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The morning is from Paul's letter to the Philippians, chapter 2. I begin the reading at the verse numbered 4. "Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not

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count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which

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is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." And may the Spirit that inspired these words incline our hearts as we seek to

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understand them. Pray with me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. The earliest work of art which we have from the hand of Michelangelo is a low relief entitled "The Madonna of the Stairs." Mary is pictured with the infant

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Jesus asleep in her arms, and behind them there are two boys holding a cloth and ascending a set of stairs. Now this piece of art is remarkable for three reasons. First of all, because it was sculpted by a youngster only 15 years old. Second, because it is a genuine artistic treasure. It has been carved with such

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skill that the cold stone looks like warm flesh. But third, this carving is quite remarkable because at one and the same time it carries two messages. First obviously is the birth of Jesus, the child asleep in its mother's arm. But there's more than that, for the railing on the staircase behind the Madonna and

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the child is in the form of a cross, and the cloth being carried by the two boys is in the form of a shroud, and the boys are ascending the staircase as if it were a ladder. And one is immediately reminded of how they used ladders to bring Jesus' dead body down from the cross. In one piece of art, Michelangelo

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has shown us on the one hand the birth of Jesus and on the other his crucifixion. Now this passage from Philippians, which I have just read for you, does the same thing. It starts with the announcement of the birth of Jesus. It goes on to discuss his sacrificial death. It is in the compass of only seven

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verses the story of the sacrificial love of God. Paul begins by saying to the Philippians, and by projection to us, that we should have in us the mind of Christ. He says that we are not to put our own interests first, but rather the interests of others, and then illustrating that by pointing to Jesus he says that though

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Jesus was in the form of God, he did not count this as something to be grasped, something to be clutched. Now this word "form," Jesus being in the form of God, means that in his essential nature, Jesus and God are the same. If I were to come before you this morning with some flowers, let's say a rose and a daisy

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and a pansy and a sprig of lilac and some holly, and show you these, you would immediately know, although they look quite different from one another, that they all were flowers. They all had the essential same form or inner nature. So Jesus, though when here on earth having a different form from God, at the same time

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was essentially one with God. Paul is reminding us, you see, that the only begotten Son of God was present from the dawn of creation. He was the one who with his Father and the Holy Spirit moved the cosmic masses to bring into existence the biosphere. He was the one who prompted all instinct and thought. It's

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the blessed Trinity that is behind the eras of expectancy and the labors of anonymous primitive people and the anxious expectancies of Israel and the atter of oriental mysticism and the constant refining of wisdom which we find in the Greek culture. All of this was prompted, all of this was moved

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anticipatory to his coming by God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We're talking here about one who is very God of very God. But Paul says he emptied himself, he lowered himself, he exchanged the royalty of heaven for the rags of a Palestinian peasant. I remember vividly, and I'm sure you do too, back in 1967 when

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Premier Kosygin, who was at that time the communist dictator of the Soviet Union, was here for the occasion of the meeting of the United Nations. And it was felt by all that it would be good for Kosygin and America's president Lyndon Johnson to meet while he was here. But Kosygin was unwilling to come to Washington and

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Johnson was unwilling to go to New York. Neither one was willing to go all the way to meet the other and so they finally worked out a compromise and they met in Glassboro, New Jersey halfway between the two points. These two men of the world were unwilling to go all the way. But what Paul says is that Jesus

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emptied himself of his godly nature. He went all the way. Paul even goes further, he says he took upon himself the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And there's that word "form" again, in other words, he became essentially a man, not just an outward appearance. Our outward appearance changes, we become

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older, grayer, balder, more wrinkled, whatever the case may be. But we are still the same within for we have an inner essence and what Paul is saying is that Jesus, even as he was one with God in his essential nature, so he became one with man in his essential nature. He left the mansions to come into a manger.

