Sermon 17th July 2016

This is the sermon of our Vicar, Cameron Barker - the reading is from Philippians 4:1-13.

Just 1 week on from all of the excitement, this topical joke is also relevant; so here goes: A Dr. advises a middle-aged man to get some proper exercise. So, inspired by Andy Murray’s recent feats on grass, he decides to re-live his tennis-playing youth.

At his next health-check a few months later, the GP asks his patient how he’s doing. “It’s going fine”, he says, ‘I’ve got a really good coach and it’s all coming back to me. So when I’m on court and I see the ball speeding towards me, my brain immediately says: “Run to the corner! Sliced back-hand! Rush to the net! Volley. Here comes the lob: jump, and smash! Now sprint back to the base-line, to cover any return!” Impressed, the GP says, “Really? And what happens then?” “Well, then my body says: ‘Who, me? Don’t be so stupid!’”

There is, of course, a serious point in there; which at least some may already be relating to, after hearing this final instalment from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. In fact, some may have been relating to it from the very start of this series back on 5^th June. This might be 1 of Paul’s shorter letters; but it packs a properly heavy punch, right from the outset; and it’s never let up since, either. Paul began by setting out his own loyalty to Jesus in terms of choosing to be his slave. From then onwards, all that he has written has proved that he meant just that. Paul’s devotion to: being ‘in Christ’ (one of his favourite phrases here); to Jesus’ gospel; to his church; to his people really has been total, and unswerving: no matter what!

In this letter Paul provides the most magnificent description in the whole New Testament of who Jesus is, and so of what God is like. He tells his readers that they are to have the same sharing self-giving, humble attitude themselves as Jesus himself - who didn’t consider equality with God as something to be grasped, but instead to be given up for us. Paul also gives us his own life-motto in here: “To live is Christ”. He tells ‘the saints’ (as he calls his readers) that they are to work out their salvation; and he gives them a blue-print for doing so with great precision. He sets out how joy is not so much a feeling as an ability to see through all Life’s up’s and downs, to the God who holds all of it, and us, in his hands. Of course he reminds us too that he is writing, and living, all of this from the prison cell from which he might be led out to his execution. And that’s far from all that there is along these lines in this letter!

Now Paul may have written his letter from deep affection for this church. He may have written it with their best interests at heart. He may also have written to encourage them in their living-out of faith. All of that, and more, has come through so clearly time and again as we have learned from this letter. But at times it may have felt rather like watching that Andy Murray masterclass in the Wimbledon final last Sunday: something that none of us could ever honestly aspire even to begin to match ourselves.

And, if anything, today’s closing thoughts and words are just more of the same. Each of these verses is packed full of the sort of wise advice that’s clearly both so sensible and Godly-good to follow, but doesn’t half take some doing: “Don’t worry about ANYthing”?! And, as with every other passage that we’ve had in this series, it would take several sermons to unpack even the basics of what we’ve heard today. So of course I’ll suggest that frequent re-reading of this letter is just what we each need to do this summer, then! And it doesn’t take much to see how Paul would have encouraged the doing of exactly that himself; had he foreseen the advent of general literacy for people, let alone the modern ease of access that we have to the Bible.

Now Paul wasn’t what we’d call shy – or perhaps even modest! He had no hesitation in holding himself up as an example for his readers to follow. Mind you, he had been - and come - through rather a lot in the years since God had first laid hold of him in Christ. As Adjoa explained last week – and, yes, all of this series’ sermons are on our website for use – Paul had certainly done his part in that process too. This invitation is to follow him – as he follows Jesus; because that is what it was always all about for Paul. But we mustn’t miss that Paul did hold himself up as an example of what God makes possible ‘in Christ’. Nor must we miss the fact that his ability to do that was both hard-won, and well-tested.

For Paul he wasn’t the point, though. What mattered to him above all was that these readers, his dear friends, who were his brothers and sisters in Christ, whom he loved and longed for, stood firm in their faith. Paul had already told them (again, most likely) how they could do it. In this final section of his letter he wanted to remind them about the practical importance of what he had just written; and then add a bit more to it. In Philippi that process clearly needed to begin by sorting out a personal issue of some kind. Do note that it was up to church members to help these to women do it, if they couldn’t or wouldn’t do it themselves. And what they all needed to remember was what – or rather who - they had in common.

