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Life is Unfinishedness
A sermon by Dr. Jesse Fletcher
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Philippians 3:12-14
If you have your New Testament, I’m going to go back to the
traditional King James Version to read from the third chapter of Philippians.
It’s one of the more joyful, reassuring, encouraging letters for a Christian.
Paul loved these people. He felt like he owed them much. And so he tried to
share his heart with them in so many ways. The particular passage I want to read
begins with the 10th verse. He’s talking about all that he’s been
trying to do is that he may, “...know
him [Christ], and the power of his resurrection...” We always look to the
resurrection as hope, but Paul sites power in that fact. “…and the fellowship of
his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. If by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect [a word sometimes translated mature]: but I follow
after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ
Jesus [That I may understand why I have been chosen to be in Christ Jesus might
be a legitimate paraphrase]. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended
[to have understood] but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are
behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” May God
bless the reading of his word.
Some of you may have
caught an ad that’s been on television altogether too much. Shows a busy
household, father’s bustling around giving orders to his children and his wife,
the dog, whoever will listen and he said, “My family calls me the finisher.
Finish this, finish that, have you finished this? Have you finished that?” And
then he went into the bathroom to the medicine cabinet and reached for the
antacid pills.
It was a very believable
little scene because you can imagine somebody like that reaching for antacid
pills, or probably more probable the people he’s talking to reaching for the
antacid pill. But it was fairly effective and I identified with it because I
kind of see myself as a person under pressure to multi-task and to finish this,
that and the other. Finishing can be an ever-receding horizon, as many of you
know. And it’s usually so because we’re such starters. We’re better starters
than finishers.
You could go to my
bedside—my wife would want me to make the bed up first—but you would find there
a pile of magazines that I’ve started and three or four books that I have
started. And if you were to go into my study, you would find piles of papers
that I have started to work on. One of the things I’ve discovered: if you leave
them there long enough, you don’t need to anything about them. It’s already
happened. I’m a pretty good starter.
I had a colleague at
First Baptist Church Knoxville when I was there named O.E. Turner. Great soul,
he was in his mid-eighties when I arrived and he was our minister to our senior
citizens, most of whom were younger that he was. But he was an effective,
greatly loved person. One night we were guests at a dinner party together and
the lady served us a wonderful pie. After it was over with she came back and she
said, “Would you like another slice?” And I thought, “Oh no, I couldn’t, I still
have every pie hanging right here that I’ve ever had.” He said, “I will.” And I
said, “Well, O.E., how do you stay so trim and look so good if you do that?” He
said, “Well I get a lot of exercise going to the funerals of my friends who
exercise.” He had a way of just cutting to the chase.
This business of trying
to finish things can take you into a mode where you don’t want to go sometimes.
I remember reading a little book years ago called, “Type A and Your Heart.” It
described the particular personality who is always trying to finish things,
always starting things, always trying to finish things, multi-tasking and after
a while they pay their price. I laughed, I thought it was kind of funny, but
several hundred hypertensive pills and a pace-maker later, he may have had
something.
I tend to do too much of
that. One of Clint Eastwood’s characters said, “A man’s got to know his
limitations.” I’m beginning to discover mine.
This passage convinces
me I’m wrong even to spend time worrying about it. Life’s not about finishing.
There’s only one person who’s finished. When Jesus Christ completed the task for
which God had sent him, the accomplishment of our redemption, he said, “It is
finished.” The rest of us can’t say that. For us, life is unfinishedness.
In this passage, Paul is
trying to say, “I haven’t finished folks.” He’s trying to say, “There is more.”
Have you ever thought of the power of that in your own life? Some of you sure
hope so. For instance, you hope that somewhere down the line, there’s a driver’s
license and a car. Or you hope that somewhere down the line you don’t have to go
back to school. Or somewhere down the line you’ll be the one giving the
orders—you hope there’s more.
Sometimes in mid-life
there are people who think they’re through. Something has happened, something
can squash their hopes, crush their dreams and they say, “I’m finished.” Paul
would say no. There is more. There’s more for you and discovering that more is
part of the excitement of being in Jesus Christ.
A member of this
congregation told me just last Sunday something that made this point for me.
He’d just been through a rough illness, a very dangerous surgery. He’s up in the
years and he said, “One of the remarkable things that happened to me very
recently is I suddenly realize there’s still more.” That’s the problem; a lot of
older people don’t come to that insight. There’s still more.
Well obviously, Paul was
talking about this in the context of the resurrection of the dead. There is
more. There is life after this experience on this earth. There is all that is
yet to come. I don’t think it begins to be over then: that gets to be the most
exciting, developing, unfolding part of it. There is more in that sense, but
Paul’s talking about now. There is more right now and he wants us feel that and
experience it—in Christ.
The second thing that he
points out in this process, he says in order to do this, I’m going to forget
some things that are behind and I’m going to move ahead. Now, he’s not going to
take everything with him. He’s going to leave some things. I like to think he’s
going to leave some regrets, some mistakes, some pain and some shame. In other
places in the scripture we are advised to lay aside things that beset us and
keep us from running the race. Often we try to bring too many things forward
that weight us down and keep us from having the excitement and joy of
experiencing what more is all about.
