LETTING GO AND PRESSING ON Advent 2 December 4, 2016 Philippians 3: 4b-14 Like Scrooge, it seems that it is in the darkness of the night, maybe even when we are awakened in the wee hours, that our past returns to haunt us. It sometimes seems like the episodes of our lives are on a continuous loop, playing over and over again in our minds, in our hearts. Of course, each one of us has a past. Maybe some of us were once rising stars. Or, maybe we were going nowhere or made mistakes that we still regret. As we enter December, some of us are looking ahead with great expectation of joyful holiday celebrations or warm and tender, intimate times of sharing and caring. For those grieving the death of a loved one, recovering from a recent separation or divorce, struggling to find employment, or facing depression or painful holiday memories, this can be a very isolated and dreary time. The constant refrains on radio and television, in shopping malls, about the happiness of the season, about getting together with family and friends, reminds many people of what they have lost. And like Scrooge, all their hopes have merged into the one hope of just getting through the holiday season. There s an old Peanuts cartoon that shows Lucy standing in the baseball outfield. A fly ball comes sailing towards her and as it does she remembers all the times she s dropped the ball. And, of course, she drops this ball, too. Then, Lucy calls out to Charlie Brown, standing on the pitcher s mound, I almost had it, but then my past got in my eyes! Isn t that the way it is, so often? Our past gets in our eyes. We have every intention of doing it differently, but darned if the past doesn t get in the way, again. Paul could have easily dropped the ball because of his past in his eyes. On the surface, Saul had it made. He d done the right thing, played by the rules, fulfilled all the religious expectations, even studied under a well-respected rabbi. But self-righteousness and suppressed rage built up inside him. He began to focus it outward, on that new religious group called Christians. Saul, that uber-virtuous Pharisee, traveled up and down the length of the land, hunting down Christians and turning them over to the authorities. He got lots of praise for this fierce and frenetic activity, but it didn t make him any happier. On the contrary, the more he saw of these Christians and their simple, joyful way of living, the more he began to wonder what was missing in his own life. One day, Saul was holding the cloaks for a mob that was stoning a man named Stephen. Saul looked on, as Stephen exclaimed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! Then, the martyr knelt down and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them! and with that, he received the final blow and died. The book of Acts concludes the episode with this chilling line: And Saul approved of their killing him. It goes on, a few verses later, to say, Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison. He was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Saul was subsisting on those angry, bitter thoughts, breathing them in and breathing them out in spiteful actions. Finally, it all built to a crescendo of misery, when he heard a voice while traveling on the road to Damascus. The voice of Jesus was saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He was blinded by the light and became unglued; both psychologically and spiritually. Three years later, he was back; a changed man. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, Saul, that feared persecutor of Christians, took a new name, Paul, to symbolize his total rebirth. Did he have
regrets or feelings of shame for his past behavior? No doubt. Could these early years put a dark pall over his life. Possibly. Years later, reflecting back on this earlier time in his life, he wrote the words we read today; words that convey the secret of how to turn one s life around. Paul wrote,... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. These words of hope were written to the Philippians as Paul sat in a jail cell, possibly facing his own martyrdom. Throughout my years of counselling and ministry, I have heard a number of people share painful experiences from their past and mistakes that they still regret. Some have even said that that event, that relationship, that decision ruined their entire life. And yet, I would be sitting with a person who had a strong loving marriage with seemingly happy well-adjusted children. Someone who had a meaningful career and had been active in a ministry or mission that had a powerful and positive impact on others. From all outward appearances, this was not a ruined life. But sadly, maybe even tragically, this was a life that was stuck in the past. Sometimes the past can be our worst enemy. Things happened in the past; in all of our pasts. Painful things. Things we d rather not remember. But, despite our best intentions to reconcile and move on, they come back to haunt us. Sometimes people choose to live in the past because they think their best days are behind them. Sometimes we struggle to let go of the past because of unresolved anger or pain or grief. Whatever happened, it has become a part of who we are, something that we rely on, for better or worse, that influences our own self-identity and our perspective on life itself. My friends, scripture gives us permission to forget. For some, it will mean, with Paul and Scrooge, laying aside years of working to be known by our righteous achievements, in order to embrace a life that makes all that former striving seem like clutter that simply needs to be tossed aside. For others, it means leaving behind a different kind of trash. It means no longer endlessly rehearsing the hurts or disappointments of childhood, the multigenerational family feuds, the plots at the office, or the other destructive conspiracies which are stealing so much of your life. It means walking away from someone who is out to get you, not only because you do not need to get caught up in their death-trap or live life by their debilitating rules, but because there is resurrected life to live, with Christ at the center, and the joy of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection. Forgetting those things which are behind does not suggest an impossible feat of psychological gymnastics by which we try to erase the sins and mistakes of the past. It simply means that we break the power of the past by living fully in the present. We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning and significance of the past. And so, please, don t let past success or failure keep you from receiving what God has for you in the present. If it means a trip to the landfill to dump some baggage you re carrying, then find a way to do that. My friends, God has a plan for each one of us. And God can use the situations and experiences of our past to make us wiser and stronger. And so, let s not allow our past to render us powerless, but rather let s turn our past over to God and accept the lessons offered. Seek God s help in overcoming the grip the past has on your life. Then let s press on to what God has prepared for each of us. Brothers and sisters, receive the blessings that God has for you, right now, as we let go of the past and press on living our lives fully in the present.
