Sermon: Giving Up the Past and Taking on Gods Present and Future Philippians 3: 1-15 March 17, 2013

Rev. Deborah Dail Denbigh Presbyterian Church Prayer: Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo. Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment. Set us free from a past that we cannot change; open to us a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image, through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen. (From the PCUSA Book of Common Worship Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993; p. 88) Scripture: 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. 2 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: 5 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; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 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 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that
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comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 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. 13 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, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained. Sermon: One of my favorite Peanuts cartoons features the characters out on the baseball field. Charlie Brown is playing outfield. The batter hits a fly ball directly to Charlie Brown. Everyone watches as the ball approaches Charlie Browns glove. Its an easy fly ball. But, you guessed it, Charlie Brown misses the ball. His teammates are very upset with him and begin to berate him. How could you miss such an easy fly ball? they ask. Charlie Brown replies: I thought I had it. But as it was coming toward me I remembered all the other ones Ive missed. I guess the past got in my eyes. It is certainly true that the past has a way of getting in our eyes. Our past failures and, yes, even our past successes, can get in our eyes and keep us from moving forward in the direction God would have us go. Paul says: Dont get stuck in the past. Dont get stuck on your past achievements or your past failures. God can and will do a new thing. Give up your past and take on Gods present and future. Paul has become aware of problems in the church at Philippi. In this section of Philippians Paul expresses his concerns about some people from outside the congregation who are teaching wrong doctrine. He uses some very strong
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language here in chapter 3: Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! (verse 2) By way of review, the Christian church from its beginnings was composed of Jewish and Gentile (non-Jewish, pagan) converts to Christianity. The Jewish converts had the background of being raised in the church the synagogue. They had been taught the Jewish law the Torah throughout their lives and had to some degree followed the law. The Gentile converts did not have this background. They came from pagan religious backgrounds. Bringing together the converts from these very different backgrounds created tremendous challenges for the early church. Some of the Jewish converts to Christianity had trouble understanding how the Gentile converts had it so easy. They just get to show up and say they love Jesus and their in? It wasnt fair, some thought. Paul has apparently gotten wind of some Jewish converts to Christianity who were coming to the Philippian church promoting the theology that the Gentile converts had to be become Jews before they could become Christians. Pauls emotions ran high because such ideas threatened to undo the heart of his teaching about the gospel. These false teachers came to be known as Judaizers. Paul felt the Judaizers religion was a ritual of externals that fostered pride in their own achievements instead of a boasting in Christ Jesus, and that encouraged a confidence in themselves instead of a reliance on the Spirit. (Hawthorne, p. 123) The Judaizers couldnt get the past out of their eyes and they were missing the point of Christianity. Paul then moves into his autobiography to help the Philippians understand that God is not after external religion or religious markings. God cares about the heart and its transformation. Paul gives his Jewish resume to illustrate how he could personally be on board with the Judaizers how he could meet all their qualifications and 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. It might be like some of us giving our resumes like this: I was born into a Christian family. I am a third generation Presbyterian!

