Don Friesen
When Arthur Boers visited us earlier this month he told of an airline experience that went very wrong on almost all counts, including the loss of his luggage. We all have our own lost luggage stories. Some lost items are easily replaced, but others are not! There is a warehouse in a sleepy little town in Alabama called the Unclaimed Baggage Center, and after an appropriate waiting period in which airlines attempt to connect lost luggage with owners, the luggage is sent to this warehouse and sold to new owners.
About a million items a year are sent to the luggage warehouse, and the items collected have included a full suit of armour; a Jim Henson puppet; a trunk of Egyptian artifacts, including a mummified eagle; a rare 1770 violin; a sparkling 5.8 carat solitaire diamond ring; and an original painting valued at $20,000. Most customers at the warehouse walk away with a bargain. A gentleman from Atlanta passing through bought a women's pair of ski boots for $45 to replace the ones lost by an airline, and he had no idea until he got home that they were, in fact, his wife's original boots! ("Strange world of lost luggage: Where missing bags find new owners," CNN, November 29, 2005)
Lost luggage happens all the time. One person, returning from Rome, couldn't find his luggage in the London Gatwick airport baggage area, so he went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that his bags hadn't shown up on the carousel. She smiled reassuringly and told him not to worry; they were trained professionals and he was in good hands. "Now," she asked the gentleman, "has your plane arrived yet?"
Spiritual Luggage/Baggage we Can Easily Let Go
Last Sunday I suggested that Lent affords us a splendid opportunity to lose some spiritual luggage. It's an opportunity to let go of those things that weigh us down. Most of us are bogged down with baggage that would best be sent to that warehouse in Alabama. We may well ask ourselves:
The Scriptures list a number of things we should let go – anger, yes, but also envy, boastfulness, arrogance, rudeness, irritability, resentfulness (1 Corinthians 13:4-5), and a whole lot of things that are a lot worse. (Galatians 5:19-21)
Let go, Hold on – An Olympian's Approach
Lent, of course, is not only about letting go. We let go in order to hold on to that which is of ultimate importance. There is a time to let go, and there is a time to hold on, to stand firm. That may sound like contradictory counsel, but only if you lack an appetite for paradox. I think these two things find their complementariness – or, if that's not a word, their complementary function – in the passage in Philippians immediately preceding our reading. There the Apostle Paul uses the image of an athlete to describe his spiritual development. Paul wanted to achieve union with Christ, and he writes, "Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own.... I do not consider that I have made it ...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...." (Philippians 3:12-14)
At the recent Women's Ski Cross competition in Vancouver, gold medal winner Ashleigh McIvor was asked if she ever looked back to see if her competitors were gaining on her. She replied that she did so in one race, but mostly she focusses on what lies ahead. She fully expects that at any moment another skier will come whizzing past her, so she focusses on her own effort.
As I mentioned last week, the Apostle Paul was an avid observer of the Olympic Games in their original setting, and it is from that venue that he borrows the image of a runner "straining forward to what lies ahead...." (Philippians 3:13) The Greek verb for "straining forward" (epekteinomai) means "to exert oneself to the uttermost," to "stretch out ...toward something" (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition, cited by Ralph F. Wilson), and it's not uncommon at Olympic events to see runners, as they reach the tape at the finish line, to lean their body forward. At times it's that extension of the body to its uttermost that makes the difference.
Letting go and holding on are complementary things in the life of an athlete. As we are advised in Hebrews, we are to "throw off every encumbrance, every sin to which we cling, and run with resolution the race (in) which we are entered, our eyes fixed on Jesus, the source and the goal of our faith." (Hebrews 12:1-2, NEB; PHL) Let go of those things which encumber you – which hold you back – and hold onto your vision of victory! Let go of those things which constrain you, and strain toward the goal! The complimentary rhythm of letting go and holding on can be seen even more vividly in the art and skill of an aerialist, a trapeze artist who must let go of one ring to catch another.
