Proper 22 Year A 10/8/2023
Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:7-14; Philippians 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
It was a joy last week to have Bishop Patrick Augustine with us.
He preached from the Philippians reading about who Jesus is.
Emphasizing that if there is one thing,
we don’t want to get wrong in our faith,
it is on the person of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Today, I want to stay in the text of Philippians as St. Paul expounds on what this relationship with Jesus should look like.
In the first bit of our reading, we see that Paul had quite the resumé…
For in his time, he was the cream of the crop…
The type of student who could get into any ivy league school.
The type of influencer that every business would higher in a minute.
He had the morals, the integrity, the experience, and the background to make anyone envy his position.
In the Jewish world of the first century…
He had it all.
He writes:
…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.
In first century Judaism, this is as good as it gets.
And yet St. Paul refers to all of this as rubbish!
All of these accolades are worthless compared to his relationship with Jesus Christ.
He writes:
…I have come to regard (all of this) 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…
Rubbish being a very polite way to interpret the Greek word here…
as it refers to human waste.
St. Paul is not holding on to the things of this world.
Because his life has been transformed by Jesus Christ.
When you compare the value of this world to the value of knowing Jesus Christ… there just isn’t a comparison.
You see in this world…
many things shine…
Many things sparkle…
Many things want our attention…
But in the words of Shakespeare and other writers:
All that glitters is not gold.
We can put our hope and trust in lots of things in this world…
But the real value of this life is in knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Jesus said:
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
(Matthew 16.25)
Our resumé…
Our efforts…
Our moral behavior and charitable deeds…
Aren’t enough.
Again, from our text he writes:
I regard these things 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.
You see our salvation…
Our Christianity is not based on gaining merit with God…
It is based on the person of Jesus Christ.
Salvation is a gift of grace.
Salvation comes through faith in Jesus.
Salvation comes not through our work,
but because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross…
And because of that sacrifice on the cross that satisfied the holy love and justice of God…
He rose from the dead on that Easter morning.
When are faith rests in that work…
When we proclaim Jesus as our Lord and Savior…
Then we see the value for what it really is…
As the 1922 hymn song says:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace
This is what Paul means to be found in him.
So often we think we make the first move when it comes to God.
But really, all of our interaction with God is in response to him…
Whether we know it or not.
We love God, because he first loved us. (1 John 4.19)
Our faith in God is a gift from God. (Ephesians 2.8)
Even when we go to the Lord in prayer…
it is responding to God’s constant call to us.
As it says in our catechism:
- What is Christian Prayer?
- Christian prayer is response to God the Father, through
Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. (BCP, 856)
God is constantly wooing us…
Talking to us…
Showing us affection…
Our knowing him is in response to his knowing us.
As it says in our reading:
Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own…
Finally, St. Paul writes (in my opinion) one of the most powerful verses in the scriptures…
One of the most important verses in my own life…
Personally…
This is my goal…
My desire…
He writes:
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.
You see here the power and glory of the resurrection collide with the suffering of our Lord crucified.
Here we get the words describing the already and the not yet.
We are already living in the fruit of our future resurrection…
We are a new creation… (2 Corinthians 5)
We are justified and sanctified and made holy…
And made righteous…
We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation (1 Peter 2.9)…
We are the children of God.
and yet…
we still suffer…
the curse of sin is death…
the decaying of our bodies…
the emotional, physical, psychological pains we have…
the struggles against sin…
and the sin in this world…
just look at what is happening in Israel…
in Ukraine…
in Nigeria, Sudan…
the list goes on and on…
and so we long for the consummation of the redemption of our bodies….
In this world we experience the power of the resurrection and also the suffering of the cross.
As Christians…
As children of God…
Our relationship with Jesus Christ is one that we know him in the power of his resurrection and in the suffering of his death on the cross.
We know Christ Jesus in both!
And this is why with Paul we can say:
We press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Our eyes are on the prize.
Our goal is a heavenly calling.
We will be with Christ Jesus forever and ever.
That’s where we keep our focus… not on the glitter of this world.
Our gaze is on Christ Jesus… not the sin of this world.
In him we live and move and have our being!
(Acts 17.28)
In him we stand firm…
In him we stand up in the face of suffering.
In him we stand rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
People of St. Edward’s…
God’s people…
I want to encourage you today…
In the midst of a world that emits pain and hardship.
In the midst of a broken society…
In the midst of all the difficulty in our relationships…
Diseases in our bodies…
And a culture that continues to reject the one and true God in the person of Jesus Christ who is the Lord of lords and the King of kings…
Keep your eyes on Jesus and press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Know him in the power of the resurrection…
Know him in the suffering of his death…
And share that loving relationship with the people in your life.
Speak the love of Jesus Christ in this world.
For this kind of love…
The love of Jesus…
Is what transforms people.
Amen.