Date : Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 21, 2010

Text : Philippians 3:8-14

Title : Press on!

"Not that I have already obtained all this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own."

When you think about the Apostle Paul, you think of someone who, based on his faith, had it made. Paul had the special standing of being handpicked by Jesus. Paul knew the Bible, inside and out. Paul was zealous to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul was not afraid to suffer beatings, false accusations, and imprisonment in the name of His Savior.

Paul was special. Paul had it made. Paul’s salvation was a done deal, because Jesus Christ had made Paul special, and Jesus assured that Paul had it made by taking Paul’s sins into His body, crucifying Paul’s sins, then joining Paul to Himself through the baptismal washing of rebirth and renewal and the ongoing Communion of Christ’s body and blood.

Yet, here we have Paul, writing to his Christian brothers and sisters in Philippi, declaring that he’s still pressing on. First, he states that he considers everything else in life as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as his Lord. Knowing Christ Jesus as Lord is why Paul counted everything else in life as rubbish. Nothing in this life can be talked about in the same breath, as Paul confessed, "That I may know [Christ] and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

Then, he recognizes that he has not already obtained this. Yet, the very fact that he declares it mean that he does, indeed, possess it. Even the Christian, who knows very little about the Bible, knows that it is through faith in Jesus Christ that one obtains and possesses what Paul calls a righteousness that is not his own and the power of Christ’s resurrection.

That should describe every one of you. If you pay any attention, at all, in this church, you know that you possess God’s forgiveness, life, and salvation, completely freely, through the gift of faith in what Jesus Christ accomplished for you in sacrificing His holy self by carrying your sinful selves, then giving you what He earned through the proclamation of His Gospel and the Gospel washing and eating of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

And, that’s the problem with the Lutheran brand of the Christian faith. It’s all free, so it is very easy to treat it as if it is cheap.

The Lutheran faith is the most dangerous of all of the Christian faiths—even as it’s the best understanding of the Christian faith. It is dangerous because it is free. When things are free, people tend not to value them. When you have to work for something, you usually place a high value on it. I worked hard for my degree, so that I could become a minister, and I place a high value on it. I work hard in being a good husband, and I place the highest earthly value on being Julie’s mate. I work hard at my garden, and I place a high value on the several forms of satisfaction it gives me.

In other church bodies, the Christian faith is preached and taught as if you, the Christian, have to do this, that, and the other thing in order to be a Christian. But, in doing so, the very center of the Christian faith—Jesus Christ and Him crucified—is knocked off the altar.

In the Pentecostal churches, the focus is very much on the work of the Holy Spirit. The extreme Pentecostals are most concerned about speaking in tongues, personal revelations, miraculous healing, and every sort of thing where the Christian can claim that God is working in him, individually. Yet, Jesus never instructed us to do any of that stuff. He instructed us to preach and teach the Word, baptize, and eat His body and blood—exactly what we Lutherans do.

In most of the rest of the Protestant churches, they speak the Gospel to you in order for you to believe but, once you become a member, they stop. Their attitude is that their members know the Gospel, so what they now need to know is how to live as Christians. Thus, the Law of holy living is beat into them so hard that they think it is by how they live that they are Christians—not by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Their typical sermon is, sure, Jesus saved you, but now you need to do this and this and this.

In the Roman Catholic church, centuries of human ideas have burdened the faith with so many things that the free salvation of Jesus Christ has been hidden, and so the people are told that they need to pray to the saints, and make penance, and add indulgences to their list of merits, all so that they spend as little time in Purgatory, as possible. Yet, not a single one of those things comes from the Bible or has anything to do with what Jesus accomplished. And, all of them turn the Christian faith from being focused on Jesus and what He has done for them to have eternal life, into what they have to do to get into heaven.

That’s not what you get, in this Lutheran faith. Indeed, do you know what a treasure you have? Do you know that you have the clearest, most wonderful teaching of Christianity, in all of Christianity?

But, there’s still that problem that I mentioned: it’s free. And, so many of you don’t value it for what it is, but consider it to be cheap.

How can I say that? What do I mean? Are you one of our one-hundred-fifty-or-so members, who live in the area, who worship pretty much every Sunday? Or, are you one of the rest—one of the other three-hundred-fifty members, who live in the area, who make up the balance of our average of two-hundred-fifty each Sunday?

Does putting it that way make us sound like a congregation of Christians who have the faith of Paul, who don’t consider that they have obtained heaven yet and so they press on to make it their own? Do we appear to be a whole congregation, filled with zip, zeal, and zest for Christ, or do we sound like the majority of us treat God’s gifts as if they are cheap?

Even for you, who are faithful in worship, do you watch your own attitude? As I shook the hands of so many who were walking out of church after last Sunday’s first service, I wondered why forty or fifty people were headed home, who easily could have stayed for the next hour’s education in why we worship as we do, and the same amount, at second service, who could have come an hour early.

Outside of a core group, do we have eagerness in this place, or do we have an awful lot of the attitudes of

and every other offensive, ignorant, and just plain selfish thing that people will say to defend why they will never sit in on a Bible study?

Yet, here’s Paul, who knows it all, and has it all, declaring that he doesn’t consider himself to know it all and have it all. Surely, your faith is not as strong as Paul’s. Surely, you don’t know as much as Paul.

Or, consider Martin Luther. He’s the guy who wrote the Small Catechism, yet he declared, "But for myself I say this: I am also a doctor and preacher . . . yet I do as a child who is being taught the Catechism, and ever morning, and whenever I have time, I read and say, word for word, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Psalms, etc. And I must still read and study daily, and yet I cannot master it as I wish, but must remain a child and pupil of the Catechism, and am glad so to remain."

Again, Paul declared, "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord," but we modern Christians can’t be bothered with counting as loss even one more hour from our busy lives to better know Christ Jesus.

Yet, all that said, here comes the part of the sermon where the pastor always lets you off the hook. Here comes the good news that you don’t have to do a thing, you don’t have to live more holy lives, you don’t have a pay for a single sin, and you couldn’t add to what you possess, even if you tried.

Christ Jesus has made you His own. He is the Son of today’s Gospel parable—the One rejected by the workers and killed, so that they could win the vineyard for themselves.

You are the workers. You, and I, and every person on earth, put the Son of God to death so that we could live our lives however we feel.

And, even in such an evil disposition, God the Father loves you. God the Son was filled with joy to die for you. God the Holy Spirit was pleased to call you by the Gospel and wash you clean in Holy Baptism.

He has given you a faith to be able to be as zealous as Paul—to count everything in this life as rubbish, because this life will pass away—to enthusiastically want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection—to press on to make your own the gifts of Christ—to forget what is behind you and to strain for what lies ahead: the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday. Then Good Friday. Then Easter.

It’s all about Jesus, dear children of the heavenly Father. When He cried out, "It is finished," He had completed the sacrifice for your sins. When He rose from the dead, He opened your grave, too, so that you might press on to the eternal life of resurrection glory.

And, it’s all free. It’s all Jesus’ gift to you, paid for by His blood. Amen.