“Dying to Get Rid of Stuff”
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, October 2, 2011
At times in our lives we need to eliminate or renounce certain things in order that we might be able to achieve something more excellent or something more meaningful or marvellous. And recently I found that I've been reading about a number of sports stars and personalities who have encountered that very reality in their lives and have found that, by renouncing certain things, they've been able achieve other things.
For example, I read an article on the great golfer Lee Westwood, an Englishman, who for many years sort of wandered in the middle range of golfers in the world, sometimes breaking into the top tear, often times not quite and falling short, until one day he decided that the only way that he was ever going to be truly excellent was to lose some weight. And so this rather rotund Englishman lost some weight and his game improved enormously; for that kind of thing I anxiously wait, I'll let you know, so much so that for a while, a moment, he became the number one player in the world. It didn't last very long and he's putting weight back on again, but for a moment he realized he had to give something up in order to be excellent and to achieve something great.
A few months ago I mentioned that the tennis star Djokovic did exactly the same thing. He realized he had to give something up, in other words gluten in his diet, in order to excel. In the last year he has not only reached the status of number one in the world, he has actually had one of the most outstanding seasons in the history of tennis. He renounced something, gave it up, in order to have something more excellent.
But I read another story and this one is somewhat sadder. It's a story of a curler who became very famous; her name was Sandra Schmirler. Sandra was somebody who went to the top of her sport; three Canadian Championships, three World Championships and winner of the Inaugural Olympic Gold Medal. She was amazing. At the age of 36 she was at the top of her sport. And then one day she was diagnosed with cancer and very shortly afterwards she died.
It wasn't Schmirler who made this comment, rather it was a friend of hers, someone who had played both with her and against her, who when she was interviewed said: “You know, I looked at her life and I realized how she'd achieved great things. And then I looked at her family and I realized how sad it was that their mother wasn't around. And I realized that all my passion had been to become a great curler like Sandra Schmirler, but I realized that in so doing I wasn't spending enough time with my family. I may have had to give up my dream of being Sandra on the ice in order that I can spend more time with the family that is the most precious thing to me.”
Again, renouncing something for something more excellent and more important; and it seems to me to be a pattern of life. It seems to be one of those things that we struggle with in every facet of our lives. There are times we need to renounce things to gain excellent things. That's what the Apostle Paul is talking about in our text in the Book of Philippians today. Over the last two weeks, this week and next week we're looking at this great Book by the Apostle Paul and in today's passage we have this incredible moment that where the Apostle Paul is saying the same thing. “What I first” he said “found as profit, now” he says “I find as loss. What I had formerly cherished I now find to be rubbish.” The literal translation I'm afraid is manure. In other words, what I thought was great, now I no longer see it as being great. What I thought was profit I now see as loss.
So what were these things that Paul felt were rubbish or loss and he was willing to give up? What was it that Paul had to renounce for the sake of something more excellent? Well this passage is a little awkward to read and translated into English it is a bit choppy, it's not very smooth. Birdell did well to read it like she did this morning. It doesn't flow. And yet, within it there is a very clear message.
Paul understands, and he says this at the very beginning of the passage, and I want to quote “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more so”. Now what does he mean by saying “I have confidence in the flesh?” Well what he is basically saying is that he has placed his trust in sort of a worldly or a human way to achieve or to attain God's grace and favour and mercy.
He, for example, likens the act of circumcision as sort of a fleshly way of trying to show that you belong to the covenant of God and that through this act one pleases God. And so the Apostle Paul says “No. Although I am circumcised, I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews” he said, “that is not enough. It profiteth me not” he says. It is something; it is a way of simply trying to gain God's favour or to show that you belong to God that isn't enough.
Now some have suggested that Paul here is turning his back on Judaism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rather, he understood that there were Gentiles in the Philippian church who were confused about whether or not they had to become Jews before they could become Christians, whether they had to go through the act of circumcision before they could be received into the church. And Paul is saying no, no, no. Don't place your trust in the flesh. Don't place your trust in that. Rather, there is something more excellent that you should consider that is more important.
Paul also suggests here that the other thing in a sense that he has to walk away from is his dependence on the law. He brags a little bit and you can see the bragging. And I think when he's writing this there's a smile on his face when he says “According to the law I'm blameless, I'm perfect, I'm great but it profiteth me not. It's gained me nothing. It has not brought what I need.” Is Paul questioning the authenticity of the law? No he's not. He's just saying it's not enough. For the Apostle Paul faith has been in something that is good. The law is good, but he has not yet achieved that which is the best; the best.
And you know my friends, we don't walk around as Christians saying I follow the law, look at me, I'm blameless, I've done everything according to all the religious rights and passage. But we still think at times in worldly terms, in human terms, about how good we are or how we can please God or our own standing as it relates to God. I don't know how many times I've heard people say “You know, I don't believe in anything that you teach but I'm a good person”. I never question whether or not they're a good person, never at all. But being a good person is what the Apostle Paul was before he found Christ. But what he found in Christ was something better. And when he found that something that was better, what he had before was rubbish; it profiteth him not.
