Fifth Sunday in Lent
Philippians 3:4b-14

Pastor Gayle M. Pope

Press On!

The man in the commercial is working so hard to get the snow off his car. All that snow. It’s a lot of work. Finally he gets done. Whew! He hits the button on his key chain to unlock the doors.

The doors click – the lights flash. The problem is, they are flashing on the car that is right next to the car he has worked so hard to get clean. They are flashing and clicking on a car that is still covered with a foot of snow.

All that work to reach his goal, only to find he was working toward the wrong goal.

The Apostle Paul used to be like that guy. He worked so hard to reach his goal to be the perfect Jew. He had a good start – born a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin and circumcised on the eighth day.

As a Pharisee, he was learned in the law of Moses and applied it strictly to himself. He was so devoted to Jewish culture and beliefs, he did whatever it took to defend them – even to the point of persecuting the followers of Jesus who were winning converts away from the true faith.

But then came that fateful day on the road to Damascus when he met Jesus face to face in a blinding flash of light. And suddenly everything changed. In time, he came to realize that everything he had worked to accomplish all his life was absolutely worthless – garbage.

“I consider it all loss, compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,” he said. “I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him.”

In other words, life is not all about Paul anymore – it’s about Jesus. It’s about living for Jesus. It’s about KNOWING Christ intimately … knowing the power of his resurrection … sharing in his sufferings ... becoming like him in his death so as to share in some mysterious way in his resurrection.

Paul is not there yet. It’s a process and it can be a struggle. But, he says, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Paul is “in Christ” now – Jesus has already taken hold of him and now he is working to take hold of Jesus.

He doesn’t have everything figured out, but he has left behind the old attitude of trying to be righteous by keeping the law. Now he strains toward the goal of the complete oneness and wholeness in Christ that will be his when he ultimately meets Christ again on the other side of death.

This is not a goal he can achieve by keeping laws and doing things that build up his religious resume. It’s a goal that is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within Paul, as Paul sets aside his own agenda and trusts in Christ.

Now just think about this: If your life goal is to know Christ more and more – to become one with Christ – nothing that happens to you on earth has any real power to get in your way.

* * *

Yesterday, I had the privilege of spending time in prayer with the Rosenboom family up at the hospital in Burlington. Here’s Linda, who has been given the news that her life may very well be cut short by cancer and she’s going to have a difficult fight against it. And here’s Grandpa Harold, who has already lived 95 years, but who shares that sense of death knocking on the door because of the aneurism that is pressing on his heart and lungs.

Both of them have obstacles that keep them from accomplishing earthly things, but for the goal of becoming more like Christ and sharing in his resurrection – no obstacle at all. Just the opposite, in fact – and, not only for them.

What they are going through will bring many, many others closer to that same goal.

* * *

We work so hard so often. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Hard work is good. But what is the goal for which we are working? If it is all about US – about accomplishment, security, control, ego, comfort or self-righteousness – we are like the man cleaning the snow off the wrong car.

When all is said and done, we’ve gotten no where. And everything we are working for could be snatched away from us at a moment’s notice. It’s one thing to be tired in mind and body, but if our hard work is making us tired in spirit, maybe we’re working toward the wrong goal.

We need to lighten up. Jesus tells us how to do that in the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 11: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest,” he says. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Paul has taken up the yoke of discipleship, working side by side with Jesus, and, he says, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

For Paul, and for us, the goal is resurrection. The way is through faith in Christ. Here on earth, we run toward the goal like athletes in a race. Our training diet is God’s Word. We build strength and endurance through prayer and worship. The race course is one of obedience to God’s will and response to God’s call. All the way, we grow closer to Christ and become more like him.

The prize is reunion with God in heaven. When that is where we set our sights, obstacles turn into assets. That’s why Paul says in Romans 8: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

As we press on toward this goal, Paul says, “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?”

God loves you. God has made you his own through faith in Christ. God wants you to set your sights on heaven as you live your life on earth – that the risen Christ may live in you.

And now, may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.