LETTING GO AND PRESSING ON Advent 2 December 4, 2016 Philippians 3: 4b-14 Like Scrooge, it seems that it is in the darkness of the night, maybe even when we are awakened in the wee hours, that our past returns to haunt us. It sometimes seems like the episodes of our lives are on a continuous loop, playing over and over again in our minds, in our hearts. Of course, each one of us has a past. Maybe some of us were once rising stars. Or, maybe we were going nowhere or made mistakes that we still regret. As we enter December, some of us are looking ahead with great expectation of joyful holiday celebrations or warm and tender, intimate times of sharing and caring. For those grieving the death of a loved one, recovering from a recent separation or divorce, struggling to find employment, or facing depression or painful holiday memories, this can be a very isolated and dreary time. The constant refrains on radio and television, in shopping malls, about the happiness of the season, about getting together with family and friends, reminds many people of what they have lost. And like Scrooge, all their hopes have merged into the one hope of just getting through the holiday season. There s an old Peanuts cartoon that shows Lucy standing in the baseball outfield. A fly ball comes sailing towards her and as it does she remembers all the times she s dropped the ball. And, of course, she drops this ball, too. Then, Lucy calls out to Charlie Brown, standing on the pitcher s mound, I almost had it, but then my past got in my eyes! Isn t that the way it is, so often? Our past gets in our eyes. We have every intention of doing it differently, but darned if the past doesn t get in the way, again. Paul could have easily dropped the ball because of his past in his eyes. On the surface, Saul had it made. He d done the right thing, played by the rules, fulfilled all the religious expectations, even studied under a well-respected rabbi. But self-righteousness and suppressed rage built up inside him. He began to focus it outward, on that new religious group called Christians. Saul, that uber-virtuous Pharisee, traveled up and down the length of the land, hunting down Christians and turning them over to the authorities. He got lots of praise for this fierce and frenetic activity, but it didn t make him any happier. On the contrary, the more he saw of these Christians and their simple, joyful way of living, the more he began to wonder what was missing in his own life. One day, Saul was holding the cloaks for a mob that was stoning a man named Stephen. Saul looked on, as Stephen exclaimed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! Then, the martyr knelt down and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them! and with that, he received the final blow and died. The book of Acts concludes the episode with this chilling line: And Saul approved of their killing him. It goes on, a few verses later, to say, Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison. He was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Saul was subsisting on those angry, bitter thoughts, breathing them in and breathing them out in spiteful actions. Finally, it all built to a crescendo of misery, when he heard a voice while traveling on the road to Damascus. The voice of Jesus was saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He was blinded by the light and became unglued; both psychologically and spiritually. Three years later, he was back; a changed man. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, Saul, that feared persecutor of Christians, took a new name, Paul, to symbolize his total rebirth. Did he have
regrets or feelings of shame for his past behavior? No doubt. Could these early years put a dark pall over his life. Possibly. Years later, reflecting back on this earlier time in his life, he wrote the words we read today; words that convey the secret of how to turn one s life around. Paul wrote,... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. These words of hope were written to the Philippians as Paul sat in a jail cell, possibly facing his own martyrdom. Throughout my years of counselling and ministry, I have heard a number of people share painful experiences from their past and mistakes that they still regret. Some have even said that that event, that relationship, that decision ruined their entire life. And yet, I would be sitting with a person who had a strong loving marriage with seemingly happy well-adjusted children. Someone who had a meaningful career and had been active in a ministry or mission that had a powerful and positive impact on others. From all outward appearances, this was not a ruined life. But sadly, maybe even tragically, this was a life that was stuck in the past. Sometimes the past can be our worst enemy. Things happened in the past; in all of our pasts. Painful things. Things we d rather not remember. But, despite our best intentions to reconcile and move on, they come back to haunt us. Sometimes people choose to live in the past because they think their best days are behind them. Sometimes we struggle to let go of the past because of unresolved anger or pain or grief. Whatever happened, it has become a part of who we are, something that we rely on, for better or worse, that influences our own self-identity and our perspective on life itself. My friends, scripture gives us permission to forget. For some, it will mean, with Paul and Scrooge, laying aside years of working to be known by our righteous achievements, in order to embrace a life that makes all that former striving seem like clutter that simply needs to be tossed aside. For others, it means leaving behind a different kind of trash. It means no longer endlessly rehearsing the hurts or disappointments of childhood, the multigenerational family feuds, the plots at the office, or the other destructive conspiracies which are stealing so much of your life. It means walking away from someone who is out to get you, not only because you do not need to get caught up in their death-trap or live life by their debilitating rules, but because there is resurrected life to live, with Christ at the center, and the joy of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection. Forgetting those things which are behind does not suggest an impossible feat of psychological gymnastics by which we try to erase the sins and mistakes of the past. It simply means that we break the power of the past by living fully in the present. We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning and significance of the past. And so, please, don t let past success or failure keep you from receiving what God has for you in the present. If it means a trip to the landfill to dump some baggage you re carrying, then find a way to do that. My friends, God has a plan for each one of us. And God can use the situations and experiences of our past to make us wiser and stronger. And so, let s not allow our past to render us powerless, but rather let s turn our past over to God and accept the lessons offered. Seek God s help in overcoming the grip the past has on your life. Then let s press on to what God has prepared for each of us. Brothers and sisters, receive the blessings that God has for you, right now, as we let go of the past and press on living our lives fully in the present.
