So Much Garbage!

Can spiritual growth happen at a garbage dump?  It did for me, specifically at the Frederick County dump, officially known as the Frederick County Landfill.  I was there a few years back with my brother dumping a bunch of discarded items: an old mattress, a broken table and chair, some worn-out appliances, along with some miscellaneous odds and ends.  But what struck me were all the other people at the landfill, dumping their junk.  I mean my junk was not the only junk, as scores of other folks drove up and dumped their mattresses, tables, chairs, appliances, and odds and ends.  

As I stood there looking at the mounds of discarded items being bulldozed into piles, it occurred to me that at one time, each of these items, was a cherished possession.  I mean, persons spent hard-earned money to purchase these items to add value and meaning and joy to their life.  But the items didn’t last.  Sure, they contributed to life, and served a purpose, but not a long-lasting purpose. For in due time, each item began to decline, decay, and wear out, becoming eventually, so much garbage! 

 

In Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul identifies hard earned, valued, cherished items that also have become for him over time so much garbage.  But in Paul’s case the items are not material items, but “big ticket” items such as his blood line – his career – his successes – his ambition -- you know the kinds of things you might put on a resume or a list of credentials or accomplishments.  

 

And let me tell you, Paul was one accomplished fella! The Apostle says it best in his own words, brought alive in Eugene Peterson’s The Message: 

“You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book. (Phillipians 3:4-6, The Message).  

Yet, Paul goes on to say in Philippians 3:8, that compared to identity, purpose, accomplishment in Jesus, all his other accomplishments -- his pedigree, his precision in rule keeping, his ambition – is so much garbage.  

 

It’s interesting:  the Greek word for garbage is incredibly raw, best translated dung, muck, or manure; a rather blunt, dramatic conclusion! But that’s the character of worldly ambition contrasted to Christly ambition. Why, Christly ambition is “where’s it at,” leading to a life that comes alive today and lives forever.  Ambition for worldly things, on the other hand, comes alive today, and declines, decays and wears out, becoming -- you guessed it -- so much garbage!  

I don’t know about you, but I want life that comes alive today, and lives forever!  Continuing with Philippians 3, we gain clues regarding how that happens, in Christ. 

Clue #1 – Watch the Company You Keep!  

Paul begins our text by encouraging the Philippians to “...watch out for...dogs, those evil doers, those mutilators of the flesh...”  (Phillipians 3:2). In all probability, Paul is referencing false teachers like the Judaizers who claimed faith in Christ was not enough for salvation, requiring Jewish practices like circumcision.  But we don’t need literal circumcision, Paul contends, a mutilation of the flesh (Phillipians 3:2).  Christ is our circumcision, and that’s enough!

 

False teachers continue to surround us, trumpeting that something beyond Christ provides a path to full life.  The false gospel they proclaim is best summarized in the various “isms” that surround us today.  Why, there’s nationalism, militarism, post-modernism, racism, exceptionalism, materialism, consumerism, just to name a few.  

Consumerism is probably the most pervasive, touching each of us.  In essence consumerism trumpets not the Gospel of Jesus but the Gospel of More—more power, more profit, more production, more products, more prestige. 

Once I was out with a friend who mentioned a mutual acquaintance who was considering entering yet another competition after already winning a zillion gold medals. “Wow,” I thought sarcastically, “how many more medals does that person need before finally feeling satisfied?” And then it dawned on me: how many more medals do I need before finally feeling satisfied? For if I’m perfectly honest, I’m not satisfied—I’m still restless, “prone to wander,” in the words of Robert Robinson, “prone to leave the God I love.”

Such drift lessens as we “...rejoice in the Lord...”, Paul advises in Phillipians 3:1.  But specifically as we rejoice in the Lord, with brothers and sisters, in the Lord.  For the only way we counter false prophets and voices is surrounding ourselves with God’s people and voices, not forsaking the assembly of the saints -- watching the company we keep!

