you say you know what he did
but you idiot kid, you don't have a clue
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“For [Jesus’] sake I have suffered the loss of all things,” sighs Paul.
Talk about a tough sell…
Paul was never much of a salesman, though. And it wasn’t just that he didn’t have such instincts. No, Paul had too much trust in his Lord, and he had too much respect for his hearers to do something like, try and peddle worshipping the Risen Christ…
“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,” admits Paul.
That’s a hard God to talk about. A God who would demand everything. A God who would even let it all be lost.
No, this kind of talk about God, isn’t our favorite…
Paul has that evangelistic fervor, though. You can’t help but have the sense he would gladly polish his pitch; if only he could.
The trouble, however, is the kind of God we have. A God who doesn’t share. A jealous God…
If you’re going to try and get someone to join your club, you parade all the benefits of membership before them. The Rotary, for instance, promises networking. The Country Club offers an oasis of recreation and fine dining.
Even we fall prey to this way of thinking. When a visitor stumbles through our doors, we give our pitch. As if worshipping was just one more choice in the endless assortment of Sunday morning activities…
Paul, though, refuses to talk about God that way. Instead, Paul speaks of a God who, if we’re being honest, offers something that sounds a little more like a threat, than anything else: When this God is through with you, this God will be the only thing you have left…
“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,” Paul quips.
In this powerful snippet from Paul’s letter to his beloved sisters and brothers at First Lutheran in Philippi, he speaks of a God that many of us aren’t so sure about.
A God who doesn’t give a rip for our respectable, middle class lives. A God who isn’t interested in our comfortable existence, with a little something left over for a rainy day. A God who, apparently, isn’t the lease interested in trying to attract folks like us…
“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,” Paul says.
And he’s speaking from experience, by the way.
Paul isn’t musing theoretically on the nature of God. He isn’t contemplating the ideals of Christian ethics, either. No, Paul is looking over his life and describing what actually happened. He’s talking about what happens when this God gets ahold of you.
“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,” sings Paul. Declaring just the way it is for those of us God has gotten ahold of.
That’s why you’re here today. Don’t fool yourself. The only reason you’re in the this place, is because God has gotten ahold of you.
The truth of it, though, is folks like us, we’re not so sure we’d like that; to suffer the loss of all things. Sure, we’ll fast during Lent. Yes, we’ll try to lead decent and pious lives.
But if we’re being honest, we’d rather hold back a thing or two, for pete’s sake. After all, it’s risky to give up everything. It’s dangerous to lose it all.
If that’s the way God is, we’re not so sure.
That’s why we avoid talking about God the way Paul does. The prospect of suffering the loss of all things stops us dead in our self-assured religious tracks.
That’s the trouble with Paul though, isn’t it?
He won’t let us be content with pious platitudes. In the most vivid of terms, Paul describes what happens when this Risen Lord gets loose.
Us, though, we’ve made our peace with the way things are, our compromises. We’re not sure about getting any closer to this God. We’re at a safe distance, and that’s the way we prefer it.
Paul, though, talks of a God who demands everything. A God who gets a little too close for comfort. A God we’re not so sure we want to know.
Which was exactly Paul’s problem!
He begins this little section by listing the bona fides of his past life. You can’t help but have the sense he was perfectly happy with that life, too.
God, however, interrupted. God had other plans for Paul. God got to Paul.
Now, in the aftermath of it all, the only thing Paul can say is, “for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things.”
It’s a tough sell.
Maybe to us most of all…
We’re not so sure we want that God. A God who would demand everything. A God who would let it all be lost. A God who doesn’t share. A jealous God…
But that’s just the way it is. Paul isn’t trying to get you to accept this God. Paul isn’t trying to get you to join a church or even behave more like an upstanding Christian.
Paul’s isn’t trying to sell a rotten thing!
Paul is just telling you the way it is. He’s describing what God has in store for you. He’s talking about a God who is out; who escapes from the tomb.
That’s why Paul doesn’t bother to try and attract you to the faith. He knows the same God who got him, is out; on the loose, gathering up all God’s people.
And, you should be warned, that includes you - right now, even as you sit there, like a bump on a log.
So here’s the deal; it’s too late for you.
God has gotten you. And God will have it all.
You may not be so sure you want to suffer the loss of all things. I know I don’t. But you’ve already been sealed with the mark of Christ, and this God isn’t about to let you get away.
The God you have is a jealous one. A God isn’t about to share you. A God who won’t compromise.
And that’s the Good News!
To have a God that’s bigger than your desires or your demons; is Good News.
To live a life that’s called; is Good News.
To be claimed by this God who won’t share you with the powers of sin, who doesn’t compromise with Death; is pure Gospel!
Paul looks over his life before God got a hold of him. He has to admit, he has suffered the loss of all things.
As he looks back on it all, though, he can’t help but rejoice. Everything he’s lost, is mere rubbish in comparison with what he’s gained; Christ.
…That’s the way faith sees, sisters and brothers.
Faith works through the ears, mostly. You hear the Good News and that thing you hear creates faith.
The only time God’s work’s with our eyes is in hindsight; when you look back…
Paul is talking about how faith sees. Looking back over his life, Paul saw everything he lost, how none of it could hold a candle to what he’s gained.
That’s true for your life, too.
This is the way your life will look when it’s looked back on from the perspective of faith, when it’s surveyed from the wondrous cross.
Look back over your life. Consider the things you’ve held and the things you’ve lost. Consider this promise; all of it, it’s all hidden in the life of the crucified one, the one God raised on the third day.
Consider it…
Maybe today you can’t see that Paul was right. Maybe the things you’ve lost still pain you. Maybe there are things in your life you can’t bear the thought of losing. The sight Paul speaks of, will only come in hindsight. Maybe you can see Paul was right; and blessed are you.
For now, though, all of us one way or another have to live by this promise: Paul was right. When you finally and fully look back on your life you will see for yourself that nothing compares with Christ.
As that old theologian, St. Augustine said, our hearts are restless until they rest in God…
Paul put it another way. For now, we see through a mirror, dimly. But there will come a day when you will look back over your whole life. On that day you will have to admit, you’ve lost it all.
That will be the day we lay your body to rest. Then you won’t have a thing. On that day it will all be lost.
On that day, we won’t, however, just lay you out in a coffin. We will commend you to your merciful redeemer. We will pray for you and over you. That God would fulfill the promise made to you in your baptism. That God will receive you in the blessed arms of everlasting peace.
Then, on that day, as you look back over all you’ve lost; you will see nothing can comparison to what you’ve gained…
That’s true for your loved one who aren’t here with you today, too. Okay.
…This is hard to talk about. We avoid talking about God this way, the way Paul does.
But wouldn’t it be better if we did?
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