By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
March 29, 2026
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Query 3:
Do you attend regularly the services of your church and participate in them actively? Do you prayerfully endeavor to minister, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in humble dependence upon Christ, the spiritual gifts with which you have been entrusted?
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage on another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25 NIV)
(Faith and Practice, The Book of Discipline; Evangelical Friends Church Mid-America Yearly Meeting. pg 60)
Philippians 2:5–11 (ESV)
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.
We live in a world that is often filled with dissonance. You might have noticed it. Dissonance in music is a lack of harmony, things are just out of tune and it makes our ears cringe. I struggle with this as I am nearly 70% deaf, I notice dissonance but I cannot tell what exactly is wrong. I cannot tell if it is too high or too low, I just know that it does not feel right.
There is dissonance outside of music also, a tension or clash resulting from the combination of two unsuitable elements. I have contemplated this over the past few weeks. And I feel like I do when I am speaking about music, I cannot put my finger on what exactly the problem is, but something just does not feel right. I have stopped and taken a step back, I have reevaluated things, I have moved forward again and the feeling begins again. Something is off. It sounds as if it should be right, but it just does not feel right.
When I was in high school, I was in band. I was not in a band like we have around here, our band was never offered any prestigious opportunity to march at any of the college football bowl game parades, or to participate in the Macy’s thanksgiving day parade. I take that back, we were invited to one bowl game. We joined with several other bands and played at the KCAC Wheat Bowl, which was a bowl game for several of the small christian colleges in Kansas, but that bowl game does not exist anymore.
With small schools, the band tends to be very heavy on certain tones, and lacks others. In our case we lacked bass. We had several flutes, clarinets, many trumpets and saxophones, but we had one trombone player, and no Tuba. I was one of the trumpet players, and our instructor asked if anyone would like to try one of the bass instruments so that we could have a more complete sound. I volunteered. The problem with that is I cannot hear bass. I could not tell you if I was playing the right note or not because I could not hear it. But luckily the tuba is a large instrument that either sits in your lap or is wrapped around your body. I cannot hear it, but I could feel it. I worked with the instructor, I sat on the piano as they played the base notes, and I tried to imitate the feeling with the tuba. It looked a bit weird, but it worked. It worked so well that the next year when it came time to go to the marching band contests at the state fair, were given top marks. We were the smallest band in the competition, but each of the judges commented how impressed they were with the complete sound we were able to deliver, and as a little brag, each judge commented how they enjoyed the tuba. That is a bit of pride I know, but I always found it humorous because I literally could not tell you for sure if I was playing right. All I could say is that it felt as if it fit.
We live in a world of dissonance. There are elements come together and the resonance does not seem to create something pleasant. It is in our schools, our communities, our churches. It is all around us. And it is as if we are all just as deaf as I am. We can tell something is not right but we cannot quite detect what it is, it does not quite feel right when combined with the rest of the world around us.
As I read through the Epistle Paul wrote to the Philippians, this is what came to my mind. This is one of my favorite of Paul’s letters as it has the verse that my great grandfather sent to me when he help fund my trip to Ukraine, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21). As I read through this letter I get a sense that Paul and the people of Philippi are dealing with cultural dissonance. Paul is in prison wanting to come to the people, the factors surrounding that desire have a resonance, but it is not in harmony because something is causing anxiety, or one of the elements is sharp. He cannot come because he is in prison for his faith. But he is writing this letter because he has heard things concerning the people of Philippi, when he is with them there is harmony, but when the conductor is missing everyone seems to get off beat. They begin to forget what their purpose is, they forget what the church is, they begin to go off on their own way. And suddenly what was once a beautiful orchestra has fallen into discord.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” Paul tells them. This is where our reading began, but we need some context. Lets go to the beginning of the chapter. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 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.”
I want us to think about this for a moment.
I want us to think about all the dissonance we feel within out culture, and within our relationships.
This is challenging to us all. In Evangelical theology we believe in a personal relationship with Christ. This is not wrong by any means, we are responsible for our own actions. You are responsible for what you do personally, you cannot blame your parents for the actions you do. You cannot blame your teachers, or your brother or sister. Blame cannot be transferred to your grandparents nor to your children. If you stole an item from the store, its on you. If you take a life from someone, it is on you. If you cheat on a test, or your taxes, you are responsible. This is what Evangelicals teach and it is correct, but it is not complete. As there are some decisions that are made by others that place people into a position they would not have chosen for themselves.
