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| Straining Forward; (sermon 10/5/08) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 4 2008, 09:21 AM (420 Views) | |
| Dewey | Oct 4 2008, 09:21 AM Post #1 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh— even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:1-14 ========= At the beginning of this passage from Philippians, Paul is warning the believers in Philippi to not listen to the teachings of a group of people in the church who were telling them that, since they were Gentiles, they first had to convert to Judaism, and follow all the fine points of Jewish religious law, before they could become Christians. This probably sounds strange to us now, but in the very early days of the faith, the whole issue of how Gentiles were admitted into what was really an offshoot of Judaism, was a big deal. The group of people who were teaching this were called “Judaizers.” They were mostly Jewish Christians, but there were also some Gentile Christians who took this hardline view. Paul was on the opposite side of this argument. In fact, in conversations with Peter, and James the brother of Jesus, and others in the Jerusalem church, it was agreed that these Gentile converts didn’t need to follow all of the Jewish law, just a few key points. Still, the Judaizers were teaching differently. They seemed to dog at Paul’s heels wherever he spread the gospel to the Gentiles. In several of the letters that he writes back to churches that he’s started, he has to argue against these people who have come in behind him and taught a different version of the faith. In this passage, Paul starts his argument against them by reminding the Philippians of his own impeccable Jewish credentials. He’d followed the Jewish Law his entire life. He was part of the Pharisees, a group that was particularly concerned about the purity of the faith, and keeping the Jewish Law. In short, Paul told them that he was basically a “Super-Jew” – if anyone understood the value of the Law, it would be him. And as valuable as he had seen it, compared to what he called the “surpassing value” of knowing Jesus Christ – the righteousness that comes through faith, and not through ritualistic actions – all of Paul’s credentials as a “Super-Jew” were meaningless. Our English translations of the Bible say that Paul considered all of that to be “rubbish.” That’s a much more polite and proper translation than what Paul actually wrote. The actual Greek word that Paul used was “skubala.” It was a common, slang term, and not very polite. Its literal slang English translation is “crap.” Paul says to the Gentile Philippians that trying to earn righteousness through strict obedience to the letter of Mosaic law – it’s all crap, compared to the righteousness that comes through true faith from the heart, regardless of whether you’re a Jew or a Gentile. So, Paul says, don’t listen to those who say you have to do all these things in order to be a true believer. This continues to be a problem in our faith, you know. The details of the argument change, but it’s still the same argument – in order to be a “real” Christian, you have to believe certain things that in all honesty, really aren’t crucial to our core faith in Christ. You have to vote for this political party, or that one, or you aren’t a “real” Christian. You have to believe in a literal six-day creation, and that the theory of evolution is a Satanic scam, or you aren’t a “real” Christian. You have to believe that the bread and wine definitely does, or definitely does not, become the real, physical body and blood of Christ during Communion, or you’re not a “real” Christian. You have to read a particular translation of the Bible, or worship a certain way, or you’re not a “real” Christian. Paul is telling us that concentrating on our faith in Christ, and allowing God to transform our lives by way of that faith, is what’s really important, and what makes us “real” Christians. And arguing and over ritualizing, over-legalizing the faith, and causing unnecessary divisions within the faith over it – that was all a distracting sideshow to Paul. It was all skubala. In this text, Paul is telling us that what’s really important is to know Christ, by sharing in his suffering and becoming like him. In other words, humbling ourselves. Caring more for others than we care for ourselves. Gradually emptying more and more of ourselves, and allowing more of Christ to come through. This is really the whole point that Paul has been leading up to in this passage. He says to keep our eyes on the prize of eventually attaining the same kind of resurrection as Christ. This isn’t always easy – in fact, it’s often difficult. But it’s important. Paul says to keep pushing forward, keep moving ahead in living out our faith, in whatever lies ahead. That’s how our faith grows stronger and deeper. We can’t rest on our past successes. We can’t be like the star high school quarterback who spends the rest of his days basking in the glory days of his youth, and never accomplishes another meaningful thing his entire life. We can’t be like the church that had 300 members on a typical Sunday fifty years past, but that had to close its doors last year because it never learned how to speak to the hearts and minds of the next generation. And we can’t allow ourselves to be discouraged by our past failures, either. We can’t allow ourselves