to scripture!). I sometimes catch a verse on the radio or in my email. I read scripture.
I want to suggest that if you are not daily reading scripture and regularly engaging in Bible Study with others, you are not giving God a lot to work with as you cultivate the mind of Christ. When I was a little girl, we had to memorize scripture verses in Sunday School – anyone else do that? I would work on the passage during the week and the next Sunday, dutifully recite my passage and get my gold star on the chart. I liked getting the gold stars, but did think much of the practice else wise. That was until the first time, a verse came to me when I was upset. I was in junior high and it felt like the world was crashing in on me. Somehow, the words, “Be still and know that I am God,” felt personal and directive. As the words were called forth in my mind (a scripture I had to memorize somewhere along the way, I felt the calm and peace of Christ in the midst of anxiety.
This is a gift most available to those who are regularly in the Word. So, Let Christ change your thinking. Stop filling your mind with the messages of this world, and fill your mind with the Word of God. The reason the Spirit of Christ could use Scripture to calm my troubled mind when I was in middle school and to this day, is because through the discipline of reading God’s Word, I had put it there so God could use it. I am convinced many of you could experience an amazing transformation in your lives if you’d simply fill your mind with the Word of God on a daily basis. Why many Christians do not experience transformation into the mind of Christ? They become what they think, and much of what they think upon is not becoming!
Secondly, you cultivate the mind of Christ, by experiencing God. One of the most dependable ways, we have to experience God is through the sacrament of Holy Communion. In communion, John Wesley described the Lord’s Supper as “the grand channel whereby the grace of his Spirit was conveyed to the souls of all the children of God” (“Sermon on the Mount-Discourse Six,” III.11). Wesley wrote, “This is the food of our souls: This gives strength to perform our duty, and leads us on to perfection” (“The Duty of Constant Communion,” I.3).
God makes such sustenance available through the sacrament of Eucharist. In John 6:35, Jesus tells the crowd: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” As we return to the Table again and again, we are strengthened repeatedly. We go out empowered to live as disciples, reconcilers, and witnesses. In the words of the prayer after Communion, “Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your Spirit, to give ourselves for others . . .” (UMH; page 11).
As we return to the table again, this morning, we do boldly praying that God will in-dwell in us. That God will cultivate the mind of Christ in us. That we will know the compassion and the justice of God because it will begin to fleet through our minds alongside our fear and doubt. That we will know love and joy because we will brought again to consider how to love those whom we would rather disregard. That we will know peace, the peace that passes all understanding, because Christ our Lord is present with us and within us and has a better way – a way to be emulate Christ – to have the mind of Christ within us. As you receive communion this morning, prepare your heart to ask Christ to dwell within you again and receive the mind of Christ.
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
New Testament Lesson: 1 Corinthians 2
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
The True Wisdom of God
Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.
Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. But we have the mind of Christ.
Gospel Lesson: John 15:1-8
Jesus the True Vine
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.