We’ve been away from Philippians for a few weeks. To plunge us back into the letter, let’s pick up Paul in chapter 3, verse 4b:
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew 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 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count 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 that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained [this] or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But 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 upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
So that’s our passage. I don’t normally expose the outline of my sermons, and I don’t recall the last time I used an outline alliteration (points begin with the same letter). But we’ll do so today, even though at least one of these alliterations is a little strained! Big-time important: this is one sermon broken up over two weeks. Today’s will feel incomplete because it is.
- Paul’s Situation
- Paul’s Strain
- Paul’s Single-mindedness
- Paul’s Setting
- Paul’s Suggestion
Paul’s Situation
By this point in the letter, Paul has already made some impressive claims, mainly having to do with how he’s come to think. Let’s just list some of those rather spectacular mindsets:
- Even if Paul’s opponents are using gospel proclamation perversely, to stick it to him, whether Christ is proclaimed in truth or in pretense, CHRIST IS PROCLAIMED. So Paul is ok with either. Actually, rejoices.
- For Paul, to live is Christ.
- Because it would be the portal through which he would go to be with Christ in a way he couldn’t be with Him now, Paul preferred death over living.
- Paul knows that wherever he goes he will be productive in terms of the gospel.
- If in his suffering Paul’s life is being drained out so that the faith of the Philippian church is fed and replenished, Paul’s ok with that. Actually He rejoices.
- Paul has the chutzpah to tell all Christians in all possible scenarios to “rejoice in the Lord.”
- Paul claims that he has “gained Messiah.” That he, personally, has been “found” in the Messiah.
- Paul had lost everything in order to “gain Christ.” In light of what…Who… he gained, everything he lost along the way he considers as “rubbish.”
- Paul believes that – through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ – he is a party to what is right with the world, what has been made right by God.
- Paul believes that he is planted next to, in reach of the highest good, that elusive telos of humanity. In other words, Paul believes that knows Jesus Christ and will continue to know him better.
- Paul is convinced that his and others in Christ sufferings can become part of the ingredients by which God is making the world right.
- Paul is convinced that the bumpy road he was on, a road pockmarked by suffering, leads to the end-time Resurrection. That’s because it’s the Jesus road, and Jesus is the Way. He is the Resurrection and Life.
We can safely assume that in all these expressions Paul is sincere, that he’s not putting on or boasting. Then, if you add to this list of claims that Paul has made about how he now thinks, the fact that several times he uses the phrase “in Christ,” “in the Lord,” etc – – you have the distinct impression that Paul related his plans and hopes and relationships and evaluations…everything…to Jesus Christ.
Simply put, Paul is amazing. Philippians is one of his only letters in which at length he reveals how he thinks about things. And it’s amazing.
So, after all that, how does he summarize his situation? (V.12) Not that I have already obtained or am already perfect… And then (V.13), a sentence later, lest there was any misunderstanding: Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. Hear this: I haven’t arrived at the goal. I’m not complete or even – in the big picture – mature.
This isn’t merely a passing admission…Paul is dead set against leaving his readers with the impression that he has attained some sort of super-Christianity. In the wake of his opening up about his surprising, Spiritually rich way of looking at the world, Paul immediately qualifies himself. I haven’t arrived!
Why? For a couple reasons. One, Paul wanted to be realistic about what time it is. Although the phrase wasn’t original with him, William Buckley made famous the adage “Don’t immanentize the eschaton.” The eschaton is the end of days. To immanentize is to act as if we’re there…or almost there. That is, people get into trouble when they think that a utopia has arrived or is just about to, if only, for example, this person could get elected….
No, Christians never forget that in this age we are always a waiting people. How many times have I quoted Martin Luther: “There are two days on my calendar: today and THAT DAY. And a few times I’ve mentioned that insightful line from the end of the last book in the Narnia series: “Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” In other words, in this age, no matter what kind of progress is made…or how many setbacks…we’re still in the preface, the foreword, the introduction. The main story hasn’t started yet!
By this same word, the Holy Spirit gives us this direction: remember that you and no one else has arrived.
While leaders and good examples are crucial to the community, things go awry when people – either the good examples themselves or the ones who would emulate them – forget that these good examples are still a work in progress themselves, that they are relatively spiritual children (as Paul calls himself in 1 Cor 13).
