Pressing On In Faith
Sermon
Living In Hope
Cycle C Sermons for Lent and Easter Based on the Second Lessons
Recently at the gym, working out with my personal trainer, and straining to finish the third set of an exercise, the trainer began to encourage me. “You’re doing great! You can do it.” As I read this portion of Paul’s letter to the church of Philippi, I was reminded of this encouragement.
To many, it seems, at least at the beginning of this reading, that Paul was bragging a little. No one deserved to be more confident in his acceptance into the faith than he did. After all, he was a circumcised Jew. He was a zealous prosecutor of the faith ― namely bringing Jesus’ followers to the high church officials for sentencing and sometimes death. When he gave up that role and became a disciple of Jesus, Paul gave up his status with regard to the Jewish faith. It seems like a lot of self-identification is powerful and strong. Yet, Paul reminded us of his uncertainty as well. “If somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead,” he wrote. He was uncertain in that moment of whether his faithfulness was enough.
As we read, Paul accepted that his resurrection was in the hands of God. It was a result of his faith in Jesus, not in all the good works, tasks, or righteous acts he had performed. He continues, in this letter, to write that he is to press on toward the goal ― and it is a goal much more difficult than my completing a set of exercises at the gym. The goal of faithfulness is challenged every day by those around us, by pain, by isolation, by the judgments of others, and our own self-judgment.
Are we pressing on? Are we resting on our faith in Jesus, seeking to strengthen it, seeking to live it in every moment of every day? Or are we resting on what we have done before? That’s part of the challenge of living in a human world. How do we strengthen and deepen our faith? I know a lot of folks who seem to have a checklist. Have I prayed today? Check. Have I worshiped with my faith community this week? Check. Have I made a donation to the church? Check. But faith, my friends, is not about a checklist, a to-do list of tasks to accomplish. Rather, faith is about our relationships, our relationships with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, our relationships with our siblings in faith and those without faith, our relationships with family, friends, strangers, and those we may never meet. Oh, if only being faithful was a checklist. How easy that would be!
Rather we are called to move into our relationship with God, even if we don’t know if we are successful. Certainly, we should pray. Certainly, we should attend worship. Certainly, we should give to the church and to missions in the world. Yet, my friends, we do not earn our way into God’s love and grace. We are freely given grace and love. We engage in spiritual practices and follow spiritual disciplines as a means of thanking God for the blessings, love, and grace we have received. There are things we need to do, but our way to faithfulness is not through doing. Our way to faithfulness is in being the people God is calling us to be, living in the path Jesus has created for us, accepting the strengthening and encouragement of the Holy Spirit, being open to all God has to offer and then being the light of those gifts in the world.
Another thing to think about as we read this passage. Paul speaks to our Lenten context of giving up or leaving behind something during the season. That is often the question, right? What are you giving up for Lent? Surely, we can give up dessert, chocolate, or maybe even meat. Does that bring us closer to God or to our neighbor? What about if we gave up hostility, prejudice, swearing, and expressing our temper negatively? Those things might bring us closer to God and closer to our neighbors. We might be getting closer to righteousness.
Suppose instead of giving up something, we added a spiritual discipline: meditation, prayer journaling, reading scripture daily, perhaps even tithing during Lent. What might change in our spirits? What might change in our relationship with God and with our neighbors? Our relationship with God in and through Christ changes us, moves beyond what we “deserve” because we are among the faithful. We begin to view the world in a different way, people in a different way, and even ourselves in a different way. It is not about following the “rules” or about giving up, but about adding to and becoming the person Christ calls us to be. Recognition of the gift of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection reminds us what we have a responsibility to do and to become.
We know from learning about Paul that he was a great believer, a great evangelist and worked planting churches for the perpetuation and expansion of the church. Yet, Paul wrote that he was still pressing on toward the goal. He had not arrived where he wanted to be in his faith. There was still more for him to do and be. And yet, it was not so important that he pursued God, but that he allowed God to pursue him, not righteousness from the law but righteousness from his relationship with God. Paul did not seek to cling to who he had been or what he had done. Rather Paul was in pursuit of who he would become and what he would do as a follower of Jesus, as a redeemed man of faith.
I wonder how we view our faith. There are some people I know, even some pastors, who feel they have “arrived.” Their faith journey is complete. They have become what they intended to be and there is nothing left to do, nothing left to pursue. Is that what you believe? Is that how you feel about your faith; you have it and that is enough? Or do you feel that there is still a race for you to run, still more for you to press on toward in your pursuit of faithfulness? Our faith is fulfilled in the fulfillment of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus opens the doors to our understanding how to live our faith, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. Without Jesus, Emmanuel God-With-Us, we can forget how very close God is to us, how very direct our relationships with Jesus is.