to think that just because we blew it in the past, that God won’t accept us and help us on into the future. Said the wrong thing; Did the wrong thing? Don’t look back; don’t let that become a boat anchor in your life; don’t let it take your eyes off the goal. Keep looking forward. Keep your eyes focusing on believing and following Christ, from this moment forward, no matter how challenging it seems or how many unknowns there are. He was an army chaplain in WW II. He was a little older, and not as physically fit as the rest of the troops that he served with, but the army needed chaplains, almost regardless of physical condition, and the soldiers who he ministered to in the Pacific Theater became very attached to him. This became even more true when he and the other men were taken prisoner by the Japanese, and they were forced to endure the awful conditions of life in a POW camp in the Philippines. The men came to love the chaplain, who helped them keep their faith, and kept them looking forward, and offered them hope. But all the while, the chaplain’s physical health got worse and worse. One day, the prisoners were put on a forced march, being moved to another camp some forty miles away. The pace of the march would have tired healthy, well-fed troops, and to these starving, disease-ridden men, it was often more than they could bear. Prisoners who broke out of the column, or straggled behind, were bayoneted out of their misery. Before long, the chaplain was exhausted, and hungry. He started to lag behind a bit. Japanese soldiers were marching along with the prisoners, and an officer was riding through the column on horseback. If they saw any sign that the chaplain couldn’t keep up, they’d kill him. As they marched along, sometimes the Philippino peasants would try to slip a little bit of food or water to the American prisoners as they went by. But being caught taking the food would bring immediate death. At one point, just as the chaplain was stumbling by, an old woman held out a small, raw potato while hiding in the bushes along the muddy roadway. The chaplain saw her, and he reached out his hand to take it. But just as he did, the Japanese officer saw them. He screamed, and fired his pistol toward the old woman. She dropped the potato and ran for her life through the bushes. The officer looked for her for a moment, but then moved further up the column. The chaplain heard the Japanese soldier coming up behind him as he stood there, too weak to take another step as the column started to move forward again. The chaplain, who had given so much hope to others, knew what was coming next. He simply prayed to God, and said that he was giving himself entirely up into God’s hands. The soldier was now so close to the chaplain that he could feel the soldier’s body heat on his own back, and he braced himself for the rifle butt or the bayonet that he knew would be coming next. But instead of that, what he felt was something being slipped into his hand. He looked down, and saw that it was the potato. And before he could think anything else, he felt the soldier’s thumb press into his back, and softly trace the shape of the cross. And the soldier leaned in, close to the chaplain’s ear, and whispered, “Take, eat, this is my body.” And he walked away. And two other prisoners came alongside the chaplain, and carried him on under their strength, not his own. The lesson from the Philippians – and the Philippines – is to empty ourselves, and to trust God, without allowing our past successes or failures hamper us. And to keep straining forward – to keep our eyes focused on the ultimate prize. Thanks be to God. |
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"By nature, i prefer brevity." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 685. "Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you." - Anonymous "Oh sure, every once in a while a turd floated by, but other than that it was just fine." - Joe A., 2011 I'll answer your other comments later, but my primary priority for the rest of the evening is to get drunk." - Klaus, 12/31/14 | |
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| Radu | Oct 4 2008, 05:58 PM Post #2 |
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Senior Carp
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Bump |
![]() ------------------------------------------------------------ "Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!" The modern media has made cretins out of so many people that they're not interested in reality any more, unless it's reality TV (Jean D'eaux) | |
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| brenda | Oct 4 2008, 08:17 PM Post #3 |
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..............
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Thank you, Dewey.
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“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.” ~A.A. Milne | |
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| Frank_W | Oct 6 2008, 07:04 AM Post #4 |
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Resident Misanthrope
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Nice one, Dewey. "God looks upon the heart."
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Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin." Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!" | |
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