Comparative Religion

Sermon by Pastor Ed Evans

May 21, 2010

Scripture: Philippians 3:4b-14

3:4b If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:
3:5 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;
3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
3:7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.
3:8 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
3:9 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.
3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,
3:11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
3:13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

From my high kitchen window, I watch a black cat emerge from the tangled woods behind our house, walk with stealth, as only a cat can move, across our neighbor's green back lawn, and enter their children's play area. The black cat then wound around the slide and the swings and the jungle gym in a lithe manner almost resembling dance. Now he padded softly, now he pranced, now he walked with purpose, his furry black tail moving in rhythm with his walk. This was a beautiful cat, sure of the ground he walked upon.

At that moment, as if on cue, our own cat, Stormy, walked slowly into the kitchen, circled in front of me and sat down, looking up at me, as if to say, "Are you looking at another cat? Why are you looking at another cat? I'm right here."

Now, Stormy is a Maine Coon Cat, weighs a hefty 20 pounds, with thick fur in a fascinating mottled black and brown motif. But mainly he is a big cat. He intimidates some people with how big he is. Stormy isn't your cuddly, purring cat that you play with. Stormy doesn't play. He eats, sleeps, runs around the house like he's being chased now and then, scares small dogs, and intimidates some people. At this moment he was seriously eyeballing me. Somehow he knew I was looking at another cat.

As it turned out, I was able to bribe him with a few of his favorite cat goodies, and he ambled away, briefly mollified.

But the encounter led me to consider how we are always comparing what we have with what we don't have. The grass is always greener on the other side. The neighbor always has a nicer car, a better house, a bigger lawn mower. That other job always looks so much easier, pays better, has more benefits. That other religion makes so much more sense. And it requires you to actually do things, so when you do them, you know you're okay. Touch all three bases and you're home free.

For more than 2,000 years mankind has known about Jesus Christ, about the God Who Is, the God who said His name is "I Am." For nearly more generations than we can count we have read of His history with the people of Israel, with others of this world, we have read of His interaction with His people, seen how this God has protected and provided for His people. And yet, we are still looking around. We are still comparing theological ideas, possibilities, alternatives to the Living God.

In what other religion do you find a God who says, "I am going to be involved with My creation. I am going to send a part of myself, my Son, to take away that which separates My creation from Me. I have such an overwhelming love for them, I want them to be with Me where I am, but I also want them to be with Me only if they want to be with Me."

Do the Hindus, the Muslims, the Sufis, Shias, Suunis, Baha'i, Rastafarians, Zoroastrians, Shinto, Jains, Taos, Sikhs, New Age, Confucians, do any of them have a God who sacrifices part of himself to save His people? Who interacts on a constant basis down through history with them? Who says, "Come to me, all you who labor, for My yoke is easy", or "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end"?

Which one loved us so much that He sent His only beloved son to die for us, to reunite us to the Father? Which one says he loves us that much? Who says that to all the peoples of the earth, aside from the Living God?

If He really is the Living God, don't we owe Him something, such as our worship, our undivided attention, to demonstrate resurrection for us? Are we so much that we can ignore Him, and when this life ends, as it must for all of us, do we have some place we can stand and bargain with Him for what comes after this fleeting life on earth?

Or are we so beyond His redemption that there is no use to even consider that He might care about what happens to us? And, oops, right here we run head-on into the Apostle Paul. Having already been where we might stand on this issue so many centuries ago, he has posted a message for us, as if on some message board that surpasses time. Paul's words on this come down through time to us through scripture.

This late apostle wrote, for those who might feel so confident in their own flesh, in their own position in this world, "If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more."

In his time, Paul held great power in his hands over his own destiny, and that of others, because he touched all the bases required to be a man of power within the religious realm of his time; he had been "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..." He stood head and shoulders above most of the crowd around him. Crowds parted when he walked toward them, some people cowered when he entered the room, some stretched their necks to look at him with awe. Paul was somebody.

He took his privileged background and converted it into action and into power. For he wrote, "...as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless." Wherever there were Christians in Paul's early life, they knew his name, for he persecuted them with a fervor like no other. He hunted them down, had them put into chains, into prison, and stoned to death. Paul was no friend of Christians, or of the Christ.

Yet there came a moment when Jesus Christ reached out to Paul specifically and got his attention in a way Paul could not ignore. This self-reliant giant among persecuting Pharisees, who thought he knew it all and saw it all, was suddenly struck blind, forced to rely on others. That moment changed Paul's life completely.

Paul knew, in his heart, the terrible things he had done against Christ, tragedies he had perpetrated against the men and women who had worshipped Christ, and he had every reason to consider himself so lost as to be beyond the love of Christ. Yet Paul had experienced the power of this resurrected Savior, had experienced the love of Christ through those who had every reason to hate and fear him, and instead of running from Jesus Christ in fear, Paul ran toward his Savior.

Paul, the Pharisee who had it all, wrote, "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."

For Paul, there was no comparison shopping around for a bigger, better savior. He didn't need to look around and see if he could find one that agreed with his educated ideas of what a god and a savior should be, one that allowed him to work out his salvation on his own terms, one that seemed gentle and kind and met all of his needs morally, mentally and physically.

It was not as if Paul had no other choices. His world was full of idols and other religious groups, promising all sorts of moral and sensual benefits, just as they do in our own day. They are all around us, idols of one form or another, seeking our attention, our time, our money, our worship, our life.

Paul took Jesus Christ as he found him. After all, isn't that how Jesus Christ took Paul? As He found him.

We can shop around if we want. God gives us that freedom. But where will we find another god that created us, that was not created by the mind and the hand of man?

Paul was a highly educated man for his time. And the one thing an educated man knows is where his ignorance lies. When Paul met Christ on the road to Damascus, he knew immediately this was an area of ignorance on his part. Paul did what we should do, he made his decision for Christ and moved on.

In the last few verses of our scripture today, Paul, having made that decision for Christ, writes, " Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: 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."

Entire sermons have been preached on that last phrase from Paul: "I press on toward the goal..." For you see, if you are outside of Christ, there is no eternal promise for you. This moment is all you have. This moment, this moment, this moment, is all you have. Your last breath is always in your nostrils.

Hurtling down through the halls of time, from the pen of Paul of Tarsus, comes this example for our life. Press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ. Stop looking around, pay attention to what God is saying to you, asking of you, offering you. Like Paul, join yourself to others who have a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ, share alike in the blessings and the worship of Him who loved you first, and hearing that heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus, press on toward that eternal life in Him. Press on.

Amen.