Press On Toward the Goal
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Transcript of a sermon by Rev. Elder Dwayne Johnson, Metropolitan Community Church of Washington DC, October 4, 2020. Video on YouTube.
What are your growing edges? One of the growing edges during this season of pandemic is continuing to live with a sense of purpose and a sense of goals. To continue to strive toward the goal, to press on toward the goal.
Some people have put their lives on hold during this time. More than once, I’ve heard someone say, “After the pandemic…” “After the pandemic, I’ll get my life together…” “After the pandemic, I’ll fill in the blank.”
Here at MCCDC, we are determined to live with purpose and with mission: now and following the pandemic, whenever that might be.
We will not let the angst of these times stand in our way. We will live our values and we will build global community.
We’re learning from some of those who have gone before us during previous times of crisis. One of our teachers during this time is Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, one of the spiritual mentors for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In one of his writings, Thurman talked about how during times of crisis, it’s easy to see everything through the lens of that crisis. He writes about how, in fact, it’s difficult to think of anything else: how the crisis itself becomes all-consuming. We’ve seen examples of that in many ways: many people are slipping into despair, facing the current pandemic.
Howard Thurman writes, “The crisis throws everything out of proportion, out of balance and the balance seems always superficially to be on the side of disaster.” (Religion in a Time of Crisis, 1943)
Today, the balance may feel like it’s tipping towards disaster, yet the witness of Paul affirms that the balance — though it’s shaking — tilts on the side of life.
The use of testimonies in worship is part of a long tradition. In fact, our scripture today from Philippians is Paul’s testimony. Paul’s testimony is actually written from prison. Paul writes “Beloveds, I do not consider that I have made it on my own but this one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal.”
Being in a prison cell seems like one of the last places to be goal-oriented. And yet, Paul says “I’m pressing on toward the goal.” Paul was writing from his own place of crisis, yet he was not consumed by the crisis. The balance in his life continued to tilt towards life. He continues his testimony, “We are putting everything on the line, sprinting toward the only goal that counts, to cross the line, to win the prize, and to hear God’s call to resurrection life found in Jesus, the anointed sprinting towards the goal.”
Paul was sprinting even though he was in prison, behind bars.
There is much in our troubled world that threatens to take hold of our lives, especially fear: the close relative to despondency. And yet, Paul’s response to his troubled world was to say “Nothing will stand in my way because Christ has taken hold of me and will not let me go.”
Christ holds. Our lives hold. The center holds.
Paul said that he was able to see beyond prison because he was held by Christ. Even though he was writing from prison, the prison walls were not standing in his way. When Christ takes hold, the world loses its hold, and we can live free. The eyes of Paul’s heart could see through the thickest prison walls.
Paul did not allow those prison walls to obscure his view. Paul had a clear view of heaven. Paul had a clear view of resurrection and was claiming the resurrection of Jesus as his own.
We too can have a clear view: a clear view of life, a clear view of Heaven. We too can see beyond the walls of pandemics. Paul’s testimony is pointing us to live with new habits of viewing: viewing life through the lens of hope. Paul’s invitation is to press on towards the goal, knowing that Christ has taken hold of us in love and will not let us go. To press on towards the goal, knowing that with the eyes of our heart, we can see beyond any limitations. With the eyes of our hearts, we can see beyond confinement. With the eyes of our hearts, we can see beyond everything that makes us unfree to move to new places of freedom.
“Press on,” Paul says, “Leave the old life behind.” He was Saul, now he is Paul. Saul is transformed to Paul on paper. Saul had a solid life: well-respected, educational achievement, very high status. He had high status markers in his life. And yet Paul shifts to a new life. Now his status markers are not about how much he’s achieved; his status markers are not credentials. Now his status markers are being able to receive the gift of freedom through Christ.
His story is a before and after story. Before Saul, after Paul. He says “Press on towards the goal, going all out for the mission.” It’s no longer about bootstrap achievement, it’s now about receiving a gift. “I’m leaving my old life behind,” Paul says, “putting everything on the line for this mission.” He is determined. So what is the mission in the context of Paul’s testimony?
The mission is a life fully lived.
“Go all out for a life fully lived,” Paul says. Even now, even in prison, one can live fully when looking with new perspectives and eyes. Paul says, “I am sprinting towards the only goal that counts: to cross the line, to win the prize, and to hear God’s call to resurrection life found in Jesus the anointed.” In other words, the resurrection of Jesus becomes our resurrection. All that matters to Paul is the new, life the resurrected life.
Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh talks about resurrection. He writes, “Some people live as though they are already dead. There are people moving around who are consumed by their past, terrified of their future and stuck in their anger and jealousy. They are not alive; they are just walking corpses. If you look around yourself with mindfulness, you will see people going around like zombies. Have a great deal of compassion for the people around you who are living like this. They do not know that life is accessible only in the here and now. We must practice resurrection and resurrection is an everyday practice. With an in-breath you bring your mind back to your body. In this way you become alive in the here and now. Joy, peace and happiness are possible in the here and now. You have an appointment with life and that appointment is for the here and the now.” (You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment.)
Press on towards the goal. And what is that goal? To live the resurrection of Jesus in the here and now.
Paul says “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. I want to know Christ and the power of Christ’s resurrection. We are no longer who we were and we are becoming more of who we are by knowing more and more of who Christ is.” That’s Paul’s testimony. That’s our testimony. Our perspective shifts as our lives with Christ unfold. We shift from our empty strivings to God’s life giving us new initiatives, to live true and strong lives every day. When we have the resurrection power, we have spiritual power. In fact we have the spiritual power to see through walls!
Our invitation is to continue to live with a clear view of life and a clear view of heaven, to press on towards the goal.
Can dead lives be resurrected? Absolutely yes! That’s the good news of our gospel. Life is always possible. There is always new life beyond what we can imagine. We have the power to shift to full life.
The good news of our faith is that shift happens and God works through us and in us. What is the goal? To know Christ and to be like Christ. What is the prize? A life fully lived and a life fully alive. Beloveds, press on towards the goal. And as Howard Thurman says, “Look well to the growing edge.”