It was that shared work of Jesus’ gospel that led Paul back to encouraging them to rejoice; and to pray. We got a flavour of this earlier in the letter, when Paul wrote about being chained to a Roman guard. Here’s what some might see as problem actually being an opportunity to live for Jesus: take the chance offered by having a literally-captive audience! Whatever might cause us to worry can instead be a topic for prayer, Paul wrote here. When we pray we are not least to remember some of what we have to thank God for; and that’s another example of the First-Century Cognitive Behavioural Therapy that Adrian commented on. Instead of focusing on the problem, ask God to bring about his solution to it. Part of what we’re thanking him for is likely to be how he has done that before; and it’s by remembering that that faith is built.

There are some very practical ways in which we might all apply this key spiritual learning, I’d suggest. God knows, there’s more than enough for us to worry about in this strange new world that we have found ourselves in so rapidly. Add to the economy; housing market; a new PM, and set of ministers; on-going uncertainties around Brexit; plus events of the past week alone - in Nice; Turkey, South Sudan; Zimbabwe; etc; and maybe also what has been said and decided by various church bodies too; and it’s hard to see what’s not to worry about, actually. But now think about the past century and how the world has changed since 1914. The upheavals of two world wars; the great Depression; the end of colonialism, and Empire; the Cold War; the fall of Apartheid – etc! And here we are today: still in God’s hands in so many different shapes in his world and church. How much is there to thank him for in that? So how much can we trust him to work this country, this continent, and this world into his new shape? Rather than worry about what will or won’t happen, thank God for what he’s done, and pray about what he’s doing now.

It’s not just faith that’s built either. As we remember, and trust God to do much more than all we can ask or imagine (as Paul puts it in another letter) our worry is replaced by God’s peace. It’s a peace that makes no sense if we stop and think about it. Our circumstances haven’t changed; our prospects haven’t changed either. ‘All’ that has changed is the direction that our head now is looking in: instead of at the problem, it’s at what God can do in and with it. But that in itself is key to so much of what being in Christ means. As someone put it in one of the commentaries I read this week: “So much of the Christian life comes down to the mind”. If we keep focusing on the nature of the problem then our mind is closed to whatever God’s solution might be.

Of course it’s an imperfect analogy, but that tennis joke is very relevant here. If Andy Murray decides that he won’t get to his opponent’s drop-shot, then he won’t even run for it. But if he sets his mind to trying, then he very likely will not just make it but win the point. And it’s that mind-set that made the key difference for Paul when he wrote, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength”. Now Paul doesn’t mean that in a Superman sense, of him doing impossible physical feats, so much as the ability to go on trusting in God in any and all circumstances: death itself included. As Paul said of what most see as humanity’s greatest enemy: “To die is gain” is the second half of his life-motto: “To live is Christ; to die is gain”. Even death “cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”, Paul wrote; and believed; and lived.

For Paul, the mind had a crucial part to play, in both the believing and the living. So, key to his concluding remarks was this list of how to occupy their minds; with an aim of training those in right, Godly ways. Again, it was built on solid foundations in his own life; again, of the hard-won variety. So Paul could write here, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want”; because he really had! And because he had, he knew that they could too. His example was there to encourage them in what was possible. ‘All’ they had to do was to try; as Paul had done. If they didn’t try, then nothing would happen; but the trying makes so much possible.

So Paul offered them, and us, this solid, Godly, practical help with doing that: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things”, Paul wrote. It’s quite a list; and another one that could do with a sermon of its own. There isn’t time for that now, obviously! What there is time – and need – for is for each of us to take an in-principle decision: that this is what we are going to do. There’s more than enough rubbish that we could, and often do, fill our minds with. How much better to think instead about these things: whatever is true; noble; right; pure; lovely; or admirable? If we have learned anything from this truly amazing letter – and I hope that we’ve learned rather a lot! – it’s that if we put our minds to trying, then everything is possible in Christ. So, let’s try, then; sharing Paul’s confidence as expressed in Chapter 1, that “He who began this good work in you will bring it to completion”; and so now let’s pray …

