Westminster Podcast
Westminster Podcast
Untitled Episode"Moving On" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 10.04.26
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
It is World Communion Sunday, and people all over the world will be gathering around a table to taste and see that the Lord is good. It is the oldest practice we have as a church. For thousands of years we have gathered to remember this is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you. Our scripture today was written before the gospels were written. Written some twenty-five years after that upper room feast. But now, in the church, the suffering and the sacrifice of Jesus has become the suffering and sacrifice for the church. That's what happens when you let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Well, Paul is in prison this morning, and he has certainly gotten a taste of suffering, and Paul sees that as a good thing. From Paul's letter to the Philippians, chapter 3, verses 4 through 14. Hear the word of God. 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 Hebrew, 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. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his suffering by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead, not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of, forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. And this is the word of the Lord. Life moves on. Steve, Jim, Annie, Norris, Catherine, I'ma Gene, Bill, Jody, John, Betty Jane. Life moves on. Back in Durham, I remember the morning drive taking my son Michael to high school. It was just a short drive, a left turn, a right turn, and a right turn. But after the left turn and before the right turn, there was an option to cut the corner and take a short gravel road behind what was an old country church that the city had surrounded. But you could tell that church hadn't moved on, it was still country. I would cut the corner and drive behind the church, and there on the right side, a graveyard. And on a high stress morning, that is to say, a test in which the morning in which the Spanish test loomed or some other test was looming, so many high stress mornings I remember, I would take that shortcut, slow the car down, and say to Michael, do you see all those names on the headstone? Michael, none of those people are worried about taking the test. Thanks, Dad. Every day, every time, take that shortcut, go through the graveyard. I did it not so much for him. I did it for me. For a child's anxiety is carried by the parent, and I needed some reminder about what of life's values are worth it and what of life's things you need to let go. We have such a short time on this earth. Life moves on. We just heard Paul say he's moved on to the from the things that he once thought were important. Things he held near and dear. He calls them the things of the flesh, circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless, blameless. He was so right, he was so right, right, right, and now he's moving on. Calling his resume rubbish. The Iowa translation of the Greek would say manure. The New Jersey translation of the Greek I cannot say in church. He says he was wrong. When have you heard anyone being so candid about being wrong? You don't hear that in politics. You don't hear it at the scene of the crime. You don't hear it at work. You don't hear it at home. I'm sorry. I was wrong. Such a rare thing. A couple of years ago I saw the Grand Tetons for the first time. I got out of my car and I stood before such breathtaking glory, and I knew right when I did it, something was missing. I knew I wanted Beth by my side. So a few weeks ago she was. And we got a room with a view. And what a view. That amazing rock. The setting sun, the river, the bison. I lift my eyes unto the hills from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord. Help, I can't find the words for this awesome glory. It is a gift like no other. Millions and billions of years old, and who am I but a blink of an eye? Oh Lord, that you are mindful of me. What a gift to have her there. Moving on. A ranch house on the side of the road on the way to Jackson Hole bubbled up in my memory that documentary of the national parks. Do you remember watching that? And I remember the cattle rancher who fought against the national park with all his might. It was all shot in black and white, those old pictures of his anger and righteousness. But now the same man in living color on the screen, old, old, old, said to the camera with his long-ago fight, about his long-ago fight, he said, I want you to know that I'm glad that I lost. I was wrong. I remember the documentary. But what I can remember, the only thing I can remember, the only thing I can think of, those words. I was wrong. Such a rare thing to hear in this world. You ever look back on your most righteous choices? You know, the things you sacrificed friends and family for, the things that you made others wince in pain.
SPEAKER_01Do you ever look back and say, all that, all that that I fought for, all that that I was angry about, all that righteousness that I had, it's rubbish. I was wrong.
SPEAKER_02You know, when I'm wrong, which is so seldom, in fact, I'm hard pressed even to think of an instance. Because those times when I was wrong, I I choose to bury those moments in some out-of-the-way place behind the shrubs where the grass grows high. I bury it deep as a bone. No dwelling on the past. I don't want to think about it. Well, the wrong is there, I know it, but let's not dwell on it. I know where I buried it. I know where it is. Let's not. Can we move on? Paul writes, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Forgetting what lies behind, forgetting what lies behind.
SPEAKER_01Who can forget?
SPEAKER_02You know where the bones are buried. The past haunts. Paul has to remember. He has to remember standing beside the coats as they executed Stephen. In all righteousness, they killed him. In all zeal and righteousness, they found a loophole in the law. The one that said, Thou shalt not kill. They found a loophole in the law, the one that says, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. They found a loophole in the law. Paul surely can't forget about all that lies in the past. You can't forget all that makes you you, the good, the bad, the ugly. When the resurrected Jesus returned to his disciples, how did they recognize him? They recognized him through his wounds. Jesus carries the past into the present, into the future forever and ever and ever. Amen. Forgetting what lies behind. You don't mean that, Paul. Paul, you are your past. You are the genes of your parents who named you Saul. Do you know what Saul means in the Hebrew? Prayed for. Imagine hearing prayed for every time someone says your name. What's your name? Prayed for? Prayed for, is prayed for here, prayed for, is prayed for here. Is there a prayed for in attendance here? Prayed for is here. You know, thinking about it, I suppose Saul could be our name. If you think about it. For as the young couple who joined the church said, we grew up in the church, but in college we drifted away. But when our first kid came, we both looked at each other and said, we need to get back to church. Why? I bet you they needed to pray. They need to be prayed for. They started to take up the name for their child, pray for something beyond themselves. Prayed for. Bathed in grace. Anyone in the church could go by the name of Saul. Anyone here. Because when you get in the church, you're prayed for. That's how you get around this table. You get around gather around this table and you gather around with your histories. And your stories. And your good and your bad and your ugly. And you're prayed for. Bathed in grace. Body and blood moving on. His name became Paul. That's not a Hebrew name. That's a Roman name. That's a Latin name. You know what Paul means? Small. It means humble. Paul. Leaving all that zeal, right, right, being right, being so right, being so right. Leaving that behind. Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. You can't forget. You can't forget what lies behind. Even when you're in prison at the end of your career and you're suffering. And you're thinking about what lies ahead, but you can't forget about what lies behind because you remember a table and the faces around the table. You remember Steve and Jim and Annie and Lou and Norris and Catherine and Irma Jean and Bill and Jody and John and Betty Jane and Saul and Paul. And you remember how they welcomed you to a table. You with all your wounds and the memories of those who wounded you. You come to a table with your scars. You remember them. I thank God every time I remember you, your love, your grace. You're an amazing gift of God. And they stand there, all your memories. All those glorious people, they stand there.
SPEAKER_00And you're amazed by it. Years upon years, you're amazed by it. The light. And we held hands.
SPEAKER_02You are an amazing gift of God, a gift like no other. And we press on. We press on, sacrificing in love. It is the prize. And we can taste it. And we can see it. This heavenly call of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Moving on.