Isaiah 43:16-21
Philippians 3:8-14
Luke 20:9-19
Psalm 126
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I want to look at the lesson from Philippians this morning for a few minutes. I think today’s lesson from Paul is particularly relevant in a Lenten context. So if you want, look in your bulletin at today’s Epistle lesson from Philippians.
It is important to understand the context in which Paul says these words in verses 8 – 14 of Chapter 3. In the first 7 verses of Chapter 3, Paul gives his readers a very brief history lesson about himself. Remember, Paul is writing Philippians from prison. This is one of the so-called prison letters. So Paul is telling his hearers, “I am a Hebrew, born of Hebrews; under the law, blameless.” And so Paul is laying a foundation for his readers to understand, “I am a Jew’s Jew in heritage.” We know that Paul studied with the very best rabbis in Jerusalem. So Paul has had a life full of stature and status in the society of his day. Paul has been a part of the ‘in crowd’ in his former life. But now, in his life as a Christian, he finds himself being persecuted. So that is the background to what we find in this lesson.
He then says in verse 8, “More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” So Paul is saying, “I willingly give up everything I once knew. All those comforts I once enjoyed, I willingly have given that up, because following Jesus Christ means everything to me,” says Paul, “and none of the other matters anymore like it once did.” And then he says, “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.” So Paul is laying his case here theologically. We gain relationship with God; we gain salvation, not through our own good deeds, but through faith in Jesus. It is through faith in his sacrifice on the cross that we are forgiven of our sins. In other words, we can never fulfil the obligations of the law so much that we would earn forgiveness. But, through Jesus Christ and his suffering on the cross, forgiveness is given to us as a gift of grace from God. So Paul is saying, “Though I am in prison, though I have given up all the comforts I once enjoyed, I have Jesus Christ and so everything else is loss but I have gained so much more in having Jesus.” Then he says, “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.” Paul is saying here, writing from prison, “I am willing to die for my faith in Jesus Christ.” He is saying, “It would be an honor to share in the same kind of death as my Lord, as long as I will be raised like my Lord.”
Paul is evidencing this very strong, deep faith here in this letter. Remember, he is writing from a jail cell. So this is real-world stuff that Paul is dealing with in this letter to the Philippians. He is saying, “I am willing to die for my faith in Jesus the Christ.” Then he says, “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.” Now this is very important and gets to what I want to say this morning. Paul says so very clearly here, “I have not reached the goal.” There is another way to translate the Greek here, which is to say, “I have yet to reach perfection.” So Paul understands that just because we have salvation in Jesus Christ doesn’t mean that we have reached moral perfection; or that we are finished in our spiritual journey. Paul understands that the whole of life is a part of our spiritual journey. Though we do enjoy salvation, that does not mean that we simply give up on being better people. Paul understands here, “I have not reached perfection. I have not reached the goal, i.e. truly living a Christ-like life.” So he understands that the whole of life we are called to be on a journey becoming more and more like Jesus.
Then finally, “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.” Now I think these are some of the most beautiful, and some of the most powerful words in all of scripture. “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” Some translations say, “And pressing on toward what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” So Paul, writing from prison, understanding that he has left his life of comfort and status behind, says, “I am forgetting what lies behind, because I am pressing on in the calling that Jesus has given me.” There is such powerful teaching here. This is what I want to conclude with this morning.
In a Lenten context, we talk so much during Lent about repentance, and about taking a spiritual inventory. To me that is such a wonderfully positive gift. So many of us are weighed down by the mistakes of the past. So many of us continue to look back to mistakes that we have made, things we wish we could have done differently. The guilt of that, and the feelings about those mistakes sometimes linger with us for years and years. I think we all have done things in life that we regret, some more profoundly than others. Here is what Paul is saying, “At some point, we can give the past up to God.” That is what repentance is. Repentance is giving over our mistakes to God, and letting God’s grace take those mistakes from us so that we can be free to live in the moment. Today is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in this day, this moment. Because this moment is what we have been given. We all have made mistakes in the past. I have done things I regret terribly, and wish I had done differently at the time. But that is in the past, and what we are invited to do is give those things to God. Let God’s grace take those past mistakes so that we can be free to enjoy reconciliation and peace with God. It is such beautiful imagery here. I can’t say it any it any better. “Forgetting those things that are in the past, and pressing on.” Paul says, “I am pressing on in the calling the of Jesus the Christ. I am moving forward.”
One of the most effective ministries in the entire Episcopal Church is Forward Movement Publications. They do the daily journals that some of you read. Forward Movement publishes books. We have a lot of their pamphlets in the office building. Forward Movement’s name isn’t an accident. Forward Movement, Forward Day by Day, the devotional that many of you use, means moving forward. That is why our publishing arm in the Episcopal Church is called Forward Movement, because the call of Jesus Christ is always to come forward, to leave the past behind, to confess our sins and receive forgiveness, and to move forward. To move into a new day with a new sense of hope, a new sense of God’s presence with us. So this morning as Lent begins to wind down, I hold up for you one more time this image of repentance . . . repentance in a very positive light. Give up to God those things that weigh you down. Those regrets that we all have, let God take those. Live this day knowing that we are loved, and forgiven, and healed by Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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