 

A second clue for coming alive today and forever.  

Clue #2 -- Grasp: ‘The Way Up Is Down.’  

The false narrative of Western culture is that the way up is up -- not sacrificing and surrender – but living for me, myself, and I.  But Paul notes in our text that full life is found not in gain, but loss. “I consider everything a loss,” Paul clarifies in Phillipians 3:8, “because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.”  (Phillipians 3:8).  

In Phillipians 2 Paul details how to “lose” for Jesus. 

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition...Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but...to the interests of the others. In your relationships...have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who...did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant...And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”  (Phillipians 2:3-8, NIV).

In essence, Paul is mounting a movement to make humility great again!  And for good reason:  humility was in short supply in his day as it is today.  But we’ll never come alive today and forever, without ‘turning down’ the voltage on self – and ‘turning up’ the voltage of Jesus and His other way of living. 

One of the most triumphal human achievements, was the first summitting of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzin Norgay, in 1953. An unreported aspect of their trek, however, was the symbol Hillary took with him and buried on Everest’s summit:  a small crucifix. The reason is unclear; Hillary was not an overtly religious man. But, as John Dickson reflects “…perhaps it was a token of his own humility, trying to honor a "higher power" at the moment of his greatest triumph…” 

Sir Edmund Hillary’s tokenism is our tokenism. For, we do keep striving, climbing, believing the way up, is up.  But as we do, humility beckons and intrigues – as we finally realize -- the ultimate summit, the ultimate triumph, is found not on the heights, but in the way of Christ, as we do nothing out of selfish ambition, but in humility look to the interests of others, in community, in Jesus, affirming the way up is down.

 

Well, a last clue for coming alive today and forever.  

Clue #3 – Don’t Just Believe the Gospel, Become the Gospel.  

For Paul faith was faith in and through Jesus. Paul didn’t just believe the Gospel Paul become the Gospel.  “I want to know Christ,” Paul declares in Philippians 3:10, “yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and... attaining...the resurrection of the dead.”  (Philippians 3:10).  

Paul says it even more concisely in Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me!”  

Though it might seem a ‘no brainer’ few Christians speak freely and unapologetically of Jesus dwelling in them.  Oh, we talk much about following Christ, but infrequently about Christ residing in us, and us in Christ.  But we never come alive today and forever, without being ‘in Christ’ – allowing Jesus to occupy every nook and cranny of our human form and frame.

 

One of the great sermons of all time, is Robert Munger’s classic: “My Heart Christ’s Home.” In the sermon, Munger provides an extended parable about how Jesus Christ makes an entrance into the very heart of his life: 

“One evening I invited Jesus Christ into my heart...He built a fire in the cold hearth and banished the chill. He started music where there had been stillness, and He filled the emptiness with His own loving, wonderful fellowship...After Christ entered my heart...I said to Him, "Lord...I want [You] to...settle...here and be perfectly at home...Let me show You around and introduce you to the various features of [my] home that...we may have fuller fellowship together."  

And with that, Munger invites Jesus into each room of his heart-home.  Munger invites Jesus into his library – his mind. Munger invites Jesus into his dining room -- his appetites, and desires. Munger invites Jesus into his workroom – into his gifts and passion.  Well, you get the point, Jesus ends up entering Munger’s entire inner space, as Munger -- in the end -- signs over the title deed of his heart to the Savior, asking Him to occupy everything. 

 

Life today and forever happens, as we also sign over the title of our heart to the Savior, asking Him to dwell in us -- reside in us -- occupying everything!  For everything other than Jesus -- be it stuff, status, or credentials -- is so much garbage, a total waste – if we prioritize it – get occupied with it – rather than the Savior.  

Let Jesus occupy you, becoming the Gospel, not just believing the Gospel, longing with Paul to know only Christ and the power of his resurrection, becoming like Him in death – losing everything – to gain everything -- life today and forevermore!