LETTING GO AND PRESSING ON Advent 2 December 4, 2016 Philippians 3: 4b-14 Like Scrooge, it seems that it is in the darkness of the night, maybe even when we are awakened in the wee hours, that our past returns to haunt us. It sometimes seems like the episodes of our lives are on a continuous loop, playing over and over again in our minds, in our hearts. Of course, each one of us has a past. Maybe some of us were once rising stars. Or, maybe we were going nowhere or made mistakes that we still regret. As we enter December, some of us are looking ahead with great expectation of joyful holiday celebrations or warm and tender, intimate times of sharing and caring. For those grieving the death of a loved one, recovering from a recent separation or divorce, struggling to find employment, or facing depression or painful holiday memories, this can be a very isolated and dreary time. The constant refrains on radio and television, in shopping malls, about the happiness of the season, about getting together with family and friends, reminds many people of what they have lost. And like Scrooge, all their hopes have merged into the one hope of just getting through the holiday season. There s an old Peanuts cartoon that shows Lucy standing in the baseball outfield. A fly ball comes sailing towards her and as it does she remembers all the times she s dropped the ball. And, of course, she drops this ball, too. Then, Lucy calls out to Charlie Brown, standing on the pitcher s mound, I almost had it, but then my past got in my eyes! Isn t that the way it is, so often? Our past gets in our eyes. We have every intention of doing it differently, but darned if the past doesn t get in the way, again. Paul could have easily dropped the ball because of his past in his eyes. On the surface, Saul had it made. He d done the right thing, played by the rules, fulfilled all the religious expectations, even studied under a well-respected rabbi. But self-righteousness and suppressed rage built up inside him. He began to focus it outward, on that new religious group called Christians. Saul, that uber-virtuous Pharisee, traveled up and down the length of the land, hunting down Christians and turning them over to the authorities. He got lots of praise for this fierce and frenetic activity, but it didn t make him any happier. On the contrary, the more he saw of these Christians and their simple, joyful way of living, the more he began to wonder what was missing in his own life. One day, Saul was holding the cloaks for a mob that was stoning a man named Stephen. Saul looked on, as Stephen exclaimed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! Then, the martyr knelt down and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them! and with that, he received the final blow and died. The book of Acts concludes the episode with this chilling line: And Saul approved of their killing him. It goes on, a few verses later, to say, Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison. He was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Saul was subsisting on those angry, bitter thoughts, breathing them in and breathing them out in spiteful actions. Finally, it all built to a crescendo of misery, when he heard a voice while traveling on the road to Damascus. The voice of Jesus was saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He was blinded by the light and became unglued; both psychologically and spiritually. Three years later, he was back; a changed man. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, Saul, that feared persecutor of Christians, took a new name, Paul, to symbolize his total rebirth. Did he have
regrets or feelings of shame for his past behavior? No doubt. Could these early years put a dark pall over his life. Possibly. Years later, reflecting back on this earlier time in his life, he wrote the words we read today; words that convey the secret of how to turn one s life around. Paul wrote,... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. These words of hope were written to the Philippians as Paul sat in a jail cell, possibly facing his own martyrdom. Throughout my years of counselling and ministry, I have heard a number of people share painful experiences from their past and mistakes that they still regret. Some have even said that that event, that relationship, that decision ruined their entire life. And yet, I would be sitting with a person who had a strong loving marriage with seemingly happy well-adjusted children. Someone who had a meaningful career and had been active in a ministry or mission that had a powerful and positive impact on others. From all outward appearances, this was not a ruined life. But sadly, maybe even tragically, this was a life that was stuck in the past. Sometimes the past can be our worst enemy. Things happened in the past; in all of our pasts. Painful things. Things we d rather not remember. But, despite our best intentions to reconcile and move on, they come back to haunt us. Sometimes people choose to live in the past because they think their best days are behind them. Sometimes we struggle to let go of the past because of unresolved anger or pain or grief. Whatever happened, it has become a part of who we are, something that we rely on, for better or worse, that influences our own self-identity and our perspective on life itself. My friends, scripture gives us permission to forget. For some, it will mean, with Paul and Scrooge, laying aside years of working to be known by our righteous