When Pride Blocks the Path
Philippians 2:1-13 (CEB) · Fresh Start · Native American Ministries Sunday
A note: This is the manuscript I preached at the 10:15 AM service on Native American Ministries Sunday. Pastor Chantel Makarawa, our Associate Pastor, preached her own message at the 8:30 AM service on the same scripture.
— Pastor Andrew“The path down is the path forward.”
This Sunday is Native American Ministries Sunday. The Fresh Start series turns to Philippians 2 and the ancient Christ Hymn, where Paul shows a Jesus who had every right to claim divine status and chose to empty himself instead. The sermon traces that same downward pattern through King David and John Wesley, and asks what it shapes for the church when justice gets rooted in love instead of charity from above.
In the manuscript below:
Why pride disguises itself as competence, standards, or knowing better, and what it quietly closes off.
Why John Wesley borrowed King David’s “I will be yet more vile than this” phrase the day he first preached to coal miners outside Bristol.
The Christ Hymn’s “therefore,” and why exaltation comes because of the emptying, not despite it.
What justice looks like when it is rooted in love rather than charity from above, and what that means for the church on Native American Ministries Sunday.
