Thirty years ago, Alex Haley published his
book, “Roots,” the story of seven generations of an African American family
(his own) from capture and slavery in
Although we like to think that we all start
off with a clean sheet and can make our own way in the world, the reality is
that our past has a profound effect on us. Where you’re born, what your parents
did, how you grew up, they all have a significant influence in our lives. There
was a study done of Who’s Who in the
History matters. The past matters. It can have a huge influence on the present. But it has to be kept in its place. In the middle of Philippians, Paul takes a swipe at a group of teachers in the early church who were putting far too much emphasis on the past and not enough on the present. They were saying that, in order to be saved, non-Jews had to become Jews. The only way to be part of God’s plan was to buy into the past and the history of the Jewish in every way, keeping the law, including getting circumcised. (“It’s really great that you’ve accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, now, there’s just this matter of some minor surgery then you’re in.”)
This isn’t some kind of spiritual “sour grapes.” It’s not that Paul didn’t have reason to be proud of his past. He did. In Philippians 3.5-6 he lays out his own version of “Roots.”
Since his opponents are pushing
circumcision, that’s where he starts. He was “circumcised on the eighth day.” As
an eight day old baby his parents brought him to the rabbi to be circumcised. He
was “of the people of
[I discovered something interesting this
week as I was researching this message. My mother’s maiden name was Buchan, and
there’s a whole section of
Finally, Paul is “a Hebrew of Hebrews.” That probably means that his family spoke Hebrew at home, not Greek like the majority of first century Jews.
That’s just his ethnic background. Then he piles on the religious background. “In regard to the law” he was “a Pharisee.” He had totally committed his life to not only keeping God’s rules for living that are found in the Old Testament, but a whole bunch of other rules too, to make sure that he didn’t even come near to breaking God’s rules. As a result of that commitment he had seen the Christian church as a threat on so he had “persecuted the church.” In all of this he was “faultless.” (“Legalistic righteousness” is probably too negative a translation. Paul was a God fearing, law abiding Jew, and that wasn’t a bad thing.)
What’s your heritage? Your ethnic heritage? Your religious heritage?
[In the next few weeks my ordination statement will be circulated both here at Wentworth and to other churches as we move into the last stages of getting me “rev’ed.” In the last year a number of my colleagues have gone through the same process and, as a result, I have been able to read their ordination statements. I’ve also been to (I think) four or five ordination councils in the last few years. And I’ve noticed an interesting similarity in the stories that people tell.
Now, I want to be clear that I mean no disrespect here. Many of these people are my friends as well as my colleagues. But I think that all of their ordination statements tell of growing up in loving Christian homes, praying to receive Jesus into their heart sometime between the ages of 5 and 10, being part of the church youth group, and so on. At least half of them are the sons or daughters of pastors!]
Paul had an impeccable ethnic heritage and an impeccable religious heritage. His “roots” ran deep.
But he set it all
aside.
“7 But whatever was to my profit
I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.”
It’s not that he was
ashamed of being Jewish. He makes that clear in Romans 3 “What advantage, then, is there
in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in
every way! … they have been entrusted with the very words of God.” And it’s not that he thinks the whole Old
Testament law is worthless. He describes it as “the very words
of God.” What he’s saying is
that all that good stuff doesn’t amount to a “hill o’ beans” compared with
knowing Jesus Christ as his saviour.
[Imagine you’re out on
the lake in a boat. Let’s say you’ve retired and sold your house and bought a
sailboat and you just spend your time cruising the great lakes. One day a storm
comes up and your little boat starts to take a pounding. The boat’s having a
hard time and you realize that you’re going to need to “lighten ship” if you’re
going to survive.
So overboard go all of
your books (that would be hard for me), then your extra clothes, your china and
cutlery, everything that you’ve saved to have with you in your retirement.
It’s not that those
things suddenly became less valuable. It’s just that, in comparison to the
value of keeping your life, they became worthless. As Paul would say, you count
them as loss, a hindrance, not a help.]
That’s how we should view
any natural advantages we have. If we put our faith in them, they become
hindrances, not helps.
