Meditation on Philippians 3:3-14
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 towards the goal for the
prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
***
Friends, I had another sermon prepared
for today. But last night around 7 p.m., as I was doing a final edit, I decided
to put aside the message I prepared and simply share with you what the Lord has
placed on my heart.
So I asked God to lead me—and give me courage.
In our Philippians reading today, Paul is talking about the sin of
pride—a sin that Paul has struggled with and that this congregation, one of his
favorite churches, must have been struggling with. It is something that I
struggle with, too. Mind you, Paul doesn’t use the word “pride.” He talks about
being “confident in the flesh.” But it’s pride that he’s talking about.
Maybe some of you struggle with pride, too. For me, it may be connected
with perfectionism. When one works hard and tries to do everything right, the
end result can be pride. Pride doesn’t like to be criticized. Pride doesn’t
like to ask for help or to admit failure. Pride leads people to take on more
than they should, to worry too much, and rest too little.
Pride gets in the way of the Spirit’s work in us, because it keeps us
from admitting or sometimes even seeing our need for the Lord. Pride whispers
to us that we can do everything through Christ that strengthens us. But then we
try to do everything without relying on Christ to strengthen us!
Maybe, deep down, we think we don’t need God’s help with everything He calls us to do.
I am confessing my sin with you today because I think pride has kept me
from sharing a concern with you. I have shared this with our session, but this
is the first time I have spoken openly about it with our whole congregation. I
am doing so now because I believe this concern is serious and affects not
just my ministry but the ministry of our entire church.
My worry is the number of people with serious pastoral care needs. It’s
no secret that we have an aging congregation. Currently, the people in need
exceed the number of people who are willing and able to visit and minister to
them. We are a small church, with families used to having a close personal
relationship with their pastor—and I love this about our congregation! But we
are also a church that is accustomed to a pastor who can quickly respond and
help meet them in their time of need. This is quite a challenge for me now—when
there are so many needs and I am pulled in so many different directions.
This trend of those with needs exceeding those willing and able to
minister won’t likely change any time soon. In fact, it may become more
challenging as our congregation continues to age and we have fewer young and
middle-aged people here to do the work of ministry. And it will become more
challenging to me personally the longer I am here because the more deeply I
will care, and the more I will feel that I must to respond to every need—or
else I am a failure.
I don’t know the answer to this problem. But I know for sure that it
won’t be found if we deny the problem exists and aren’t willing to seek the
Lord for the answer. And I know for sure that we won’t find a solution by
looking back to what our church used to do in the past—because the demographics
of our congregation and community are very different than they were years ago.
This is a new situation for us, one that may require new ways of thinking about
and doing ministry.
And I am sure of one more thing; the Lord has a plan for us. He knows
our needs. He will help us rise to meet this challenge, if we seek Him in His
Word and through prayer, and as long as we are committed to doing His work, and
open to doing some things that we have not done before.
The first step is letting go of our pride and being willing to say to
the Lord and one another, “I need help. We need help. Please help us in our
ministry for your sake.”
***
The apostle Paul’s message to us today in our Philippians reading is
twofold. It’s a message of perseverance and trust, as Paul says, “Don’t look
back! Press on with God’s work!” And it’s a warning to let go of our pride.
Paul is saying, “Know Christ, understand His call to serve Him and be like Him
in His sufferings. Understand your need for Him.”
Paul uses his own life—when he was Saul—as an example of someone who was
lost, walking in darkness and full of pride—“confident in the flesh,” though he
believed himself to be religious. He was sure what he was doing was right, even
while he was violently persecuting Christians, holding the coats and approving
of those who stoned Stephen in Acts 7, and then “ravaging the church by
entering house after house; dragging off both men and women,” committing them
to prison in Acts 8. He was a man of God; zealous
for his faith. He was a Pharisee—a well-educated man, well respected in his
community. He knew Scripture and he knew how to follow all the rules of the
faith—all the “laws”—to keep his right standing before God. He was proud to be
a member of the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born to the
Hebrews!
He says in Philippians 3:4, “If anyone else has reason to be confident
in the flesh, I have more!”
The Philippians know the whole story of Saul’s conversion without him
having to go into all the details. They know that one day on the road to
Damascus, where Saul planned to round up more of Christ’s followers and return
them bound to Jerusalem, he saw a light from heaven and fell to the ground as
he heard Christ’s voice.
“Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?”
In an instant, as the light blinded him to the things of this world,
Saul saw himself as he truly was. And he was given understanding of who Jesus
really is.
This experience and his life since then as Christ’s apostle—persecuted,
tortured, and imprisoned for Christ’s sake—leads Paul to say to the Philippians
(in 3:8-9), “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.”
***
Friends, only in Christ’s light can we
see ourselves as we truly are. Join me as we lay our pride at the cross and
humble ourselves to Him. We have no righteousness of our own! We have only the
righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
There’s nothing we can accomplish, gain or possess in
this world that will bring us joy like the joy of our salvation. And our
salvation is a gift to us from a gracious and loving God. There’s nothing in
this world that will bring us peace like the peace of Christ. And that's also a
free gift from our merciful, generous, and kind Lord.
Brothers and sisters, we need the Lord.
And we need each other to be His Church! Our Lord has plans for us—to shape,
mold, and use us through this ministry, if we strive for only one prize—the
prize of the heavenly call.
If we seek only one gain—to gain Christ and be found in Him.
And if we seek only one power—the power of his resurrection.
Let us trust in the only One who will ever possess us—Christ Jesus, who
has made us His own.
Let us press on!
Let us pray.
Holy One, thank you for your love, mercy
and grace, and for forgiving us of our sins. Thank you for sending your Son to
us to show us the way back to You. And yet we often want to go our own path.
Our pride gets in the way. We are stubborn and don’t want to ask for help or do
something that we might not feel comfortable doing. We don’t want to need
anyone. We don’t even want to admit sometimes our need for you and your
forgiveness. But we are beginning to see the light—to understand that ministry
is all about You—and not about us. And that we cannot be a church and minister
to people if we don’t first humble ourselves to you and allow Your Spirit to
guide and empower us to do your will. Lord, we lift up the many needs of people
in our community of faith—people who need healing body, mind, and soul. Fill us
with compassion and stir us all to be your hands and feet. Help us to press on
towards the goal, the prize of your heavenly call in Christ Jesus. In His name
we pray. Amen.
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