True Value

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20, Psalm 19, Philippians 3:4b-14, Matthew 21:33-46

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, October 2, 2005

World Communion Sunday

Heritage Congregational Church, Madison, WI

When we first meet someone, what do we say about ourselves? We share our name, where we live, what we do. We tell about our family. We make a list of the things we are interested in and the hobbies that fill our time. We might share about our house, our car, our pets or other things that we own. Sometimes we even share what it is in this world that we care about. But still, even with all of this information, I wonder if we have truly shared who we are, our identity, with the person we are meeting.

Too often in this life we describe ourselves by what we do and what we have. We make a list of our accomplishments, as if that somehow validates who we are as a person, or tells who we are. But it is simply not so. Not if we are a people of faith. That is Paul’s message today in the third chapter of his letter to the Philippians.

In this chapter, we find a change of tone from the previous two chapters. Paul’s voice is more insistent. He is not harsh, but close. I guess I would say he is even more passionate here than in chapter two, if that is possible. Paul speaks from his own personal experience, and with urgency and insistence shares his idea of what gives us value in this life.

You see, Paul used to be Saul. He was one of those who took an accounting of his accomplishments to define himself. He was a well educated, obedient, pious and well connected Jew. His ancestry could be traced back to Benjamin (he had real connections). He was obedient, enough so to be a Pharisee, blameless under the law. Throughout his life, Saul had lived by the rules of his faith. He did not merely observe the expectations that were set before him, but he was zealous—a passionate Jew, giving all of himself to the rigors of his faith. That was Saul, the person Paul used to be, and he was considered righteous by all accounts. He valued himself by his many accomplishments. This is who Saul was—what he did defined who he was.

But now he is Paul, and he defines himself quite differently. He sees himself only through the eyes of Christ. He has realized that righteousness is not a human accomplishment, but a divine gift. In looking back, Paul considers his life before knowing Christ as incomplete. And though he is well on his way to becoming more and more like Christ, Paul realizes that he is on a journey to which there is only completion through earthly death. Living a life in Christ is a process, not an accomplishment. There is more to it than mere observation of the Law, Paul has realized. He is not there yet, but he is on his way.

For Paul, the issue is not how to be righteous by what we do, but how to relate to God through what God does. Paul has felt the tugging of Christ at his heart. He has felt God reaching out to him through the person of Christ, and it is a feeling Paul is unable to ignore. His response is one that is as zealous as it was when he was Saul, the obedient Jew. But instead of using his energy and time to think about the observance of the law, Paul puts all his energy into what one scholar has called a “stunning transfer.’

Paul, his whole heart and mind and strength in hand, begins the process of moving from the mindset of value in himself, to value in Christ. His goal is now to find himself in Christ, for that is where his true value, his true identity, lies. He forgets his past and moves forward toward Christ. Every step he takes is in Christ’s direction. All that he counted as gain in his previous life he now counts as loss. He does not see the value in it any longer. In fact, he says that it is refuse (garbage, excrement).

Remember, Paul is trained in the art of rhetoric, and with this colorful and extreme language he presses his point. All from his previous life is loss, for Christ’s sake he has suffered the loss of all things. Paul wants us to pay attention to the importance he places on this new outlook he has on life. All he thought was important, valuable and life-defining he now knows to be worthless. All that matters is who he is in Christ, working toward a relationship with God. That is how Paul sees his life when he writes this letter.

In Philippians we have seen how Paul responds to God’s great gift in Christ. In Jesus’ parable of the vineyard, we see another response entirely. The landowner (God) makes everything ready for the tenants (God’s people), and then leaves them in charge of his land. When it was time for the harvest, the landowner sends slaves (prophets) and then finally his son (Jesus) to collect the produce (the fruits of our faith). Each time the landowner sends someone to his land, they are destroyed by the tenants.

As always in Jesus’ parables, there is more to the story than the obvious--the rejection of God’s will through the prophets and through Christ. The tenants seem to think that the land they are leasing is really their own. They feel no obligation to respond in an appropriate way to the landowner. They want to keep it all for themselves. They have forgotten to whom it belongs.

As Christians, we must remember that the gifts given to us by God belong to God. Whether it is a vineyard, our spiritual gifts, or our very lives, they are not our own. They are God’s. God is the source of all that we are and all that we have, all that we are able to accomplish. That is why it is God who is most important. We are not to make God primary in our lives, Jesus and Paul tell us. That is the wrong goal, a waste of energy. God is primary already. We do not give God that status.

What we are called on to do as we work through the process of faith is to grow into an awareness of God, to gradually let go of the things of this world and slowly but surely make our way to the attitude of Christ. Christ was unique in the way He related to God. God was first automatically, without even thinking about it. Jesus was devoted to His Father, obedient, humble. He knew that without the Father, He was incomplete. Jesus let Himself be used by God.

This is Paul’s attitude. He lets himself be used by the Divine. Paul relates to God the Father through the person of Christ. He never forgets that without Christ he is incomplete. He gives himself over to Christ unreservedly. Paul knows that he does not own his own life. He is a child of God. He belongs to God. That is his true value.

So often, we put all of our energy into doing instead of being. We work hard and take stock of our accomplishments. We judge ourselves by how much we have done. Even in the life of the church we sometimes do one job after another, scurrying to do enough to be pleasing to God. We assess our faith and our worth by how much we do. And we hope that God is watching.

But that is not what God is looking for. God looks, the Bible says repeatedly, at what is on the inside. Do we know that we do not own our own lives? Are we aware that we belong to God, and have we willingly turned our lives over to the Divine? Do we seek a relationship to the Father through the grace of the Son? We are children of God. That is our true value. May it be more than enough for us. May it be everything. Amen.