The Fourth Sunday in Lent ---- 13 March 2016

Philippians 3:4b-14

4 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 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.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.  More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

·        Paul has a lot to brag about. In this letter to the church at Philippi, he outlines his resume and his heritage, somethings that had apparently been brought into question by his detractors and opponents.

·        He says he is Jewish and declares when he was circumcised and what tribe he was born into. These are important things for the Jewish people of his time.

·        He states the he belongs (or belonged) to the Pharisee movement which was one of the factions of Judaism of the time. The Pharisees were supporters of what became known as “Rabbinical Judaism.” Judaism in our day came from this emphasis on the Torah, the Laws, and the teaching in the Synagogues.  The Pharisees emphasized an enlarged understanding of the Hebrew Scripture, accepting the writings of the prophets and the wisdom books. They deemphasized the Temple and the Temple’s rituals. Without this movement among the people of Israel, they wouldn’t have survived the Babylonian Captivity or the Diaspora – the “scattering” of the Jewish people following the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans. The common folk of Judah accepted the Pharisees more than they accepted the elite, privileged priesthood of the Temple.

·        Paul goes on to say that he never done anything again the Law of Moses and that he had gone so far as to persecute the Christian Church. In other words, he was a staunch defender of the religion of his ancestors in every way. In other letters, there is some evidence that Paul may have been considered by many to be a rabbi. His knowledge of the Scriptures reflects this as does his ability to interpret and argue those Scriptures in the style of the rabbis of the time.

·        So what does Paul say about all of this? Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 

·        He goes further:  More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  Paul has come to understand that the things he has achieved and done in his life do not compare with what he has received in the grace of God. This grace has led him to make huge changes in his life – to go from persecutor to apostle.

·        This change has made him lay aside all he was in order to become what he wishes to be in Christ.

·        Paul puts it this way: For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ …

·        I know this has come up before. Paul uses a word which our English translators have politely and delicately phrased as “rubbish.” The real word is much stronger than that. I won’t bore you with the Greek or Latin since we don’t use those phrases commonly here and now. When Luther translated the Greek into German, he used the word “Dreck.” One commentator said the original word has a “barn-yard” meaning. Basically Paul is saying that what he has lost, he considers of no more value than what the cows leave behind or as an old friend of mine put it “what the bird left on the rock.”

·        Isn’t Scriptural interpretation fun?

·        If Paul considers all his merits and honours to be worthless, then what was left to him? When compared to what he has received in Christ, he says I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ  and be found in him. He values what he has received far more than what he has left behind.

·        What then has he received? Paul continues with these powerful words: …not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ…

·        What then have WE received? We have received that same righteousness through faith in Christ.

·        Just as Paul did, each of us has our merits and our honours – our histories, our diplomas, our riches, our medals, our trophies, our banners, our good names, and even our scars. We all know where we’re from and we often know where our families are from and what they did… be it for better or worse. Whether our origins are high or humble, we may be proud of them and at the same time know them to be of little value in the light of the grace of God and the salvation given to us in Christ.

·        Our faith is in God and our hope is in God’s grace. The season of Lent shines a special light on the Cross and emphasizes just how far God will go for our life in Christ.

·        I found this comment during my sermon preparation and I found it applicable: “What’s important is not that God knows what you’ve done but that you know what God has done”

·        Like it or not, know it or not, there is still much do to, not to make ourselves worthy of God’s grace, but to live out the grace we have received. Even Paul voiced his concern over this: I press on to make it my own, because 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.

·        Jesus Christ has made us his own and thanks be to God for that. Our task then is to live as people who are his own.