Sermon 11th July 2016

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adjoa Andoh-Cunnell, preaches. The reading is from Philippians 3:12-21

A woman resists efforts by her friend to get her to run with a jogging group until her doctor tells her she has to exercise. Soon thereafter, she reluctantly joins the group for their 5:30 a.m. jogs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
After a month of running, the group decides that the friend woman be hooked, especially when she claims she has discovered what "runner’s euphoria" is. "Runner’s euphoria," she explains, "is what I feel at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays."
Yes...I'm sort of with her...
The parish of Herne Hill is rather sporty I suspect, cyclists and runners and swimmers and skiers, tennis and squash players, gym bunnies, sailors canoeists and even the occasional crazy triathlete - Simon Brindley....
And then there are the sports fans...those of us who talk a good game... Often from the sofa, the pub and sometimes from the terraces and stands.....hello!
This morning's passage in our series from Paul's letter to the church at Phillipi is perhaps particularly appropriate for this parish this weekend, employing as it does, the vivid metaphor of the Christian life as a race run by an unstoppable runner, especially given that this weekend is a feast for sports fans...
Good planning Vicar!
Euro 2016 final tonight Portugal v France Wimbledon Finals yesterday and today British Grand Prix
Tour de France
Fabulous !!
My sofa awaits....!
So let's look at what happens to Paul's runner and what he has to share with us.
‘I was laid hold of by Jesus Christ.’ That is how Paul thinks of what we call his conversion. He would never have ‘turned’ unless a hand had been laid upon him.
A strong loving grasp had gripped him in the middle of his career of persecuting Christians, and all that he did on that road to Damascus was to surrender to that grip and his life was changed forever.
I sometimes think of that divine grip like the special grip Star Trek's Mr Spock would use to render people immobile or unconscious.
Yet for Paul the effect of this grip is the opposite - he comes into consciousness in a profound life transforming way.
Christ reveals himself to Paul and in the dazzle of that revelation Paul sees the world as it truly is - Paul is laid hold of by the personal action of Jesus Christ absolutely for a purpose.
As we heard in last Sunday's reading Paul as Saul, had all his righteous Jewish credentials in place. He was a well regarded Pharisee, a man strictly obedient to the letter of the Jewish law, and a vigorous persecutor of the early Christians - Acts ch 9 tells us
GN
9 1-2
In the meantime Saul kept up his violent threats of murder against the followers of the Lord. He went to the High Priest 2 and asked for letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he should find there any followers of the Way of the Lord, he would be able to arrest them, both men and women, and bring them back to Jerusalem.

NIV
9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
Perhaps it's hard to imagine how extraordinary his transformation was.
Think perhaps of Donald Trump transformed into a peace campaigner, anti war, anti guns, going to work for a women's refugee charity in the camps at Calais
or as an environmental worker, highlighting the plight of more than 36 million people who will face hunger across Southern and Eastern Africa this year, because of extreme high temperatures, the highest on record.
Can you imagine? Donald Trump devoting himself to peace, refugee justice and the environment - ? Extraordinary!
But this extraordinary transformation was wrought on Paul when he was laid hold of by Jesus.
And the purpose of that conversion on the road to Damascus?.
In a vision Jesus informs Ananaias a believer in Damascus, who is to help Paul in his temporary blindness. Jesus says
NIV
Acts 9.15
This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.
GNT
9. 15 “Go, because I have chosen him to serve me, to make my name known to Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel.
In Matthew Henry's commentary, he reflects on a twin track of purpose in Jesus' taking hold of Paul's life.
Jesus tasks Paul with spreading the Good News of who He is across the world.
In order to do this Paul is concerned with the perfecting of his own character which he regards as being the one thing for which he was ‘laid hold of by Christ Jesus.’
Within this twofold purpose Henry argues
No Christian is made a Christian only in order that they may secure their own salvation; there is the world to think of.
And yet equally
No Christian is made a Christian only in order that they may be Christ’s instrument for carrying the Word to other people; there is themself to think of.
How are we to fulfill Christ's purpose for our lives in the world, unless we work in our forgiven state, to transform the nature of who we are in Him?
In the moment of Paul's conversion and ever after he understood that the forgiveness of his sins and the certainty of a life everlasting with Christ was an offer he of his own God given free will could accept or not.
In Paul's acceptance of that offer a new life begins, he commits to a life in Christ, an act of faith, a lifelong, eternal belief.
Paul writes in verses 10/11 (of his desire - NIV)

