Homily for 5th Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
5th Sunday of Lent

April 7, 2019

Phil 3: 8-14
Nativity, Washington, D.C.

“I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3: 8).

Except for the very, very rich—probably considerably fewer than today’s proverbial 1%—the 1st century wasn’t a consumer society.  When St. Paul “accepted the loss of all things” and “considered them so much rubbish” (3:8), he wasn’t surrendering a vacation home, a BMW, a flat screen TV, tickets to the Kennedy Center, and opportunities to get his kids into Harvard or Georgetown (even honestly).

What he lost, instead, was his career, his prestige and public reputation, friendships from his early life, a reasonably comfortable life by 1st-century standards, the chance to marry and have a family, his freedom, and his physical safety.  This letter to the Christians of Philippi in northeastern Greece, in the region of Macedonia, Paul wrote from one of his several imprisonments, with his life in danger (1:20-23).

Paul in prison, writing a letter

Paul had found something more valuable than career, prestige, family, physical comfort and safety; someone more valuable:  “the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (3:8).  In contrast, all that he gave up was so much “rubbish”—the polite English translation of skubalon, which means “manure.”  Paul doesn’t mean that he knew about Jesus, altho surely he did, from conversations with Peter, John, and other apostles, as well as from his thorough knowledge of the Scriptures—what we call the Old Testament, there being as yet no New Testament writings except the letters that Paul himself was starting to write.

No, Paul knew Jesus personally.  He’d met him in that famous vision-encounter on the road to Damascus, and he’s spent years with him in prayer and meditation.  His mind, heart, and soul were intimate with Jesus.  To “gain Christ and be found in him” was for Paul—and is for us, as well, my sisters and brothers—all that truly matters.  Our salvation, our ultimate, eternal safety, doesn’t depend upon our possessions, family connections, or reputation but upon our relationship with the Risen One, the one who gave up his own life that we might have life, who rose from the dead that he might raise us up in himself.  To “be found in him” on the Last Day, the day of his 2d coming and the general resurrection of every human being, is to be safe, to be saved, to possess the Kingdom of God along with him.

Paul learned from his encounter with Christ that he “had no righteousness of his own based on the Law” (3:9).  As a good, faithful Pharisee, he had thought that observing the Law of Moses would make him holy—“righteous” or “just” in God’s eyes; he even persecuted Jesus’ disciples to enforce his belief, acting as the Taliban do in our time to enforce their version of Islam.  The Law of Moses isn’t just the 10 Commandments but an abundance of rules and precepts, and Paul knew, as you and I do, that no one keeps all those commandments perfectly well—honoring God always, being truthful, being pure, respecting the property and the person of everyone at all times, not acting vengefully, caring for the poor, keeping the Sabbath diligently, etc.  On the basis of the Law, no one is “righteous” before God; all of us are sinners.

Instead, Paul found righteousness, i.e., a restored relationship with God, “through faith in Christ,” through “knowing him and the power of his resurrection” (3:9-10).  Thru Christ God freely grants us forgiveness of our sins, offers us grace.  That the Father raised Jesus from the dead demonstrates the power of what Jesus offers us; his message of divine mercy wasn’t just talk but truly expressed the Father’s will to erase our sins and make us just.

To obtain a share in Christ’s righteousness Paul’s quite willing to “share in his sufferings” here and now, even to “be conformed to his death” (3:10) if it comes to that—as it eventually did when he was condemned and executed in the persecution of Nero.  The prize for gaining Christ and being found in him, for knowing him closely and following him, is “the resurrection from the dead” (3:11), eternal life at his side in heaven.

In April 2008 candidate Barack Obama famously, or infamously, lamented voters who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” rather than clinging to him.  Do you and I cling to something that threatens to distance us or cut us off completely from Christ Jesus:  a grudge, pornography, a love for gossip, a habit of stealing, indifference for the poor or for migrants, support for immoral public policies by our votes for public officials who push those policies?

Brothers and sisters, we’ve passed thru 4 weeks of Lent as a reminder of “the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord,” as an opportunity to deepen our relationship with Christ, as a preparation for Easter, the celebration of the Risen Lord who offers a share in his life to all persons who, like St. Paul, surrender their entire selves to Christ Jesus, who will not let anyone or anything come between them and him—no earthly attachment, no illicit desires, no clinging to the 7 deadly sins.

The psalm response today says, “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy” (Ps 126).  The joy of salvation comes from forgiveness and restoration as soon as we turn from our sins and turn toward our Lord Jesus, like that lost son featured in last Sunday’s gospel (Luke 15:11-32).