Building a future not our own

 

Philippians 2: 1-13
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
September 27, 2026

Photo of two flat stones painted white, with blue letters outlined in black that spell "I'M U".

When I read Paul’s words “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others”, I thought of the dubious claim that the first sign of civilization is a healed femur. Archaeologists have theorized that pottery shards, the division of labor, or the ability to keep records are more likely signs, but proof of altruism is what we’d like to think separates us from the animal kingdom and makes us civilized. The idea is that instead of focusing on one’s own survival by abandoning a person so severely injured, in order for a broken femur to heal, someone would have to stay with that person—supplying them with food and water and keeping them warm until they were able to do that for themselves.



Even though that idea is attractive to us, both chimpanzees and elephants have been observed treating the injuries of others in their group, dolphins have been known to guide lost whales, and wolves care for their sick and older pack members. Empathy is not unique to human beings but to any life form that survives through interdependence.



Most of us learned in school about Darwin’s theory of evolution known as “survival of the fittest”. His theory is that we adapt and survive as part of a competition for food, water, safety, mates, and certainly that has been part of the existence of life. But what happens when competing communities or groups need each other in order to survive? In the United Church of Christ there are conferences in PA and southern New England that are merging identities and resources in order to survive, but they are having more difficulty sharing than you would think. American individualism has created an atmosphere of “We would rather die alone than live together” not only in the church but also in our body politic, when the truth is, we cannot survive without each other.



I think what Paul is asking the people of Philippi, and us, is to go a step further than sharing or empathy or interdependence. He writes, “Regard others as better than yourselves”. Rather than exploit our advantages, we are to empty ourselves of our ego and privilege and instead use those to be in service to others.



Take for instance Father Vidal Rivas, an Episcopal priest in Silver Spring, MD who is the standby guardian for 31 children should their parents be taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He and his wife have already had to care for two of those children, ages 4 and 18 mos., for four months when their mother was detained at an appointment as part of the asylum process—a process that is completely legal, by the way. Inside the St. Matthew’s parish hangs a sign in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole that reads “We love migrants”.



Rivas grew up in El Salvador, where Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated for speaking out against social injustice and violence. It was Romero who said we are prophets of a future not our own. Rivas knows that if he and his wife take in more children it would be a tremendous challenge, but he feels that it is a moral obligation. He plans to open a bank account in the church’s name to accept donations to help with whatever the children will need.



During one of our visioning sessions this weekend, we talked about knowing our “why” which then helps us achieve our “what” of our mission and “how” we will accomplish that mission. Knowing our “why” is what helps us regard others as better than ourselves and to look to their interests above our own. Paul’s “why” is that every knee should bend and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. He loves Jesus so much because of what Jesus did for him, that he wants everyone to love Jesus that they may know the love of Jesus.



Our “why” we do church, why we’re building affordable housing, why we’re building relationships, why we do social justice, why we engage in spiritual growth is not about us and our needs. How it fulfills us and transforms us is the spiritual icing on the cake, but it’s not the “why”.



Yesterday, the Rev. Monica Lewis, who led us through our visioning weekend, asked us to take a moment and think about what is the one thing about Jesus that keeps us coming back for more, our non-negotiable belief about who Jesus is. Take a moment now and think of your one thing about Jesus. That is our individual and our collective “why”. We want to be and do the Jesus things. We want to love as Jesus loved because we know what that love means to us. We want to hang out with people that Jesus hung out with because we know what that means to people who feel like they don’t belong. We want to make a difference in people’s lives the way Jesus did because he told us that the kindom lives within us and around us and it starts when we move in.



Like Jesus, we are building a future not for us but for those who will come after us. Not for our own interests but for the interests of others, which is one of the hardest paths to follow, and yet it is the way of interdependence. Poet Wendell Berry tells us:


Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.

…Practice resurrection.



Beloveds, as it has been, so it continues that God is at work in us, enabling us to will and to work for God’s good pleasure. May it be so. Amen.

Benediction – enfleshed.com

As the whole earth groans for freedom,
we will find our way through practices of love.
Love that is generous.
Love that is bold.
Love that is reciprocal and risky.
Love that does not abandon nor neglect,
but is fulfilled in the joy of giving and receiving.
Seeking liberation for all life, let us go and live with faith.