GN
10 All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, 11 in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life
NIV
yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. -
Paul longs to receive Gods forgiveness for his past life, a forgiveness paid for by Christ's death and to take up the opportunity for a new life, as seen in Christ's resurrection.
For Paul to understand and experience this power and offer himself up in service to it, to Jesus, becomes the goal of his life.
And the prize? - God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above.
As he explains to the church at Philippi, no longer can Paul be an ultra observant Jew following the letter of the Law. The Messiah has come and now a transformation of his heart is what is required. His life's race has begun.
GN
12 I keep striving (Paul writes) to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself.... 14 So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above.
NIV
12 I press on (Paul writes) to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
14 I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
Faith is lifelong, developing and deepening. We cannot stand still in it.
And It is not enough to adhere to the letter of faith if we are not adhering to the spirit of faith - Jesus said on the sermon on the mount
Matt 5
GN
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But now I tell you: anyone who looks at a woman and wants to possess her is guilty of committing adultery with her in his heart.
NIV
You have heard that it was said," You shall not commit adultery.”[a] 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If we even think bad thoughts it is as bad as if we had acted on those thoughts. Outward transformation is not a true transformation
Coming to church, working for the parish, doing good deeds - that's not it
Paul's goal is to know Christ sincerely in order to win the prize of responding to that heavenly call
God does not coerce us into relationship with him.
He offered himself, in human form in Christ, to a life of service, to suffer and die for us, to open the
way for us to come back into relationship with Him.
Paul says he presses on to take hold of that for which Jesus took hold of him. A two way relationship.
I dimly remember from my unfinished law degree - a contract is basically made up of an offer and an acceptance,
Christ took hold of Paul - the offer, and Paul takes hold of what Christ offers - the acceptance.

In offering us forgiveness Christ clears away the things that inhibit our access to God and inhibit our ability to live the purposeful life he made us for.
But forgiveness of sins is not the end of the story,
a personal new life in Christ is not the end of the story,
growing in knowledge and humble understanding is not the end of the story.
Paul looks at his new life in terms of a race to be run in order to win the prize.
So his new life finds him on the starting line, a race in which he will press on until he returns home to live with his Heavenly Father.
In running this race, pressing on in faith Paul is called on to live out the purpose for which Jesus took hold of him.
In turn he calls each one of us who accept Jesus' offer and who call ourselves Christians, to do likewise and extend God's heavenly realm here on earth.
Paul urges us v16
GN
let us go forward according to the same rules we have followed until now. 17 Keep on imitating me, my friends.
NIV
Only let us live up to what we have already attained. 17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters
Once we have accepted Jesus' offer of a forgiven life, a relationship with God in Christ, now the race begins, now we are called to respond to Christ's activity in our lives, by taking our own Christ- led activity into the world.
This is the life long race to which Paul commits himself completely.
He understands that in order to be that chosen vessel and fulfill Christ's comission for his life, he needs to work at the perfection of his character, to minimise all distractions and pulls that could undermine his relationship with God and his Christ given mission to the world.
The contract is - focus on Ourselves, and on the world, in Christ - no distractions or inhibitors that's what Paul calls on the church at Philippi and all of us who claim to follow Jesus, to do.
Watching any of the sportsmen and women competing this weekend time and time again like Paul's metaphorical runner, you will see athletes 'in the zone', all their attention focussed down, excluding all distractions, trained and exercised to the limit in order to achieve their allotted prize, be it Serena Williams or Andy Murray at Wimbledon , Lewis Hamilton at the British Grand Prix, Chris Froome in the Tour de France, or the Portuguese or French football teams at the final of Euro 2016, a lifetimes work with goal of becoming an elite athlete, in order to achieve the prize of success in their chosen field - that is their sole aim.
And so Paul argues it is to be for us.
Don't be seduced in a world of uncertainty by the ephemeral, here today gone tomorrow, the earthly success, the adulation of others, the competition, the persuasiveness of the seeming wise person.
GN
18 I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ's death on the cross. 19 They are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world. 20 We, however, are citizens of heaven,
NIV
18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.

