PRESSING FORWARD
Philippians 3:1-14 August 25, 2024
Life is about endurance. We first have to endure the trip from our mother’s womb to a very different atmosphere and world. It is no wonder babies often enter the world crying. They seem to know what is ahead of them. School is about endurance. One has to learn to sit quietly, listen to the teacher and take good notes. Regardless of the schooling one has to do, it is about enduring and pressing forward. Some students think that school should be fun and easy but that is a false belief. In the same way some people think that being Christian is easy. If anything it is about endurance. In Revelation 3:10 the Lord says, “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.” Those who endure patiently will have the victory at the end-times.
Since the Apostle Paul sees the Christian life as participating in a race, I will make a few comments about running a marathon. Many years ago on a cold May morning I ran the Fort Wayne Marathon. The key to running a marathon is practice and preparation. The key to crossing the finish line is to put one foot in front of the other and patiently endure. I recall that several runners at the starting line took off fast when the starting gun fired. They ran for all they were worth. The TV cameras got good pictures of those starting the race by running fast. The rest of us were by comparison moving quite slowly. When the gun went off, we slowly moved forward. We did not begin the race by running all out. Down the road a mile or so, we passed the ones who began the race at a fast pace. Everyone who passed them knew that they were not going to cross the finish line. They had already run out of steam. They had enthusiasm and fire but they did not have endurance. They were in the limelight for a moment, but were nowhere to be seen at the finish line.
Life is a test of endurance. The Christian life is a test of endurance. Much of what we get involved in that is good and worthwhile is obtained by determination and endurance. Getting an education is one test after another of one’s endurance. Rather than studying, there are dozens of things that may be more appealing. Rather than attending class and being attentive, there are frequently all kinds of more exciting things to do. Just obtaining a decent education is a test of one’s endurance.
Keeping a job presents another challenge of endurance. A person has to keep at it even when it seems beyond one’s endurance. Once we interviewed a woman who wanted the job of church secretary. We specifically told her what her tasks would be. We did not want her to have any surprises. She had to do secretarial work for a staff of three, greet people coming into the office, answer the telephone, field questions and do several other important tasks. We were clear to her that it was a busy office and that her job would be at times quite difficult. She indicated that she realized it would be a demanding job but she wanted it anyway. Since she seemed enthused and anxious to begin, we hired her. At the end of three days, she called in sick and later she quit. Any kind of work calls for endurance. Every job one has requires one to do things that you would rather not do, tolerate people you would rather not tolerate, and live up to the expectations of others. Life is about endurance.
Many of you are married or have been married. You went through the exciting process of courtship, found your way to a chaplain, said the vows to your beloved and raced out of the chapel to live happily ever after. People who work with couples having problems say that many go into marriage like the hot shot marathon runners. They begin with excitement and enthusiasm and when the romance or infatuation cools from boiling to a reasonable 98.6 degrees they think that they are out of love and the marriage is on the rocks. Marriage presents people with test after test of endurance.
The Apostle Paul writes to the Christians in the Macedonian city of Philippi about the Christian life. He likens it to a foot race, and he challenges them. He tells them, “…but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12b-14).” Paul tells us that endurance is a critical part of the Christian life.
Being Christian is not an easy task. God knows that, and anyone who takes Christ Jesus seriously knows it. One of the things that trip some up is the expectation of perfection. Some Christians believe that being Christian means that one is immune to failure or doing wrong. A woman who attended church came up to me after the service to talk about church membership. She said that she was not baptized, and that she hoped that someday she would be perfect enough to be baptized. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line she heard someone say that to be a Christian meant that one must be worthy or perfect in all ways.
Being Christian is something different from being perfect. I like to think of becoming Christian as similar to being married. Married couples know from their experience that perfection is not a good goal for marriage. Husbands and wives are not perfect. Yet they are in a relationship that calls them to respond faithfully to each other. The goal is not perfection but staying in the relationship.
The Christian life is marked by relationship. God in Christ Jesus calls us into a relationship. In making our commitment to God we are in a relationship similar to the marriage relationship. We are saying to God that regardless of what comes our way we will be faithful. Before I conduct a marriage ceremony I am careful to guide the couple through the service order. I read the words, “in sickness and in health, for better, for worse, for richer or poorer till death us do part.” Those vows can be compared to a commitment to God. When we make a commitment to Christ Jesus, we are saying that we will be faithful regardless of what happens. Endurance is involved in being faithful to the living Lord.
One of the big challenges of the Christian life is the challenge of moving forward after a failure. We promise to be faithful but then find ourselves being unfaithful. We promise to follow the Lord but find ourselves being seduced by the temptations of the world. We promise faithfulness but find ourselves failing. The real test of being Christian is what we do when we fail. Do we quit and give up? Or do we pick ourselves up off the ground, shake the dust off and begin again with God’s help to faithfully follow the Lord? Being Christian means enduring until the day that you will come face to face with the Lord.
The challenge of Christianity is to grow from our failures and mistakes rather than letting them destroy us or harm our faith. In order to survive in marriage, we must learn how to grow from our failures. We must learn from those times we have wronged our spouses or we will be in a heap of trouble. In the Christian life, we must learn to grow from our failures. Making mistakes is a part of the process of growing and becoming a strong Christian. Being faithful as a response to failure and mistakes is the mark of a growing Christian. Our goal is not perfection as the world defines it but it is to become the kind of man or woman God calls us to be in Christ Jesus. The Christian goal is to become a person who can love as Jesus loves us.
When we make our commitment to live out our faith in God, we are guaranteed that he long ago promised to be faithful and loving to us. God never gave up on the people of Israel, and God does not give up on us. The powerful people of First Century Israel wanted to silence Jesus’ message. He teaches us that it is about grace, not works. God pours on us his love with no strings attached. And out of our faith in him, we want to live out his teaching. The leaders tried to silence Jesus by sending him to the Cross. But God did not permit Jesus to languish in the grave. Jesus was raised from the death to life. In Christ Jesus we see the kind of love that endures beyond the grave. The Christian life is a call to people who endure, who keep striving, who do their best with God’s help to reach what is ahead, and who run straight toward the goal to, in Paul’s words, win the prize which is God’s call through Christ Jesus to life eternal. Thanks be to God who calls us to be faithful and loving and gives us grace to endure.
A Sermon preached at Veterans Memorial Chapel
by CH (COL) Michael W. Malone
Comments