Partners
in Perseverance
Genesis
22: 1-14 and Philippian
I would like us to think of this passage as a tennis match on Centre Court of Wimbledon or a heavyweight boxing match or a two person foot race. On the east end of centre court, dressed in white, is the three time defending champion: the God of Eternity, who makes promises to his people. Provides provision for his people. On the west end of centre court, also dressed in white, is the unseeded challenger: the God of the Moment, who desires only your personal pleasure and offers a money back guarantee. Think about this match. Who has the most fans? What are the strengths of their respective games? Who has the best serve? Who will win? On which player will we put our money? Oh, don't we wish life was that easy? Of course, we would all put our money on the God of Eternity to win in five sets, but this is not a contest that we can bet with our checkbook. The stakes are much higher. In this game, we bet not with money but with spiritual vitality.
To
bet on the God of the Moment we merely need to live as some who are, as Paul
says, "enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their
god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on
earthly things." It is said that anything can be a god for a god is that
thing to which we attach the greatest value. Paul is accusing the enemies of
the cross of placing greater value upon what happens to their stomachs than
what happens to the cause of Christ. Paul is saying that self-gratification and
self-glorification are the gods of the enemies of the cross. What is easiest?
What is best for me right now? What takes the least sacrifice? How can I know
satisfaction at this moment? These are the questions asked by the cross's
enemies. It isn't so much that such folks are against Christ; in fact, from
what Paul says here they may call themselves Christian. What they are against
is the cross of Christ; they do not like what Christ's cross implies for
Christ's followers.
The
enemies of the cross worship the God of the Moment but the Christian life
requires discipline. If the Christian life was easy, everyone might want to be
a Christian. After all, who wouldn't want to believe that there is a loving God
who accepts them as a gracious gift? But Christianity does not promise to be
easy; it promises to be true. It does not promise to meet our every need but
promises to meet our need for meaning, and to fulfill these promises requires
discipline on the days we feel up to it and the days we don't.
To
bet on the God of Eternity is far more difficult, although it is also far more
rewarding. To bet on the God of Eternity we need to live as those who are, as
Paul says, "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 upward
in Christ Jesus." Paul reminds us that we are a people called to value the
things of God, for our citizenship is only superficially in the United States
of America. Our deeper citizenship is in heaven where godliness is the goal for
who we are and for what we do. Godliness is the goal and God is the destination
of our life's journey. From God we come and to God we go and in between we are
only visiting this planet. Place your bets. Not with money but with spiritual
vitality.
The
word picture Paul gives us for life with the God of Eternity is that of an
athlete not looking over his or her shoulder at who might be gaining on them
but one who is straining forward with every ounce of energy to finish the race.
The image Paul conjures up is of a competition rather than a practice. In a
practice an athlete or a team works hard on a play and if they mess up they try
it again. And if they mess up again they try it again. And again and again
until they get it right. Now, there is something very Christian about the idea
that we get to keep trying something again and again until we get it right.
That something Christian is called grace. But this is not the picture Paul
gives us here. The picture Paul gives us is that of a competition, the gun goes
off and the runners run and there is no turning back. The race is on until it
is over, and Paul says, "Make this your all-consuming desire: to finish
the race."
Paul
could not have given a more vivid word picture of the desire called for in the
Christian life than that of an athlete called to finish a race. I swam on a
team in college. I was an awesome 85 yard freestyler. Unfortunately, all the
races I swam were 100 yards. At about 85 yards into a race, my muscles would
have built up enough lactic acid to paralyze an elephant and I would lose
feeling in my arms and legs. I would watch them move through the water to make
sure they were still attached. While this was happening, my coach's words
screamed in my mind, "Finish without breathing!" Which meant: don't
breath the last fifteen yards. Well, breathing is important. I like breathing.
And if I have ever said anything that was true about myself from this pulpit it
is this: my all-consuming desire was to finish the race. This is the word
picture Paul gives us for the desire called for in the Christian life.
Obviously
Paul is asking a lot; he is calling for an intensity and devotion that most of
us cannot give. Paul himself could give it, but Paul was an intense guy. Paul
was the kind of guy who could start riots with his preaching one day and go
back and preach some more the next. Paul seemed to take pride in his ability to
challenge people to the point of becoming offensive. A member of my Adult
Sunday School class in Texas said that Paul had "spiritual B.O." I'm
not sure exactly what that means but I think he was correct. What Paul himself
could do he is asking of all believers...but then Paul seems to back off a bit.
In verse 15 he says that all who are mature will see things his way, and if
anyone disagrees God will show them their error eventually. In verse 16 Paul
gives us something we can all live with. He says, "Only let us live up to
what we have already obtained."