As Friends, we have had a long history opposing the use of military violence. We have this stance because we are pro life in the fullest sense of that phrase. All human life bears the image of our creator and because they bear that image, they should be treated with respect. It is not our right to use violence to force another person to do what we want. When we use violent force, that person or that nation is placed into a position they might not have chosen for themselves. This is something that the Friends of Kiev have struggled with, as well as the Friends in Moscow. It is something we struggle with in our own nation, and in our own families. We have to answer for our own actions, but when someone chooses violence against our community what are we to do? There is a difference between defense and offensive wars. Ukraine was invaded, they can respond in defense, but Russia as the invader is wrong because they forced Ukraine into that position. They forced Ukraine into a place where they either cease to exist or fight. As someone that has a strong testimony of peace, I struggle with this, that is why I say that war is never good. No matter what we choose, we must live with the consequences. No matter how justified we feel in the moment, we still must face the trauma and reality that fellow image bearers were marred, and we as a society have some responsibility. It does not stop with war, there are other aspects of life that we could say the same about. Immigration policy, taxation, employee compensation, loan availability, every aspect of life that involves human interaction has some bearing. How we treat the waitstaff, or the clerk at the store. Everything can honor or cast dishonor.
This is the limitation of Evangelical theology. What happens when we are given choices where no path forwards seems to glimmer with light?
As Evangelicals we can back off and say I am not involved. I am focusing on my personal relationship with God. And we can sit in our meetinghouses and churches hearing the dissonance, seeing the struggle yet not stepping up. We can see disharmony, disunity, disorder and stay unmoved. But the resonance of the earth, of the world seems off. Sometimes the authors of apocalyptic writings would describe it as earthquakes. The very foundation of what we have build our lives upon trembles with the dissonance. We do not know what to do, so we disengage, and pray that the end of the world would come.
Do we not see the problem? This is something that has plagued humanity from the time of our first parents, from the times of Cain and Abel, Noah and Babel. It is the very story of human existence.
What was the temptation of our first parents? We often hear the story, and we say they sinned by disobeying God’s commandment and they ate the fruit that was not meant for them. We are not wrong in that interpretation, but I ask again what was the temptation? They were told that God had knowledge of good and evil, and by eating the fruit they would have that knowledge for themselves. They were tempted as all of us are, to satisfy their own desire without any regard for anyone else. They ate the fruit, and death entered the world. Dissonance, the symphony of life moved from a major to a minor key, tension and separation became our existence instead of harmony.
This repeats with their children. Cain has a conversation with God, and God said to him if you do well will you not also be accepted? Yet Cain focused on his own selfish desires, he was not accepted and Abel was, so he decided if only he would remove his brother he would have what he wanted. He could force the hand of God, to do his bidding. But the blood of Abel cried out to God, it screamed about the injustice he endured. And God asked Cain, “where is your brother?” and Cain responds, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
We often regard these stories as just that, stories. But they are more than stories, they teach us something deeper. We are never alone. Everything we do reflects not only on ourselves, but on everyone around us. If we wish to force society to treat us better, this often comes with a cost. And the blood of our brothers cry out to God. Paul tells us, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is your in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.”
I have often struggled with this verse. I struggle with it because it has dissonance. Paul wrote this way for that reason. The term grasped, is not exactly what we translate it as. It means to take hold of, or more accurately to steal. What Paul is saying is, even though Jesus was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God as something everyone around him would just automatically notice and give to him, or that he could force the people of the world to recognize. Jesus did not want to use force, he did not want to compel the world to recognize the truth, he did not want the nations to enact legal codes to force adherence to his teachings. He was and is equal to God the Father, together with the Holy Spirit they form the one True Triune God. Jesus came from the heavens, was born into human form, he lived, he taught, he served, and he suffered. He was and is God, through him everything in the world was created, He holds the physics of the universe in his hands, yet he did not count the recognition of being who he was as something that could be forced. God does not force us to believe.
But what did he do? “He emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
I want us to let that sink in. Jesus did not use the powers available to him to compel human allegiance. This is what grasped means. It is to take by force. Russia is grasping Ukraine, and I know I speak about that a great deal. I speak about it because it is a conflict between two similar but different ideologies, and we on this side of the world often do not recognize the difference. Many of us still call Ukraine, the Ukraine, as if it is some region like the Rocky Mountains. We do not see them as a distinct culture, instead we see them as Russia sees them, a lessor entity needing to be forced into compliance. We could say the exact same thing in reference to Venezuelan, Greenland, Palestine, Sudan, or any other conflict in the world. We often see them as something to be grasped, because we have the power and they do not.