achievements, in order to embrace a life that makes all that former striving seem like clutter that simply needs to be tossed aside. For others, it means leaving behind a different kind of trash. It means no longer endlessly rehearsing the hurts or disappointments of childhood, the multigenerational family feuds, the plots at the office, or the other destructive conspiracies which are stealing so much of your life. It means walking away from someone who is out to get you, not only because you do not need to get caught up in their death-trap or live life by their debilitating rules, but because there is resurrected life to live, with Christ at the center, and the joy of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection. Forgetting those things which are behind does not suggest an impossible feat of psychological gymnastics by which we try to erase the sins and mistakes of the past. It simply means that we break the power of the past by living fully in the present. We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning and significance of the past. And so, please, don t let past success or failure keep you from receiving what God has for you in the present. If it means a trip to the landfill to dump some baggage you re carrying, then find a way to do that. My friends, God has a plan for each one of us. And God can use the situations and experiences of our past to make us wiser and stronger. And so, let s not allow our past to render us powerless, but rather let s turn our past over to God and accept the lessons offered. Seek God s help in overcoming the grip the past has on your life. Then let s press on to what God has prepared for each of us. Brothers and sisters, receive the blessings that God has for you, right now, as we let go of the past and press on living our lives fully in the present.
LETTING GO AND PRESSING ON Advent 2 December 4, 2016 Philippians 3: 4b-14 Like Scrooge, it seems that it is in the darkness of the night, maybe even when we are awakened in the wee hours, that our past returns to haunt us. It sometimes seems like the episodes of our lives are on a continuous loop, playing over and over again in our minds, in our hearts. Of course, each one of us has a past. Maybe some of us were once rising stars. Or, maybe we were going nowhere or made mistakes that we still regret. As we enter December, some of us are looking ahead with great expectation of joyful holiday celebrations or warm and tender, intimate times of sharing and caring. For those grieving the death of a loved one, recovering from a recent separation or divorce, struggling to find employment, or facing depression or painful holiday memories, this can be a very isolated and dreary time. The constant refrains on radio and television, in shopping malls, about the happiness of the season, about getting together with family and friends, reminds many people of what they have lost. And like Scrooge, all their hopes have merged into the one hope of just getting through the holiday season. There s an old Peanuts cartoon that shows Lucy standing in the baseball outfield. A fly ball comes sailing towards her and as it does she remembers all the times she s dropped the ball. And, of course, she drops this ball, too. Then, Lucy calls out to Charlie Brown, standing on the pitcher s mound, I almost had it, but then my past got in my eyes! Isn t that the way it is, so often? Our past gets in our eyes. We have every intention of doing it differently, but darned if the past doesn t get in the way, again. Paul could have easily dropped the ball because of his past in his eyes. On the surface, Saul had it made. He d done the right thing, played by the rules, fulfilled all the religious expectations, even studied under a well-respected rabbi. But self-righteousness and suppressed rage built up inside him. He began to focus it outward, on that new religious group called Christians. Saul, that uber-virtuous Pharisee, traveled up and down the length of the land, hunting down Christians and turning them over to the authorities. He got lots of praise for this fierce and frenetic activity, but it didn t make him any happier. On the contrary, the more he saw of these Christians and their simple, joyful way of living, the more he began to wonder what was missing in his own life. One day, Saul was holding the cloaks for a mob that was stoning a man named Stephen. Saul looked on, as Stephen exclaimed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! Then, the martyr knelt down and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them! and with that, he received the final blow and died. The book of Acts concludes the episode with this chilling line: And Saul approved of their killing him. It goes on, a few verses later, to say, Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison. He was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Saul was subsisting on those angry, bitter thoughts, breathing them in and breathing them out in spiteful actions. Finally, it all built to a crescendo of misery, when he heard a voice while traveling on the road to Damascus. The voice of Jesus was saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He was blinded by the light and became unglued; both psychologically and spiritually. Three years later, he was back; a changed man. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, Saul, that feared persecutor of Christians, took a new name, Paul, to symbolize his total rebirth. Did he have
