Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-september-15-2023
Philippians 3:1-16
No Confidence in the Flesh
1Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
One of the themes that’s been popping up in our worship and study over the last couple of years – and one that seems to be appearing in writings by other respected writers and thinkers – is that being a follower of Jesus is not the same as being ‘religious.’ That seems like a contradiction to some people, but I really don’t think it is.
In fact, I think Jesus had more trouble in his dealings with religious people than with sinners. In fact, it was the religious leaders of his time – the most religious people among the Hebrews – who insisted on his crucifixion.
It seems to me that being religious means following a system of rules and practices in hopes of making a particular god love you (or at least like you). And a religious person will probably expect that if their god likes them, that god will do them favors like healing their infirmities or making it rain on their crops or whatever. But as followers of Jesus, we’re taught that there’s nothing we can do to make God love us any more than he already does. God loves us so much that while we were still sinners, he died on the cross to demonstrate that love and reconcile us to himself.
So when we strive to live in obedience to God’s commands and in imitation of Jesus, we’re not doing that for “religious reasons” – to get a blessing or to escape punishment – but rather to express our thanks for what God has done for us, and to express our love in return for his.
Jesus himself spent a lot of his time among people who clearly weren’t religious. The religious hated that – and the religious leaders hated it most – but Jesus said it was for those non-religious people that he came into the world. He also went to some lengths to make it plain that religious practices of the Hebrew people – like strict observance of the Sabbath and of purity laws and staying away from sinners and gentiles – were not going to make God love them more than he loves others.
According to the scholars, those religious practices had become cultural markers for showing who was ‘in’ and who was ‘out,’ when it came to having a relationship with God. Only the religious people could enter the temple, eat the Passover, etc. The Jewish religion had become a system for excluding outsiders and hoarding God’s blessing for the chosen people.
I was surprised recently to discover that the great German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was hanged on Hitler’s orders in the last days of world war two, wrote quite a bit about the need for a “religion-less Christianity.” He said that a truer form of the faith would give up the elaborate structures of rules and practices and rituals that we think God wants from us, and would also give up the “us vs. them” mentality that has plagued the church for so much of its history. Instead, it would concentrate on truly following Jesus in befriending and showing love and service even to the unworthy and the unclean. And the not-religious.
I say all this because it seems to me that what Paul is writing about in this passage is his realization that all of the things he had done to reach the pinnacle of the Jewish religion were a waste of time when it comes to being right with God. Being from a good tribe didn’t matter. Being a Pharisee didn’t matter. Having the right teacher, keeping all the rituals, enforcing theological correctness – none of it brought Paul closer to God.
Paul had concluded that all that matters is coming to know Jesus more deeply, following him more faithfully, and even being willing to share in his sufferings and service to others.
I’m increasingly convinced that God doesn’t really care that much if we have the correct understanding of religious doctrines. I’m also pretty convinced that God is more disgusted than we are by things religious people do in his name like the Spanish inquisition, like taking first nations children from their families and “civilizing” them in Christian schools, and like rejecting and excluding gay and transgendered people and foreigners.
Instead, I’m convinced that God wants us to immerse ourselves in the life and teachings of Jesus, so that we can do what Paul writes about in this passage: gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. Embracing that kind of righteousness, and living to make the love of Jesus known to everyone we meet – that seems like it will please God far more than any amount of religious behavior – even if it calls itself “Christian.”
Let’s pray. Lord, you know how we tend to set up elaborate systems of rules and practices to help us feel confident that we’re the kind of people you like. Move us instead to immerse ourselves in the life and teachings of Jesus and to imitate him in showing your love to all those we meet. And when they ask why, remind us to tell them it’s because of our love for him. Amen.
Have a great weekend, and worship God joyfully on Sunday.
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 148 and 149; I Kings18:20-40; and Matthew 3:1-12. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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