Community, Part 3

3. The Father and Son exalted each other. In the Lord’s Prayer, the very first thing that leaves Jesus’ lips is, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” First and foremost, the Son exalted the Father, praising His holy name. In the same way, the Father exalted the Son. Philippians 2:9-11 shows us, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The Father exalted the Son and lifted His name above all names. Notice that at the end of the passage, the Father exalted the Son, which exalted the Father again. How much better would it be for us if we could live lives in community exalting each other? What if our goal was to lift each other up? My family is pretty sarcastic, and the goal of many conversations was to come out on top. And I got so good that I usually did come out on top. I was the winner of the “Most Sarcastic” award, if one actually existed. And I was very proud of that fact. But the more I look at myself and my attitude, the more I realize that all I was doing was exalting myself. I want to try a radical change – lifting up others over myself. Not in a self-abasing way, but in a genuine attempt to build up, encourage, and exalt my teammates. The strange and surprising result (I hope!) will be that in exalting my teammates, they, in turn, exalt me as well, far better than I can exalt myself. And no guilty aftertaste!