Something is off when spiritual leaders – living or dead! – are surrounded by a certain mystique. When a chasm of awe and caution opens up between the mature and immature. When leaders are no longer able to be checked or critiqued. When a note of preachiness or high-toned piety or scold or condescension is constantly sounded from leaders.
A wise leader makes sure to occasionally signal: I haven’t arrived.
Now, once you understand and accept this principle, the Devil will start using it against the church. We’re not to use this principle to flatten everything, so that either we pretend there is no such category as the spiritually mature and immature OR we act like there’s no virtue in growth. (We’ll hit that hard in just a second). We’re not supposed to use this principle to become suspicious of or cheeky toward our spiritual leaders. And this is flimsy basis for making too much of “vulnerability,” telling as many people we can about the worst aspects of ourselves.
Paul simply says: I want you to consider, because I know I’ve thought it through: I’m not now what I will be.
Here’s a stanza from an old hymn: “Then we shall be where we would be, then we shall be what we should be; things that are not now, nor could be, soon shall be our own.”
So, Paul’s qualifier about not having arrived prevents us from “immanentizing the eschaton.” But that’s not his main takeaway. He…he! says that even though he hasn’t arrived, still he strains forward: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press onward…
What an example God’s Spirit has given us in Paul. Though he had come to know and love Christ more deeply and ardently than most anyone else, no one worked harder than he to go forward to the goal.
Paul employs a running metaphor here. I’m not a runner: my best 40 time in high school was in the high 5s. My fastest mile is 7.20. And those periods I’ve taken up jogging I’ve never gotten to the place where I enjoyed it. Boy, do I enjoy watching running, though. This started when my boys ran track in high school.
Now, besides theology stuff, I mainly watch three things on YouTube: Magic, Got Talent shows, and running. I enjoy everything from sprinting to ultras. And truly, there are a lot of spiritual lessons contained in running. Paul talks about straining forward. And it’s helpful to reflect that this straining is necessary for every distance of racing. In the 100 meters you sometimes have photo finishes where just the lean makes a difference. Don’t know if you recall in the Rio Olympics when Allyson Felix, the American favorite, lost the 400 to Shaunae Miller from the Bahamas because Ms Miller dove…launched herself over the line at the last minute.
To use another word, what Paul is talking about is complete intensity. He says that his pursuit of the Christian goal was completely intense, then he’ll then go on to say this rigor comes out of a mature mindset. The life in Christ, the life toward God, the walk with the Spirit, is intended to be gone about with enthusiasm…no that’s too weak…we’re meant to push ourselves to the limit. It’s not appropriate or adult or “balanced” to drift or coast or even move forward…but to strain forward!
Think about your prayer habits. Your consistency and attention in bible reading. Your leading of your family. Your financial stewardship. Your work habits. Your steadiness and service to the Body of Christ. Your interaction with the commandments. Your own evangelism. Your training toward Christian character, especially gentleness. Brother and sisters, is there anything like intensity in how you handle these? Or are you a dabbler?
The movie, Schindler’s List, isn’t for everyone, but there’s a scene at the end that I find moving. Oscar Schindler, a German, saves 1100 Jews by hiring them to work in his fake munitions factory instead of going to concentration camps. To carry off this munition factory contrivance Schindler has to bribe Nazi officials and eventually runs out of money.
Anyhow, one of the last scenes has Schindler leaving the factory, bidding farewell to the workers. As he receives their thanks, regret sweeps over him. He reflects that he could have done more to save more. He weeps, he bawls. I could have sold this car and saved ten people. I could have sold these golden pins and saved 1-2 others.
That’s a picture of the thing Paul is talking about: being all-in. Spending yourself.
And not, for instance, resting on past spiritual laurels. Not thinking, well we’ve avoided hell so that’s enough. Not, well, I don’t want to get too worked up and one day I’ll wake up and see I was just going through a stage. Paul says, that sort of carefulness (tepidness) isn’t mature; that’s immature.
Shall we continue to sin so that grace may abound? Has “grace” – or at least some skewed, shrunken concept of it – made us lethargic and fat and silly and distracted? We look at those Islamists who do their fasting and get out their prayer rugs and are scurrying around to earn their god’s favor and think – well, what do we think? – that they just need to relax! No, their intensity isn’t their problem!
