RCL Proper 26A [i]
27 September 2026
Holy Trinity Anglican Church
White Rock BC
Running out of room
At some point in the spring of 1991, Paula and I came to realize the truth of an old familiar saying: Two’s company, three’s a crowd. This realization came as a result of the birth of our third child in October 1990. We’d managed to squeeze two car seats and one booster seat in the back seat of our Subaru station wagon for a few months, but by the spring of 1991, the writing was on the wall. So we traded in our Subaru and bought a new Dodge Voyager van.
As the kids grew, we became happier and happier with our purchase. We didn’t have to put up with too many backseat turf wars. Each child, regardless of age, had their own space with a buffer zone either between them or beside them. Many family trips and holidays were saved by the extra space.
Making room for each other
We all need space to grow. But it is not enough to claim space; someone has to make space for us. If no one makes space for us, then we can easily decide to do more than complain that we don’t have enough room. How many conflicts in human history have been caused by the refusal to make space for someone else or by someone making unreasonable demands for more space at the expense of someone else? How often in human history has one community welcomed another only to have those newly-welcomed ones want more and more space? And how often in human history has a community denied room to another for reasons of national identity or social cohesion or simple racism?
Over the span of millennia we human beings have struggled to make room for each other and to be grateful for the space for growth and well-being we have. This struggle to make room for others and to be grateful for what we have is addressed by Paul in the passage from his letter to the Christians in Philippi that we heard this morning. It’s clear that there is conflict in this community and part of the cause is the refusal to give one another proper space to grow and thrive:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. [ii]
Implicit in the last verse is this: If everyone looks out for each other, no one will be neglected. There will be enough for all. If you watch someone else’s back, then they will watch yours.
Paul then writes words which many of us immediately recognize and which have inspired many hymns. Indeed, many biblical scholars think that Paul is quoting a hymn known by the Philippians already. It is a hymn that celebrates Christ’s free choice to make room for humanity by setting aside the privileges of divinity. Being Christ-like, Paul reminds the Philippians, is willingly setting aside privilege, power, rights and authority that one may have by virtue of age, gender, length of association, power or authority. Christ gives us an example by emptying himself of all these prerogatives and suffering death, so that we might share in that divine life he has so freely set aside.
There is a special word for this – kenōsis. Kenōsis or self-emptying love is a defining quality of the God in whom we live and love and have our being. The universe we inhabit exists not because God had to create it, but because God chose to make room “ . . . for the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home . . . (and from) the primal element . . . (to bring forth) the human race”. [iii]
Welcoming the other
How we make room for others, how we welcome others into that space we call our personal lives, is an embodiment of that divine self-emptying love made known to us in Jesus of Nazareth and that is our baptismal birthright, our identity as creatures made in the likeness of God and empowered by the Spirit to live into the likeness of Christ.
Making room for others, no matter how we define ‘the other’ is not beyond our abilities. Despite the many voices raised in our times who seek to limit how wide we draw the circle of God’s all-embracing love, there is another voice, a more compelling voice, that rises above them and speaks more clearly and convincingly. It is the voice of the One who spoke to tax collectors and prostitutes, to women and men in need of healing, to thieves and soldiers, bidding them all welcome to the table of God’s banquet. It is the voice of the One “who is at work in (us), enabling (us) both to will and to work for (God’s) good pleasure”. [iv]
You see, long before we ever thought of it, God created a van, named it ‘creation’ and made sure that there was room for all of God’s beloved, every single lovable and unlovable one, every single familiar and unfamiliar one, room enough for all with room to spare.
