Proper 22 / Pentecost 20 / OT 27
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more.
-- Philippians 3:4b
To the modern Western ear, Paul's words sound like boasting in the extreme. He described his pedigree as a Jew and asserted that he had an enviable record. We can hear the rich, young man say to Jesus, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth" (Mark 10:20). Paul said, "As to the law, blameless." If one can accomplish salvation through one's zeal and accomplishments, Paul had done so. Jesus said to the rich, young man who claimed that he had kept the commandments, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me" (Mark 10:21). Paul, in parallel fashion, said, "Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ." It is not that this faithful behavior was wrong. What was wrong was to depend on one's own behavior as a means of securing the grace of God. After Paul had experienced the transformation on the Damascus Road, he continued "to press on," but now it was in response to what Christ had already done. "... Because Christ Jesus made me his own." Paul believed that his life served a higher purpose that transcended his personal needs. Now it was not a record of achievements but a commitment to join Christ in the redemption of life. "... Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal...." Ministry that is liberated from the need to achieve is an exciting, if demanding, discovery of what God is doing with us.
-- Philippians 3:4b
To the modern Western ear, Paul's words sound like boasting in the extreme. He described his pedigree as a Jew and asserted that he had an enviable record. We can hear the rich, young man say to Jesus, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth" (Mark 10:20). Paul said, "As to the law, blameless." If one can accomplish salvation through one's zeal and accomplishments, Paul had done so. Jesus said to the rich, young man who claimed that he had kept the commandments, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me" (Mark 10:21). Paul, in parallel fashion, said, "Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ." It is not that this faithful behavior was wrong. What was wrong was to depend on one's own behavior as a means of securing the grace of God. After Paul had experienced the transformation on the Damascus Road, he continued "to press on," but now it was in response to what Christ had already done. "... Because Christ Jesus made me his own." Paul believed that his life served a higher purpose that transcended his personal needs. Now it was not a record of achievements but a commitment to join Christ in the redemption of life. "... Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal...." Ministry that is liberated from the need to achieve is an exciting, if demanding, discovery of what God is doing with us.