The ending of our call to worship psalm haunts me. The nation is asking God for mercy in light of those who are treating them so shamefully…listen to how these “bad guys” are described:Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,/ for we have had more than enough of contempt./ Our soul has had more than enough/ of the scorn of those who are at ease…
In thinking through this intensity theme, it’s helpful to lean into this running metaphor. You might think of intensity as how that presents in sprints, but probably we’re supposed to have in mind marathons or ultra-marathons. Those long-distance guys are running with intensity, but they’re not in every second pushing it with everything they have. It’s intensity over the long haul. Looks a little more docile, but they’re still completely engaged.
I recall an acquaintance who was a pastor of a large church. On Sundays he’d stride around from one person to the next saying “the Lord bless you.” By the time you could think of a response he was long past you, shock -and -awe-ing another person. Now, there was some intensity to him, and he was covering a lot of ground, but it was too excited. Over-adrenalized. But there’s another kind of intensity that allows you to be in the moment, focusing on a person, thinking through what he’s saying. Relaxed and attentive. In the big picture, you’re still straining forward, it just doesn’t look so…strained.
Straining forward can and should include vacations and sabbaths and afternoons by the pool and lingering dinners and reading novels and hiking. Probably a hobby or two too. But here’s the thing: these respites and relaxations are all thoughtfully set into place in order to serve God and grow up into Jesus Christ and move forward to the Resurrection with attentiveness and effectiveness. We rest, not to rest, but to return to a truer productivity.
I fear that prosperity and certain technologies have made even Christian Americans, and particularly New Englanders, oriented toward ease. So that we work in order to have more fun. Our service is mainly to take the edge off the guilt we feel for having more fun. We work hard in our 20s and 30s so that we can get that vacation home…. Sometimes interactions with our brothers in Asia or the Middle East can help set straight our thinking. Or a biography.
Or just reading the Scripture with some alertness. At the center is the Creator who gave His only Son. The Son worked and suffered to the point of dying of suffocation and exhaustion and trauma. And here we have the words of the apostle to the Gentiles: STRAINING FORWARD. Will we say we believe all this, that this is also our story, and then respond in sloth and procrastination?
Brothers and sisters – would anyone who knows you well conclude that you are straining forward toward the Day?
One last detail: note that Paul expressly says forgetting what lies behind. Part of straining forward is that you’re not looking back. There’s that unforgettable scene in Chariots of Fire when Eric Liddell is running the 400M and toward the beginning of the race gets tripped up. Well, the music starts to shimmer, and Eric Liddell gets up, tears up the track, comes from behind and wins. How did that work? He didn’t stay down. He didn’t pout. He forgot that he was supposed to quit and he strained forward to what’s ahead.
It’s difficult to guess which category of things Paul most wanted us to forget: the positive things or the negative things? It’s easy for the memory of the positive things suck the energy from you: you did your bit of service when you were younger etc.
But maybe the harder thing is forgetting the negative things: recently I’ve heard the phrase “church hurt” a lot. Or, perhaps, your “reward” for ministering to people was their forgetting about you or even bad-mouthing you or – maybe the worst – abandoning you when things got tough. Or, what is weighing you down, making you cynical and hard-hearted…the furthest thing from straining forward… is shame from the past of something you’ve done, you’re responsible for.
What’s the mature mindset: forgettaboutit. Don’t stew. Don’t retrace. Don’t post passive-aggressive comments reminding people about how you’ve been done wrong. Turn away from self-pity, dreams of vengeance, and don’t let any more suns go down on your anger.
This is a sermon interrupted by a week. Before we depart, let me leave you with a few diagnostic questions regarding straining forward:
- In your work – which is a lot of how we serve God – are you focused and energetic or an inveterate browser?
- As you rear children and guide grandchildren, are you focused and working toward a godly vision, or are you on your phone, moody, spiritless, vision-less?
- In your parenting, are you fashioning your children to do hard things, to get out of their lethargy and comfort zone, to strain forward into excellence for the glory of God?
- Older Saints – have you bought into the deceit that it’s your time for fun, or do you believe in your bones that this could be the most Spiritually productive period of your life?
- In your Bible reading, are you structured, or could your devotional habit be labeled as unserious?
- Are you a crowd following, entertainment-centric consumer or are you a thinker and learner who is attempting to understand the world that God made and rules and sets man over?
- Have you thought through why you take vacations and rests and does the advancement of God’s Kingdom and the building up of the Church drive your vacation philosophy?
- Finally, is your giving to the Lord’s work sacrificial and principled? If so, is it a biblical principle? If so, which? Or is your giving to the Lord’s work negligible, careless, accidental, an afterthought?
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