Philippians 3:7-11 "I Love Trash"

 

Observation: Paul has just laid out a long list of religious credentials. He's from a good religious family, he's been through all the right rituals at all the right times, he's gotten the best religious education and followed religious laws to a T. Yet compared to knowing Jesus as Lord, and trusting in him, it's all trash. Indeed, the Greek word translated in NRSV as "rubbish", in fact means an even more unattractive waste product...but I digress. 

Application: It's kind of weird to have a religious career. We use a fancy word for it: "call". Though I do believe God has called me to be a pastor, and I also have a fancy letter that confirms the people of Advent Lutheran Church have called me, the fact remains, a professional call is also a job. A career. Just as Christians of any career should view their career as part of God's call for their lives, I recognize that my calling is also my job. 

Where I'm going with this is: when your religious calling is also your job, sometimes you tend to do your job "religiously," as in assigning spiritual value to how good a job you do, how many hours you work, how many tasks you get done, and how well your church is doing by various measurable metrics. That, to quote the distinguished Apostle Paul, is "trash." And yet we love to do it. We feel a deep need to do it, to establish our value, for God's kingdom. Not just we. I. I catch myself a hundred times a day judging and assessing my worth based on what I can or can't do for God. I love trash. And it makes me grouchy.  

I came to a very hard-won realization a couple years back, and it has stuck with me, even though I need to continually be called back to it. I am a child of God first. Other stuff comes after that. My job is important, and I've done it almost all my adult life, but it's not who I am. My church is important to this community, but how well people are reflecting Christ's love in the world, how many lives we are touching, is not who I am. The value of my job or our religious institution, compared to the surpassing value of just knowing Christ, who is a thousand times better at loving this world than I'll ever be, is trash. And it's time to crawl on out of the dumpster and accept some love and grace.

Prayer: Jesus, help me fall out of love with the trash of this life, and the trashy way I treat myself. Help me prize knowing you above all things. Amen.