And it’s not just the
good stuff. He expands it to include everything. “8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing
greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all
things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ…”
He considers it all,
good, bad, indifferent to be… what? The translation here is “rubbish” but
that’s probably not what Paul meant. The Greek word is “skubala,” and while it can just mean the kind of stuff you throw in
a green bin, it’s more likely that he’s deliberately using a vulgar word that
also means “excrement,” “feces,” “crap.” Some of the early church fathers found
this word so embarrassing that they tried to soften the meaning. And our
English translations do the same. But Paul really is saying that, compared with
knowing Christ Jesus as Lord, everything else is just a pile of...
whatever.
Trained in the Old Testament
from an early age? Throw it on the pile. All his religious heritage? On the
pile. The fact that he persecuted the church? That’s on the pile too. Worthless
compared with knowing Christ.
Being a missionary? On
the pile. Even getting ordained? On the pile. Worthless compared with knowing
Christ. Nothing but a pile of skubala.
All of this is
worthless because it doesn’t even begin to compare with knowing Christ Jesus as
my Lord, with being found “in him.” And how do we get to be “in him?” Well it
isn’t by “having a righteousness of my own.” If you or I can say that we are “in Christ”
that he is our Lord and saviour, it isn’t because of anything in our past,
whether good or bad. It’s simply “through faith in
Christ,” by putting our trust
in him and taking him at his word, that if we give our lives over to him he
will bring us into a new relationship with God, “the
righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”
Our future lies in
knowing Christ, experiencing his presence, today.
Listen to the passion
in verse 10 and 11. “10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the
fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11
and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Now there’s a man who
knows what he wants from life! If someone were to ask you what you wanted from
life what would your response be? To be a success? To be a good mom or dad? To
retire at 55? I had reflect on this passage myself this week and ask myself, if
someone asked me what I want from life would this be my answer? And I had to
admit that it wouldn’t. I’ve been asked similar questions a fair bit in the
last year or so, especially as part of the ordination process, and I think I
have usually answered in terms of what I want for the church, or how I want my
life to count for something in the lives of others.
Those aren’t bad
things, but I think Paul would still count them as “skubala” compared with the goal of, knowing “…Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing
in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so,
somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
You see, he wants to
know Christ “in the power of his resurrection.” He wants to know Christ as
alive and at work in him to save him from himself, to transform him from “bad”
to “good,” to move him forward into a life of service to others, to inaugurate
“newness of life,” life in the Spirit. He wants to experience Christ already
resurrecting him from death in sin to life in God. And that is the basis for
his hope, in verse 11, of the resurrection from the dead.
In the meantime, just
as Christ suffered and died to achieve that resurrection for Paul – and for all
of us – the path of our discipleship still involves sharing in Christ’s
sufferings and becoming like him in his death. We daily have to make the
effects of Jesus’ death a reality within ourselves by our own constant choice
to consider ourselves in fact dead to sin and alive to God. That means
saying “no” to our own selfish desires and saying “yes” to Christ, who calls us
to take up our cross daily and follow him as servants of God for the good of
others.
That’s some pretty
heavy theology. And I think Paul realized that because he changes the whole
tone in verse 12. “Not that I have already
obtained all this, or have already been made perfect,”
Hey guys, don’t be
thinking that I’ve arrived and that I’m talking down to you. This is my goal!
This is what I’m aiming for! I’m like an athlete in a race.
“…I press on to take hold of
that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not
consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting
what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on
toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in
Christ Jesus.”
A large part of the
reason that Paul can count all that stuff as garbage is that he isn’t even looking
at it. It’s behind him. He’s not looking that way. He’s looking forwards. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 1
press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward
in Christ Jesus.”
Living life as a
Christian is like riding a bike, best done looking forwards, not backwards.
[You know what happens
when you look behind you while you’re riding a bike? You quickly lose your
balance and your direction. It’s even worse if you do it while taking
your hands of the handlebars. We know somebody who did that in
As we come to the end
of 2007 it’s time to leave it behind – the good stuff and the bad stuff – and
forget it. Make your goal for 2008 to know Christ. Not just to know about him,
to go to more Bible studies, read more books, or (heaven forbid) listen to more
sermons. (Although those are all good things.) But to know him. To experience
his presence in your life as you submit your ways to him. As you allow him to
change you day by day into the person he wants you to become. As you seek to
pray and understand his will for your life and then submit your will to his.
I’ll do the same, and
maybe we can exchange notes along the way.
So this New Years remember; it doesn’t matter if your past is something you’re proud of or ashamed of, leave it in the past. The key to your future lies in knowing Christ in the present.