A Life Shaped and Re-shaped by Prayer

Tuesday, Week 3 - Philippians 3:4b-9: Resisting Pride

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.  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 my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 

According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus was regularly in conflict with many of the religious leaders of his day.  Here were men (all men back then) who worshiped God, prayed, read scripture, gave alms to the poor, and tithed their income.  The problem was not that they were somehow practicing the “wrong” religion (as if any great religious tradition can be defined by the categories “right” or “wrong”); after all, they were practicing the same religion as Jesus.  So what was the problem?

I could not even begin to give a full answer to that!  It’s intertwined with so much history and culture, along with the political and economic realities of the day.  What I can offer is this simple summary statement. As I understand it, religious traditions are meant to connect human beings with God, others, and all of creation in such a way that people experience a degree of liberation. (Remember the central story of Judaism is the liberation from slavery in Egypt).  We find that Jesus often ended up in conflict with religious leaders of his day because they were using their power and influence to maintain a religious system that imposed such burdens on people, particularly the poor and marginalized, that instead of liberation many were experiencing a greater degree of oppression.   Disciplined as they were, many of these leaders justified their actions in part because they had developed a strong sense of their own holiness and worthiness, what we may call spiritual pride. With a coldness of heart they looked down on the unclean commoners and viewed themselves as better. 

Spiritual pride may still be a temptation.  If you go to church on Sunday, set aside time for prayer every day, offer a proportion of your income back to God through the Church, and give charity to the poor too – might that not begin to make you feel a bit superior to others, a bit self-righteous?  Yet Paul urgently proclaims that no one is righteous on his or her own, all fall short, all end up making a mess of things at some point.   What becomes decisive for Paul is not his own righteousness, nor his own disciplines and practices.  What Paul knows and proclaims as decisive is what Christ has done on the cross, and his gift of righteousness that he gives to us now.  Paul declares that we walk around clothed in Christ's own righteousness!    

The point of a religious discipline, like daily prayer, is not to become worthy of God’s blessings (we never are).  Nor is the point to rise above common and base humanity; the point is to become more human, more connected! The words human and humus (soil, dirt) are related.  In Christ, the dirty are declared clean, and the common soil becomes the seed bed for the growth of God's kingdom.  It is on our faith journey, (with worship, prayer, and sacrifice included) that we come to experience what Mary announced in preparation of Jesus' birth, that he will, "Scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts and lift up the lowly."

O God, make me more aware of my own humanity, my connection to all the other human beings I encounter this day, and all of creation too.  Then too, make me more aware of you; more aware of your presence with me, your righteousness covering me, and your Spirit empowering me to live more freely and in such a way that helps others experience a greater measure of liberation too.  Amen.