March 28, 2004
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The readings from both
Isaiah and from Philippians are about letting go in order to grab hold to
something greater. We know that letting go
is hard because we are a nation of collectors. Many of us have held on to
souvenir plates and spoons and refrigerator magnets and little glasses and other
reminders that tell us where we have been. Vendors make money off our need to
have a memento of the concerts and events we have attended. Somewhere in attics and
basements are children’s report cards and papers, there are in our homes
displays of photographs and other reminders of how things were. God has given us
memories and we do not want to forget those things that remind us of what we
love and treasure. So what are we to make
of these calls to forget, to disregard what has happened before.
Surely we are not being told that we ought to act as if the things that
are meaningful to us never happened. We know the past matters. It shapes so much
of who we are today. The lessons we have learned, the people we have
encountered, experiences we have had all make us who we are. The truth is it
really is not possible to forget completely. We have a sense memory of the old
things. We can feel it, see it, taste it, smell it, and hear it. Many of you
walk into this room and are immediately filled with what used to be. And so it
is puzzling to hear God saying through Isaiah forget the former things, or hear
Paul say in the name of Jesus Christ, disregard it all. I hope we understand
that the biblical writers are being a bit dramatic in their call to forget. What
they are really asking us to do is to create room in our spirits so that God can
do a new thing in us. They want us to join the generations of faithful people
who have come before us and stretch ourselves, heart, mind, and soul and to get
a new perspective that helps us make room for something even better than we have
known. Let me tell you three
brief stories about God doing new things and what they mean to us. The people of Israel had
been in exile a long time. Now they are getting ready to return to Jerusalem. As
they gather their belongings, they have some questions. Will the roads be safe?
Will my house be there? What will Jerusalem look like after all this time?
Through the prophet God speaks. “Remember the story of your ancestors leaving
Egypt. They had questions too. Where is Moses taking us? How long will this
journey take? Can we outrun Pharoah’s army?” God says, “I provided
for them, and I will provide for you. Let that story go for now, make room for
this new thing. This time, you are not running to escape this time, now you are
on the road to return, this is a time for rebuilding. I opened up the sea for
your ancestors, I will open up highways for you. Even in the wilderness, where
it is hot and damp, where there can be thick roots or barren sun-baked desert, I
will bring you to the place you need to be. There will be water to drink, not
from a rock, but from rivers I create. No harm will come to you from the animals
there. What was dangerous before will not hurt you now.
This is the time to ‘say to your soul take courage, be patient, don’t
worry, the Lord will make a way somehow’ (Thomas Dorsey, 1943).
I have done it before, and I will do it again”.
Now, you may be thinking
to yourself, what difference will this newness mean to me? I am fairly set in my
ways. A new thing is OK for them, but not for me. I’m good. Things are fine
for me just as they already are. Let me tell the second
story. We will hear Paul’s conversion story in a few weeks, but today, we join
his story as he writes to the church at Philippi. He gives them part of his
autobiography in order to invite “invite the Philippians to observe how
Christ’s power has been at work in him and to imitate the work of him by
letting Christ work in their lives too” (Harper’s Bible
Dictionary. edited by Paul Achtemeier. San Francisco: Harper & Row,
1985, p.786). Paul does not hold
anything back from the church at Philippi. He knows them well. He helped to
establish the church, he loves the people there dearly, he rejoices in their
joy, and it hurts him when they are in pain and turmoil. Paul believes that by
being totally honest about who he is, he can help the Philippians to find
themselves in a faithful relationship with Christ. He makes himself
vulnerable to the Philippians because there is a looming conflict in the church.
We tend to think that such things did not exist until we came along but the
truth is that church clashes are not new. Only the specifics change, the
disagreements have been present as long as people have been in the church. The
issue for Paul and for us is how to resolve the conflict in a way that pleases
God and helps the church witness to the good news that is in us. The problem Paul faced
was this. There were in the Philippian church people who had become Jews who
then became Christians who were there teaching that the only correct way to be a
Christian was to first be a good Jewish person. Moses then Jesus. Paul says look
at me, “let me tell you how to put your faith in Jesus Christ above all
else”. He shows them by describing how Christ changed his life. “I had it made. My
credentials were impeccable. My identity as an observant Jew was unassailable.
