Pentecost 20 2005
Pentecost 20
Philippians 3:12-21
October 2, 2005
Press On
Today we reflect on the words of St. Paul and they encourage us and give us courage as we face the uncertainties of this life and as we face the incredible grief that we all feel about the death of Michael Wendling. St Paul’s words give us hope as we press on through life knowing that God is with us that he will lead us, and that we have a glorious future prepared for us by God’s Son Jesus Christ.
St. Paul wrote, “but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me…one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus…our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
ST. PAUL'S LIFE HAD A FOCUS. He said,"...but this ONE thing I do..." Most of us make the mistake of trying to do too many things. St. Paul's life was focused. His focus was "the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Everything he did in life was aimed in that direction. That was how he had such impact upon his own time and upon ours. In every walk of life successful people are focused people. They know what it is they want. They know where they are headed. Nothing deters them. All their thoughts and energies are aimed in the direction of their dreams.
If you want a workable definition of sin, it would be anything that distorts or distracts us from our focus, that causes us to stray from God's goal for our lives, that distracts from our faith and trust in Him.
So many people miss the mark and loose their focus. There is an article about a 42 year old secretary who found herself running a marathon. She thought she had entered a much shorter race. The two races were to begin minutes apart, and when the woman saw a crowd of runners all lined up to go, she simply hurried to join them. She finished the marathon, but her tears and swollen knees will remind her to do more checking before she sets out the next time to run a race.
Lots of people are in a race, but it's the wrong one. They find themselves tired and frustrated and angry and depressed and they don't know why. Jesus provides us with the mark upon which we are to focus, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness..." We focus on what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. We focus on His cross and his death through which we receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. When we do that we posses the kingdom of God and a right-ness with God through Jesus. Knowing what lies ahead we are able to press on through the most difficult of times.
ST. PAUL ALSO KNEW HOW TO FORGET. "...forgetting those things which are behind, and straining toward what is ahead..." I don’t know about you, but right know I don’t want to forget. And if at all possible I would go back to last Sunday and change the events that happened on Monday as Michael was killed in that bombing. But that is not an option. And that is not the kind of forgetting that Paul is talking about. We will always remember Michael, we will remember Corey, we will remember Daniel, but someday we will forget the pain of this time when God wipes away every tear from our eyes and our memories are replaced with the reality of the resurrection and the new and eternal life we have in Christ. We will forget the things that we did wrong or would change, and we will forget those things that we wished we had done differently. For in that great day of the Lord He will say behold I make all things new. This newness began at His death and it was revealed in His resurrection. Still, some people are so concerned over the past that they destroy their future. They cannot quit looking back. That could have happened to St. Paul. He could have let his guilt over persecuting the church prevent him from giving his best. He could have hung his head and given up but instead he pressed on.
ST. PAUL WAS COMMITTED TO MOVING AHEAD. "Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.” Our citizenship is in heaven. Heaven with our Lord is where we belong. Here on earth we are like wandering refugees, heaven is our home. We eagerly await a Savior from heaven. Just like Jesus came from heaven to be born of a woman, to live and die and to be raised from the dead, this same Jesus will come again. Given the darkness of the current events we are more eager for His coming than ever before.
In the mean time we can be assured that He is in control as Paul says, “Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our bodies to be like His. Did you hear that? Who is in control? Jesus is in control. He is in control of everything. Right now, this is hard to understand. But it doesn’t make it any less true. Jesus was in control when Michael died. He was in control when Corey and Daniel died. How do we know? He is the same Lord Jesus that was in control when He was beaten and tortured. He was in control even as He was crucified and enveloped with the darkness of death. He was in control as death was swallowed up by life with the resurrection power of God. Even at the point that Michael, Corey and Daniel died, He was there with them, in control and giving them new and eternal life. With this power He will transform their lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.
And so we press on with faith in our savior Jesus Christ. We press on towards the goal that awaits us that our loved ones have already reached. We press on because our citizenship is in heaven. We press on with the words of our Savior, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Amen