A celebration of giving up

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross! (Phil 2:5-8)
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The first sermon I ever preached was on this passage. It was in a small, very rural, very poor community in Balimo, Papua New Guinea. It was just before Christmas. I was a 21-year-old medical student at the time. The theme of my sermon was what Jesus had given up for us in coming to this earth. 

Sometimes, we can get caught up in the idea that Christmas is all about getting. After all, that is the message that our consumer culture is constantly trying to sell to us. Of course, most of us will be giving a lot this Christmas, but at the same time many of us will also be getting: more presents, more stuff, more food, more chocolates and probably more drink!

Yet if we return to what Jesus actually did in the incarnation, we can see that the story is all about someone who gave up, not someone who got. In that sermon in Papua New Guinea, I pointed out how Jesus gave up:

• The wealth of heaven for the poverty of his life here
• The glory of heaven for the shame of his life here
• The respect of heaven for the insults of his life here
• The authority of heaven for the weakness of his life here
• The status of heaven for the humility of his life here

I finished by pointing to John 20:21, 'As the father has sent me, so I send you.' It seems to me therefore that if we are truly to follow Jesus this Christmas, we should try to make it a celebration of giving up, rather than a consumer feast of getting. For that is the example our Lord and Saviour gave to us. 
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