I have spent my life going to and being a part of faith communities. I was brought to church as a child, encouraged to receive sacraments, learned about my faith and practiced the disciplines of prayer and reading scripture. As I grew into adulthood, my faith was challenged by the theology of my faith community and faith leaders. My faith in God didn’t waver, but my understanding of God as loving and grace-filled didn’t seem to be reflected in that community or what I was hearing from the pulpit. In spite of that, I continued to worship, sing in worship, pray, and read scripture. Yet my heart was hungry. I knew there was more for me to do, learn, and be.
As I further explored what being faithful meant to me, I found a church home in the United Church of Christ. With its roots in both the Evangelical and Reformed churches and the Congregational Christian Churches, I recognized the grace and challenge in becoming a member of a non-doctrinal church, one that pushed me to develop my own understanding of faith, theology, and faith community. I began to understand what it meant to name Jesus as the head of the church and explore the ancient creeds, not as edicts, but as experiences of the faithful, seeking an understanding of deep theological truths. I was no longer limited by the doctrine someone else defined for me, but rather was encouraged to explore what faithfulness meant in covenantal relationships, which required deep listening and experiencing. I have now been a United Church of Christ member more than half my life; a United Church of Christ pastor for more than fifteen years. I still learn more about myself, my faith, and my community almost every day.
This experience helps me understand Paul’s need to press forward. He was hungry for more ― more experiences of God, more knowledge of his faith, and more encounters with the living Christ, the resurrected Christ. It was not his history, but his future that compelled him. It was not his exploration of God but God’s exploration of him that moved him into finding deeper meaning in his faith.
What have been your experiences of faith and faith community? Do you feel nurtured or shut down? Do you feel comfortable in asking life-changing questions, having doubts, wondering where God is in your life? Are you resting on what you have been taught, what you have memorized and what is defined by others? Is there a willingness to learn more about how God is interacting with you and impacting your life? Are you pressing on as Paul was pressing on to become more Christlike, more in concert with God’s will for your life?
Paul, the great evangelist, began to change after his Damascus Road experience with the living Christ. His life was never the same. Although he was shunned by many of his former Jewish friends, although he was arrested, scourged, and exiled, he came to know God in new and profound ways. He came to understand the God of grace, the Christ of redemption, and the power of the Holy Spirit. He planted churches of believers across Asia Minor. He blessed the churches and us with letters exploring faith, and his relationship with God, his desire to be even more attuned to God’s will for his life. He pressed on. We, my friends, can do no less. Amen.
To many, it seems, at least at the beginning of this reading, that Paul was bragging a little. No one deserved to be more confident in his acceptance into the faith than he did. After all, he was a circumcised Jew. He was a zealous prosecutor of the faith ― namely bringing Jesus’ followers to the high church officials for sentencing and sometimes death. When he gave up that role and became a disciple of Jesus, Paul gave up his status with regard to the Jewish faith. It seems like a lot of self-identification is powerful and strong. Yet, Paul reminded us of his uncertainty as well. “If somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead,” he wrote. He was uncertain in that moment of whether his faithfulness was enough.
As we read, Paul accepted that his resurrection was in the hands of God. It was a result of his faith in Jesus, not in all the good works, tasks, or righteous acts he had performed. He continues, in this letter, to write that he is to press on toward the goal ― and it is a goal much more difficult than my completing a set of exercises at the gym. The goal of faithfulness is challenged every day by those around us, by pain, by isolation, by the judgments of others, and our own self-judgment.
Are we pressing on? Are we resting on our faith in Jesus, seeking to strengthen it, seeking to live it in every moment of every day? Or are we resting on what we have done before? That’s part of the challenge of living in a human world. How do we strengthen and deepen our faith? I know a lot of folks who seem to have a checklist. Have I prayed today? Check. Have I worshiped with my faith community this week? Check. Have I made a donation to the church? Check. But faith, my friends, is not about a checklist, a to-do list of tasks to accomplish. Rather, faith is about our relationships, our relationships with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, our relationships with our siblings in faith and those without faith, our relationships with family, friends, strangers, and those we may never meet. Oh, if only being faithful was a checklist. How easy that would be!
Rather we are called to move into our relationship with God, even if we don’t know if we are successful. Certainly, we should pray. Certainly, we should attend worship. Certainly, we should give to the church and to missions in the world. Yet, my friends, we do not earn our way into God’s love and grace. We are freely given grace and love. We engage in spiritual practices and follow spiritual disciplines as a means of thanking God for the blessings, love, and grace we have received. There are things we need to do, but our way to faithfulness is not through doing. Our way to faithfulness is in being the people God is calling us to be, living in the path Jesus has created for us, accepting the strengthening and encouragement of the Holy Spirit, being open to all God has to offer and then being the light of those gifts in the world.