We are not to fall for the world's shifting sands
We are to feel the hands that flung stars into space grasping our shoulders, we are to be humbled by that divine eternity turning His gaze on us, and so follow as and where He directs us.
The ANC prisoners held on Robin Island in the years of Apartheid in South Africa, Nelson Mandela among them, had a rule they lived by - each one, teach one.
They prepared to lead a nation, governing on the basis of forgiveness, justice and equality before the law, by learning sharing & gaining in Wisdom from each other, so that when the time came, they would be equipped to guide their fractured country to a place of healing and growth.
We are not to remain in a state of arrested development, in the permanent guise of a new Christian, but are to press on, growing in faith, growing as all fruitful relationships do, into a deeper understanding, a deeper fellowship with Jesus.
Like an elite athlete we are to work in God's strength to hone our whole being to the perfection God created us for, in order that we may take up our heavenly citizenship today..
And as Jesus tasked Paul on the Damascus road, so we too are to join in the work of bringing everything under Christ's control through our freely given hearts, working for his heavenly kingdom of justice and peace on earth.
We press on Paul says, we simply press on, we don't get dragged back by the struggles of our pasts, we go forward in our race, carried forward by Christ's wisdom, to navigate the struggles of today and tomorrow, to carry Christ's kingdom of healing to a broken world.
Now there maybe many of us who feel beset on all sides, who struggle to achieve that focus on our relationship with Christ, who struggle to fulfill our Christ given purpose in the world.
On top of worries about our families, friends, neighbours, money worries, job worries physical and mental health challenges,
we may reflect on the terrible sacrifices of the Somme in this hundredth anniversary week, we face Brexit uncertainty, with the divisiveness it has caused in our nation,
we are daily bamboozled by the upheaval in our main political parties,
the fluctuations in our financial markets.
Abroad we mourn 5 police officers in Dallas shot dead, sparked by the shooting dead by police officers in Minnesota of Philando Castile and in Louisiana of Alton Sterling, the cycle of violence weighs heavily.
And in the week that the Chilcott report into the legality of the war in Iraq is published , the bombing in Bagdad and the deaths of more than 270 people remind us of the continued fragility of that region, a region Paul would have know well.
Violent extremism seems to erupt everywhere, destructive global land and power grabs, environmental destabilisation and everywhere slavery, diseases and poverty -
God did not create us for this.
There is a world of beauty, of joy, of creation not destruction,
of generosity not greed,
a world of peace not war,
of love not hate -
a world that each one of us in the deep quiet of our heart longs for. We are to bring all that longing to God.
We read scripture, we pray alone and with others, we come to church. We call on God's wisdom - we look for comfort, encouragement, enlightenment, hope, help, healing, inspiration, peace.

When we still our minds and open our hearts, when we ask God to speak to us, to guide us, to give us what we need to move us towards His perfection, his Wisdom will prevail - if we still our minds and open our hearts, if we pay attention.
And once carrying that Wisdom, we need to pay attention to the world around us, not buy into the world's God of stomach, of bodily desires, but live out our heavenly citizenship in the world.
Paul encourages us
GN
let us go forward according to the same rules we have followed until now. 17 Keep on imitating me, my friends. Pay attention to those who follow the right example that we have set for you.
Are we imitating Paul?
Do we pay attention to those following a godly example?
Are we worthy of imitating for our godly example?
What is our godly activity in the world?
From his prison cell Paul paid attention to God. his encounter with Jesus meant that his eyes were opened to God's purpose in the most profound way.
Lacking the hindsight we have this morning, nothing was guaranteed for that early church,
Paul didn't know how the Church in Phillippi, in Ephasus, in Galatia, in Colosse, Thessalonica and so on would thrive,
Paul didn't know if the church would survive persecution, competing sects and false prophets. Paul had no notion that Christ's Good News would be believed by 2.18 billion people worldwide today, almost a third of the world's population according to a 2010 comprehensive study.
He simply continued to run his race from his cell, his eyes on God's divine prize, and in the uncertainty of those times held to the certainty of Jesus' commission.
And so must we. Whatever we hear this morning be it in the music, the prayers, sermon, liturgy, however Jesus comes to us in the wider world, we must be alert to His taking hold of us, opening our hearts for God's wisdom to guide us.
God is the only certainty of our lives the only certainty. Paul knew that.
We have been made with an Intellect, with the power of reasoning and the ability to make choices. The Good News of Jesus means we are offered the choice to accept citizenship of heaven or not. And if we do, if we return our lives to God, if we follow His purpose for us then every other choice we make in our lives will carry His imprint
Should we choose to accept the heavenly call, Jesus will equip us, train us, coach us, gird our loins, mop our brows, console us in our defeats and get us back on track.
Paul urges us

