March 25, 2007
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
No one likes a bragger! But when the Red Sox finally won the World Series in 2004, I was bragging about it everywhere; even though there was no time I was in the batter’s box or that I coached or managed the players or anything that comes close to taking credit for their championship. But after something like 86 years of not winning the World Series, I had bragging rights!
In Irvin Berlin’s 1946 Broadway musical, Annie Get Your Gun, there’s a duet sung by the characters Frank Butler, a sharp shooting ace and Annie Oakley, an upstart marksman, who happens to be in love with Frank Butler. As often the case in budding romances, the pair begin to spar as to who can do what, better.
I can do anything better than you can,
I can do anything better than you.
No you can’t
Yes, I can, Yes, I can, yes, I can.
Anything you can be, I can be greater
Sooner or later I’m greater than you
I can shoot a partridge with a single cartridge
Well I can shoot a sparrow with a bow and arrow
No you can’t
Yes, I can, Yes, I can, yes, I can.
We like to brag, don’t we? We want people to know if we have accomplished something great. We freely say things like, “I made the dean’s list at college.” Or, “I made a hole in one last Friday!” Even pastors can get into the act, “I serve the largest Baptist church on Waverly Place in Chinatown.” Yogi Berra once said, “If it’s true, it ain’t really braggin.”
If we are really good at bragging, we can brag in ways that don’t sound like bragging, “I’m really tired today; I shouldn’t have run those 15 miles before coming into work.” Or, “I’m so mad at my son; he got a “B” in English and ruined his 4 point grade average.” Or, “I can’t believe the cost of gasoline these days; especially premium that I have to put into my new Lexus!”
We brag in order to make things all about us look great. Look at what I can do. Ironically, when we start to crow about what we have or what we’ve done, it sometimes means that we feel insecure about some aspect of our lives. If we don’t feel good about ourselves, it becomes important that other people feel good about us, so we brag. It’s all about me. It’s all about us.
Paul’s Bragging
To read Paul’s letter to the Philippians, one would think that Paul had an ego as big as a house. The way he carries on about his pedigree, the way he boasts about his heritage and his perfect life is rather appalling, because it’s all about him! He has bragging rights!
But then one realizes that Paul’s bragging is for a purpose. He is bragging so as to instruct the Christians in Philippi, and the Christians in San Francisco Chinatown, that it’s not all about us…it’s not all about what we can do; it’s all about what God has done.
Listen to what Paul says. If there is anyone who has bragging rights, it’s me! Just listen to my credentials. I was circumcised on the 8th day, just like a good Jewish boy is supposed to be. I was a member of the Tribe of Benjamin, the aristocrats of Israel. My great, great grandparents were Jacob and Rachael. I went to all the right synagogue schools, I studied under the legends of Jewish law. I became a Pharisee and devoted my entire life to following every aspect of the Torah.
Was I zealous in my faith? Of course! I persecuted every Christian I could find. I was there when the martyr Stephen was stoned to death, and I applauded when they did it. As to my righteousness, I lived a perfect life. I never sinned. Not ever. You could look it up! So if you want to talk about who has bragging rights, I do! You can’t even come close!
This is pretty obnoxious! If we heard this, we would all be turned off over his bragging. But Paul was listing his impressive credentials in order to teach something to the Philippians. The bragging is just a set up.
Paul says, 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 as my Lord. For Christ’s sake, Paul says he suffered the loss of all things. And that’s exactly what happened.
When Paul became a Christian, his friends abandoned him, his parents disowned him, and his reputation was entirely erased. He saw those things as rubbish because he now has gained Christ.
The Greek word, skubala, actually means “feces” or a “pile of crap.” But our modern English translations have overly softened the meaning of this word to be “rubbish or trash.” Compared to knowing Jesus Christ, Paul says all the stuff that I accomplished in life is a pile of crap!
What a powerful testimony Paul has given. It’s common to think that if a person has nothing, and there’s no place to go but up, of course they would find comfort in Christ. But Paul is saying “I had it all. I tasted life with all the blessings and privileges. I lived with prestige, power, wealth, education, respect of my peers, and religious acclaim, and it’s all rubbish compared to having Jesus in my life.”
Millard Fuller, the founder and president of Habitat for Humanity was the scheduled speaker at a college commencement. Sitting in the two front rows were graduates receiving their MBAs that day. Like Paul, Millard Fuller began by bragging about his credentials: graduate of Auburn University, graduate of Alabama Law School, millionaire at age 29, vice-president of Proctor and Gamble at 35, home in the suburbs, home and yacht on the coast. The students looked at Fuller as if saying, “That’s exactly what I want!”
And then Millard Fuller said, “I wasn’t happy. My health was bad; my marriage was crumbling, my integrity, non-existent. And when I opened the Bible one day, I read the words of Jesus, “If anyone wants to be my disciple, let him sell everything he owns, give the money to the poor, take up the cross, and follow me.”
