If you enjoy puzzling over riddles, this blogpost is for you. The title is borrowed from a popular book published in 1964. It seemed an apt description of the paradoxical pattern found in Philippians, where the way up starts by going down. We usually prefer anything to the downward path, even when it’s not working for us. But in a world where “me first” and “give me my stuff” seem to be the mantras we live by, Christ showed a different way. Hint: it includes our failures.

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Tags: Philippians2:5-11, Up the Down Staircase, Bel Kaufman, Michael J. Gorman, Richard Rohr, Nelson Mandela, Wilma Derksen

We’ve come to the last Philippians blogpost, and this week our topic is the ‘Christ Hymn’ in chapter 2. During the 10-week course, it has come up several times, and we couldn’t end without circling back to it just one more time. Its poetic description of the gospel story has been described as the center of gravity not just for Philippians but for all of Paul’s theology. Or to use a musical term, it’s like the overture for the whole book.

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Tags: Bugs Bunny, Philippians 2:5-11, Cynthia Bourgeault, Michael J. Gorman