"Running with Joy"

Philippians 3:4-14

Pastor Tom Johnson, October 5, 2014

This morning we are talking about expressing our joy in stewardship; that is how we manifest our joy with our time, talent, and treasure for the Kingdom of God. Last week we looked at how we discover our joy. Our reading from Philippians provides a very nice reminder of what it means to discover our joy. Paul says,  “Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own abut this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Discovering our joy is a life-long journey. Paul did not claim to have joy neatly tucked into his back pocket. Joy is something he daily pursued. And everything else paled in comparison for him. He says that knowing Christ Jesus as his Lord is the one thing in his life that has surpassing value. It is the goal. It is the prize. It is the treasure. It is the heavenly call. It is the joy of having a personal relationship with God. The challenge today is how we express that joy. Our Scripture seems to suggest that it is the inevitable consequence of discovering joy. Paul presses on to serve God because he was first served by him. He “press[es] on to make it [his] own because Christ Jesus has made [him] his own.”

Paul is using running a race as a metaphor for the Christian life. How does a runner win the prize at the end of the finish line? By forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward to the goal. You can’t move forward very fast if you are looking behind you all the time. That is bad running form to turn your head around and twist at the waist. What has happened before certainly affects where you are in the race now. But if you don’t let go of it and move on ahead, it will continue to hold you back. Paul leaves his impressive family background and education behind. He also leaves behind the more shameful things he did such as persecute Christians.

Running ahead and forgetting what lies behind takes great empathy and compassion for oneself. It means not relying on our birthright or privilege but upon God’s promises for everyone.  Running ahead and forgetting what lies behind means that we stop using failures the past as an excuse not to succeed in the future. It means letting go of the guilt and regret behind us and making a b-line toward forgiveness and reconciliation. This is joy’s greatest expression—running life’s race with confidence in the Gospel! What a joy to know that our greatest obstacles are behind us and our greatest rewards are ahead!

Many of you know that next week at this time I plan on running right by here. Our church address will not be 1301 N LaSalle for me that day but mile four. And so I hope to hear your cheers and cowbells around 8:01. I probably will be smiling then. But a few more miles will slowly wipe that smile away. Runners will tell you that they all “hit the wall” at some point in the race. It may be mile 18, mile 22, or mile 25.2. But “hitting the wall” is something all runners of the race share. This is when your legs feel like lead weights, your chest gets heavy, and one or more parts of your body begin to hurt. Your mind grows cloudy. Time seems to slow down. And there is a voice that starts to say things like, “Why did you register for this? What are you doing? Stop. Just stop. You can’t go any further.” There are two options at this point: either (a) quit the race and take the CTA back to the finish line or (b) forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead, and press on toward the goal.

That is joy—that even though the race may still have many more obstacles, we know that our Forerunner Jesus has already gone ahead and won the prize for us. That is where this analogy breaks down. Everyone is a winner who runs this race. Scripture says, “We love because he first loved us.” The love of God compels us. It is our trust and joy in God that pulls forward. Will it hurt? Yes. Will you feel like quitting? Probably. Will joy always be so obvious? Well, maybe not. But there is nothing more natural—there is nothing more freeing than to run the race with joy—to give our time, abilities, and financial resources when it is fueled by God’s great gifts. We realize that we don’t have to; we get to do these things.

It why I personally love to hear the stories we have heard in the last weeks from Jill and will shortly from Micah. All our paths are very different. How and when we discover our joy changes from person to person. But at the heart of each story of grace is the story of God who first loved us and sought us out—God who makes us his own. How we express that joy also can differ in wonderfully diverse ways. We all have different gifts, talents, and abilities. And we can all celebrate that wide range of joyful expression.

At the end of each race, most runners look forward to getting their medal and a free pint of Goose Island 312 beer and other tasty things they hand out beyond the finish line. But what runners really want to do is tell you their story. They want to hear other stories. They want to share what they saw, what they felt, what they were thinking; and how, through it all, they finished. If you listen really carefully, they are trying to convince you and themselves to run ahead with joy.