Hold on and Stand firm, lest you Lose Ground
There is also a non-athletic way to understand the admonition to hold on, and in the verse immediately preceding our reading from Philippians Paul drops the athletic image and throws in a word of caution, saying, "Let us hold fast to what we have attained" (Philippians 3:16), or as another translation phrases it, "Let us hold true to what we have already attained and walk and order our lives by that." (AMP) Holding on and holding fast sound like defensive moves, and this is reinforced at the conclusion of our reading, where Paul writes, "Stand firm in the Lord...." (4:1)
When you hold on and hold fast and stand firm, there is less straining and pressing on and leaning forward. In fact, it sounds like these Christians are in danger of slipping back, and that seems to be Paul's concern; he writes, "For there are so many people of whom I have often warned you, and now I warn you again with tears in my eyes, who behave like the enemies of Christ's cross. ...their god is the stomach; they glory in what they should think shameful, ...their minds are set on earthly things." (Philippians 3:18-19)
It's not clear to scholars who Paul is talking about here, but it's clear the Philippian Christians have lost their focus, and they're in danger of losing ground. Their training has brought them this far, and they should not forfeit the gains they have made. In spiritual terms, Paul is concerned that they not lose the maturity they have already attained. "It is important," says Paul, "that we go forward in the light of such truth as we have already learned." (Philippians 3:16, PHL) It's not clear who Paul is talking about here, or what the problem is, but whatever the problem is, it's distracting the Philippian believers from their spiritual aspirations.
Rodney Milburn (1950-1997) was an American athlete who won gold at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, in the 110 metre hurdles. A friend of his was bothered by all the hurdles that are knocked down during races, and he said to Milburn, "You should stop and straighten them up." No doubt this friend would have done well in the lost luggage department at Gatwick! Milburn replied, as one might expect an Olympian athlete would: "You don't win gold medals by looking backwards. You win gold medals by keeping on jumping, keeping on running, keeping on looking forward."
Our distractions may not be so dramatic as to call them enemies, as Paul did, but there are times in the ebb and flow of life and faith when we are not in an Olympian mind-set or even in a competitive position. In times like those, it's time to hold on and stand firm, lest we lose ground.
Imitate me! The Audacious Witness of an Olympian Apostle
Paul's initial response to their dilemma, however, is an audacious one! He says, "Imitate me!" (Philippians 3:17, my paraphrase) One scholar (J.B. Lightfoot) translates it this way: "Vie with each other in imitating me." Wow! I guess Paul didn't know how to fake humility. If he had just blurted this out once, we could write it off as a New Testament blooper, but he told the Corinthian Christians much the same thing! Twice! "I appeal to you," he wrote to them, "be imitators of me." (1 Corinthians 4:16) "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." (11:1) Later in Philippians Paul tells them, "Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you." (Philippians 4:9) The same instruction appears three times in his letters to the believers in Thessalonica. (1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9)
It may be that Paul had an inflated ego, but he was raised in that part of the world where the Olympic Games first began, and it's conveyed in his own spirit. He pursued his goals very much like the Olympian runners he watched go flat out for the finish line. The motto of the Olympic Games at the time was "Swifter, Higher, Stronger," and that pretty well describes Paul's temperament. He had a winner's attitude, rising to challenging occasions that would have intimidated a lesser contender. He would have agreed with Vince Lombardi, who said, after his team had lost a game, "We never really lost. We just ran out of time."
Paul watched the Greek games with great interest, but his family was Jewish. They possessed Roman citizenship, but they were strict Jews. Paul could be competitive even in that regard, however, telling the Galatians, "...I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age, ...so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers." (Galatians 1:14) Another translation phrases it even more audaciously: "In those days I went all out.... I was so enthusiastic about the traditions of my ancestors that I advanced head and shoulders above my peers...." (MSG)
Paul's message, and the lesson of Lent, is: Let go of those things which encumber you – which hold you back – and hold onto your vision of victory! Go for the gold! And in the next chapter in Philippians Paul identifies some of the things that should occupy our thinking if we are to go for spiritual gold. He writes, "Whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things...." (AMP)
May this spiritual season be a time to let go of those things which dampen our spirits, and to hold on to the transforming hope that Christ's Spirit will nurture these excellent spiritual qualities in us.
AMEN
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.
Some years ago a survey of corporate personnel directors asked them to share their most unusual experiences interviewing prospective employees; among them was the story of an applicant who asked his prospective employer, "Would it be a problem if I'm angry most of the time?"
1 A companion piece to my February 21, 2010 sermon, "A Time to Hold on, and a Time to Let go".