Another thing to think about as we read this passage. Paul speaks to our Lenten context of giving up or leaving behind something during the season. That is often the question, right? What are you giving up for Lent? Surely, we can give up dessert, chocolate, or maybe even meat. Does that bring us closer to God or to our neighbor? What about if we gave up hostility, prejudice, swearing, and expressing our temper negatively? Those things might bring us closer to God and closer to our neighbors. We might be getting closer to righteousness.
Suppose instead of giving up something, we added a spiritual discipline: meditation, prayer journaling, reading scripture daily, perhaps even tithing during Lent. What might change in our spirits? What might change in our relationship with God and with our neighbors? Our relationship with God in and through Christ changes us, moves beyond what we “deserve” because we are among the faithful. We begin to view the world in a different way, people in a different way, and even ourselves in a different way. It is not about following the “rules” or about giving up, but about adding to and becoming the person Christ calls us to be. Recognition of the gift of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection reminds us what we have a responsibility to do and to become.
We know from learning about Paul that he was a great believer, a great evangelist and worked planting churches for the perpetuation and expansion of the church. Yet, Paul wrote that he was still pressing on toward the goal. He had not arrived where he wanted to be in his faith. There was still more for him to do and be. And yet, it was not so important that he pursued God, but that he allowed God to pursue him, not righteousness from the law but righteousness from his relationship with God. Paul did not seek to cling to who he had been or what he had done. Rather Paul was in pursuit of who he would become and what he would do as a follower of Jesus, as a redeemed man of faith.
I wonder how we view our faith. There are some people I know, even some pastors, who feel they have “arrived.” Their faith journey is complete. They have become what they intended to be and there is nothing left to do, nothing left to pursue. Is that what you believe? Is that how you feel about your faith; you have it and that is enough? Or do you feel that there is still a race for you to run, still more for you to press on toward in your pursuit of faithfulness? Our faith is fulfilled in the fulfillment of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus opens the doors to our understanding how to live our faith, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. Without Jesus, Emmanuel God-With-Us, we can forget how very close God is to us, how very direct our relationships with Jesus is.
I have spent my life going to and being a part of faith communities. I was brought to church as a child, encouraged to receive sacraments, learned about my faith and practiced the disciplines of prayer and reading scripture. As I grew into adulthood, my faith was challenged by the theology of my faith community and faith leaders. My faith in God didn’t waver, but my understanding of God as loving and grace-filled didn’t seem to be reflected in that community or what I was hearing from the pulpit. In spite of that, I continued to worship, sing in worship, pray, and read scripture. Yet my heart was hungry. I knew there was more for me to do, learn, and be.
As I further explored what being faithful meant to me, I found a church home in the United Church of Christ. With its roots in both the Evangelical and Reformed churches and the Congregational Christian Churches, I recognized the grace and challenge in becoming a member of a non-doctrinal church, one that pushed me to develop my own understanding of faith, theology, and faith community. I began to understand what it meant to name Jesus as the head of the church and explore the ancient creeds, not as edicts, but as experiences of the faithful, seeking an understanding of deep theological truths. I was no longer limited by the doctrine someone else defined for me, but rather was encouraged to explore what faithfulness meant in covenantal relationships, which required deep listening and experiencing. I have now been a United Church of Christ member more than half my life; a United Church of Christ pastor for more than fifteen years. I still learn more about myself, my faith, and my community almost every day.
This experience helps me understand Paul’s need to press forward. He was hungry for more ― more experiences of God, more knowledge of his faith, and more encounters with the living Christ, the resurrected Christ. It was not his history, but his future that compelled him. It was not his exploration of God but God’s exploration of him that moved him into finding deeper meaning in his faith.
What have been your experiences of faith and faith community? Do you feel nurtured or shut down? Do you feel comfortable in asking life-changing questions, having doubts, wondering where God is in your life? Are you resting on what you have been taught, what you have memorized and what is defined by others? Is there a willingness to learn more about how God is interacting with you and impacting your life? Are you pressing on as Paul was pressing on to become more Christlike, more in concert with God’s will for your life?
Paul, the great evangelist, began to change after his Damascus Road experience with the living Christ. His life was never the same. Although he was shunned by many of his former Jewish friends, although he was arrested, scourged, and exiled, he came to know God in new and profound ways. He came to understand the God of grace, the Christ of redemption, and the power of the Holy Spirit. He planted churches of believers across Asia Minor. He blessed the churches and us with letters exploring faith, and his relationship with God, his desire to be even more attuned to God’s will for his life. He pressed on. We, my friends, can do no less. Amen.
