Philippians 2.3-11

On January 28, 1986, NASA was planning to launch the space shuttle Challenger from Kennedy Space Center—a mission that included a schoolteacher named Christa McAuliffe. The launch had already been delayed a few times. On the night before the new launch date, NASA held a long conference call with engineers from Morton-Thiokol, the contractor that built the Challenger’s solid-rocket motors. Allan McDonald was one of the Thiokol engineers.

On the day of the launch it was unusually cold in Florida, which concerned McDonald because he feared that his company’s o-ring seals in the Challenger’s big joints wouldn’t operate properly at that temperature. Since the boosters had never been tested below 53 degrees McDonald recommended the launch be postponed again.

But NASA officials overruled McDonald and requested that the “responsible Morton-Thiokol official” sign off on the decision to launch. McDonald refused to sign the request, but his boss did. The next morning McDonald—and millions of people around the globe—watched as a mere 73 seconds into the flight, the shuttle burst into flames.

After the accident, a review showed the cause of the explosion to be what McDonald had feared: the o-rings failed to hold their seal in the cold temperature. In other words, some people in the know had foreseen the exact cause of failure. So why, even with that warning, did NASA push on? Allen McDonald claims that NASA fell prey to the oldest and most basic sin—pride. 

McDonald said:

NASA [had become] too successful. They had gotten by for a quarter of a century and had never lost a single person going into space … And they had rescued the Apollo 13 halfway to the moon when part of the vehicle blew up. Seemed like it was an impossible task, but they did it. So how could this cold o-ring cause a problem when they had done so much over the past years to be successful? [All of this success] gives you a little bit of arrogance you shouldn’t have … But they hadn’t stumbled yet and they just pressed on.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Pride comes before a fall,”?

Well, I don’t know if you know this or not but this saying comes directly from the Bible.

The book of Proverbs, the book known for it’s Godly wisdom, says this, in chapter 16, verse 18:

[18] Pride goes before destruction,

and a haughty spirit before a fall. (ESV)

Why does pride come before a failing in your life?

Well, pride comes before a failure because pride causes you to think of yourself as an ultimate authority.  And, being an ultimate authority causes you to be arrogant and unwilling to seek help or listen to the advice of others who are more experienced than you.

We can even say that pride came before the original Fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden.

In the Garden of Eden, man and woman lived in perfect harmony with God, their Creator.  However, when the idea that they could possibly be better than God, know more than God, and make better decisions than God, entered their minds, they decided to trust themselves and do what they wanted, instead of trusting the very essence of love and wisdom—God.

Pride came before the first human Fall that has since affected every person who has lived after Adam and Eve.

Today, we celebrate Palm Sunday.  Many times, we view this event from a place of pride as we think that this is the day that Jesus shows up in town and “sticks it to the man” by showing the world how great He is.

But, the truth of the matter is that for Jesus, Palm Sunday is a day of humility.  Palm Sunday is the day that a humble servant rode a humble animal into a city that would humiliate him by killing him for the crimes of others.  And, Jesus willing did all of this, to be a humble servant of both God and you.  Even though He was God-in-the-flesh, Jesus chose the hard and low road to do what was needed to be done for God’s glory and your good, regardless of how degrading it was to His character.

In this morning’s text, chosen for us by the Epistle section of the lectionary, Jesus’ Palm Sunday, Jesus’ Good Friday, and Jesus’s Easter morning experiences are described in such a way that they are reframed as an exhortation.  In the words we are going to hear now, we are told that a life of faith is a life given to us for the purpose of following Jesus in humility so that God is glorified and others find themselves covered by God’s grace.

Let’s here from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians gathered in the city of Philippi during the 1st Century A.D.

Philippians 2.3-11 says this to you:

[3] Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. [4] Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. [5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)

Here at Bethel, we are not ashamed to do what the Bible does.  So, we proclaim over and over again that you are not saved from your Sin by doing good works but by faith in Jesus alone.

However, in this morning’s Biblical text, as in many Biblical texts, we are exhorted to do the good work of humbly living in a God pleasing way. 

So, what gives?  

Well, let’s hear a little bit about how faith and works are intimately connected.

The disciple Matthew recorded the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:14–16 which tell us this:

[14] “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. [15] Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. [16] In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (ESV)

In another letter to another city, the Apostle Paul writes this in Ephesians 2:8–10:

[8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast. [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (ESV)

The Christian life is a life saved by God for the glory of God and the good of others.  The new life created by faith in Jesus Christ is a life created to do good works, not for self-aggrandizement, but for helping those around us in their moments of need.

And, to do good works that first and foremost benefit others is a life of humility beau’s we are choosing to help others first instead of helping ourselves first.

Why do we need the exhortation to be humble?  Because it is very easy to be arrogant and prideful.  Do to the self-centering nature of Sin, we easily fall for the lie that we are the best, the wisest, the most knowledgable, the greatest in talent, and therefore deserve unending praise and recognition for our greatness.

To be prideful is to lift ourselves up.

To be humble is to lift others up.

