Philippians 3:4b-14

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.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Sermon Text

What are you proud of? Think on it for a few moments. What do you think about and find your heart swelling with joy, with a sense of accomplishment – well-earned pride for something in your life. For some of us that may be our achievements, something we have done of note. For others it will be raising up a family we can be part of. Whatever the thing we are proud of is, we feel this way because we are deeply rooted in the source of our pride. Children, family, careers, all of these take work to produce results and we carry the weight of that work and turn it into a sense of accomplishment that settles deep in our hearts.

Excessive pride can be destructive. Proverbs tell us, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”[1] However, I would say that our modern word. “pride,” is too broad to describe the sort of issues that scripture is specifically dressing in its critique of “pride.” In the Hebrew Bible, two words are used for general categories of “pride.” Both are derived from words meaning, “to lift up or exalt.” In other words, pride in Hebrew is focused on self-importance and self-righteousness. In Greek the word “Hubris,” exists in the same way it does in English – pride that leads to a persons destruction. The other word, used by Jesus, means to “shine out too much,” like a fire that burns too quickly and fizzles itself out.[2]

Our modern sense of being, “proud of something,” does not always translate to burning ourselves out in self-righteous fervor. Sometimes it just means a rightful acknowledgement of what we have done in life. When we say, “I am proud of my children,” we have not committed any sin. When we say, “I am the best at what I do and I won’t hear otherwise,” then we tread into pride in the Biblical sense of the word.

Our scripture today captures several elements of “pride,” both good and bad. Paul writes from prison, awaiting his execution by Roman authorities. In his cell, Paul recounts the way that his life demonstrates what most people would think of as an ideal. He was born to the right family, taught by the right people, and lived a life that was as blameless as a person could reasonably expect someone to be. Listing his work of persecuting the Church seems strange in this list, but I think it makes a point. We all are proud of plenty of things in life, but sometimes in the midst of legitimate things we should celebrate about ourselves, we disguise our worst habits as something worthwhile.

Sometimes our judgmental attitudes are lumped in with our virtues, because it allows us to “see through people.” Cruelty of speech can be translated into a belief that we just, “tell it like it is.” Willingness to give in to temptations of all kind we celebrate as being easy going, and so on and so forth. We very easily place vice alongside virtue within our heart, and we fall into a trap that has always been endemic to the Church – calling, “evil good, and good evil, [putting] darkness for light and light for darkness.”[3] We have to be careful not to celebrate the worst impulses of our heart, simply because they are authentic.

Paul lists all these things he could be proud of, even a particularly evil thing, only to throw them all away. All of these things, Paul is certain, are less impactful than knowing God and being “found in [Christ.]” More than anything he could do or be, more than anything he could say or think, Paul saw being part of Christ’s kingdom as the highest joy in his life. More than a sentimental feeling of faith, Paul saw this as a complete transformation of who he was into something new, something that was a part of Christ’s presence in this world.

Today we celebrate World Communion Sunday, a day that we acknowledge that the body of Christ is much larger than any one congregation, people, or place. When we come to this table, we join with people we agree with and people we do not. We share bread with people who, if we are honest, we would curse in private throughout the week. People of all politics, gender, sexuality, and status come to a table to ask for God’s grace, and all of them find on plates of bread and cups of juice and wine. This table is a place we take all the things we are proud of, the good and the bad, and we elevate Christ above them all.

This meal that we participate in, is not just a memorial meal of what Christ once did, but what Christ’s enduring work in this world looks like. While we have bread and juice in our hands, we spiritually meet with Christ when we take them. We see the cross in its bloody reality, a weapon of oppression that was meant to silence God’s work forever. We see that it became a tool for redemption open to anyone who was willing to take part in its call. A call to come and love Christ, to repent, and to love those around us. Like Paul says in our scripture, only in chasing after this high calling – of Christ dying for those who killed him – can we begin to grow as we are called to. Growing in love, in virtue, in faith in Christ alone.

So take up the things that you are proud of and see them for what they are. Some of them are evils we choose to love out of convenience – cruelty and rage and conceit – throw these things away as you come to the table. Others are legitimate good – a family we love, the goodness we have learned to show to others, the peace we find in our faith – hold these close as you come to the table. Hold them close, so that when you open your arms to take the sacrament, you can fully realize why they are with you. Not for any reason but God’s goodness, given time and time again, by a God who only knows how to be exalted in lowliness. Today we ask God to remove all wrongful pride, and instill in us the one proper pride – pride in all of God’s gifts.

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[1] Proverbs 16:18

[2] גָּאוֹן, גֹּבַהּ, and ὑπερηφανία respectively

[3] Isaiah 5:20