Sunday, March 13, 2022
Sunday Worship with focus on Saint Patrick’s
Ministry in the Lord Jesus Christ in Ireland
Holy Cross Lutheran Church – 11:00 a.m.
1165 Seville Drive, Pacifica, California 94044
Please keep our brothers and
sisters in Ukraine in your prayers.
the message
Today, I can’t help but focus in upon Paul’s letter
to the Philippians. I find myself scratching my
head at the third chapter, with special interest in
the 16th verse. It fascinates me…
“…let us live up to what we’ve already attained…”
Now what could that possibly mean?
How do we live up to something we’ve already
attained? I can’t help but think it has something
to do with performance…perhaps consistency
in performance. The important thing to grasp
is that we are covered by Jesus’ sacrifice on the
cross and His glorious resurrection on the third
day. We are approved of by God through Christ.
Yet, therefore, we don’t just go ahead and act
out in any old way we choose, knowing that our
righteousness is granted to us through His sacrifice.
Well, I suppose you could say that any track
star, who sets a world record in the 100m dash,
needs to think about equaling or bettering his
or her time from the last meet. Perhaps, it may
be so, that a famous performer does a great job
singing or playing a particularly popular piece
of music. That performer would need to continue
to excel in doing that music well in order to stay
popular and make a living.
How does that work out spiritually with people?
I keep thinking about Paul’s commentary on
his conduct in the broader perspective. To do
so, I turn to Paul’s letter to the Romans 7:15ff:
“…I do not understand what I do…for what
I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do…”
“…I know that nothing good lives within me,
that is, in my sinful nature…for I have the desire
to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out…
for what I do is not the good I want to do—No,
the evil I don’t want to do—this I keep doing…”
Paul comes to a conclusion about himself, and,
about the human condition we all experience,
in verse 22:
“…for in my inner being I delight in God’s law,
but I see another law at work in the members
of my body, waging war against the law of my
mind and making me a prisoner of the law of
sin at work in my members…”
“…what a wretched man I am…”
Up to this point in Paul’s life, he really
had good reason to brag about his many
accomplishments in the spiritual realm,
but, obviously, we can see Paul was looking
much deeper within. Paul’s words in this
regard help each one of us to refrain from
presenting ourselves as “self-made human
representations of perfection”. Christ came
for imperfect people. That is the reason for
the cross.
Paul would probably say something like this:
We are who we are, but thank God, we are
that in Christ Jesus…
I am reminded of what the Rev. Billy Graham
had said to our group of pastors in Hartford, CT:
“The normal Christian walk is two steps forward
and one back—two steps forward, and one back.”
We really have to commend Paul for his humility
and insight. Much more so, we need to recognize
how important his commitment to transparency.
We can afford, under God, to have that personal
transparency, because our salvation (as well as
the way other people perceive us) is based upon
being covered by the blood of Christ, the great
sacrifice of Jesus for the benefit of imperfect
people, like you and me.
So, that insight must be the one I was trying
to take hold of with words. Through Christ,
we’ve attained the forgiveness of sins and
the assurance of everlasting life. Yet, we’re
human beings. Even like Saint Paul, we
fall short of our own expectation of being
that imagined compassionate, moral human
being. Don’t let the notion get you down and
discouraged. Keep on doing the best you can.
Our Heavenly Father, through Jesus, provided
a perfect plan for imperfect, but faithful, people.
Paul’s encouragement to the Philippians, and
to us today, is to be the best we can be, as often
as we can be, knowing that the Lord will never
forsake us, but uphold us, because we are covered
by Jesus. Being a good person, is not to prove to
God that we’re good enough to earn our way to
heaven, but rather, being the best representative
of Christ’s love and mercy we can be.
What worked for Abram in our Old Testament
lesson for this morning—believing in God and being
made righteous—is still working for you and I today.
May your day be filled with joy and inner peace1
Cordially,
Tom
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