The following is a response to a letter to the editor by Teresa Sausser of Rathdrum as published in the Coeur d’Alene Press, March 18. Ms. Sausser has completely taken out of context the sentence written by the Apostle Paul of Philippians 3:10, and erroneously used it to support Steve Vick’s refusal “to take part in the Hindu invocation.” Verse 3:10 must be understood in the context Philippians 2:5-13.

Paul’s meaning of 3:10 starts with the very first part of what has been described as a Hymn of Kenosis, Philippians 2:5-13.

As to the “form of God,” Paul uses a Greek word, “kenos” which means “empty,” the verb “kenoo” which means “make empty.” To come close to Greek meaning, “we have created an English adjectival form, “kenotic.” Paul writes within the time of the Roman Empire. The “form of God” present in an Augustus or any divine emperor manifested itself as expected — divinity revealed through that sequence of Piety, War, Victory and Peace. It was simply normal imperial divinity. And the comparison, now is not between despotic and kenotic rule, but between divine normalcy and divine kenosis. What, on Earth or in heaven, is the “form of God” that empties itself to the opposite, the “form of slave?” … Maybe this? A God whose gracious presence as a free gift (Paul’s Greek word “charis) is the beating heart of the universe and does not need to threaten, to intervene, to punish, or to control. A God whose presence is distributive justice” (not retributive justice) “and life, but whose absence is injustice and death?” (Exert from, In Search of Paul, John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed).

As in Christ, of which he uses 164 times, Paul writes to the out-called assembly of God (the Greek word “ecclesia”) of Philippi: of the divinity revealed to him, the God disclosed to him of his Damascus experience as a “kenotic God” — Christ-Crucified:

Jesus’ death as an act that demonstrated His way of life — emptying himself, giving himself to others, self-less;

Jesus’ death as a disclosure of the Character of YHWH, the Creator, “Abba,” (the Hebrew word “Father”), the “Our Father” of the Lord’s Prayer — a God whose “character” is “Kenosls,” “to make empty,” whose Way is justice (distributive justice) and righteousness (what is right).

With all that in mind, Paul writes and concludes: “Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of 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.” (It should be noted that Ms. Sausser did not even accurately quote the scripture passage of 3:10 with her omissions.)

ART COLLINS

Hayden