What are you Not Bringing to the Table?
Philippians 3:4b-14
by Jim Westmoreland
Today is World Communion Sunday, and it is observed in a variety of ways in
churches throughout the world. Some churches try to have as many flags on display as
possible representing countries from around the world. Some churches have different breads
from around the world sitting on the communion table. One church actually baked bread
during the service to bring to the front for communion at the end of the service. The
kitchen was near enough to the sanctuary so that the smells of fresh bread cooking came in
through open doors and through the ventilation system so that the congregation smelled the
bread through the service as they anticipated sharing the bread during communion.
As I thought about our text in Philippians for today, I began to see Paul as an example of
living his life in a way that would help to us to appreciate one another more. Paul's
example gives us a key Christian attitute that will help to unify the body of Christ, not
only here among us and among our churches in Nortonville, but it would also help us to
pray for and support God's church all around the world.
What is that attitude, that identifiable personal characteristic that makes Paul such an
example for us? A hint is in the sermon title, "What are you Not Bringing to the
Table?" Paul's emphasis in these verses is on growth, many translations refer to
being perfect. Paul believed that our lives should reflect the likeness of Christ, and
that was something for which every believer should strive. The NAS says in v. 12,
"Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on
. . ." Paul was writing from jail in Philippi. The church had suffered severe
persecution there. Paul was in prison and expected to die for his Christian faith. In
chapters one and two, when he spoke of suffering, he was not speaking metaphorically. He
was not just trying to imagine something bad. No, suffering was a real and immediate
prospect for him and for his readers.
Look at what Paul does in the first of this section beginning with the last of v. 4 in
chapter 3. He gives a catalog of the things in which Paul placed his confidence prior
to his conversion. There is somewhat less emphasis on the accidents of his birth,
the things that he had no control over, such as his circumcision, his Jewish blood, being
of the favored tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. But, he puts more emphasis on
the things that reflect the choices he has made, such as being "as
to the law a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness
which is in the law, found blameless."
How many religious discussions with people end up with them or us saying that we try to
live a good life, try to treat people right or believe that we are as good as or better
than most people? Sometimes, people tell about how they were raised, or that they have
been in church all their lives, or the positions of respect their parents had or that they
have had in the church. Isn't that a lot like Paul's description of what was important to
him before Christ? It is possible to come into the church house and go about our service
in the church with a king of smugness, if we are not careful. We can begin to tell
ourselves and God what we mean to him, and before you know it, we become like the Pharisee
who prayed thanking God that he was not like other sinners, like the Publican who was also
there in the Temple praying to God.
There is the temptation, when we come to the Table to want to be able to feel like we've
sort of earned our right to be there. So, we have a sense of bringing our respectability
or our good deeds to the Table.
But to see what Paul is Not bringing to the Table, we need to read v. 7-9 again: "But
whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of
Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count
them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a
righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."
Sometimes, religion seems confusing. We are told to do good, to be good, to obey and do
the right things. One of our readings this morning was the passage containing the Ten
Commandments. Some have said these used to be the ten commandments, but, in our day, they
have become the "ten suggestions!" Whichever they are, most people still
approach the subject of religion with a kind of accomplishment. "I'm not so bad. I
shouldn't be punished. I deserve to go to heaven." If any of that sounds familiar to
you, are you not uncomfortable with our presumptuousness?
Instead of bringing his accomplishment, self-reliance and justifying opinion of himself to
the Table, Paul did just the opposite. If anyone had a right to boast and feel pretty good
about his religious accomplishments and background, Paul let his readers know that he had
more reason than they did to put his "confidence in the flesh," meaning his own
efforts.
Then, he plainly says in v.7 "whatever things were counted gain to me, those things I
have counted as loss for the sake of Christ." That's what Paul has NOT
brought to the Table. Paul refused to count his past accomplishments. What Paul
wanted for himself and the other believers is sometimes misunderstood because of the
English word "perfect." When we hear that Paul is not yet perfect but is
striving for the goal of the upward call of Christ, we may think he is talking about
perfection in the sense of not having any faults or having any shortcomings.
The root of the Greek word that is used here has the meaning of completion. Paul is
describing the ongoing growth that comes from serving Christ. He is talking about growing
into maturity in Christ. Our growth in Christ is ultimately dependent on the grace of God,
which we experience through the Holy Spirit. We receive this grace and direction to grow,
not when we come justifying our religious goodness, but when we leave it behind and do not
bring it to the Table. As we count all of our past efforts as loss, we can come to
the Table open and ready to receive the grace that we need. Then, we can really
grow in our Christian life.
Leslie Weatherhead, a great philosopher and theologian, makes a comment about Michelangelo
in his sermon, "Supposing You Met Jesus:" "When Michelangelo saw, in a
builder's yard, a lump of marble, stained, misshapen, unattractive, cast aside, he said to
the builder, 'Take it to my studio. There is an angel imprisoned in that marble and I can
set it free!' That is how Christ feels about you." We keep wanting to bring the
imperfections, the waste scraps and things that we don't need to the Table. Paul is
saying, "let them go, give them up, count them as loss."
However, we have a lot of trouble letting go. We don't want to turn lose of anything. We
try to keep all of our past hurts. And, even though we know that we are sinners, we keep
holding on to our flawed accomplishments, and we keep dragging our gunny sack full of
hurts and our gunny sack full of our tarnished motives and accomplishments to the Table.
How can we ever let them go?
In the great bazaars of Istanbul, Damascus, or Cairo, one can see men sitting at their
places in the section of the silversmiths. Beside them are piles of American coins. These
are melted down, fashioned into little silver charms and sold to the tourists. This is
done in the most old-fashioned way.
The silversmith drops a coin into the molten silver; in a little while the coin is melted
down under the hot fire. Every once in a while the silversmith takes a sieve and scrapes
off the impurities on top. Then he looks intently into the bowl. And if you should ask him
"What are you waiting to see?" he would say, "I keep it on the fire until
there is no more scum, until I can see myself reflected as in the best mirror."
This is what the prophet, Malachi, meant when he wrote about the refiner's fire. God says,
"I am going to make my people holy. I am going to keep them in the fire until all the
jealousy, the hatred, pettiness, self-seeking, anger and self-justification has been
scraped away. I am going to keep them in the fire until all that remains is the pure,
shining silver of patience, kindness, compassion, understanding and loving service to
others. Then I will see my face in them and I will know that my people have been made
holy.
When all the dross and impurities that we brought to the Table have been scraped away,
then God is able to look at our lives and see His likeness, the imageo dei given us in
creation, the likeness of Christ, in us. Now, when we ask ourselves, "What
did I Not bring to the Table?" we can remember that the marble must give up
its excess to the hand of the master sculptor to free the angel within. We can remember
that the craftsman must free the silver of its imperfections in order to see his
reflection in the silver. And we can remember that we must count all things as loss and
not bring them to the Table so that we can put on Christ and reflect His likeness
in our lives. That is the prize that Paul pressed on for!
A Daddy trying to entertain his young preschool-age daughter tore a picture of the world
out of a magazine and cut it into pieces, making a puzzle. He thought this should keep her
busy for a while. In very little time she was yelling, "Daddy, I've finished. I've
put the world together. Come and look." He was surprised to see she had put it
together correctly in this time and he asked her how she did it. She said, "it was
easy, Daddy. There was a heart on the other side, and when I got the heart right, I turned
it over and the world was right." . . .
On this World Communion Sunday, let us know that, when our hearts are right in reflecting
Christ, then the world will be right. And, it depends on what we don't
bring to the Table!