All In

All IN ““Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal;but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”  Philippians 3:12

Hear now the word of the Lord from Philippians chapter 3 verses 12-14

“Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.

Let us pray. Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you.

You are our rock, our refuge, and our redeemer.  Amen.

Manuscript:

I do this one thing “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Straining forward to what lies ahead.” I press on toward the goal.”

I was listening to one of our members share a story. Beth’s grandfather ws meeting with her brother Tim.  He was instructing Tim how to help plant garden rows of corn. Tim was probably about 15 years old.  Grandpa 

was teaching him how to lay out straight rows. He said, You have to look up and pick out something up ahead.  Keep your eyes up ahead on the horizon and you’ll lay out a straight row.  

We keep our eyes fixed on the heavenly goal of Christ’s call in our lives. We can have so many goals in our lives. Financial goals. Health goals. Professional goals. But all of them are secondary to our call in Jesus Christ. There is no more important call.  

But to strain forward to the goal of Christ. We must often let something go.  Like a trapeze artist we must let go with one and swing to the next ring. And I wonder what you might have to let go. Anger, Frustration

A past you cannot change.

And hear Christ’s call to be all in.

But we often hold back.

One year I got a cartoon.

It was a man being baptized.

In this case it was full immersion.

And the person was being dunked.

Except for his arm outside of the water.

Where he was holding his wallet.  

I wonder what we are holding back?

What are we allowing Christ not to touch in our lives.

What holds us back from being all in?

This is Paul’s advice to the Philippian community and I think it is His advice to us as well.

Are we willing to be all in?

And I love, the words that Paul uses. Straining.  Straining forward.  Straining seems to describe the times in which we are living.

Pulled from all sides. Anxious with the election just a few days away.  

Strain would seem to describe this moment in history.

And to move forward in following Christ.  

It is usually a strain.  It is not simple, and easy.  

This week at hte fellowship of churches service, the Rev. Paul Murphy reminded us in the gospel of John on the night Jesus was arrested there was tremendous tension.  Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him.   And yet that is also the night that Jesus give the disciples the great commandment to love one another.  

To follow Jesus often means doing what is hard and costly.  

To love our neighbor as ourselves, no matter what happens in this election is going to have to mean straining forward.  

Reaching, stretching.  And somehow trying to heal this divided country.

How can we do that? Because we know the goal. We are clear about the goal.  And the goal is to follow Christ. The goal is to more closely follow Christ.  We leave behind our fear, our concern over what people might say.

And we act in love, because that is who Christ would call us to be.  

His disciples.

His children.

For this Christ.

Was the real one straining forward.

The real one risking everything.

And that is where we get our strength and a power beyond ourselves.

Is that Christ strained forwarded with love as he was betrayed.

As he was beaten he strained forward in love. As he hung upon the Cross for you and for me.  He strained forward towards the goal of love.

To defeat sin, and show us the path towards life.  

Paul was feeling the strain. Writing from Prison to his friends the Philippians. Again this is later in his life.  

We hear the humble Paul candidly admitting he is not yet where he would like to be. 

But we also hear the passionate heart of Paul which strives to participate in the resurrection Christ has for us. New testament scholar, N.T. Wright  describes this “True maturity…actually means knowing that you haven’t arrived, and that you must still keep pressing on forwards towards the goal.” (Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, N.T.Wright, Westminster/John Knox Press, 2004, p.123) 

We have goals.  

To be a Matthew 25 church - there is so much need in our own community.  We have dreams of feeding the hungry.  Helping the poor.  We have a dream of a step up program, an empowerment program partnering with other churches help those who want to get out of poveryt find the way.

We want to invest in deeper connection as a church with one another and to God. We dream of continuing a long legacy of leadership at Brownson.  A history of great elders and leaders adn we welcome new people to the table and we celebrate those whom has served.

We want to invest in intergenrarional worship where all gifts young and old are celebrated and welcomed.

But our ultimate goal is to be all in for Christ.  If we are all in for Christ we believe these other goals will happen.

And let me jus say as you bring your pledge forward you bring it not for yourself.  But for God.  You give believing that what you give will help someone else.

On this All Saints Sunday I am deeply reminded that I drink from wells I did not dig. I did not build this sanctuary.

I did not build the office where I sit.

I did not invest in the youth space.

But maybe you did.

And so I say thank you.

And my calling, our goal is to pass along what has been given to us. To invest beyond ourselves.

I am reminded of the story Maya Angelou shared with a graduating class at Occidental College. She asked the graduating class, “How did you get here today?” Then she said, “I’ll tell you how you got here. Lots of folks paid for you to get here. Lots of folks, way before you were born and way before you came of age, paid for you to get here.”

Then Angelou told us about her own forebears. She told us about the African slaves in the wretched slave galleys, shackled in chains and huddled tortuously in those horrible prisons. They paid for her to get here, she testified.