regrets or feelings of shame for his past behavior? No doubt. Could these early years put a dark pall over his life. Possibly. Years later, reflecting back on this earlier time in his life, he wrote the words we read today; words that convey the secret of how to turn one s life around. Paul wrote,... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. These words of hope were written to the Philippians as Paul sat in a jail cell, possibly facing his own martyrdom. Throughout my years of counselling and ministry, I have heard a number of people share painful experiences from their past and mistakes that they still regret. Some have even said that that event, that relationship, that decision ruined their entire life. And yet, I would be sitting with a person who had a strong loving marriage with seemingly happy well-adjusted children. Someone who had a meaningful career and had been active in a ministry or mission that had a powerful and positive impact on others. From all outward appearances, this was not a ruined life. But sadly, maybe even tragically, this was a life that was stuck in the past. Sometimes the past can be our worst enemy. Things happened in the past; in all of our pasts. Painful things. Things we d rather not remember. But, despite our best intentions to reconcile and move on, they come back to haunt us. Sometimes people choose to live in the past because they think their best days are behind them. Sometimes we struggle to let go of the past because of unresolved anger or pain or grief. Whatever happened, it has become a part of who we are, something that we rely on, for better or worse, that influences our own self-identity and our perspective on life itself. My friends, scripture gives us permission to forget. For some, it will mean, with Paul and Scrooge, laying aside years of working to be known by our righteous achievements, in order to embrace a life that makes all that former striving seem like clutter that simply needs to be tossed aside. For others, it means leaving behind a different kind of trash. It means no longer endlessly rehearsing the hurts or disappointments of childhood, the multigenerational family feuds, the plots at the office, or the other destructive conspiracies which are stealing so much of your life. It means walking away from someone who is out to get you, not only because you do not need to get caught up in their death-trap or live life by their debilitating rules, but because there is resurrected life to live, with Christ at the center, and the joy of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection. Forgetting those things which are behind does not suggest an impossible feat of psychological gymnastics by which we try to erase the sins and mistakes of the past. It simply means that we break the power of the past by living fully in the present. We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning and significance of the past. And so, please, don t let past success or failure keep you from receiving what God has for you in the present. If it means a trip to the landfill to dump some baggage you re carrying, then find a way to do that. My friends, God has a plan for each one of us. And God can use the situations and experiences of our past to make us wiser and stronger. And so, let s not allow our past to render us powerless, but rather let s turn our past over to God and accept the lessons offered. Seek God s help in overcoming the grip the past has on your life. Then let s press on to what God has prepared for each of us. Brothers and sisters, receive the blessings that God has for you, right now, as we let go of the past and press on living our lives fully in the present.
LETTING GO AND PRESSING ON Advent 2 December 4, 2016 Philippians 3: 4b-14 Like Scrooge, it seems that it is in the darkness of the night, maybe even when we are awakened in the wee hours, that our past returns to haunt us. It sometimes seems like the episodes of our lives are on a continuous loop, playing over and over again in our minds, in our hearts. Of course, each one of us has a past. Maybe some of us were once rising stars. Or, maybe we were going nowhere or made mistakes that we still regret. As we enter December, some of us are looking ahead with great expectation of joyful holiday celebrations or warm and tender, intimate times of sharing and caring. For those grieving the death of a loved one, recovering from a recent separation or divorce, struggling to find employment, or facing depression or painful holiday memories, this can be a very isolated and dreary time. The constant refrains on radio and television, in shopping malls, about the happiness of the season, about getting together with family and friends, reminds many people of what they have lost. And like Scrooge, all their hopes have merged into the one hope of just getting through the holiday season. There s an old Peanuts cartoon that shows Lucy standing in the baseball outfield. A fly ball comes sailing towards her and as it does she remembers all the times she s dropped the ball. And, of course, she drops this ball, too. Then, Lucy calls out to Charlie Brown, standing on the pitcher s mound, I almost had it, but then my past got in my eyes! Isn t that the way it is, so often? Our past gets in our eyes. We have every intention of doing it differently, but darned if the past doesn t get in the way, again. Paul could have easily dropped the ball because of his past in his eyes. On the surface, Saul had it made. He d done the right thing, played