Paul tells us, Jesus had the power, but he did not count equality with God as something to be used to force others against their will. Instead he emptied himself. The writer of Hebrews says, “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels”. He left the glory, he left the unseen realm and entered our dimension of time and space. And he did this because under the direction of the angels, the fallen and rebellious spiritual beings, we entered into rebellion. We entered into death, a death that only God could redeem. We took something from God in that moment of rebellion, we took it by force, we grasped it. We wanted equality with God, but equality with God was not what we were created to be. Instead we were to reflect God to the created world.
This is what we have been struggling with since the nations were scattered. Israel was chosen as God’s inheritance, through whom God would shine his light into the darkness of that separation. At first he gave his teaching, his commandments. We were incapable to live a pure life, incapable because we were interpreting things through our own minds, our own cultures. As the writer of Judges said, everyone did what they though was right in their own heart. This is how we all live, and how we all would have continued to live until God humbled himself. God, himself, became human for us and through his humility provided the way to restore and redeem humanity to it’s rightful place.
He took on our form, our relationships, our suffering, our injustice, and he endured our shame to the point of death. He was not only obedient to God the Father, but he was obedient to human governmental systems. Showing us how to live within systems built to exploit and dehumanize others, while encouraging them to return to God. He did this not with force, not with power, but through humility.
Paul wants us to have this mind. I might be strong, just because I have that power does not mean I can force you to do what I want. That is not humility but tyranny. Paul instead encourages us to humble ourselves. To treat those around us as Jesus would have treated them. Sacrificing what we might see as being in our best interest, and giving what we sacrifice for the good of others.
This is why I read the third Query today. Do you attend regularly the services of your church and participate in them actively? As much as I agree with the Evangelical stance on personal salvation, we are not solitary beings. We live within community, we were created to live within community. When God created humanity He said it was not good for man to be alone, so God split humanity in half, not just a rib. God took one side of Adam and from that side God made Eve. We are two sides of a whole, and we are incomplete unless we participate in community. Meetings for worship are not only about worship, they are practice. It is practice for each of us to sacrifice for the good of others. It is practice, because we are to come together in unity worship, and serve as one and yet there are many of us. Each of us have our own ideas, our own concepts of what is right and wrong, and each of us have our preferences. Will we humble ourselves like Christ? And if our preference or our idea is rejected how do we respond? Are we willing to stand aside for the good of the community?
Then the second part of the query, “Do you prayerfully endeavor to minister, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in humble dependence upon Christ, the spiritual gifts with which you have been entrusted?” As we participate, are we reflecting Christ? Are we willing to sacrifice all that we have for those around us? Are we willing to pray for and continue to work with those we might have had an argument with? If so it means we are going to need to learn the art and discipline of reconciliation and humility again, and again.
This is what Paul is telling the church of Philippi. Do nothing out of selfish ambition but humble yourselves as Christ did, even though you might have the power, even though you might be gifted, even though you have Christ within you, that does not matter more than the image of God in the person across the aisle, down the street, or on the other side of the world. Everything we do should be done to reflect that of God in our lives and in theirs. Are we practicing at church, with these people around you right now. Are you practicing what it means to give, serve, help, and encourage with us so that when we go out into our wider community it becomes second nature?
Jesus humbled himself, even though the entire strength and power of God was available to him, he did not want to force those around him to comply with his will. He became a servant. He took our form, and became obedient to the systems of the world. He became obedient, but that does not mean he did not speak out against injustice. That is not obedience, He spoke out against injustice, obediently, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus humbled himself. He sacrificed himself. He gave of himself. And that is what Paul is encouraging each of us to have as the same mind. Emptying ourselves of all vanity and being honest. Admitting that I need each of you and you need each of us, because we are a community together, and only together will we be able to fully express the music God has called us to perform. Only together will our dissonance become harmonious. And when the church humbles itself, and serves those around us, that is when every knee will bow, and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Because in humility to Christ, and to each other the tones begin to resonate with each other, and the once small band gains its complete sound. It is in humility, in sacrifice, in working together so that all will find and thrive in their own giftedness, that we can fully reflect the fullness of God’s image to the world. We do not need to worry about what we do not have, or what others might do. Instead we should listen for the voice of God as individuals, and as a community, and respond accordingly. We should have this mind among ourselves. Loving God, Embracing the Holy Spirit, and Living the love of Christ with others.
Previous Messages:
Walk as Children of Light
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 15, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Ephesians 5:8–14 (ESV) 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit…
Your Kingdom Come
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 22, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 5:12–19 (ESV) 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all…
Clever Myths
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 15, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 2 Peter 1:16–21 (ESV) 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,…
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