Millard Fuller and his wife Linda did that. They took one car and drove to Americus, Georgia, and eventually started an organization with the goal of eliminating sub-standard housing on this planet. And all the students sitting in the two front rows had their mouths opened and their eyes widened and they said, “No way.”
Baptism Candidates
There is a way—the way to God is through Jesus Christ. Paul is trying to tell us that, it’s not about us. It’s not about how good we are, or how religious we are, or how kind we are. We don’t get to heaven when we brag that we read the whole Bible, or that we’ve been a member of this church for 50 years, or that we are one of the top givers of the church. Because it’s not about what you do, it’s what you believe about Jesus Christ that brings you new life.
Later this afternoon, you will have an opportunity to meet six people who all have impressive credentials and pedigree. But they won’t be bragging about all of the accomplishments and successes that they have accumulated; rather they will testify that all of that is rubbish when it comes to having a personal relationship with Christ. Like Paul, they have a revised value system. Not resting on their own laurels, they are seeking to know and be known ever more fully by Christ. To have been obtained by Christ is worth far more to them than any of their past achievements or credentials.
And this comes not without any sacrifices. There was a young woman whose faith transforming experience meant trouble in her marriage. During a special event at her church, she came to understand that Jesus Christ is God who became personal to her. For the first time she understood that God loved her. She began to read her Bible and pray, and she slowly became more involved in the life of the church.
The woman believed that her husband would welcome the newness in her—that perhaps he might even experienced her joy and join her in a deepened relationship with Christ. She didn’t understand why her husband backed completely away from the church, and wanted nothing to do with having a personal relationship with Christ. He began to poke fun at her, making fun of her efforts to lead a Christian life. He tried to bait her into an argument about God. He brought up theological topics and tried to trap her into solving issues he didn’t understand—then criticizing her responses. She was deeply hurt by his taunts and anger until she understood that it wasn’t her, but the changes in her, that was causing him to strike out at her. She also saw that she did not have to defend God. That understanding enabled her not to be hurt by her husband’s criticism and his trouble with God as he works out his own relationship with God.
When we testify and bear witness about our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we may find ourselves victimized by misunderstanding and maybe even violence. Paul said, “I want to know Christ and the power of the resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.”
In a recent TIME magazine article in 2006, it reported that 65 million Chinese have embraced Christianity in recent years. Although there is a government approved church in Nanjing since 1994, most Chinese Christians prefer to meet in house churches which are illegal, simply because people value the freedom of worshipping in their own way.
The rapid growth and the preference for unregulated worship have spelled trouble in China. Recently, some parishioners raised money for a church building, and the construction work began. The people gathered to help with the work and those too elderly or unable to work sang hymns. That afternoon, government officials using heavy equipment demolished the church and beat the people with nightsticks.
Our impressive credentials and pedigree count for nothing. This woman’s faith had nothing to do with whether she was educated in the best university in the state or not, it had everything to do with realizing that God loves her. The Chinese Christians in China are most likely ordinary people like you and me. What got them in trouble with the law was their simple faith of wanting to worship Jesus Christ.
The six people who will be sharing their faith journeys this afternoon might easily brag about their impressive credentials and pedigree, but what really matters is how God has touched their lives and that they want to proclaim to the whole world that they want to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ! That’s what matters! That’s what counts!
Straining Forward
Some people these days—perhaps even some people who are worshipping here today—still think that being good is the point of the Christian faith. If we act religious, God will love us more; if we sin, God will love us less. That’s why it is sometimes hard for really good people to come to faith. They look at us in the church, and they see our warts and flaws, they know we Christians can sometimes mistreat each other, they know that we often don’t walk our talk, and they rightly conclude: “I live a better life than most of the church people I know.” Our critics brag too.
But then, it’s not about us and the way we live, it’s about Jesus, and the way he died. That’s the thing Paul is trying to say.
At the end of today’s Scriptures, Paul said, “Forgetting what lies behind me 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.”
So forget what lies behind you. If you have been a model Christian ever since your Baptism, none of that will matter in heaven. If you believe that you have impressive credentials and a blue blood pedigree, it’s all rubbish compared to the love of God when you come to faith in Christ. If you have lived a life of a horrible sinner for all your years, God will not remember any of it.
God wants us to live lives of humility and generosity. He wants us to have a desire for worship and learn and grow in our faith. God wants us “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.” God wants us to be baptized and join a church so that we may become a member of the living Body of Christ. But when it comes to having any bragging rights to our salvation, we don’t have a prayer! Except this one…
Let us pray.
Merciful God, forgive us when we think that through our efforts and accomplishments we have earned your love and acceptance. Teach us that everything that we may boast and brag about look pale compared to the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. O God, we thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as we focus our lives on the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Amen.