by the rules, fulfilled all the religious expectations, even studied under a well-respected rabbi. But self-righteousness and suppressed rage built up inside him. He began to focus it outward, on that new religious group called Christians. Saul, that uber-virtuous Pharisee, traveled up and down the length of the land, hunting down Christians and turning them over to the authorities. He got lots of praise for this fierce and frenetic activity, but it didn t make him any happier. On the contrary, the more he saw of these Christians and their simple, joyful way of living, the more he began to wonder what was missing in his own life. One day, Saul was holding the cloaks for a mob that was stoning a man named Stephen. Saul looked on, as Stephen exclaimed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! Then, the martyr knelt down and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them! and with that, he received the final blow and died. The book of Acts concludes the episode with this chilling line: And Saul approved of their killing him. It goes on, a few verses later, to say, Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison. He was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Saul was subsisting on those angry, bitter thoughts, breathing them in and breathing them out in spiteful actions. Finally, it all built to a crescendo of misery, when he heard a voice while traveling on the road to Damascus. The voice of Jesus was saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He was blinded by the light and became unglued; both psychologically and spiritually. Three years later, he was back; a changed man. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, Saul, that feared persecutor of Christians, took a new name, Paul, to symbolize his total rebirth. Did he have
regrets or feelings of shame for his past behavior? No doubt. Could these early years put a dark pall over his life. Possibly. Years later, reflecting back on this earlier time in his life, he wrote the words we read today; words that convey the secret of how to turn one s life around. Paul wrote,... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. These words of hope were written to the Philippians as Paul sat in a jail cell, possibly facing his own martyrdom. Throughout my years of counselling and ministry, I have heard a number of people share painful experiences from their past and mistakes that they still regret. Some have even said that that event, that relationship, that decision ruined their entire life. And yet, I would be sitting with a person who had a strong loving marriage with seemingly happy well-adjusted children. Someone who had a meaningful career and had been active in a ministry or mission that had a powerful and positive impact on others. From all outward appearances, this was not a ruined life. But sadly, maybe even tragically, this was a life that was stuck in the past. Sometimes the past can be our worst enemy. Things happened in the past; in all of our pasts. Painful things. Things we d rather not remember. But, despite our best intentions to reconcile and move on, they come back to haunt us. Sometimes people choose to live in the past because they think their best days are behind them. Sometimes we struggle to let go of the past because of unresolved anger or pain or grief. Whatever happened, it has become a part of who we are, something that we rely on, for better or worse, that influences our own self-identity and our perspective on life itself. My friends, scripture gives us permission to forget. For some, it will mean, with Paul and Scrooge, laying aside years of working to be known by our righteous achievements, in order to embrace a life that makes all that former striving seem like clutter that simply needs to be tossed aside. For others, it means leaving behind a different kind of trash. It means no longer endlessly rehearsing the hurts or disappointments of childhood, the multigenerational family feuds, the plots at the office, or the other destructive conspiracies which are stealing so much of your life. It means walking away from someone who is out to get you, not only because you do not need to get caught up in their death-trap or live life by their debilitating rules, but because there is resurrected life to live, with Christ at the center, and the joy of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection. Forgetting those things which are behind does not suggest an impossible feat of psychological gymnastics by which we try to erase the sins and mistakes of the past. It simply means that we break the power of the past by living fully in the present. We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning and significance of the past. And so, please, don t let past success or failure keep you from receiving what God has for you in the present. If it means a trip to the landfill to dump some baggage you re carrying, then find a way to do that. My friends, God has a plan for each one of us. And God can use the situations and experiences of our past to make us wiser and stronger. And so, let s not allow our past to render us powerless, but rather let s turn our past over to God and accept the lessons offered. Seek God s help in overcoming the grip the past has on your life. Then let s press on to what God has prepared for each of us. Brothers and sisters, receive the blessings that God has for you, right now, as we let go of the past and press on living our lives fully in the present.
