Philippians 3:4b-14
Imagine the following scenario: You are considering 
which of two doctors you should consult about a major medical problem. Both are specialists in the same area, but while one went to medical school at Johns Hopkins, the other did his medical education at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. I think I can guess which one you would choose!
- We humans put great stock in pedigree, wanting to know someone’s credentials before we listen to what they have to say.
- And in today’s reading from Philippians, the Apostle Paul is busy laying out his credentials so that the Philippians will trust his counsel and not be led astray by people who claim to know more than they really do
And Paul has a pretty impressive pedigree, as he outlines in Philippians, Chapter 3:
- If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
- Just like Jesus, he was circumcised as an infant to mark his identity as a son of Israel, a member of God’s Chosen People.
- And not only was he a son of Israel, but he was descended from the tribe of Benjamin – the only tribe that remained loyal to the tribe of Judah when the other tribes broke off and formed their own kingdom after Solomon died.
- And not only was Paul a full-blooded Jew from a prestigious tribe, he was also a Pharisee – one highly schooled in the Law of Moses.
- And not only did he know every aspect of the Law of Moses, but he had been a staunch defender of that Law when he believed Jesus to be a threat to the precious heritage of the Jewish people.
- Within the people called Israel, the people from whom Jesus emerged, Paul’s pedigree was impeccable.
And yet, in today’s reading from the letter from the Letter to the Philippians, Paul has now come to see his credentials are amounting to not much more than a hill of beans. As the Common English Bible translates Paul, he says: These things were my assets, yet I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ. But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
- This is an amazing thing for a Pharisee to say since Paul’s understanding had always been that the more you knew of the Law of Moses, the more you knew of God. And Paul had known a lot about the Law of Moses.
- But after his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, he is now seeing things in a new light, because now he sees God not only through God’s Law, but through God’s Son.
- And while one could hope to become an expert in the Law by studying it and following its commands, the only way to know Christ was to follow Christ.
It is ironic that Paul seems to view the Law of Moses as a burden that constricts compared to the Good News as a gift that frees, because the Law – the Torah – had itself started out as a gift.
- God gave the Law to Moses and the Hebrews in the wilderness so that they could learn, after years as slaves, how to embrace their freedom in a healthy way, a way that would build up the whole community.
- But for Paul, the idea of Torah as a gift received from a gracious God for the sake of the community had faded, replaced by the idea that if you could faithfully practice the commandments of Torah, you were a pretty special person. God’s gift had become Paul’s source of pride.
- But now Paul has received the gift of Christ, and his focus has changed. Now what matters is pressing on to whatever lies in store for him as a disciple of Christ, just as an athlete presses on toward the finish line.
- And this man who was once so proud of his pedigree now sees his identity differently. He doesn’t need to be better or more important than the other runners – all those who seek to follow Christ – he just needs to keep his focus on following Jesus and not quitting the race because the course is too hard.
Paul never lost his appreciation for the Law of Moses. It had formed his people, taught them to know God, and brought them through some very difficult times. But now that he had met Christ, Paul was able to see how easily the Law could become something that enslaved rather than freed. And we, too, know how easy it is to make faith into something that restricts rather than frees.
- We have all known – and perhaps at times have all been – people who see faith as a matter of toeing a line, meeting expectations, following rules, and generally not doing anything that might get us in trouble with God or with other people.
- There is not much joy in this approach to faith – although there is a fair amount of fear. And this is a passive approach to faith since it focuses on avoiding wrong things. But following Christ means not just avoiding wrong things – it means actively pursuing right
- And following Christ is not a passive endeavor since it means taking an active approach to faith because Christ, whom we know through the power of the Holy Spirit, continues to be a dynamic, living presence in our lives.
- And so following Christ means not simply looking backward to Judea and Galilee in the First Century, or to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century, or to the high watermark of the mainline American church in the 1950’s but also looking all around us where Christ is still speaking today.
On World Communion Sunday we have the opportunity to be intentional about listening for the voice of Christ in the voices of his followers in other lands and continents. And what we hear is a clear affirmation of trust and of joy and of challenge.
- Listen again to these words that Lindsey read before the prayer of confession – words from the Moderator of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ghana:
Years ago, our Elders said, “It is God who drives away flies from the tail-less animal.” The same God touches each of us with the Spirit of power to cope and overcome, to drive away fears and anxieties, to help us to walk through life in the fire of faith.
Thinking of God defending an animal who has no tail and so cannot drive off the flies that torment him, not only reminds us of the way God strengthens us to endure tough times, but also asks us to consider who are the tail-less ones in our world and are we defending them to the best of our ability?
- Or consider once again the words of the Prayer of Confession, written by a man in South Africa, and remember all that happened in that country in the struggle to end apartheid:
You asked for our hands, that you might use them for your purpose.
We gave them for a moment, and then withdrew them, for the work was hard.
You asked for our mouths to speak out against injustice.
We gave you a whisper, that we might not be accused.
You asked for our eyes to see the pain of poverty.
We closed them, for we did not want to see.
You asked for our lives, that you might work through us.
We gave you a small part, that we might not get too involved.
There is a lot of painful history in those words, for the struggle to end apartheid was not easy and those who spoke up were taking great risks.
But these words are not mired in the past because they still speak to us of the call of Christ and all the excuses we come up with to avoid that call.
For years, the church in Europe and the United States thought of itself as being the pedigreed church. We saw ourselves as the heirs of the earliest Christian communities, we were the ones who sent out missionaries to Africa and Latin America and Asia, and we were the ones who sent our theology books (often woefully outdated) to seminaries in Africa and Latin American and Asia.
- But as the Apostle Paul discovered, pedigree doesn’t count with God. It is faithfulness and the pursuit of the kingdom of heaven right here on earth that count with God.
- And so today, theology professors in Europe and the U.S. read and teach not only dead white guys like Augustine and Aquinas and Calvin and Barth and Bonhoeffer and Tillich (who still have much to teach us), but also theologians from lands beyond Europe and the U.S. with names like Jon Sobrino, Kwok Pui-lan, Ada Isasi- Diaz, Mercy Oduyoye, Lamin Sanneh, and R. S. Sugirtharajah.
- And as an editor of an international journal of theology, my husband Steve is now receiving articles not just from Europeans and North Americans, but from writers in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Ethiopia.
Paul was proud of his pedigree until the moment he encountered Christ on the road to Damascus and his whole worldview changed. And our worldview needs to change as well, since churches in the global south are growing at a rapid pace and have much to teach us. So let us listen to the voices of Christians in Africa, Latin America, Asia – and let us open our minds and hearts to experiences that can expand our worldview.
Who knows where we will encounter Christ today?