Sunday, December 28, 2014

Holy Nights, December 28, 2014, Grow Me

Philippians 2: 5 – 16
December 28, 2014

Be imbued with the same state of mind that also filled Christ Jesus himself: For, although he was of divine nature and form, he chose not to lay claim for himself to be equal to God.  Rather, he emptied himself in offering and took on the form of a servant. In human form he took on body and he showed himself in the form of a man throughout his whole life. Humbly and selflessly he submitted to the laws of earth-existence, even to the experience of the death on the cross.
Therefore God has also exalted him to the highest heights and given him the name which is above every other name. 

In the name of Jesus the knees of all beings should bow, in the heavens, on the earth, and in the depths of existence. And so that the Father, the Ground of all existence shall be revealed, every tongue should acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord!

Therefore, my dear friends, just as you always did—listen to the voice of the spirit, not only when I am with you, but now all the more since I am far away from you. Work with anxious effort and trembling expectation, to the end that the realm of healing power may open to you. For it is God who awakens the will in you and who brings about the fulfillment, so that everything can become good.

Do not let yourselves be held back in that work by sluggishness of the will or by restless thoughts which make you indecisive. , Only so can you live, without blemish and falseness, as pure, “children of God in the midst of a dissipated and twisted humanity.” You are to shine among human beings like bright stars in the sky by keeping to the Word of Life.


Holy Nights
December 28, 2014

Philippians 2: 5 – 16

The sky can be filled with clouds. They can obscure the light of the sun. But above the clouds, the sun continues to shine forth its brightness, illuminating the clouds themselves.  Even when the sun sets, seeming to be swallowed up by darkness, it is nonetheless shining, continuing to illuminate the earth.

Christ, the Light of the World, the Sun-God, entered the form of the human being. Gradually his brightness was clouded over by the human constitution, until finally, like the sun at the end of the day, His light seemed to disappear into the darkness of death. Yet He continued to shine in the depths. He is the seed that will grow the earth into a new sun, a new star.

Since then, Christ has entered the form of all human beings. He dwells in us as a Light-Seed, as the potential for us to become shining miniature suns. He hopes we will hear his voice calling us, as the voice within that says: Become! Develop! Grow me within you!

He is waiting for us to cultivate Him in the depths of our souls, in the hearts of our communities, to grow His being in us.


“For [as Paul says] we are to shine…like bright stars in the sky by keeping to the Word of Life.”