Philippians 3:10-14 (NIV)

The last three years have been exhausting for all of us.  Global pandemic.  To mask or not to mask, to vax or not to vax.  Church by Zoom and church in person and then back to church on Zoom again.  New language:  social distancing, super-spreader event.  Over one-and-a-half million Americans dead of COVID.  Racism reared its ugly head again.  “I can’t breathe.”  “Defund the police.”  More shootings of unarmed people of color.  Political division and divisiveness to the point of impending government shutdown.  Name calling, shaming and blaming.  Extremist members of the House disrupting and disturbing the work of Congress.  Increasing numbers of mass shootings.  Are we safe at work, at Walmart, at the mall, at the grocery store?  Any place?  An increase in the number and severity of natural disasters:  wildfires, storms, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes.  Our damage to the ecosystem does have ramifications.  We have experienced trauma, tragedy and unrest unlike anything in recent history, maybe ever.

And to us, in our circumstances, at this time and in this place, thanks to the Common Lectionary, we come to the words of Paul to “press on!”  Press on?  He is kidding, right?  What about, “Sit down and rest for a while,” or “Everything is going to be okay,” or “I feel your pain.”  But no, Paul, who was no stranger to trauma, tragedy, or unrest, tells us to press on.  How on earth – how under heaven – are we supposed to press on?  Let’s take a look and see if we can figure out what Paul was trying to say and how it might apply to us now.

Paul said, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”  For Paul, that was his work as a preacher, teacher, and missionary called to spread the gospel in the Roman world, to start churches and appoint pastors, and to write letters to his churches and pastors.  Once Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, he never stopped trying to fulfill the mission that Jesus gave him to bring his message to the Gentiles.  Paul traveled almost non-stop for about the next thirty years.  He went from Jerusalem to places as far away as modern Turkey, Greece, and eventually all the way to Rome.  Paul spent as little as a few days in some places to as long as several years in others.  And during his years of ministry, he suffered physically from an illness of some sort that he referred to as his “thorn in the flesh,” as well as from beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, exposure to the elements, and imprisonment.  Some of Paul’s churches flourished from the first, while others became mired in conflict.  Paul experienced great emotional and mental and spiritual stress. 

We can all relate to at least some of the kinds of struggles that Paul went through.  Some of us have had challenging jobs that sometimes stressed us out.  We have dealt with conflict and with difficult people in our homes, our churches, and our workplaces.  We have been faced with all sorts of physical pain, emotional trauma, and mental anguish.  We know what it means to encounter tough times.

So how did Paul do it?  How did Paul keep pressing on?

Paul did it by forgetting what was behind and straining towards what was ahead of him.  He did not let his past become his future.  In Paul’s past – as in ours – were good things and bad things.  Paul had excelled in practicing his Jewish faith, studying with the great teacher Gamaliel, and assuming the role of a Pharisee.  But Paul also took that faith to an extreme when he began to persecute the church, arresting men and women and having them thrown into prison.  He was so obsessed with eradicating what he considered to be a heresy that he pursued Christians to other towns and cities.  In fact, he was on his way to Damascus to hunt down some Christians who had escaped him in Jerusalem when Jesus literally knocked him to the ground in order to get his attention.  That conversation led to Paul’s conversion.  And Paul never looked back.  He set aside all of his past in order to focus on the future.  He still had work to do.  Even as a prisoner in a stone cell in Rome, he received visitors, wrote letters, and made plans to travel to Spain upon his release.  And focusing on the future kept Paul moving forward – pressing on – rather than dwelling on a past that could not be changed anyway.

