Today we begin a new series exploring our calling as Christians. Over the course of this month, we will be looking at some of the expectations we find in scripture for how those of us who follow Christ are expected to live in the world. What does it mean to be a Christian, to live into the kingdom of God?
Paul gives us a bit of help here in his letter to the Philippians (see Philippians 3:4b-14). Paul gives us an excellent example of what we are not to do. We are not called to be perfect as the world defines it. Instead, we are called to be more like Christ.
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As we move into a new month, we transition out of the Season of Creation and back into Ordinary time. Far from our common understanding of ordinary time as dull or mundane, ordinary in this case simply means counted. This is the 27th Sunday of ordinary time.
During the church year, Ordinary time is a season of growth. It is a time when our readings touch on what it means to be the body of Christ in the world, what it means to live into the kingdom of God. There are readings from the book of Acts and the letters of Paul. And the Gospel readings are often parables about the kingdom of God.
This week we turn again to Paul’s letters. There are some familiar things going on here as Paul is again encouraging an early Christian community with arguments that he has used before. In this letter he is again talking about the difference between living for the flesh and living for the spirit, though he uses slightly different language.
Just a few lines before our reading today, he is reminding the people that they shouldn’t force anyone to live according to the flesh. As many of you may know, one of the marks of the Hebrew people has long been circumcision. During the early days of the Christian church, there was much argument about whether or not non-Jewish converts had to be circumcised. Some felt like the only way for them to really become a follower of Christ was to follow all of the Jewish religious laws, which includes circumcision.
This is where we pick up with our reading today. Paul says, “if you want to talk about the laws of the flesh, I am as perfect as they come.” He goes on to list all the ways in which he excels at meeting the expectations of membership in the community and perfection under the Law. He is circumcised. He is not only a Hebrew, but can even name his particular tribe. Before his own conversion, he persecuted the church. He is blameless as far as the religious Laws are concerned.
In other words, he is the very epitome of what one might expect from someone faithful to God.
As he lists off each of his qualifications, it is easy to think he is doing a bit of bragging along the way. It comes off as a bit of false modesty, or what some might call a humble brag. “I am saying all of this to down play it, but I am really quite proud of all of these things.”
On the other hand, given Paul’s focus on spreading the Gospel to gentiles, there is a sense in which this is Paul’s act of recognizing his own privilege. “Look at all of these advantages I have.” When it comes to the Jewish community, he is all anyone could ever expect and more.
So is he bragging or doing something else?
As we continue reading, we find that actually it doesn’t matter, because the point of what Paul is saying here is something else entirely. “These things were assets, but I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:7, CEB). All that he had before, all his privileges, his perfection under the Law, it is all garbage compared to what he has found in Christ. The only thing that matters is God’s righteousness and faithfulness that we know through Jesus.
Through his life, teaching, death, and resurrection, Jesus proves God’s faithfulness to us. No matter how we have failed to be faithful, no matter how we have failed to follow through, God continues to reach out to us. God continues to offer us love and grace. God continues to work toward a relationship with us.
No matter how imperfect we are, God is righteous.
No matter how perfect we may think we are, only God is righteous.
Part of the reason Paul tells us this is that at times we have a tendency to get caught up on what we see as our own perfection, the privileges we have that we often do not even think about. For Paul, with his concern for the inclusion of the gentiles, this focus on what we perceive as our own perfection drives people away rather than drawing them closer. Paul recognizes that all that we have is by God’s righteousness and grace, so there is no use in bragging or setting ourselves up as somehow better than others. If we belittle what God has granted to someone else, who are we really attacking?
As a Hebrew man, Paul can be proud of his standing and accomplishments according to Hebrew expectations. But the expectations of followers of Christ are different. So Paul reminds us not to be so caught up on our perfection according to a particular community. We should measure ourselves instead according to the model of Christ. No matter how perfect we may think we are, none of us is as perfect as Christ. This is why we strive to be better. This is why we pursue the goal of becoming more Christ-like. We don’t stop striving because we think we have made it. We keep pressing on to become ever more like Christ.
As I was preparing this week, I was reminded of a recent animated movie called Smallfoot. In this film, we meet a group of yeti who live high in the Himalayas. The main character, Migo, is strolling through town singing about Perfection. This song encapsulates what is so great about how things are, how perfect everything is, how everything fits together just so. But over the course of the film, we begin to see that maybe this ideal is not nearly as perfect as expected. There is a world beyond the mountain. Many of their truths are actually lies. And yetis and humans can coexist peacefully.
By the end of the movie, Migo and others come to see that the perfection they had before was as nothing compared to the new truth they had learned. They throw out the old ideas of perfection for the truth that they have learned.
This is what Paul is saying in this letter today. Under the way that was previously known to them, Paul was about as close to perfect as one would expect. But once he learned about Jesus, he counted all that he was before as nothing more than garbage. There is nothing wrong with being perfect, but being perfect as the world defines it is not the goal. The goal is to become more like Christ. Christ who included those that others excluded. Christ who frequently ignored the letter of the Law when it got in the way of relationships. Christ who offered grace freely to all he encountered along the way. Whether they chose to accept what was offered is another matter entirely.
It is clear that Paul wanted there to be a path for all people to become a part of the community. He was speaking out against the closed-mindedness that excluded gentiles. He was reminding the recipients of his letters that all they had was grace from God. He was calling us to offer that same grace to others.
Through him and the other disciples and believers, the love of Christ and the desire to follow his teachings spread around the globe. None of us in this room today is a middle eastern Hebrew. But because of the grace Paul and others received, we have been included in the ministry of Christ. And because of the grace we have received, others may know Christ as well.
In closing today, I invite you to listen to the song from the movie Smallfoot about “Perfection.” It is catchy and upbeat, but I hope as you hear it you will begin to think about your own ideas of perfection. Think about what we value in this world and what that counts for compared to the grace that God has granted to us through the example of Christ.