In an episode of the 1990s television comedy, Seinfeld, famously known for being about “Nothing,” the star of the show, comedian Jerry Seinfeld goes into a new restaurant in his neighborhood owned by a Pakistani immigrant.  Seinfeld goes into the establishment to support the owner after seeing that he was struggling for customers.

As Seinfeld sits in the restaurant waiting for his meal to be delivered to the table, his inner monologue is revealed and he says, “I am a kind man. Who else would do something like this?  Nobody.  Nobody thinks about people the way I do!”

But, his thinking is quickly readjusted when he realizes how ridiculous he is being.

Seinfeld’s inner monologue continues on with, “All right, snap out of it you stupid jerk.  You’re eating a turkey sandwich.  What do you want, a Nobel Prize?”

We may laugh at this situation, but part of the reason that we laugh is because it is so relatable.  We see ourselves and hear our own voices in Seinfeld’s experience.

It is very easy to order a turkey sandwich and then immediately congratulate ourselves thinking we deserve an award that is recognized by the whole world.

On Friday, I had the opportunity to attend one of our school district’s Challenger basketball games.

The Challenger league is a division of our basketball program designed to allow our students with physical and intellectual special needs to participate in sports.

What I witnessed was nothing short of how our Biblical text defines humility.  During the game, there was no rivalry, each player was focused on helping and congratulating every other player—both on their team and on the opposing team, and others were consistently considered more important than the self.

This is how the game went:

Player A was given the ball and allowed to run down court.  They were given as many chances to score as it took.  If they missed, the players on their team and the opposing team would rebound the ball and pass it back to Player A.

After Player A scored, Player B was passed the ball.  Player B was allowed to run down the court and stand in front of the hoop shooting as many shots as they needed to make a basket.  

Again, the players on their team and the opposing team would rebound the ball and pass it back to Player B until they scored 2 points.

This went on for all four 8 minute quarters.  

When it neared the end of a quarter, the clock was stopped before the buzzer to allow the current ball holder to score before the buzzer.

This is humility.  Everyone looking out for everyone else’s best interest.

No one was interested in being the star player.

No one was interested in scoring 10 points when their teammates had scored 0 points.

No one was interested in winning the game.  The score was always tied and kept even.

This week, I was reading a recently released book titled, Disentangled: Taming Your Thoughts and Feelings to Live Freely for Jesus.

In the book, author Jo Johnson, points out that every day we makes countless decisions about what we will think, what we will believe, what will say, and what we will do.  In each of these decisions, we choose to either make a move TOWARD God and His will for us, or, AWAY from God and His will for us.  In a restatement of the greatest command and the close second commandment as taught by Jesus, Johnson points out that God’s will is that we live looking up to Him and out to others.

Palm Sunday shows us that Jesus always decides to live TOWARD God’s will by always looking up to God and out to others. 

Jesus wasn’t coming into the city of Jerusalem riding a war horse and brandishing armor, a sword and wearing a royal cape.  

No, Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, the humble servant’s animal used for daily tasks, signifying to the people in the streets and to you today that He was a man of humility, peace, and service.  

Jesus was humble in that He didn’t consider His equality with God something to be held tightly onto.  Instead, Jesus left His throne in Heaven to be born into a human body, the human body of a humble working class carpenter’s son.  In that humble human estate, Jesus, God-in-the-Flesh, would be questioned, doubted, mocked, and eventually crucified on the cross (even though he was completely innocent of all charges), thinking only of your good, your need for forgiveness, and your need for reconciliation with God your Father in Heaven.

In line with the Challenger basketball game that I just described, here is what happened: after Jesus scored the ultimate and final goal of the game, securing victory over Sin and Death, He immediately passes His life to you so that you can score and have the same exact experience that He has—victory over Sin and Death culminating in forgiveness and eternal life in God’s Kingdom of Heaven.

President Theodore Roosevelt’s love of the outdoors is well documented. He was responsible for the creation of several national parks and monuments. In his first inaugural address, he spoke freely of the blessings of God upon our nation, saying, “I reverently invoke for my guidance the direction and favor of Almighty God.”

It is said that when President Roosevelt entertained diplomatic guests at the White House he was fond of taking them out to the back lawn at the end of the day. As the president stood gazing at the night sky, all eyes would eventually be cast heavenward, as his were. In his day, the vast array of stars was not dimmed by the city lights, and the magnificent display of God’s brilliant creation would overcome the party. After a long moment, Mr. Roosevelt would say, “Gentlemen, I believe we are small enough now. Let’s go to bed.”

This morning’s text from Philippians tells us that Jesus’ humility led God to exalt Him to the place of honor in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus was exalted to the place of being your Savior and Lord.

In a similar way, as we demonstrate our faith to the world by living TOWARD God’s will through looking up to Him and out to others, we too will be exalted and lifted up to a place of honor in God’s Kingdom of Heaven.  You are exalted to the place of being a child and friend of God forever.

First, I leave you with the call to humility from Jesus’ brother James who exhorts you with these words:

[10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:10, ESV)

Second, I leave you with Jesus’ words found in Matthew 23:11–12:

[11] The greatest among you shall be your servant. [12] Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (ESV)

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

March 29, 2026.