Rochester, MN UCC - "Progress, Not Perfection" - Philippians 3:4b-14

One of the few mathematical concepts that stuck with me from my early education was the idea of approaching infinity. One cannot reach infinity, but you can approach it. If you start counting from zero you will never get to infinity- you’ll just keep counting forever. However, after an hour of counting numbers, you will certainly be a lot further away from zero than when you started. You haven’t reached infinity, but you have made some progress in approaching infinity.

 Towards the end of his letter to the Philippians, Paul speaks about his own progress in righteousness in a manner quite similar to the idea of approaching infinity. First, Paul wants to be clear that any progress he made before Christ, was not actually progress at all. “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.” Paul could not justify himself before God through his own works, he had to simply accept God’s love in Christ. However, Paul did not believe that meant there was no progress he could make in righteousness, no progress to be made towards the Christian goal of union with God. Giving up on his own attempts to earn righteousness and accepting God’s grace was precisely what enabled him to make progress towards this goal. In Christ he could grow towards God, he could actually progress in righteousness. Paul didn’t think he would ever attain full union with God in this life. That ultimate goal, the consummation of our union with God, awaits us beyond this life in eternity. Yet not being able to reach the goal does not mean you can’t make progress towards it. Listen to Paul describe it, “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but 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.”

 We also can do nothing to earn the love of God. We too must accept God’s love as a free gift. Yet we must remember that that acceptance is merely the beginning of our journey with God and towards God. After giving up our own quests for self-righteousness, we may make slow, stuttering progress towards real righteousness through our life in Christ. We won’t reach perfection in this life, we won’t be fully united to God on this side of eternity, but we can certainly make progress. Infinity may not be reached, but we may, through the grace of God, make progress in approaching it. Thanks be to God for that. Amen.

 Rev. Andrew Greenhaw