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Now don't idolize that and please don't romanticize it. In those days, stables were caves. There was no light therein, perhaps the dimly burning wick of an oil lamp. All about were the animals and the smell and the ophel and the things associated with them, their moist eyes looking out on the scene. Perhaps

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they could hear somewhere out on the edge of town some dogs barking because the shepherds seemed to be disturbed that night. Mary probably delivered her own child because it was considered to be a matter of ritual impurity for a Jewish man to be involved in the birth of a child. And when she uttered that

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last cry and the baby came forth red and screaming into the cold world, she probably fell back, not even looking at the baby but staring up, perhaps blindly, at the rock ceiling above her. And then Joseph came and with some coarse cloth he wrapped the baby to protect it against the cold of the night. That's the

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degree of stepping down, that's the degree of sacrifice and love from the splendors of glory to a cold cave. And Paul continues by pointing out that not only did Jesus humble himself, but he was obedient unto death, even death on a cross. When Moses was talking about the cross centuries earlier, he said that

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death upon the cross was so awful that when a one was put to death in such a way, the body should be taken down as soon as death was accomplished, lest the very presence of that cross curse the land. And Cicero, one of the most articulate of all the Romans, said that when it came to describing crucifixion,

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he did not have the words. And it is no accident that when it came time for Paul to die, he did not allow himself to be crucified, but exercised his Roman citizenship and chose to be beheaded instead. Now I know that some of you are thinking this is rather hard talk for an Advent Sunday, and I think we all feel

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this way because we would like our history sweet and pure with all the uglinesses filtered out of it. It's very nice to think that God in the person of his Son so humbled himself for us. It's not nearly so nice to think of the sight and the smell of afterbirth on a mud floor, but that's what it was, that kind

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of sacrifice, that kind of offering, that kind of love. This was the mind of Christ. And Paul says this mind is to be in us. There's a wonderful cartoon strip in the Peanuts series in which Charlie Brown and Linus are standing outside and they're looking up at the night sky, and Charlie Brown says "It's beautiful, isn't

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it?" and Linus says "Yes." And Charlie Brown says "Would you like to see a shooting star?" and Linus says "Oh yes, but no, on second thought, I would not want a star to fall just for me." Well, the beauty of the Christmas gospel is precisely that, that the brightest of all stars, the bright and morning star, the only begotten

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Son of God fell for us. That's the Christmas wonder of wonders. And of course whenever you think about that, you come eventually, if you're honest in your own spirit, to the point where you acknowledge that anyone who follows the lead of that falling star is going to be called to sacrifice and service and to

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love, just as Jesus demonstrated. The wise men followed the star and look where it took them, into that stable. The Scriptures say it is not by might, it is not by power, it is by the Spirit of God. And what is the Spirit of God? The Spirit of God is loving, humbling sacrifice, thinking more of the interests of

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others than of the self. There's another place where the Apostle Paul says that God chooses what is weak in the world to shame that which is strong, that which pours itself out, empties itself. He chooses that rather than that which exalts itself and asserts itself in strength and power. You know, about 40

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years before Jesus was born, the Roman poet Virgil in his fourth Ecologue talked about the coming of a Savior to the Roman Empire. Now he was not talking about Jesus, he was talking about the birth of Octavius, whom he assumed would eventually ascend to the throne of the Caesars. Fifteen years later, Octavius

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defeated Antony and Cleopatra and did become Augustus Caesar, and he ordered his subjects to call him the Son of God, the Son of the Divine One. And some years after that, just about nine years before Jesus was born, a message was sent out from Rome to all the corners of the Roman Empire calling attention to the

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fact that it was the Emperor's birthday, and the word with which that message began was the word "gospel." "Good news! The Emperor's birthday." You see, it's no accident that when Luke sat down to write about the birth of Jesus, he used exactly the same words which had been used by Octavius Augustus Caesar about

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himself. Luke writes about a Savior, Luke writes about the Son of God, Luke writes about the gospel, the good news, but he's not talking about a Caesar or a throne, he's talking about a baby in a crib. Yet today, preachers don't preach about Augustus Caesar, they preach about that baby. And today, healers lay their hands

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on others and heal them not in the name of Octavius, but in the name of that baby. And when prisoners pray for mercy, they don't pray with their hand upon the fascis of Roman authority, they pray in the name of the mercy of Jesus. And when kings are crowned and presidents takes the oath of office, they do it in the

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name of Jesus, not Caesar. What's being said, you see, is this, that the beauty of God is to be found in humble, sacrificing service, demonstrated preeminently, sublimely, beyond our capacity to imagine in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That's the mind of God, that's the mind of God seen in his Son Christ, and that's the

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mind, Paul says, that should be in all of us. Carlisle Marnie, the great preacher, said once at a luncheon that I was privileged to be attending, he was talking about a Sunday school class that he taught years and years before for a bunch of little boys, and he even remembered the name of