LETTING GO AND PRESSING ON Advent 2 December 4, 2016 Philippians 3: 4b-14 Like Scrooge, it seems that it is in the darkness of the night, maybe even when we are awakened in the wee hours, that our past returns to haunt us. It sometimes seems like the episodes of our lives are on a continuous loop, playing over and over again in our minds, in our hearts. Of course, each one of us has a past. Maybe some of us were once rising stars. Or, maybe we were going nowhere or made mistakes that we still regret. As we enter December, some of us are looking ahead with great expectation of joyful holiday celebrations or warm and tender, intimate times of sharing and caring. For those grieving the death of a loved one, recovering from a recent separation or divorce, struggling to find employment, or facing depression or painful holiday memories, this can be a very isolated and dreary time. The constant refrains on radio and television, in shopping malls, about the happiness of the season, about getting together with family and friends, reminds many people of what they have lost. And like Scrooge, all their hopes have merged into the one hope of just getting through the holiday season. There s an old Peanuts cartoon that shows Lucy standing in the baseball outfield. A fly ball comes sailing towards her and as it does she remembers all the times she s dropped the ball. And, of course, she drops this ball, too. Then, Lucy calls out to Charlie Brown, standing on the pitcher s mound, I almost had it, but then my past got in my eyes! Isn t that the way it is, so often? Our past gets in our eyes. We have every intention of doing it differently, but darned if the past doesn t get in the way, again. Paul could have easily dropped the ball because of his past in his eyes. On the surface, Saul had it made. He d done the right thing, played by the rules, fulfilled all the religious expectations, even studied under a well-respected rabbi. But self-righteousness and suppressed rage built up inside him. He began to focus it outward, on that new religious group called Christians. Saul, that uber-virtuous Pharisee, traveled up and down the length of the land, hunting down Christians and turning them over to the authorities. He got lots of praise for this fierce and frenetic activity, but it didn t make him any happier. On the contrary, the more he saw of these Christians and their simple, joyful way of living, the more he began to wonder what was missing in his own life. One day, Saul was holding the cloaks for a mob that was stoning a man named Stephen. Saul looked on, as Stephen exclaimed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! Then, the martyr knelt down and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them! and with that, he received the final blow and died. The book of Acts concludes the episode with this chilling line: And Saul approved of their killing him. It goes on, a few verses later, to say, Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison. He was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Saul was subsisting on those angry, bitter thoughts, breathing them in and breathing them out in spiteful actions. Finally, it all built to a crescendo of misery, when he heard a voice while traveling on the road to Damascus. The voice of Jesus was saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He was blinded by the light and became unglued; both psychologically and spiritually. Three years later, he was back; a changed man. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, Saul, that feared persecutor of Christians, took a new name, Paul, to symbolize his total rebirth. Did he have
regrets or feelings of shame for his past behavior? No doubt. Could these early years put a dark pall over his life. Possibly. Years later, reflecting back on this earlier time in his life, he wrote the words we read today; words that convey the secret of how to turn one s life around. Paul wrote,... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. These words of hope were written to the Philippians as Paul sat in a jail cell, possibly facing his own martyrdom. Throughout my years of counselling and ministry, I have heard a number of people share painful experiences from their past and mistakes that they still regret. Some have even said that that event, that relationship, that decision ruined their entire life. And yet, I would be sitting with a person who had a strong loving marriage with seemingly happy well-adjusted children. Someone who had a meaningful career and had been active in a ministry or mission that had a powerful and positive impact on others. From all outward appearances, this was not a ruined life. But sadly, maybe even tragically, this was a life that was stuck in the past. Sometimes the past can be our worst enemy. Things happened in the past; in all of our pasts. Painful things. Things we d rather not remember. But, despite our best intentions to reconcile and move on, they come back to haunt us. Sometimes people choose to live in the past because they think their best days are behind them. Sometimes we struggle to let go of the past because of unresolved anger or pain or grief. Whatever happened, it has become a part of who we are, something that we rely on, for better or worse, that influences our own self-identity and our perspective on life itself. My friends, scripture gives us permission to forget. For some, it will mean, with Paul and Scrooge, laying aside years of working to be known by our righteous achievements, in order to embrace a life that makes all that former striving seem like clutter that simply needs to be tossed aside. For others, it means leaving behind a different kind of trash. It means no longer endlessly rehearsing the hurts or disappointments of childhood, the multigenerational family feuds, the plots at the office, or the other destructive conspiracies which are stealing so much of your life. It means walking away from someone who is out to get you, not only because you do not need to get caught up in their death-trap or live life by their debilitating rules, but because there is resurrected life to live, with Christ at the center, and the joy of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection. Forgetting those things which are behind does not suggest an impossible feat of psychological gymnastics by which we try to erase the sins and mistakes of the past. It simply means that we break the power of the past by living fully in the present. We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning and significance of the past. And so, please, don t let past success or failure keep you from receiving what God has for you in the present. If it means a trip to the landfill to dump some baggage you re carrying, then find a way to do that. My friends, God has a plan for each one of us. And God can use the situations and experiences of our past to make us wiser and stronger. And so, let s not allow our past to render us powerless, but rather let s turn our past over to God and accept the lessons offered. Seek God s help in overcoming the grip the past has on your life. Then let s press on to what God has prepared for each of us. Brothers and sisters, receive the blessings that God has for you, right now, as we let go of the past and press on living our lives fully in the present.