Press Press Press Press Press Press need.

on aiming for godly perfection
on His hand is on our shoulder, be encouraged by its weight and purpose.
on don't be distracted by the earth's values of stomach, they are passing
on this citizenship of heaven is ours forever
on manifesting the Good News in how we live in and how we choose
on the Kingdom of God, His peace His justice His love are waiting to heal a broken world in

will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like his own glorious body, using that

21 He
power by which he is able to bring all things under his rule.

21, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, (Jesus) will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
In All the circumstances of our lives, in God's strength may we press on Amen 

Sermon 3rd July 2016

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Simon Brindley, continues our exploration of the new life that Jesus offers. The reading is from Philippians 3 verses 1-11.

New Confidence

We have heard so much already in recent weeks about this letter of Paul to the church at Philippi, written maybe only 30 years after Jesus’ death (so try going back 30 years from now and you may remember 1986, it’s a long time in some ways but not really very long at all), this letter written to the first Christian community in Europe: so it was written to the first Christian church group outside the middle eastern region where Christianity started. And as we have heard over the last few weeks, it is a letter full of love, written from the heart as Paul opens himself up about what he thinks really matters to people he cares deeply about.

It is a letter very much in the early days of the Christian faith. I read somewhere that at this time there may only have been 8000 Christians in the world. And Paul is in prison, facing possible death. He knows some of the early churches are doing well. He knows however that some are already struggling, arguing and debating about the right way forward, facing division within and persecution from outside. He must, in one sense at least, have feared for the future of this new faith to which he had committed himself, body, mind and soul. Can he have had any idea that this would become the faith of billions of people? He must have feared that the life of this new faith, at least in this world before Jesus came again, could be very limited.

But he keeps on, going back again and again to what drives him on, going back to basics, to what he really believes really matters at the end of the day. Because that is where he is coming from, he is in chains and facing his own possible death. It is hardly surprising that it particularly focused his mind.

So you might think this is, possibly, not a letter for the every day here and now in the twenty first century because Paul is facing the possibility of dying and he is talking about ultimate the new life that Jesus offers. e big questions and in the context of a small and potentially very fragile early church.

What, you might ask, is he saying to me about this modern world, my work, my friends and family, my concerns over the political future of our country, the institutions I have to deal with: Government, the NHS, The European Union, the Church of England…..does he have much to say here about modern day complexity?

Let’s come back to that question over the next few minutes.

I was trying to think of examples of people who, like Paul, have come to look at things in a very different way to how they saw them before or who have gone on to live in a very different way to the way they lived before.

I heard last week about the broadcaster and economist Paul Mason who favoured Brexit, apparently, until very shortly before the referendum then changed his mind as he fully realized what it might mean. And, yes, I would be surprised if there had not been examples of people favouring Remain but changing late on in the campaign to Brexit.

And you do hear from time to time don’t you, about politicians who change parties, who argue passionately for one fundamental view of society then find themselves able to argue passionately for another. It’s usually because of their deeply held beliefs and understanding changing.

And I thought about my youth, it’s really just a minor example, of when I could happily have done away with the Royal family and all it stood for and compare that with my far more considered view now where I have come to respect the role of our monarch and the value of the monarchy in the history and richness of our nation. I would still reform bits of it, possibly a lot but it’s really good for tourism and is our history and there are far greater divides I believe in society than between the Queen and the rest. I have changed my views.