She then told us about “Miss Culture Lady” in her girlhood church in Stamps, Arkansas. She also told us about an old dignified literary woman in Stamps who had invited her to her house for tea and about how that old woman had planted seeds of literary hope in young Maya’s heart. Because there, at tea, she had introduced little Maya to Charles Dickens and A Tale of Two Cities.

“All those people paid for me to get here today,” she testified: the slaves, Miss Culture Lady, and the old literary woman at tea, reading Charles Dickens.

And she said to that class… “Get on out of here today! Get on out of here! Get on out of here! And with your very life, pay for somebody else to get here years down the line!”32

You give today.  Not for yourself.  But you believe in the where we are called.  Because you want someone else to know the good news of Jesus Christ.

We remember the saints who helped us.  Loved ones, and people we don’t even know. But ultimately.  

The goal is this.

To be all in for Christ.  

And what motivates us to be all in for Christ.

It is really because Christ was all in for us. We give because someone gave for your life. 

And that was Christ Jesus.

Who on the Cross paid for your life.

And was “ALL IN “ for you. 

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Notes:

Stories:

This passage gives us a wonderful opportunity to reflect anew on God’s love for us. It also suggests splendidly how eagerly we take up the call of God as we know it in Christ Jesus, a call to life together for each other’s good. We are reminded that Paul wrote these words to strengthen and encourage a community he loved and who were already doing well in their life in Christ (see Philippians 1:3-11). They nevertheless seem to have been disheartened, even distanced, from their faith by Paul’s imprisonment. When love calls us, Paul seems to say in his section of his letter, “ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no river wide enough”1 to keep us from one another. In fact, mountains and rivers, imprisonment, the sufferings of the journey whatever they might be, were endured by Christ and even in those sufferings we draw closer to the one who gives us life.

In light of this text, we may reflect on what we value most as individuals and as church communities. 

Jesus is God saying to each one of us, “Your faith in me can be as tentative and diffident and fragile as may be, but my faith in you will never waver, not for one single second.

Experience as a teacher:

Experience is the best teacher so I have been told. I think that is probably correct but there is an old proverb that adds an appropriate and accurate caveat: "but the tuition is high."

This will most likely prevent you from making that same mistake again, or often. Soren Kierkegaard said that "life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards".

Let your life speak. Let your life speak of your longing to know Christ. And let others see the resurrection in you.

During an extremely difficult season in his life and his leadership, Abraham Lincoln said, “Be sure to put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”

When life is tough, be tougher. When life is unfair, be faithful. Plant your feet, and your heart, and your soul in the right place and stand firm!

Background on the text:

Prison epistle:  Paul writing from prison.

Writing to the Philippian community which he started but now he is writing to them years later in life.    

Athletic image:

We hear the athlete coming through, the one who presses on, straining toward the goal. 

In Between Ness/humility

We hear the humble Paul candidly admitting he is not yet where he would like to be. 

But we also hear the passionate heart of Paul which strives to participate in the resurrection Christ has for us.

New testament scholar, N.T. Wright  describes this “True maturity…actually means knowing that you haven’t arrived, and that you must still keep pressing on forwards towards the goal.” (Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, N.T.Wright, Westminster/John Knox Press, 2004, p.123) 

Telos:

The telos (goal/aim/end) is his new Christian 

First, Angelou asked the graduating class, “How did you get here today?” Then she said, “I’ll tell you how you got here. Lots of folks paid for you to get here. Lots of folks, way before you were born and way before you came of age, paid for you to get here.”

Then Angelou told us about her own forebears. She told us about the African slaves in the wretched slave galleys, shackled in chains and huddled tortuously in those horrible prisons. They paid for her to get here, she testified.

She then told us about “Miss Culture Lady” in her girlhood church in Stamps, Arkansas. She also told us about an old dignified literary woman in Stamps who had invited her to her house for tea and about how that old woman had planted seeds of literary hope in young Maya’s heart. Because there, at tea, she had introduced little Maya to Charles Dickens and A Tale of Two Cities.

“All those people paid for me to get here today,” she testified: the slaves, Miss Culture Lady, and the old literary woman at tea, reading Charles Dickens.

With mystical and prophetic eyes ablaze, Angelou dramatically gazed and pointed beyond her spellbound Occidental College audience as if she were looking out upon the mystery of life, both presently and way into the future. She then roared to the graduating class, in an absolutely electrifying manner, these following words about the essence of our potential human service, stewardship, leadership, dignity, duty, and virtues: “Get on out of here today! Get on out of here! Get on out of here! And with your very life, pay for somebody else to get here years down the line!”32

Questions:

What phrase or word sticks out to you in this passage and why?

Reflect on these quotes. How might they apply?

 Frederick Speakman describes “every day as a fresh start. By God's mercy we can forget the failures of yesterday and press on to the challenges of tomorrow.”

How many of you have ever been involved in a foot race?  Has anyone ever told you to, ‘Never look back.’ but focus on the finish line?

What do you think it means to be ALL IN for Christ?  

The church has some ALL IN goals:  

Of the four “all in” goals, which are you most excited about and why?

Which one(s) do you have questions about?

Close in prayer