LETTING GO AND PRESSING ON Advent 2 December 4, 2016 Philippians 3: 4b-14 Like Scrooge, it seems that it is in the darkness of the night, maybe even when we are awakened in the wee hours, that our past returns to haunt us. It sometimes seems like the episodes of our lives are on a continuous loop, playing over and over again in our minds, in our hearts. Of course, each one of us has a past. Maybe some of us were once rising stars. Or, maybe we were going nowhere or made mistakes that we still regret. As we enter December, some of us are looking ahead with great expectation of joyful holiday celebrations or warm and tender, intimate times of sharing and caring. For those grieving the death of a loved one, recovering from a recent separation or divorce, struggling to find employment, or facing depression or painful holiday memories, this can be a very isolated and dreary time. The constant refrains on radio and television, in shopping malls, about the happiness of the season, about getting together with family and friends, reminds many people of what they have lost. And like Scrooge, all their hopes have merged into the one hope of just getting through the holiday season. There s an old Peanuts cartoon that shows Lucy standing in the baseball outfield. A fly ball comes sailing towards her and as it does she remembers all the times she s dropped the ball. And, of course, she drops this ball, too. Then, Lucy calls out to Charlie Brown, standing on the pitcher s mound, I almost had it, but then my past got in my eyes! Isn t that the way it is, so often? Our past gets in our eyes. We have every intention of doing it differently, but darned if the past doesn t get in the way, again. Paul could have easily dropped the ball because of his past in his eyes. On the surface, Saul had it made. He d done the right thing, played by the rules, fulfilled all the religious expectations, even studied under a well-respected rabbi. But self-righteousness and suppressed rage built up inside him. He began to focus it outward, on that new religious group called Christians. Saul, that uber-virtuous Pharisee, traveled up and down the length of the land, hunting down Christians and turning them over to the authorities. He got lots of praise for this fierce and frenetic activity, but it didn t make him any happier. On the contrary, the more he saw of these Christians and their simple, joyful way of living, the more he began to wonder what was missing in his own life. One day, Saul was holding the cloaks for a mob that was stoning a man named Stephen. Saul looked on, as Stephen exclaimed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! Then, the martyr knelt down and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them! and with that, he received the final blow and died. The book of Acts concludes the episode with this chilling line: And Saul approved of their killing him. It goes on, a few verses later, to say, Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison. He was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Saul was subsisting on those angry, bitter thoughts, breathing them in and breathing them out in spiteful actions. Finally, it all built to a crescendo of misery, when he heard a voice while traveling on the road to Damascus. The voice of Jesus was saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He was blinded by the light and became unglued; both psychologically and spiritually. Three years later, he was back; a changed man. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, Saul, that feared persecutor of Christians, took a new name, Paul, to symbolize his total rebirth. Did he have
regrets or feelings of shame for his past behavior? No doubt. Could these early years put a dark pall over his life. Possibly. Years later, reflecting back on this earlier time in his life, he wrote the words we read today; words that convey the secret of how to turn one s life around. Paul wrote,... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. These words of hope were written to the Philippians as Paul sat in a jail cell, possibly facing his own martyrdom. Throughout my years of counselling and ministry, I have heard a number of people share painful experiences from their past and mistakes that they still regret. Some have even said that that event, that relationship, that decision ruined their entire life. And yet, I would be sitting with a person who had a strong loving marriage with seemingly happy well-adjusted children. Someone who had a meaningful career and had been active in a ministry or mission that had a powerful and positive impact on others. From all outward appearances, this was not a ruined life. But sadly, maybe even tragically, this was a life that was stuck in the past. Sometimes the past can be our worst enemy. Things happened in the past; in all of our pasts. Painful things. Things we d rather not remember. But, despite our best intentions to reconcile and move on, they come back to haunt us. Sometimes people choose to live in the past because they think their best days are behind them. Sometimes we struggle to let go of the past because of unresolved anger or pain or grief. Whatever happened, it has become a part of who we are, something that we rely on, for better or worse, that influences our own self-identity and our perspective on life itself. My friends, scripture gives us permission to forget. For some, it will mean, with Paul and Scrooge, laying aside years of working to be known by our righteous achievements, in order to embrace a life that makes all that former striving seem like clutter that simply needs to be tossed aside. For others, it means leaving behind a different kind of trash. It means no longer endlessly rehearsing the hurts or disappointments of childhood, the multigenerational family feuds, the plots at the office, or the other destructive conspiracies which are stealing so much of your life. It means walking away from someone who is out to get you, not only because you do not need to get caught up in their death-trap or live life by their debilitating rules, but because there is resurrected life to live, with Christ at the center, and the joy of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection. Forgetting those things which are behind does not suggest an impossible feat of psychological gymnastics by which we try to erase the sins and mistakes of the past. It simply means that we break the power of the past by living fully in the present. We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning and significance of the past. And so, please, don t let past success or failure keep you from receiving what God has for you in the present. If it means a trip to the landfill to dump some baggage you re carrying, then find a way to do that. My friends, God has a plan for each one of us. And God can use the situations and experiences of our past to make us wiser and stronger. And so, let s not allow our past to render us powerless, but rather let s turn our past over to God and accept the lessons offered. Seek God s help in overcoming the grip the past has on your life. Then let s press on to what God has prepared for each of us. Brothers and sisters, receive the blessings that God has for you, right now, as we let go of the past and press on living our lives fully in the present.