Humble Service -- Philippians 1:27-2:13 (24th Sunday After Pentecost)
Photo credit: Annie Spratt, used with permission via Unsplash
Confession: I was not thrilled when I was chosen to clean the toilets at the Iona Abbey. I mean, I knew that there would be a reckoning – that, at some point, early on in my stay, I would find out “the work that was mine to do.”
On my first visit to Iona in 2009, I washed dishes.
On my second in 2018, I cleaned basins, which means “sinks.”
At the Abbey, everyone has a chore (or two). I knew the drill.
This time, early Saturday afternoon, we arrived on the ferry, walked to the Abbey, and they gathered us in the dining hall for tea. As part of the orientation, they told us that we’d have daily chores. And at dinner that night, they sorted us out into the various teams – laundry, gardening, sweeping, bathrooms and loos. (Think: Harry Potter and the Sorting Hat.)
I was chosen for the bathroom and loo team. One of the staff members convened our team to give us our specific bathroom assignments – showers, basins, or toilets. You know the rest of the story – I got toilets.
I kept smiling, but I was not thrilled. Together, my two teammates and I had 5 bathrooms to clean. So every morning, after breakfast and morning prayer – when we left sanctuary “to worship God elsewhere” – I’d go to the housekeeping closet, put on my red apron, squeeze into the rubber gloves, pick up my plastic pail of cleaning supplies – and kneel, toilet after toilet, to swirl, and scour, and flush... and then take out the bathroom trash.
This morning’s Scripture opens with this lovely call to Humble Service. I cannot say that my toilet cleaning at Iona was humble service, really at all. It was grudging. Deep down, I may not have been my best self when we got our assignments. We could say that it was HUMBLED service.
This morning’s scripture is so much more grace-filled than that.
Let’s remember where we are. We are in the second chapter of Philippians; last Sunday we talked about the first.[1] The Apostle Paul is in prison –a prison he will not leave alive. He previously had formed a strong bond with the saints who are in Philippi – the house-church there. And when they hear he is in prison, they send help – both financial support and they send a member of the community to help see to his needs in prison.
Chapter One is filled with Paul’s thanksgiving and joy. I thank God every time I remember you, in all my prayers I pray for you all the time. He names all that they have shared and continue to share in Christ – in community – their partnership in the gospel, God’s love and grace, a life together as a family of faith – dear siblings in Christ.
In his deep thanks, the Apostle re-grounds their life in Christ – expresses what he calls “the affection of Christ” – Christ in every bit of life – “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”Even separated by many miles and prison walls, all the saints are somehow and always together in Christ. Christ is their steady place to stand in every circumstance.
As this morning’s scripture opens, Paul writes about how – from that steady place – they should now live: “Whatever the circumstance – live all this out – live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” We are the Body of Christ; this is how we live out who we are. That means, embracing – like Christ – as the Body of Christ – embracing, a life of humble service.
Chapter 2 begins with an important “If... then.” IF we find any encouragement in Christ (and we do), then live your life like this. IF we find any comfort from Christ’s love (and we do), then live your life like this. IF we have any tenderness or compassion (and we do), then live your life like this: Do nothing out of selfish ambition...rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but looking to the interests of others. Like Jesus, as Christ, in humility, and love, and comfort, and compassion, live life looking to the interests of others. Humble service.
When I think of this humble service, I think first of our deacons – the folks in our congregation charged with leading our life of mutual care. The deacons provide meals when folks are sick, or recovering from surgery, or dying. They offer rides to doctor’s appointments. They love grieving families at our memorial services, quietly preparing a reception in the background. They gather money for the deacons fund, and distribute it to those who have need. They do this not for glory and praise. When I’ve heard them talk about why they do it, they say, “It’s because that’s who we are. [Who WE are.] We care for each other.” And it’s not just the deacons – there are many in this room, who join in that work. With humility, look to the interests of others.
I think of parents who care for their kids – in infancy, doing all the things that their kids cannot do on their own – changing diapers, late nights awake – and as their kids grow, loving them to the point that they are ready to go out into the world as adults.
I think of those among us who have cared for adult loved ones – a spouse or a parent. We know Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. If you’ve ever bathed someone else – as uncomfortable as that might be – that is humble service, really of the most lovely kind. Maybe you can feel something like that in your bones.
How we live out who we are in Jesus Christ – as the Body of Christ – is in lives of humble service. But the Apostle Paul doesn’t stop there. This isn’t just about giving up our self-interest and our time and our discomfort to care for the interests of others.
The Apostle Paul is also writing about giving up privilege. In their day, humble service wouldn’t have been something to be celebrated. They lived in a world of hierarchy – with structures and levels of power-over– perhaps even more fixed than ours. It was a catastrophe to be taken down a notch – not something to be actively sought. All this “servant and slave” language that the Apostle Paul uses – from his first words in this letter: Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus – it is completely counter-cultural. And it is revolutionary. This is the opposite of how you live out your lives under the order of Empire. The Apostle imagines a world in Christ without separation and power over – where the very systems and structures of power crumble and fall.
Why would anyone do this – humbling oneself into this humble service and status? Paul anticipates that question.
Be like Christ. That’s why.
Have the same mind in Christ, who being in the very nature God, gave up every bit of privilege and power to become a servant, a slave, a limited human being.
