First Sunday of Lent
February 21, 2010
 
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March 7, 2010
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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March 21, 2010—Fifth Sunday of Lent

Lectionary Texts: Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-11; John 12:1-8

Sermon Text: Philippians 3:4b-11

What Does Your Résumé Say?

Paul is talking to the Christians in Philippi. The Jewish religious leaders are telling the Christians that they must be circumcised in order to find favor with God, it’s what the law demands. It was like the equation: if A then B. If you are circumcised then you are in favor with God. Paul is telling them that this isn’t so. If it were true, Paul would be on the top of the list of those in favor with God. Paul has a good resume. Paul goes on to list all the reasons why he would be the first of those who were in favor with God: circumcised on the eighth day; member of the people of Israel from the tribe on Benjamin; a Hebrew born of Hebrews; a Pharisee, a keeper of the law; a zealous persecutor of the church; blameless under the law.

If we were to put Paul in today’s context, we would say something like this: “I’ve been a part of the church my whole life. I go to church every time the doors were open. If something needs to be done in the church, I am doing it. I read my Bible an hour in the morning, an hour at lunch and an hour before I go to bed. If someone is in the hospital, I go and visit. If someone needs food, I cook it. If someone needs a ride, I am there to pick them up. I serve on the church board, I teach Sunday School class, I am saved and sanctified, baptized and blessed.”
Many of us here have good resumes, just as Paul did. For some of us, our resumes look like this: We’ve done a lot in the church. We’ve done a lot for the church. [show sample resume].

Let’s read verse 7 and 8.

Paul, in this text, is reminding the Philippians and is reminding us, that our being in favor with God has nothing to do with us, nothing to do with our actions. If this were true, Paul would be on the top of the list, on the “A” team. Paul has a good resume if it were by his actions that he received favor with God. As we read here, however, Paul knows that none of this gets him in favor with God. For Paul what does matter, what does count is knowing Christ, is gaining Christ.

In the church today, we have a tendency to be like Paul. We measure our faith, how Christian we are, on the works we do. Look at how good a Christian I am: I go to church, I teach Sunday School, I sing on the praise team, I am on the church board, and the list goes on. We have confidence that these are the things that make us right with God. After all, every good Christian does these things. You’ve heard it in the church, “Don’t Smoke, Don’t Chew, Don’t Go With Boys/Girls that do.” It is a sad thing, but we--and I put myself here, where our focus is on holy living (and it should be there), have begun to have confidence in our own flesh.

We “know” that our salvation only comes from Christ and yet how we “act” is that somehow all we do either adds to or subtracts from our relationship with God.

We do things like go to church, pray, read the Bible, and hope that somehow that will get us in good with God. Maybe we will have a nice mansion in heaven, maybe one closer to God. However, we do not think it is just when we get to heaven. We sometimes act as though God will bless us more if we do all these things. If we tithe not just 10 percent but 20 percent then God will bless us twice as much. If we pray more, read more and witness more then the more God will bless us. Very quickly we begin to put, as Paul states, confidence in our flesh. It was a struggle for Paul, and if we were honest, we would say it is a struggle for us. It is much easier for us to have our list of do’s and don’ts than to rely on God’s guidance. When someone asks how our relationship with God is, it would be much easier for us to look at our resume of the things we’ve done for God and have confidence that we’ve done well.

What if someone were to tell you-- none of that will change your status with God; none of that will change the fact that God loves you more than you can ever hope or imagine. Now, listen, I am not saying that we should stop doing these things--that is not what I am saying. What I am saying is this: none of this will get you any closer to God; none of this will get you more blessings. You will not get an exclusive membership to the “Blessings of God Club” if you read your Bible and pray for 2 hours every day. These things we do as Christians, reading our Bibles, praying, going to church are all very good and as your pastor, I am urging you to keep doing them. Those are our responses to the love of God, it’s how we grow and learn what this whole Christian thing is about. As your pastor, however, I am also telling you that doing those things won’t change how God feels about you. God loves you and there is nothing you can do or not do to change that.

I’ll have to be honest with you all today. As I was reading this text and preparing for this morning, I was really struggling. Not so much struggling with what to preach, but I was struggling within myself because I’m not sure I believe this. I’ve grown up being pretty self-sufficient. My parents raised me to do things for myself. If I wanted good grades, I’d have to study hard-- so I did. If I wanted to make the basketball team, then I would have to practice hard. If there was anything I wanted done in my life, I would have to do it myself: good grades, making the team, getting that job. Coming to a text like this is difficult for me. I want my accomplishments to count for something. I want to be able to thumb through my resume and have confidence that if God was taking notice of all my hard work, He would let me in. So, when I read this text and began studying, I had to realize that this isn’t how God works. When it comes to whether or not God loves me, this resume doesn’t count.

So, what does count? What does matter to God? That we know his son Christ!

Paul goes on to say, [read verses 8 and 9].

For Paul what mattered is not the law, rules and rituals he kept. What mattered to Paul was knowing Christ. Our righteousness, our standing as right before God has nothing to do with you and me--it has to do with Christ. Our righteousness doesn’t come from any prayer we prayed or Bible verse we memorized. Our righteousness comes from God through faith in Christ Jesus. Our righteousness comes from faith, a gift given to us from God that is nothing I have done, but it is Christ.

At one time in our lives, we were cut off from God. We didn’t even know we could have a relationship with God. We were so far away from God, it didn’t even seem possible. For some of us we didn’t even know we were supposed to have a relationship with God. Then comes Christ. God knew we couldn’t get to him, so he came to us. God knows how broken and messed up we are and yet God comes to us. God shows us in Christ that we indeed can have a relationship with him. Christ comes to us, telling us that we can have a life-changing relationship with God. Christ shows us a different life--no longer cut off from God, but that can be and is being changed by God.

This righteousness does not come from merit; it comes from faith, which is a free gift of grace from God. Faith is the opposite of merit. Faith is an admission that I cannot earn God’s approval, but can only accept his free offer of forgiveness, grace and love. Faith is the act of personal trust in and self-surrender to Christ.

So, how can we get in good with God? How can we gain God’s love, God’s good favor? We can’t. Nothing we say or do or bring to the table will get us in good with God. A big, fancy resume will not cause God to pause and take notice of us. God loves us and chooses to take notice of us because he loves us.

What matters to God is that we accept his love. What matters to God is that we see the love he has for us in Christ and we accept it by faith.

I have another resume here with me this morning. It’s a lot smaller than the first one. It contains only a few words: Knowing Christ.

What matters to God is that we know Christ. It is by Christ alone that we have the favor and love of God. It is by nothing we have done, but it is what Christ is doing in us. We have to have faith-- not faith in our own works that somehow we might gain God’s love, but faith that it is Christ who came to show us God’s love. We need faith that it is Christ who offers us forgiveness and grace to believe and grace to become the person God calls us to be. It is not by our own works, but by faith in Christ. What does your resume say this morning? Which resume do you offer up to God this morning-- the one filled with all your accomplishments that Paul calls rubbish or the resume with the words “knowing Christ”?

May you come to know the love of God this morning that comes through faith in Christ Jesus alone.