This happens too to people of faith. Uncomfortably perhaps it happens both ways.  As the Olympics approach in a few weeks we will see more of the former world champion triple jumper Jonathan Edwards on TV, and what an excellent sports commentator he is, warm, inclusive, knowledgeable and a supremely gifted sportsman in his day. At one time his Christian faith was so clear in all he said on TV that he was very well known for it but some years ago he suffered a crisis of faith. A friend of mine who I am seeing in 2 weeks’ time in Newcastle used to go to the same church and he describes the real pain to that church community when Jonathan left. Jonathan Edwards’ wife Alison still goes to the church but the pain of her husband leaving is still deeply felt, I understand.

People who move from seeing things one way and who come to see things completely differently. You may be thinking of examples yourself.

And Paul’s example of course is as dramatic as any you’ll find. From being a persecutor of the church and standing by while Stephen the first martyr is stoned to death to becoming the key figure in that post Jesus’ period in the story of our faith. “Christianity is unthinkable without Paul”, says one commentator. Paul is the one who had the Damascus Road conversion, a phrase we still use today to describe the dramatic sort of change that he went through.

And Paul starts this section of his letter that we are looking at today by getting pretty angry at those who still think in any of the ways he used to. [Watch out for those] [Beware of the] dogs he says, the evildoers who will still try to persuade you that you must be circumcised, watch out for those who still try to tell you that you must show those outwards signs as part of your faith. I think he is talking about those within the early church who still insisted on the old outward signs of their Jewish heritage and still tried to persuade others in the new churches to do the same. No, he says, we are finished with all of that.  We do not need outward signs. We do not need those “external ceremonies” is how the Good News Bible puts it.

If you want outwards signs of religious credibility he says, I can give you a better list than anyone. There it is. Circumcised exactly at the right time, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee expert in the law and a keeper of the law so much that you could not have found any fault with me. And so on. I had all the badges, all the medals. I was a top dog. But all that is no longer of any value to me.

Beware putting all your values on external things, what you have, what you wear, what your job is, where you live, what role you have in society. Beware putting too much value even on the outward signs you have of your life and position in the church! Might Paul be saying this to us today?

I have spent the last two years on Canary Wharf, Isle of Dogs. The average wage on the Wharf is £110, 000 per year.  Tens of thousands of people pile in there every day. It is a complete bubble. Walk half a mile north or south and you will find the pound shops and the poorer housing.  But the Wharf itself is jammed full of the poshest shops you can find. And it has thousands of expensive, high-rise flats being built that most people will never be able to afford to even see the inside of. I swear I have seen more artificially plumped lips on a single tube train in the morning that I had seen before in my entire life. Of anywhere I know, Canary Wharf sells the dream. And you know what you hear time and again from some of the people who work there? That it lacks soul, that it seems somehow superficial. Externally it has everything, but it seems to me anyway, and I am far from the only one, that it really is lacking something very important. Do not put your faith in the externals.

Is Paul speaking to us today in our modern complexities? Well maybe.

You can take all those external badges of religious honour that I had says Paul and you can throw them in the bin. In fact, I tell you what, you can throw them on the dung heap.

And where he is coming from is simply this. He is coming from his experience of meeting the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus and he is coming from a radically different way of looking at his relationship with God that followed that meeting. No longer does he rely on keeping the religious law, being the right kind of person, ticking all the right boxes to make himself right with God. He relies now on being right with God through his faith in the risen Jesus as the Son of God, died, risen, alive. He goes from relying on a set of rules to having a relationship with the living God through his risen, living Son Jesus Christ.

Everything he says I can see as of no value when you compare it to what is really valuable and that he describes as knowing Jesus Christ as Lord.

A living relationship with the God of heaven, made possible because of what happened to his son Jesus here on earth? It becomes, I would suggest, a very different thing indeed from constant religious duty and observance, however much the churches might over the centuries have tried to revert to rules and regulations.

And so Jesus becomes the person, who remains with us even in the darkest days of our suffering. Yes the darkest days, whether prison, life or the fear of death, of ourselves or of those we love as we have heard already in this series on this letter.

Speaking to us in our modern lives in the middle of all its dark complexities? Well I think so because this certainty of suffering touches us all sooner or later..

