Empty to be Filled

Philippians 2: 5-11

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God exalted him even more highly
and gave him the name
that is above every other name,
so that at the name given to Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Happy Palm Sunday! Today we move from waving palm branches and shouting loud hosannas to facing the cross and the depths of Holy Week.

In our scripture from Philippians, we hear the words of the first hymn of the church, often called the kenosis, or emptying, hymn. The writer of Philippians reminds us how Jesus emptied himself to be as one of us, and to give his life as a sacrificial gift on the cross.

This Lent I’ve been thinking a lot about emptying. Lent is naturally a time of emptying—removing what keeps us from God. I have also been using the book A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers During Lent by Christine Valters Painter as a guide.

Paintner says, “Fasting is ultimately a paradox of emptying to be filled, paring back to receive a different kind of feast, one that nourishes our true hungers. We don’t fast merely for personal transformation, we fast to widen our vision on ourselves and ultimately to connect to our longings to bring conditions of freedom for all.”

Not eating food is the main image of fasting, but that is only one way to fast. In a society with an unhealthy relationship to food, fasting from food may do more harm than good for us spiritually. Instead, Paintner invites us to fast from what’s in our lives that fills but does not nourish, or what erects a barrier between us and God.

It is only once we remove distractions that we can discover what our true hungers are. Fasting from mindless distractions like scrolling social media may reveal our true hunger for connection.

During Holy Week the book invites us to fast from certainty and embrace mystery and waiting. What certainty do you need to empty yourself of as you enter into the mystery of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection?

This week we stand vigil; we wait in the depths fully present to the suffering of both Jesus and the world. For only by emptying ourselves and dwelling here, can we experience the true joy of Easter morning.

May God be with you in your Holy Week journey. Amen.

prayer

Gracious and Holy One,
creator of all things
and of emptiness
I come to you
full of much that clutters and distracts,
stifles and burdens me,
and makes me a burden to others.
Empty me now
of gnawing dissatisfactions,
of anxious imaginings,
of fretful preoccupations,
of nagging prejudices,
of old scores to settle,
and of the arrogance of being right.
Empty me
of the ways I unthinkingly think of myself as powerless,
as a victim,
as determined by sex, age, race,
as being less than I am,
or as other than yours.
Empty me
of the disguises and lies
in which I hide myself from other people
and from my responsibility
for my neighbors and for the world.
Hollow out in me a space
in which I find myself,
find people and a whole heart,
a forgiving spirit and holiness,
the springs of laughter,
and the will to reach boldly
for abundant life for myself
and the whole human family.

—Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle by Ted Loder, p. 52