I was baptized and confirmed. I was at church every time the doors opened and still am. I have had perfect attendance at Sunday school and have the attendance pens to prove it. I memorized the Westminster Shorter catechism while walking up hill to church both ways in the snow. I have gone on mission trips. I feed the homeless. I can say the books of the Bible in order, forwards and backwards. I have done every Bible study out there and have memorized an entire book of the Bible. Ive served on the session and every committee in the church. As to morality: I dont drink, I dont smoke, I dont chew and I dont associate with girls that do. All joking aside, have you ever let your spiritual resume get in the way of accepting someone else who enters the church? Have you been slow to accept other people who dont have all the credentials you do? Is there a second-class citizenry in the churches for those who dont quite measure up to our experience and our resumes? Do we keep them at arms length? More importantly, do we make them jump through our hoops our credentialing to become one of us? Are we guilty of adding anything to the Gospel namely confession of Christ as Savior and Lord before we accept a person in our church family? Do we let the past get in our eyes and miss the point of Christianity? Paul looks at his own resume and from a Judaizers perspective he knows hes in hes really in . . . no questions asked. But Paul says, all that stuff is garbage . . . COMPARED TO THE SURPASSING VALUE OF KNOWING CHRIST JESUS MY LORD. Paul is not saying that all those things he listed about his past and all the things I jokingly spoke of with our resumes are bad or unimportant. But, he is saying that compared to knowing Jesus compared to what Christ has done for us those things are nothing. He is saying dont put any confidence in those things. Dont put confidence in your resumes. Put your confidence in Christ. He is the only source of our salvation and our confidence. And, dont cling to these things so much that you exclude others. And dont teach others that they must do anything extra to be bona fide Christians. Christs blood is all that is required. We are made righteous right with God through faith in Jesus Christ, with nothing else added.
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Paul has let go of the past, and living in the present and he is looking to the future Gods future. Hes not letting the past get in his eyes. Hes remembering to forget his resume. In verses verses 12-16 Pauls says: 12 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. 13 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, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained. So far we have focused on the positive points of Pauls resume and ours. But we all have pasts. We all have things in our pasts about which we are ashamed. Before Paul converted to Christianity, Paul was a zealous Jew who was bent on destroying the Christian movement. Paul describes himself as a persecutor of the church. We know from reading the book of Acts, that Paul either murdered or was a party to murdering Christians. We know that he was actually on his way to Damascus to harm Christians when the risen Christ spoke to him from heaven. After this Paul received his call to be the messenger of the Gospel to none other than the Gentiles. It has always amazed me that by the grace of God, Paul was not paralyzed by his past a past that included persecution of the very people to whom he was sent to declare the gospel and challenge in their faith. It is only by the grace of God that Paul was not blinded by his past, but received and lived out Gods vision for his future. Paul did not let the past get in his eyes and miss the opportunity to serve Christ boldly and faithfully. By remembering to forget the past he was able to move forward into Gods future. How was Paul able to do this? How might we? Because Christ Jesus had made Paul His own. (verse 12) Paul embraced this truth and so can we. Christ had called and claimed Paul based on no merit of Pauls. Christ had made Paul His
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own. Paul belonged to Jesus. And so it is for us. We belong to Jesus. He has made us His own. And that is how we can be set free from a past we cannot change and opened to a future in which we can be changed. I will tell you that my past includes the good, the bad and the ugly. In fact my present includes the good, the bad and the ugly. When we think of our past as anything from the last minute to the last week, year, or lifetime, we all know that our lives are a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly; the faithful and the unfaithful; the things weve gotten right and the things weve gotten terribly wrong. And, there is everything in between. How often do you and I get blinded by our past and miss the ball? How often do you and I face a new day, a new ministry opportunity, a new anything and get distracted by remembering all the other ones weve missed? How often after missing the ball again do we lie there on the ground with our face in the dirt? Some of us have just completed Beth Moores study on James: Mercy Triumphs. In one of her lectures Beth Moore talks about God being the lifter of our heads. When people would approach a king, they would keep their heads lowered. Indeed, they might lay prone on the ground with the faces to the floor. It was only after the king addressed them and gave them permission to lift their heads as Jesus lifted Pauls head and gave him a vision for a life a full, abundant and eternal life. Jesus gave Paul a purpose and a mission to serve him despite his dreadful past. Jesus gave Paul dignity. Jesus will lift our heads, too. Jesus gives us a vision for a new life a full, abundant and eternal life. Jesus gives us a purpose and a mission to serve him despite our dreadful pasts. Jesus gives us dignity. Jesus does not want us to miss every fly ball because we keep remembering all the other ones weve missed. He can and will and does set us free from a past we cannot change. He does grant us new life and a new future in which we can be changed. Paul says: 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.

Friends, if you are paralyzed by your past, I pray today that you will believe the Good News of the Gospel. In Jesus Christ you are set free. You do have dignity in Christ. You can be used in mighty ways by Christ. Paul tells us: Forget, put into perspective, release anything that keeps you from moving forward in your faith and in your ministry. It may be all the things youre proud of that hinder your ministry from being as inclusive and open as it should be. It may be all the things you are not proud of are holding you back from being a bold, yet humble servant of Jesus. Friends, dont let the past get your eyes. Dont keep dropping the ball. While I have used a baseball metaphor, Paul uses the metaphor of a race. But the idea is the same. Run the race without looking back. Run the race without allowing the past to get in your eyes or trip you up. Run knowing that Christ has run before you, Christ is running with you and Christ will be at the finish line to welcome you. Give up your past and take on Gods present and Gods future. Believe with all your heart that God can and will do a new thing!