One of my preoccupations
with you lately in terms of illustrations has been golf illustrations (I’ve
already been approached about that). I would tell you flying illustrations, but
they are all old. The golf illustrations are very fresh. Tiger Woods. Have you
ever heard that name? He’s convinced a lot of people that golf is about
athleticism after all. Before him, it looked like many golfers spent the most
time playing the 19th hole. But in Tiger, you’re no doubt dealing
with an athlete: a person trained, disciplined, mind and in body to do what he
is going to do. I heard a commentator say about him recently, “His real strength
is not his power. It’s not even his sense of the management of the game. It’s
not his ability to bring such intensity to it that he just intimidates everybody
else. It’s his ability to walk away from bad shots and bad breaks.”
Now he doesn’t have many
bad shots, but he gets some bad breaks. And they are over; they are over when
they are over. For me they cost four or five more strokes because I’m worrying
what might have been.
Folks, I do that in life
sometimes - spend too much of my energy talking about what might have been, how
I could have done it differently, how I could have done it better. Mistakes I’ve
made, Paul says lay that aside. You’re going to need both hands to reach toward
the prize of the high calling that you have in Jesus Christ. Because what his is
urging us to do here is not only to realize there’s more and to lay aside things
that could keep us from moving on. But he wants us to reach higher ground, to
lay hold of something better. And in Jesus Christ we have that ability. You
have that ability, every one of you. God has planted that within you. It’s as
secure spiritually as your genes might be operating from physical point of view.
You have that ability to grow and to become.
I like the old saw that
the kids a few years ago used to say, “Be patient with me, God is not through
with me yet.” Be patient, God is not through with me. I’ve still got more to do;
I’ve still got more becoming.
I know recently Billy
Graham was honored in the context of how influential he had been on the
presidents of the United States. Each of on them had something very wonderful to
say. The one we probably we lean back to listen to with the least assurance of
what was going to happen was President Clinton. He said, “Billy Graham taught me
that life is full of second chances.” You didn’t have to go very far to know
where he was coming from. But I hope we don’t fix it on his situation when it
really belongs in ours—that we are in Christ, able to start over again—to start
over again and to reach for higher ground that we’ve never experienced.
Dr. Russell Dilday is a
very close personal friend of mine and I enjoyed the fact that you had him here
this spring. I heard him preach a sermon at the Southern Baptist Convention back
in the 80’s called “Higher Ground.” And he now has a little book named,
Higher Ground. In it he’s talking about reaching for a new level of civility
and discourse in our Christian fellowship.
The whole metaphor of
higher ground speaks to me in terms of the Christian life. Every opportunity
that comes to us offers us an effort to step up and reach for higher ground.
My successor at Hardin
Simmons is a man named Craig Turner. Craig is the first president we’ve had in
many years who is a classic scholar. I was a church historian and they admitted
to a certain amount of scholarship with that but I was also a preacher and that
kind of tainted the whole thing. But faculty can’t question how scholarly Craig
Turner is - he’s a Browning scholar. I don’t know how many of you have become
acquainted with the poetry of Browning, but at Hardin Simmons we are getting
more and more acquainted all the time. Craig never passes up an opportunity to
quote a little Browning to us. In fact he’s been there five years and I’ve
wondered what’s left. But he does repeat himself some so I guess it’s going to
be good for a long time. But the Browning quote that I’ve loved the most through
the years, my wife and I’ve used it in terms of each other, “Come grow old with
me, the best is yet to be.” I’ve begun to see in a broader sense. Maybe I’m
seeing it in terms of being old, but I’m also seeing it in terms of the truth of
this passage. There’s more. We can lay aside many of the things that have
tripped us up and set us aside and grieved us and we can move to a higher place.
The best is yet to be.
I read a story some
years ago and you’ve probably heard it in one form or another. Its about a
missionary family in the jungles of the Amazon with the JARS group—Jungle
Aviation and Radio Service group. A little family living way in the back and
somebody was there visiting and listened in as the mother tried to teach the
children in an obvious home-schooling situation. And at one point she said,
“What God wants us to do is bloom where we’re planted.” I’ve always thought that
was a beautiful statement. I especially needed it as I would move around in
different places because each new place was new ground but I was supposed to
bloom there.
Well, men don’t
especially think of blooming. It occurred to me that we need to bloom in higher
ground.
Two or three things
happen when you bloom. The first may be the most important. You learn what you
are. You many not be able to call yourself anything until you see what you look
like. You may be a rose or a daisy or, if you live in my part of the world—a
sunflower. Or you might be a nasturtium. I don’t know what a nasturtium looks
like but I’ve loved the name ever since I first heard it. But when you bloom you
know what you are. And we’re not here today and gone tomorrow as James talks
about in terms of the quick appearance and disappearance. In Christ, we’re
perennials. In Christ, we have the opportunity to keep on blooming. And our
tendency is to quit. Our tendency is to think that’s something I’ve already
done. Our tendency is to feel I don’t have anymore blooms left in me. But in
Christ, we do. In Christ we can move beyond where we are at whatever age and
whatever circumstances if we are willing to let His presence in our lives help
us to bloom.
There is more, so let’s
lay aside the things that are holding us back and let’s reach for higher ground.
Would you bow your heads
with me? Father, God, thank you for these words. Thank you for the Spirit’s
movement in the heart and life of Paul to say what we needed to hear so many
years later. Grant us the ears to hear it, the heart to receive it, the
understanding to apply it and act on it in our lives for we pray in Jesus name.
Amen.
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