Rector's Reflection—Lent 5 C
March 21, 2010

I don't know about you, but I cannot believe that March 21st is the last Sunday in Lent. OK... we still have Palm Sunday, but for the ordinary Sundays in Lent that set the stage for what is to come on Palm Sunday and beyond, this is it. Whatever it is that you've decided to do for Lent, pretty soon you won't have to do it anymore, unless of course it has been so helpful or so healthy that you want to keep it going. Lent has, to a degree, reached its peak... and today's reading from Paul's letter to the Philippians is well-suited to the occasion.

Lent, both traditionally and theoretically, is a time of reconsideration... a time of gains and losses... a time of assessment or reassessment of our lives—spiritual, physical, emotional, relational or any other way you choose to ponder where you are and how you got there and where you want to go. Did you gain something good from Lent? Did you lose something harmful in Lent?

Paul talks quite candidly about gains and losses. He is writing to a church that is embroiled in controversy (imagine, a church arguing within itself?!), primarily over the issue of circumcision. In fact, the verses just before today's passage are a stern warning: "Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh—even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh."

What follows is a sort of short autobiography... a brief list of Paul's credentials that have not only carried him through life but have made him an important man... a prominent pillar of the temple. He goes on to say, "If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless." I've had it all. Talk about 'all that'. I'm 'all that'. I'm the kind of son who made his mama proud. I'm the one you want your son to emulate. If strict adherence to legal codes or washing your hands just so or knowing all the prayers by heart or being in the temple every time the doors open... if confidence in the flesh—in what you do—gets you into heaven, I'm already there.

But Paul's exemplary life as a Pharisee and a respected member of the community have had an unexpected collision with the one who came to fulfill the law and who showed him that everything he counted as precious or fundamental or essential is, in his own words, "rubbish." Paul has come to the conclusion that "...whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ."

I've always thought this to be a tough passage, particularly living in a culture where 'stuff' is important... where social standing counts... where the 'self-made man' is praised... where #1 is the only number that counts. And do I hear Paul saying that I'm supposed to disregard all of this? Really? If it's stuff, give it away? If it's a position, resign from it? If it's success, walk away as quickly as I can?

Of course there's always the temptation to say that Paul was a great employer of hyperbole as a way to try to soften his words. But Paul really did lose everything after he encountered the risen Lord and realized that all the things that he knew were going to justify him didn't matter at all. Salvation belongs to God. Grace that matters belongs to Christ Jesus.

What I get from Paul in this letter is not a call to abandon ship but a call to face the fact that more than anything, ANYTHING... I am to know Christ. I am to know Christ not as an exercise in academia but know Christ so closely that I recognize that security always comes through him and never through my own achievement.

Although this season of Lent is winding down, there is still time to reassess our lives and what we value. (Truth be told, taking stock of our lives in Christ should not be limited to a single season but should be an ongoing spiritual exercise.) But maybe during this last part of Lent we might want to ask ourselves if what we have done with season has helped us to know Christ... has helped us to realize that our souls are not saved by what we do or who we are or what we own, but by the One who gave his life so that we should not lose ours forever.

Susan+