The King We Need | 11/23/25
-
The sermon emphasizes the contrast between worldly power and the example of Christ. How does the Christ Hymn challenge our understanding of leadership and authority today?
In the sermon, humility, service, and obedience are highlighted as virtues. Which of these virtues is easiest for you to practice, and which is most difficult?
How does your involvement in local initiatives or ministries shape your understanding of God’s work in the world?
The sermon mentions both hope and action as components of Christian faith. How do you balance waiting for God’s kingdom to come with actively participating in God’s work today?
Paul’s teaching calls us to look beyond our own interests. How can you practice this in your relationships, workplace, or church community?
Transcript:
Friends, welcome to the last Sunday of the year.
You know it’s the last Sunday of the year, right? It is—it’s the last Sunday of the year! Not on the Julian calendar, the one that goes from January to December, but on the church calendar, the one that starts with the season of Advent. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, and the way we count the year within the life of the church is to start there, because it’s when we start preparing the way and looking forward to the coming of Emmanuel—God showing up in the world in human form, in the person of Jesus Christ.
And then we follow the year through his life and ministry, and we celebrate the death and the resurrection when we get to Easter. And then we get to Pentecost, and we celebrate the giving of the Spirit and the birth of the church. And then we celebrate what we call an Ordinary Time, a season of remembering the life of the church.
Until we get to today, and on the last Sunday in the Christian year, we celebrate—as Marisa mentioned earlier this morning—Christ the King Sunday, the thing that we are still looking forward to: the final and full reign of the Kingdom of God, with everything as it was meant to be. So welcome to the last Sunday of the year. I’m so glad you came.
This morning, we are going to take a look at a passage of Scripture in the letter to the Philippians in the New Testament. Embedded in this passage is something known as the Christ Hymn. It’s an early writing that was distributed across the early Christian communities, and that Paul picks up and uses as part of his letter, dropping it in as part of his encouragement to that community of faith.
As I read this today, and as you listen in and perhaps follow along on the screens, I invite you to pay attention to the virtues that it describes as ones that are worthy of our attention.
So follow along with me now as I read for us:
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.
This is the Word of God for the people of God. And God’s people say: Thanks be to God.
Would you pray with me?
Come, Holy Spirit, and breathe life into the words that I speak, that they might carry a word from you into our hearts and lives today. Amen.
The contrast could not have been more stark. Against the backdrop of the terrorizing reign of the Roman Empire, Paul, in writing to the Philippians, drops in a poem that describes a very different kind of leadership. His description tells us of a leader who looks like this: One who does not grasp for power, one who empties himself, one who humbles himself. One who is fully obedient to the way of love, even when it means that it will cost him his life.
The one to whom Paul refers, of course, in this writing, is Jesus Christ, the only one who fits the job description. The one who does fully surrender his life for God’s purposes, even when it leads to death.
You know, to willingly give up one’s life was the very antithesis of the Roman way in the time in which Paul was writing this letter to the Philippians.
Katherine Shaner, professor of New Testament at the School of Divinity at Wake Forest, helps us understand the context of the day. Those who ran the Roman Empire erected stone monuments carved with images celebrating the Empire's power over the people it had enslaved. In these images, Roman emperors hold female figures by the hair, exposing anguished faces and twisted bodies.
These patriotic images celebrate the Roman Empire's power over the people, both men and women, whom it has enslaved. The emperors are depicted as godlike in their triumphs. There is no mistaking the bold power over those deemed weak and/or dangerous enemies.
With this kind of cruelty controlling the atmosphere of the day, it was understandable that there were people living in fear, especially those who were on the margins. Those who were outside the ring of power that controlled the day, or those who lived on the wrong side of the aqueduct. These were difficult times.
And into that context, the Apostle Paul offers a word of hope. Things are not always as they seem, or at least things don’t necessarily turn out the way that seems inevitable in a particular moment. Worldly power that looks impenetrable will give way.
Just take a look. If you travel to places in the world where, today, in most places, the only evidence that still exists of the Roman rule that was so complete, so authoritative, are crumbling ruins. But – Paul says today – on the other hand, the reign of Christ is coming. And that reign will have no end.
And why is it that Christ will be the one who reigns on the throne? Because, paradoxically, he is the one who models complete obedience to God's ways in the world. He is the one who comes in humility and in service and in surrender, and therefore, the Christ Hymn tells us, he will be the one who is exalted. He is the one who will ascend to an eternal throne.
Shaner, in her explication of this hymn and this text, continues to help us understand what is going on here. “The Christ Hymn is clear,” she says. Domination, conquest, exploitation—exactly the patriotic images the Roman Empire embraced—are antithetical to divine power. Jesus’ death and resurrection reject our human displays of power and violence. Violence, fear, and death are not God’s plan.
My friends, this is good news, whether we’re talking about first-century Philippi or we’re talking about the 21st century right here where we are and live.
Paul's message, interestingly enough, does not end there. Christ is the King we need—we can affirm that whether we're talking about then or now—and he is the one who is coming. And we are not called to idly wait by for that day to come.
You see, Christian faith is a matter of both hope and action. And the way Paul describes it for us today, in his encouragement for the Philippians and for us, is that the action part begins with a particular mindset: Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Let the same mind be in you.
What is clear from what Paul describes is that this is a mindset that orients us away from greed, away from power-mongering, away from selfish ambition.
Shaner, in her commentary on this text written in 2022, helps put this into a present-day context and terms that still seem quite on point in our current day. She says, “Structures of human leadership that glorify dominance over other people, who criminalize black and brown bodies, who objectify women, and who exploit poverty work against God’s justice. They are sin.”