And so I want to look now at what is it then that Paul valued so highly. What was it then that made Paul look at all this other human stuff and say oh, that is just human wisdom; that is fleshliness? Well Paul goes on to say “I consider everything loss compared to attaining and knowing the resurrection of Jesus Christ”; the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I had a fascinating conversation with a fellow United Church Minister just about a week ago, and we must have chatted for half an hour or more about the state of the church and about how things are. And this individual, this particular Minister, had just recently been a Member of Parliament, so some of you will know who I'm talking about, and we talked about sort of the future of the church. And he made a wonderful comment and I thought he was absolutely right. He said “You know, Andrew,” he said “one of the problems that we have in the church these days is that we remember that there has been a cross but we forget there has been a resurrection.”
The resurrection is at the heart of the Christian faith. It is what transforms us. It's what empowers us. It's what gives us joy. It's what gives us peace. And I think that there are many people, good sincere, honest, hard-working, generous Christian people who live their lives in this continual sense of guilt or this continuous sense of feeling the need to please God or to earn God's favour, when in fact what really is there for them is this abounding grace in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in his presence with us now, in his presence with us in eternity. For the Apostle Paul, having gleaned this resurrection, having experienced the power of the risen Christ, having waited for the resurrection of the dead, the Apostle Paul has hope and, compared to all his previous strivings, realizes that they were rubbish and this is the better thing.
Paul did say, however, that he wanted to share in Christ's death. In other words he wanted to be obedient. He wanted to share in the fellowship of suffering, namely he wanted also to be obedient and to put to one side those things that were sinful in his life. But even so, he repeats again right afterwards that “What I want to attain is the resurrection from the dead.” This was the most glorious thing for the Apostle Paul. And it put everything that he had done and he had been in an entirely new light and gave a whole new reason for his faith and his life and his witness.
Martin Luther was right when he said: “Being a Christian is not about what you have become but what you are becoming;” what you are becoming. Christian life is not about what you have become but about what you are becoming. And the Apostle Paul suggests then that in a sense you need to renounce the human way of doing things for the ways of God. You have to renounce the flesh for the sake of the power of the Spirit. You have to renounce your trust in yourself in order to trust in the power of the risen Christ.
Paul says look, I press on for that goal. “I realize” he says “I am not perfect.” He says that, because he knows that perfection in Christ is far more than perfection in the law. Now Paul humbles himself. He says “I know I'm not fully obedient but I press on for the goal that is before me.” He knows that Christ is waiting for him. He knows that Christ is there to help him.
I read a wonderful story by a Minister in Montana called Guy Ames, and Guy talked about a Sunday morning just like this when a woman entered his church for the first time. And she was in very brightly coloured clothes; multiple, multiple colours; maybe a dozen or more, like a rainbow or a kaleidoscope. She had makeup on her face that was an inch thick. She had lipstick that looked like a whole tube had been used. She had a big floppy hat and she had a daffodil sticking out of the top of it. He had never seen her before. And trust me, if she was here this morning, we'd all see her wouldn't we.
And she, just like you're going to do in a few minutes, came up and kneeled in front of the altar to receive the sacrament of communion. Guy said he'd never seen anyone like her before in his life. And there's this incredible moment when, as she's starting to take the elements of the bread and the wine, she mutters under her breath to Guy, to the Minister; she says, “I'm not what I ought to be, but thank God I'm not what I used to be.” And she goes back down the isle and she takes her seat.
And next month when they have communion she comes all the way back up again, same outfit, same amount of makeup, kneels in front. This time, for all the congregation to hear, because his mike was on, she said “You know, I'm not what I ought to be, but I thank almighty God that I'm not what I used to be.” And she went back again and sat in the congregation. The next month she came up, did exactly the same thing; “I'm not what I ought to be but I thank God that I'm not what I used to be.”
So intrigued was Guy and the congregation by what she had to say that they asked her to tell her story. And they said “Why don't you come to a breakfast and tell us a bit about why you're not what you used to be.” And she started to tell her story that would make any story of anyone living rough on the street or in the world cringe. Her life had been one of absolute awful dreadfulness. It was really, as Guy said, the most horrific story he'd ever heard.
And so he asked her, “Why is it that you come to church? Why is it that you've come into this place and you kneel and you take communion?”
And she said “Because I thank God that while I'm not perfect, and I'm not” she said “I'm not what I used to be. And I'm not what I used to be because I have come face to face with the only one who could change me, and that is Jesus Christ. And now he is with me every step of the life, every breath I take, every moment that I speak, every thing that I do.” She said “I realize I'm not what I ought to be, but thank God I'm not what I used to be.”
The Apostle Paul in Philippians is saying the same thing. I haven't yet achieved the goal. I am not perfect, but I thank God I'm not like I used to be, because now I place my trust in the risen Christ. And for that, everything else is worth renouncing. Is it for you? Amen.