Again, we can relate to what Paul was saying.  Sometimes we almost have to forcibly make ourselves let go of the past and keep our eyes and minds and hearts focused on the future.  Some of us dwell in the past because it looks so much better, happier, simpler, easier, more fulfilling, or more meaningful than the present.  We look at the good old days through rose-colored glasses, longing for a time long gone when families always sat down at the table together for dinner, when all TV was family TV, when several generations of a family lived close to each other, when young people had respect for their elders, when people were more willing to work together for a common cause and shared common values.  Others live in the past because, no matter how far we distance ourselves from it, a painful, traumatic, or tragic past pursues us at every step.  We can’t shake our sense of victimization, we can’t seem to shed our layers of stress and grief and anger in order to move forward, to get on with life and to believe the future is something better.  Yet we are called to forget what is behind – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and strain toward what is ahead with open minds and hearts and spirits. It is to look ahead with the confidence that God is already in the future ready to walk with us through it.  And it is to remember that our ultimate goal – our prize – is finding ourselves in the heavenly presence of God.

What gave Paul the courage and strength to press on?

Paul knew Christ and the power of his resurrection.  Paul knew that Christ made impossible things possible.  Jesus walked on water as if it were as solid as a rock.  Jesus took two loaves of bread and five small fish and fed a crowd of thousands.  He turned water into wine at a wedding.  He cured the diseased and freed the demon-possessed and healed the broken.  He broke down barriers of class and gender and nationality, inviting the outcasts to come in.  But more than what Paul knew about Jesus, Paul knew Jesus personally.  He had met Jesus face to face on the Damascus road and he knew the presence and leadership of Jesus as he lived out his calling. 

Paul also knew that when death is no longer a threat, a person can face anything with courage and confidence and trust in God.  Death was defeated when God raised Jesus from the dead.  Easter was God’s last word on the finality of death.  And the same power that God exercised when he raised Jesus to life gives life to those who believe, not just life beyond death, but invigorated life here on earth.  We are empowered by the Holy Spirit with the power that God used to raise Jesus.  In his letter to the Christians in Ephesus, Paul wrote, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead …” (Ephesians 1:18-20, NIV)

We have the opportunity to know Christ, to have a personal relationship with Jesus.  We can experience his hospitality, his grace, his power, his healing, and his encouragement for ourselves through reading scripture or other resources, through praying, reflecting, or meditating.  We can sing the words of the old hymn with the enthusiasm of those who know it to be true, “He walks with me and he talks with me. …”  Jesus is our Savior and our redeemer, but he is also our friend and our brother.  Sometimes when I pray, I picture Jesus sitting in the chair across from me.  That’s how present Jeus is for me.

And we know – we know – the power of the resurrection.  We have said goodbye to loved ones, but we have done so with the sure and certain hope of their eternal life.  We have clung to the knowledge that this world and this life are not all there is, but there is heaven beyond.  The same power that raises the dead to life is available to us as we go through our lives on this earth.  God gives us strength when we have no more strength.  In fact, our weakness is where God’s strength becomes greatest.  We are able to face anything that life brings our way because of the power of God, the strength of Christ, in our hearts and spirits.  In a song that he wrote some years ago, Steven Curtis Chapman expressed it this way:

We can only know the power that he holds
When we truly see how deep our weakness goes
His strength in us begins where ours comes to an end
He hears our humble cry and proves again
His strength is perfect when our strength is gone
He’ll carry us when we can’t carry on
Raised in his power, the weak become strong
His strength is perfect, his strength is perfect

I hear Paul’s encouragement to “press on!” and it no longer exhausts me to think about it.  I no longer feel myself resisting or saying, “I’ve been pressing on and I’m ready to stop now!”  No, I hear Paul’s invitation as an exciting challenge that is possible.  I don’t fear defeat before I get out of the gate.  I believe that I can live out my calling as a partner, a pastor, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, and a friend with joy and passion and hope.  Because I have learned that yesterday doesn’t have to be my tomorrow, the past doesn’t have to be the future.  And because I know Jesus and I know that his power can enable me to do even what may seem impossible, if I just keep focused on the power that God demonstrated in raising Jesus from the dead.  Then I am free to move towards my ultimate goal, life eternal in the presence of God through Jesus Christ.