Paul
has moved from grab hold...strain forward...press on...to live up to what we
have already obtained. There is a world of difference in the emotional and
spiritual intensity between these two things. Paul is being a good pastor. He
knows there are different kinds of folks. He knows that it would be great if
all Christians had an all-consuming desire to finish the race of faith. But
Paul also knows that not everyone has that kind of passion every moment of
their lives, so he makes some allowances for them: live up to what we have
already obtained. I may be selling this congregation short, but I think we are
a mixed bag of both intense and not so intense believers. I know that for myself I would like to have
Paul’s all-consuming desire, that would be my ideal. But I also know that
sometimes when my plate is full I’m
just trying to keep up with what I have already obtained.
To
live up to what we have already obtained recognizes that we are “Christians in
Process.” Just like a work of art can be a work in process in which one can see
the form that is emerging but which isn't quite there, so we are God's art that
is emerging. To live up to what we have already obtained recognizes that we are
all at different places in our faith journey; the task set before me is
different, however subtly, from the task set before you. Consider.
V The task for a youth or
young adult may be to seek to understand, accept and live by biblical morality
in their relationships.
V The task for a young
businessperson may be to grow in their understanding and application of
business ethics. My father and father-in-law are not seeking to understand
business ethics, for them that is a task they have mastered.
V For some the task will be
to learn to pray with words. For some to pray with silence. For some to pray in
groups.
V For some the task will be
to serve one's family. For some to serve the community. For some to serve the
stranger.
V For some the task will be
directly opposite what they have always been doing. Look at our last two
presidents. In the case of George and
Barbara Bush, for instance. after a life time of work in the public sector
George went off to retire and play with the grandkids. After a lifetime of
nurturing children, Barbara went off to write books and go on signing tours and
hit the speakers' trail. Same thing
with the Clintons. Bill is now the
mostly stay at home spouse, while Hillary is the one in public office. It is almost as if, for these two couples,
their life goals as individuals have switched places with their spouse.
To live up to what we have
already obtained is to live well with whatever task of learning and loving and
serving and studying that is now before us...and may we remember that one size
does not fit all in the life of faith.
Eventually,
if we live well with what we have already obtained, we will reach maturity and
our every desire will be godly, our every wish God's will, our only passion to
please God. Eventually, if we struggle day by day with faithfulness and
obedience, we will become like Abraham who at the end of his life was willing
to sacrifice his most precious earthly possession: Isaac. Notice that the
Scripture does not just say, "Isaac," but "his son, his only son
Isaac." The repetition emphasizes the loss. Gone would be Abraham's
beloved. Gone would be the fulfillment of God's promise to him. Gone would be
his earthly reason for being...yet Abraham had a higher reason for being: his
higher reason was to do God's will. Clearly Abraham is the testament to faith
for all times. But before we canonize Abraham and say, "I could never be
that faithful," let us also recall that Abraham was not always just so.
There was a time when Abraham denied that Sarah was his wife; in fact, he did
this twice! There was a time when Abraham abandoned his son from a different
wife. Abraham's faithfulness was a long time coming. Indeed, it did not come to
him until the accounts recorded in chapter 22, at the very end of his life. It
took Abraham 135 years, but he finally made it to faithfulness.
There
is a tortoise and hare parable going on here. Paul wants us to be the hare: be
quick, run fast! Abraham's example is that of the tortoise: slow and steady,
run to finish but be sure to finish. The tortoise or the hare are our options
in the partnership in perseverance. Whether quickly or slowly we are to persevere
in the life of faith, wherever we are, with whatever task set before us. And as
we persevere we may be comforted by one thing: God's part in the partnership is
to take hold of us and to call us upward. Paul says that Christ Jesus has
already taken hold of us, his hand clutching our hand as we dangle over the
cliff. We are held in his hand in life and in death, when we succeed and when
we fail. And Paul says God is calling us upward.
This
call is no mere invitation. This is the call of One who speaks creation into
being. The call of One who says, "Let there be light!" And there was
light. The call of One who says to the waters, "Be still!" And they
were still. This is no mere verbal invitation. God's Word is spoken and that
Word comes to pass. The comfort we know as Christians is that we need not and
do not persevere alone. We do not and cannot make our faith happen by our own
power and passion. Rather, the One who calls creation into being calls us into
becoming people formed and fashioned in the image of Christ Jesus our Lord.
I admit that the God of the Moment seems like an attractive player for whom to root. The God of the Moment has lots of fans. Starts quick...But his service game is weak. He certainly does not finish well. Now as for the God of Eternity, he may not have as many fans. He may start slow...But his service game is to die for. And he certainly finishes well. I think I'll put my money--and my vitality--on the champ.