And the religious rules I think Paul is saying earlier in this letter, become not narrow external observance and badges but a command to work out your new life, your new relationship with God in fear and trembling. Without complaining or arguing and in unity as we have also heard earlier in this series on this letter to the church at Philippi. The rules become a powerful imperative to love and not to hate, to unite and not to divide….

Might Paul be speaking to us in our complex world of political turmoil? Challenging us to rise and meet the future with these attitudes of love and not to fall for the powerful temptation to retaliate, to speak words of hatred, to fight.  

Well maybe Paul speaks to us from his prison even here in our new political world…

And might Paul be speaking to us as to how we should respond and be in all those difficult and complex situations we find ourselves in, in relation to all those complex institutions and situations, whether at home at work or in society? Well maybe we should be listening..

Coming back now to what Paul says in this particular section of his letter, he finishes these eleven verses by saying essentially two things:

Look, all I want is to know Christ he says first, again. If you look back through these eleven verses, he started this part of the letter by urging his readers to be joyful, “in union with the Lord”. It is we he says a little further on who rejoice in our life “in union with the Lord”. What is most valuable he says a bit later is the “knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord”. A bit later he says I want to gain Christ and be “completely united” with him. Then a bit later, “My righteousness comes from my faith in Christ” and now “All I want is to know Christ”, he says again.

You can see how strongly he feels that this knowledge and unity and understanding about the person Jesus is at the heart of everything that he does and says.  There is a theory that I heard mentioned briefly a few years ago by someone who had lost their Christian faith and I don’t know how widely this view is held, but it was said in public, that what actually happened to Paul was that he had an epileptic fit on the Road to Damascus. Well, I am never one to unnecessarily belittle any view that is seriously held, but to me at least it still seems pretty compelling that Paul based the rest of his life, his work, his new theology, his church foundations, on a real experience of meeting with the risen Lord.

And then Paul finishes this section of the letter that we are looking at this morning by saying finally this:

“I want to know the power of his resurrection”, Paul says, “to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life”.

I want to know the power of his resurrection…I hope to be raised from death to life.

Because Paul had met with the risen Jesus himself he knew the resurrection from the dead as a fact and not just a religious theory.

And this fact of life after death continues, I think, to allow us to do at least two things.

First, it allows us to consider with certainty that death is not the end. Just as Paul was able to talk about his hope that he himself would be raised from death to life, so we can have not mere speculation that maybe this is possible but a firm hope that it is.  The resurrection allows us to move from speculation about a possibility to hope in a new reality.

It was a hope no doubt which gave courage to many of the countless thousands of soldiers killed at the battle of the Somme 100 years ago this week as they faced the enemy guns, and a hope that permitted the families of those killed, on both sides, to believe that their death was not the end when they heard the dreadful news.

This same hope allowed me just over 19 years ago to speak to my sister and her husband when she lost her only child in the first few seconds of his life.

This same hope allowed me this week to speak to someone I know well when she was the first apart from the ambulance staff to see her next door friend and neighbour lying peacefully, when the neighbour passed away suddenly.

It allows me to hope whenever I see those whom I love or those around me facing the possibility of dying.

And it is a hope that also permits me to pray into the loving arms of their creator the innocent victims of the dreadful attacks at Istanbul airport this week and the dozens of victims of the attacks on the bus convoy of police cadets returning outside Kabul from their graduation ceremony this week and the many victims of the appalling hostage taking in Dhaka, Bangladesh this week.

So for me I think Paul is still speaking powerfully into our modern world in all its complexities.

Because the fact of the resurrection permits us to move, exactly as it did for Paul, from speculation about a possibility, to hope in a new reality.

And then to finish, I’d just want to say this. I think this fact of life after death continues to permit us to have hope not only at the end of life but it fires back all the way through life’s darknesses and difficulties to permit us to hope that even in the most dreadful of situations, new life is possible. It fires back all the way into every situation we face because it infuses even the darkest of situations with hope, with hope that new life is more powerful than anything that can be thrown at it.

We, like Paul, are people who believe in the power of resurrection, in the possibility of new life and of new hope in any situation.  And that surely speaks to us as we face difficult and potentially dark days ahead both at home and abroad. It will always speak to us, I believe, in our modern world and our modern lives, with all their difficulties and complexities.

Amen