On the other hand, we are called in this passage to a mindset that orients us toward humility, toward service, and toward obedience to God's purposes. We are called, in fact, to be Christ-minded.
If you ever need a reminder that this is one of the ways in which we are to show up in the world, just turn your attention—whenever you’re here—over to that wall. I love the fact that anytime I come in here, I am reminded of the core values we are invited and encouraged to live out as people of faith, as part of this particular community. And one of them is to be Christ-minded.
In the Gospel of Matthew, as we are nearing the end of the narrative about Jesus' life, and he is about to be betrayed and then hung on a cross, he’s talking with his disciples and a crowd that has gathered. And in the 25th chapter, we hear him share an image of what it looks like when people carry this mindset out into the world.
Maybe you remember the image. It begins with the Son of God seated on the throne, fulfilling the exact thing we hear promised at the end of the Christ Hymn today from Paul's letter.
And as the King is there on the throne, he tells us about the sheep and the goats and how they are being separated out. You all remember this story? The sheep are the ones who follow. They are the ones who see and who serve their neighbors who are hungry or thirsty, who are naked or sick or imprisoned. They are the ones who welcome the stranger.
And in doing so, Jesus says, they fulfill God’s will in the world. And therefore, they will inherit the kingdom. Because the King—the one that we need, the one who is promised and is coming— this king is the one who identifies with those who suffer. And in seeing and serving them, wherever we show up and see and serve those who are suffering, he tells us, we see and serve him.
Doing all the good we can is the last piece of the Trinity vision. It’s the action part: where we go out and do things that matter, and we do things as followers of Christ. It’s about having the mindset of Christ that helps us see and serve our neighbors well. It’s about being the sheep who follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
And so today, as we celebrate the good one more time—the ways in which we are investing ourselves in ministry and in the work of the Kingdom—I want to lift up just a couple, just a couple of the many ways you and I have the opportunity and the calling to participate in things that are happening, and the ways in which our commitment to generosity and to service help make things possible.
One is something that just started this past week—a new opportunity now happening on our Faith Mission campus. And a reason this is happening is because of the way in which our team there is building relationships with community partners. As they build those relationships, they identify opportunities for us to create space at our second campus—our Faith Mission campus—to be a host site for important work in our community.
So just this past Wednesday, the SNAP Youth Justice Program began meeting at that campus. This is a 13-week program for 12- to 18-year-old boys who have found themselves—let’s say—having had an interaction with the juvenile justice system. They’ve been assigned probation officers, and there is something now on their record. These boys are given an opportunity for 13 weeks to participate in a program where they are given tools and resources that help prepare them and equip them for a better future—for a more hopeful future—by helping them consider, stop now, and plan. (That’s what SNAP stands for: Stop Now And Plan.) By helping them consider how they can better manage their emotional and behavioral responses to experiences and challenges that they face in their environment.
Trinity, we get to be part of helping make this happen because of our commitment to having a campus not only here in Northwest Gainesville but also in Northeast Gainesville, where we can be engaged with our community in ministry and care for those who are in our community.
And these boys, if they complete the program, one of the benefits to them is not only—hopefully—the improved long-term trajectory of their lives, but also the immediate commutation or shortening of whatever sentence they have been assigned. This is good news, friends, for them and for us and for our whole community.
I also want to say a word today about the ways in which Trinity is addressing food needs in our community. You know about some of these—the Thanksgiving baskets that you saw photos of, and that Marisa told us about. Just a week ago, we received a request from Food for Kids because there was a gap in services being provided to kids at Rawlings Elementary School.
You see, every week, there’s a plan in place for children who rely on the food they get at school to have backpacks that go home with them for the weekend to ensure they still get good nutrition over the weekend. But there was no plan for this whole week when they are out of school—the entire week of Thanksgiving. And we, because of the collective generosity of Trinity, were able to respond to Food for Kids and say, “Yes. We will meet that need. We will make sure those kids get what they need for this break.”
We also, right now, are involved in a collaborative effort with other congregations in our community in an ongoing food drive to make sure that some immigrant women and children in our community have food on their tables in a time when they are not sure where the next meal will be coming from.
We see them. We care for them as persons of sacred worth. Trinity, we get to be part of making sure that folks don't go hungry—which, if I read the parable about the sheep and the goats right, is exactly what Jesus told us to do.
Lastly, when it comes to food support: Trinity, over the last couple of years, has grown from having one to two to now three locations in our community where we offer a mobile food pantry—a place where, once a month, people can come and receive the food they need.
And today, rather than me telling you about that piece, I want you to hear it in the voices of some of the people who are coming and both receiving and serving in that ministry. Let's take a look: https://youtu.be/ttf3AniLFKQ
You know, this past week was the Wednesday when it was time for us to host the mobile food pantry that happens here at this campus. And one thing I noticed this past week was how long the line was—longer than I’ve seen it before, my friends. Because there is significant need. Thank you, Trinity, for trying to make a difference—for being part of the solution for the needs that people have in our community.
As we look ahead toward a new year, and all that we might be called and invited to do together. And today, as those of you who call Trinity home consider what your part will be in terms of your service and also your generosity, and as we bring pledge cards forward. I just want you to know how grateful I am to serve a church that is showing up with love in the world. A church that is really trying to pay attention to where God is leading us. Imperfectly—we’re not all the way there yet, right? We’re all on a journey. But friends, we continue to try to show up, because the character of our witness matters.
And so, hear the good news this morning: the King is coming. And while we wait for the final good news of the Kingdom being as it was meant to be, let us not fall asleep. Let us not grow weary. Let us not give up hope. But let us press on, holding on to the mindset that is ours because of the One who has shown us the way.
Amen.