What begins in verse 6 is what scholars think is one of the earliest Christian hymns we have. The poetry of that hymn traces how Jesus empties himself of all power and privilege:
Christ who was in the very nature God,
made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
made in human likeness,
humbled himself,
obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
Live as the Body of Christ – in humble service and in relinquishing every bit of power-over and privilege. There’s some of that in those tender acts of humble service – giving up the privilege to act selfishly – only for our own good, and doing what needs to be done for the well-being of others.
On an even broader scale, that’s also part of our justice work, part of what we talk about in our anti-racism learning and work.
In that continuing work, we have learned:
· we are called to let go of any privilege that has kept us in and others out, any privilege that has lifted us up, while holding others down;
· we are called to let go of the privileged assumption that we always know best, even about things we have never suffered through;
· we train ourselves to listen first to those who have been harmed the most – to their wisdom and experience;
· not only that – we commit ourselves to follow the lead of those who have been harmed the most;
· we are challenged to let go of our fragility when we receive a critique of how we have lived out privilege until now;
· we are challenged to give up our places of privilege and make room for those who have been kept out for far too long.
That’s true in local community, and more broadly. We had a number of historic firsts this past Tuesday.[2]
· Deb Haaland was the first Native American woman elected governor of a state.
· Peggy Flanagan was the first Native American woman elected United States Senator.
· Keisha Lance Bottoms was the first Black woman elected governor of a state.
· Gina Hinojosa was the first Latina woman elected governor of a state.
· Michigan elected the first Muslim Senator; New Hampshire the first openly gay male Senator.
· Florida, Nevada, and Wisconsin elected their first Black governors, and so on.
Each of those a first – a first in our nation’s 250-year history. It took 250 years. Privilege has grasped and held onto its power for far too long. What might it look like – not only individually, but collectively – to keep letting go of that privilege to make even more room at the table, and to welcome the leadership of those who have for too long been pushed to the margins?
And there’s more here. It’s not just letting go of privilege – we’re also called to let go of our need to control – to control the outcome of any given set of circumstances. In this ancient hymn, what Jesus relinquishes isn’t just any privilege or power – it is the privilege to be God, choosing instead to be human – to enter into what it is to be limited, not-in-charge us. Jesus calls out the Roman Empire, and they fight back. He teaches, and folks do not understand. He prays to have his suffering lifted, and he is crucified. Jesus empties himself out in humble service, lets go of privilege and power, even the need and power to control. So that he can become one with us – one in community, one in love, one even in suffering.
Sitting in prison, reflecting on all this – this is where the Apostle finds comfort and freedom and life. Because what the Apostle sees is that all this emptying out is so that we all can be filled together. All this letting go and humbling ourselves – is so that we all (all of us – all creation) can be lifted up – not back into yet another hierarchical system – but raised up into an abundant life together in Christ, living out relationships of mutual care and respect, sharing lives of humble, loving service.
Sitting in prison, thinking on all this, the Apostle goes deep. This is who Christ is. This is who we are. And this is how we live free.
This morning’s Scripture is, from its opening words to its close, about how we shall live. At the beginning, “Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” And then at the end, “This is God at work in you... working out our salvation,” saving the whole world from everything that does us harm... in the lives we live.
So then how shall we live this out... this week? What’s our “something to do? Well here are some ideas:
1. Find some humble acts of service to do.
2. Set an intention... set an intention to look for and tend to the needs of others. What needs do you see? What’s one thing? Then do it.
3. Think some on that letting go of privilege and the need to control outcomes. What’s one bit of letting go that might free you and others?
This Scripture is the Apostle’s vision of what life like that might look like. As I’ve worked with this scripture this week, here is mine:
Think back on that moment in the gospels where Jesus kneels down and washes his disciples feet. He kneels down, and rises up. He moves to the next person. He kneels down, and rises up. He moves to the next person. He kneels down and rises up. Keep that image in mind.
Now, imagine with me the whole world. (hands held as if they were holding the Earth)
All around the world, every moment of every day, there are folks living lives in humble service – loving each other, caring for each other – in every circumstance – parents, spouses, kids, neighbors, communities.
As the world rages on, this is always happening, and always has.
Imagine the whole world, with folks here and elsewhere,
(hands compress and relax, as if the Earth were a beating heart)
kneeling down and rising up,
kneeling down and rising up,
kneeling down and rising up.
This, my friends, is the very heartbeat of God –
pulsing in the lives we live.
May we live lives worthy of who we are in Christ;
God at work in us,
loving the whole world.
© 2026 Scott Clark
[1] For general background on this text and Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, see Fred Craddock, Philippians (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1985, 2012); Morna D. Hooker, “The Letter to the Philippians,” New Interpreters’ Bible Commentary, vol. xi (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000); Monya Stubbs, “Philippians,” in True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary(Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008), pp. 366-70; Timothy Adkins Jones, Commentary on Working Preacher at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/the-christ-hymn/commentary-on-philippians-21-13-10 ; Michael Joseph Brown, Commentary on Working Preacher at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/mind-of-christ/commentary-on-philippians-21-13-5 ; Katherine A. Shaner, Commentary on Working Preacher at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/the-christ-hymn/commentary-on-philippians-21-13-8
[2] See https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/nov/04/us-midterms-historic-firsts ; https://www.npr.org/2026/11/04/nx-s1-6028546/governor-candidates-history-election-2026?unified=true&renderPlatform=nprone_ios , for lists of some historic firsts the November 3 elections.
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