By birth, unlike the people trying to convince you of what you need to do, by
birth I am a member of the tribe of Israel, I was born into the faith, I am no
Paul come lately to Judaism. I was circumcised as an infant, my parents are
Hebrews. I was a Pharisee, a guardian of the law, I was part of the leadership
that made sure that the rituals were followed, the holy days were observed,
every “i” was dotted, and every “t” crossed. What did I think of
Christians, let’s just say, that if a prize were given for hunting down and
persecuting them, it would have been mine. I was the very definition of a
follower of the law”. But, you know what? I
met Jesus on a road one day, and when I did everything changed. I gave up
everything, I was willing to let it all go because I now know Jesus Christ. All
that I have is less important than my relationship with him. All that I am is no
longer at the center of my life. Who I am in Christ is the heart and soul of my
life. Paul is willing to put to the side family, heritage, reputation for the
sake of Christ. God is doing a new thing in his life, and he wants to make room
to receive it. Paul now measures his
life differently than he did before. He is now willing to give less priority to
all that has come before to his old life. Now he has a new life and he offers
himself to the Philippians so that they can have a new life in Christ too. Fred Craddock helps us
understand. “Paul does not say of his former life that it was in the loss
column of the ledger, but rather that in his new way of reckoning he counted
gain as loss (v.7). [The New International Version translates this verse,
‘whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ]. This
difference is most important. Paul does not say Judaism is worthless, that it is
refuse, that [his former] way of life is of no value. What he is describing is
his consuming desire to know Jesus Christ, to be in Jesus Christ, to have that
righteousness which is God’s gift to the one who believes (vv 8-9); and for
the surpassing worth of that, he counts gain as loss. It is not the law
that is dead; Paul is dead to the law. Paul does not toss away junk to gain
Christ; he tosses away that which was of tremendous value to him. What Paul is
saying is that Christ surpasses everything of worth to me. We need to keep in
mind Paul’s model is the Christ who did not relinquish the low and base for
something better, but who gave up all claim to equality with God in exchange for
obedient service. Giving ourselves up to God is total trust, having no claim,
and seeking no advantage, but in service to one another leaving our status
before God entirely in God’s hands” (Interpretation
series. Philippians. Fred Craddock. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1985,
p.58). What would you leave
behind to know Christ better? Would you let go of your ego, your money, your
position in the community, your education? Would you give up any of it, none of
it? Can we be like Paul in some way and say that our deepest desire it to know
Christ in the power of his death and in the greater power of his resurrection?
We can certainly relate to him as he admits that he is not quite there
yet, put he keeps moving. He rejoices that he belongs to Christ and he runs like
an Olympic sprinter toward the prize of eternal life in Christ. His story
continues as he presses on. The first story is of
the new thing God does in us as we see ourselves in Israel’s story. The second
story is of the new thing God does in us as we see ourselves in Paul’s story. The third story is ours.
Our story is not about forgetting what is sown deeply into our memories, but as
was true for Paul, it is about letting go to make room for a new thing. It is
about rearranging our memories so that the new things God will do in us can
bloom. What is the new thing God wants to do in us? We have lived long enough in
the land of we can’t, it’s not enough, it won’t work. It’s not like it
was before. God has given us the gift of leaving exile, and of being back into
our own place. It is time to come home to where we can, where we have what we
need and can get more, be more, and do more. Come home to where maybe it will
work, and maybe it won’t, but we will try anyway. It does not have to be like
it was, it can be better than ever. God has given us this
place at this time. God has sent us leaders, and has given us a will, a desire,
a heart to be God’s people in this place. It is time to claim our home and
praise God as we do. “God whose upward call
in Christ Jesus we have so often chosen to ignore, still calls us not to settle
for lesser goals [but] to embrace the realm of heaven. We get stuck looking at
our own interests and forget our connection to our brothers and sisters. We need
God to do a new thing within and among us” (Lavon Bayler. Gathered
in Love. Cleveland: United Church Press, 1994, p.64). As God does
that new thing, we are called to respond. We respond to God doing
a new thing in us by accepting a new identity. Of course who we are now is
important. We are proud to say with Paul that we are from someplace and we
belong to somebody. I am proud to be a Californian born of Arkansans, a child of
the church, nurtured in its church camps, baptized into its fellowship, educated
at its schools. I love being a third generation member of this part of the body
of Christ called the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). That is part of my
story. You have a story too and
your story is important. But we are asked to let go of all that is in us to take
on our identity as followers of Jesus Christ who know him as friend and guide,
Lord and Savior. We respond to God doing
a new thing in us by living with a new kind of persistence and by letting the
spirit work in us. A small group of us has been working through what it means to
live with purpose. What we are discovering is not secret. It is that God is
doing new things to us that can lead us to a new spirit in worship, as we know
God better, fellowship as we know each other better, and discipleship as we
learn more about God. We are finding new spirit in ministry as we nurture each
other more, and as we practice evangelism as we learn to share the good news of
Jesus Christ more. We stand in the shadow
of the cross of Jesus Christ, between death and resurrection. We are between
incredible cruelty transformed into new life and endless possibility. It is time for us to
make room for the new greater thing God is doing in us. “God summons us to
return and welcomes us with joy. Together, we find our horizons expanded and our
priorities refined. God sets before us once more the promise of fullness of
life. It is time for us to embrace God’s presence on this journey with renewed
faith and joy” (Bayler, p.65). The new and renewing
thing God will do in us is breaking through. Can you feel it? Will you respond
to it? Will you praise God for it? Let’s join with Paul and declare with him, “I
press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own; forgetting
what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the
goal of the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (vv.
12-14). Thanks be to God.
Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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