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this youngster. He said there was a boy in the class whose name was Rusty Dixon, and Rusty said one day in class, "I ain't never run into God anywhere direct or anything, but I've seen some real Jesuses around." That's what it is to have the mind of Christ, to be one of those Jesuses that's around. You know, whenever

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any minister steps into his pulpit, if he's serious about his preaching, he asks himself one question, "What would Jesus have me say?" I've wondered, "What would Jesus have me say this morning and this second Sunday of Advent?" It's interesting when you observe his teachings that Jesus often referred to

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things around him. If he was sitting preaching and nearby there was a field with lilies growing in it, he would talk about the lilies of the field, and if over here there was a sower going out to sow, he would talk about spreading the gospel just as seed is spread. Or if he was going to talk about the kingdom of

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heaven, he might take some children who were playing in the yard next door. Or as he and the disciples walked past a fig tree or a vineyard, he would tell a parable that utilized either the tree or the grapes and the vines. He used the things about him. So perhaps, and God forgive me if I'm wrong, but perhaps if

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Jesus were standing in this pulpit this morning in this commercial center all bedecked as it is for Christmas, he might say something like this, "Dearly beloved, I want you to think for a moment about my servant, Nicholas. He was born of wealthy parents about 300 years after I was born. He first saw the light of day

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in a little town called Patera in Asia Minor. He lost his parents when he was still very young. They died in an epidemic, but not before they had brought him to faith in me. And my servant, Nicholas, sought to serve me with everything he had and was. He let my mind become his mind. Indeed, as I think back

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on him this morning," Jesus might say, "I see his whole life as a kind of Bethlehem. He was jailed for what he believed by one Roman Emperor, but then later was released. What he's most remembered for is his compassion and his sacrifice. He would go and comfort the lonely, he would visit the sick, he encouraged the

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frightened, he would himself go out on the streets and beg food in order to give it to those who were hungry, and he even paid the dowries of poor girls who couldn't get a husband in any other way. But most of all, he was remembered because at this time of the year he would don a disguise and he would go

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about and leave toys for poor little boys and girls. He left the earth to come to heaven, to glory, in 341. But he's never been forgotten. As a matter of fact, my servant Nicholas has had more churches named after him than any other servant of mine who's ever lived. Saint Nicholas. Of course, across the years, you folks

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have made a lot of changes in him. One of your people, Clement Moore, gave him a nose like a cherry and ate tiny reindeer, and one of your cartoonists, Thomas Nast, made him fat and gave him a white beard and put him in a red suit, and he's been made into a kind of salesman for toys and cars and Coca-Cola and everything

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else that you can imagine. But my servant Nicholas, or Chris Kringle or Belts Nickel or Santa Claus, whatever it is you call him now, he is still a symbol of generosity to young and to old, of compassion, of sharing with those who do not have. He has my mind in him. And Jesus might go on to say, "As I look at the

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world today, I see that it is very far from me. Sin is beastly, the plight of the poor is desperate, and moral depravity is on every hand. But I still see some places where the star shines in the darkness and hope endures, because there are people who, just as I emptied myself and just as my servant Nicholas emptied

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himself, there are still people who empty themselves. There are still Jesus's around. Love is the greatest thing in the world, because I am love. Service is the greatest thing in the world, because I am service. Sacrifice is the greatest thing in the world, because I am sacrifice." That's the reason I plead with you

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through my servant Paul not to look after your own interests, but to be first of all concerned for the interests of others. And Jesus might conclude by saying, "There is a question that I often hear you ask at Christmas time. Do you believe in Santa Claus? I'd like you to know that I do. I believe in my servant

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Nicholas. I believe in those who have my mind in them, who love and who give and who sacrifice in the service of others, even as I did and as my beloved Nicholas did." And here is a thought that might be worth your thinking this morning or throughout all of Advent or indeed for all of your life. The proper question is

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not, "Do you believe in Santa Claus?" The proper question is, "Would Santa Claus, would Nicholas, would the Jesuses around, would they believe in you?" Let us pray. [Prayer is offered]

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Our Father, now, as we approach the table which symbolizes for us the self-offering of your Son, lead us to think of our own living and to ask ourselves, "Would someone say on seeing us, 'There's another Nicholas, there's another Jesus who's around?'" We pray our prayer in our Savior's name, amen.

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Ew.