Getting Past The Past

GETTING PAST THE PAST Scriptures: Philippians 3:4b-14 [Slide 1: Sunset] Beginning a sermon with vacation slides is probably the kiss of death. If I’m not careful, I could have you asleep in five minutes. Nevertheless, I want to show you some slides from a hike Jaime Seaburg and I did 10 days ago in the Grand Canyon. There is a point to this, so stay with me. [Slide 2: Plateau Point] Our destination was Plateau Point, a flat outcrop of rock in the center of this picture with a trail leading out to an overlook at the end. Starting from the South Rim, Plateau Point is 6 miles and 3,000 feet down into the canyon. [Slide 3: Trail view] It was a beautiful morning for a hike, clear skies and about 50 degrees at 7:00 a.m. when we began our descent on the Bright Angel trail. [Slide 4: Trail with hikers] We descended on switch backs into the canyon through some spectacular vistas. [Slide 5: Bighorn Sheep] Occasionally we had to share the trail, but once you go a halfmile below the rim, the crowds disappear. Most of the time, we had the trail to ourselves. [Slide 6: Indian Garden] About 4 miles down we hit an oasis called Indian Garden. A spring coming out of the rock creates an unexpected paradise of trees and vegetation completely surrounded by barren rock. [Slide 7: View from Plateau Point] In about 2½ hours we reached Plateau Point, perched 1,000 feet directly over the Colorado River. [Slide 8: View other direction] From this vantage point we could see the river for miles in either direction, and I got a perspective on the canyon I had never seen before. And then I turned around. [Slide 9: Looking back up] And I realized we have to go back: 6 miles back, 3,000 feet up to get to the top of the rim. [Slide 10: Sitting at overlook] I wasn’t anxious to leave. We had had a wonderful hike, and we had just finished eating lunch at a magnificent viewpoint that we had all to ourselves. There were no crowds, in fact hardly any people at all, at Plateau Point. [Slide 11: Trail back to rim] But then I realized that everything I cared about was back there at the top of that hill: like a shower and air conditioning and food, not to mention of course our wives and our transportation home. Everything important to me was at the top of that hill. 1

[Slide 12: Closer view of rim] And that’s when I thought of the scripture passage for today from Philippians, chapter 3. I had studied this scripture the week before I left, so I knew it by almost by heart. As I started back up the trail, I was suddenly reminded of Paul’s words: “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 upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” [Slide 13: Indian Garden returning] But it wasn’t easy. By the time we got back to Indian Garden we had been hiking for 8 miles. The temperature in the canyon was about 90 degrees, and we still had 4 miles to go, and all of it uphill. [Slide 14: Close up of rim] But forgetting lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, we pressed on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” … [Slide 15: At top] And finally we made it back to the rim. “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead…” Many people hearing those words think of bad experiences in their past: abuse or neglect as a child, a damaging romantic relationship, past addictions or indiscretions, or any hurtful, humiliating, or traumatic experience from your past. For anyone like that, Paul’s words are an invitation to hope. When you commit your life to Jesus Christ, your past no longer determines your future. You no longer have to flog yourself for the mistakes you have made or the wrongs you’ve done; your sins are wiped away. You no longer have to nurse resentment toward those who have wronged you. The people in your past no longer define your worth as a person, your worthiness of love; because God has demonstrated your worth by giving his Son for you on a cross. God loves you more than you will ever imagine, and God has a place for you in an eternal kingdom. Neither death, nor life, nor things in your past, nor things to come can ever separate you from God’s love in Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s what this scripture passage means. Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, we press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. But here is why I shared the pictures of the hike. Sometimes the past on which we must turn our back is not a bad past at all. The hike down to Plateau Point was a wonderful hike. It was all downhill. It was in the morning, it was cool, and the overlook at the end was magnificent. I was proud of having made that six mile hike, and I could have stayed there all day. But then I would have missed out on the future God had for me. My future was back up that hill. My future was on that rim with my wife, my family, and my church family here in Spokane. While I was standing on Plateau Point, my life was not bad at all. I was enjoying myself. But my life would have gone badly had I stayed there. Had I stayed at Plateau Point, I would have run out of water and gotten dehydrated and become sick and eventually died. And I would have missed out on all the good things God still had for me at the top of the rim. 2

This scripture passage is not only for people who have had a bad experience in their past. It is also for people who have enjoyed their lives up to this point, who are proud of their lives. Notice how Paul talks about his past in this scripture reading. He says, “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more.” I would paraphrase this to mean “if anyone has reason to boast of their past, I have more: a Hebrew born of Hebrews—a card carrying member of God’s chosen people; as to the law a Pharisee—a certified professor of the Bible; as to righteousness under the law, blameless—a model of personal integrity and godliness. Paul does not regret his past; he is proud of it. But now Paul has discovered the future God has given him in Jesus Christ. And when he considers that future, when he considers the acceptance and love and eternal life that God has given him in Jesus Christ, all the other stuff he considered so important pales by comparison. Some of you remember the name Chuck Colson. Chuck Colson was the special assistant to President Nixon during the Watergate Affair. He was one of the links between the White House and the burglars who broke into the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate in 1972. As the Watergate affair began to unravel, Colson went to visit an old friend named Tom Phillips. As they were drinking ice tea on his porch, Tom pulled out a small book by C. S. Lewis called Mere Christianity and began reading this section: There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty … The vice I am talking of is Pride or SelfConceit. … Pride leads to every other vice: it is the completely anti-God state of mind. … As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. After listening to this, Colson writes, Just as a man about to die is supposed to see flash before him, sequence by sequence, the high points of his life, so as Tom’s voice read on that August evening, key events in my life paraded before me as if projected on a screen. Things I hadn’t thought about in years—my graduation speech at prep school—being “good enough” for the Marines— my first marriage into the “right” family—sitting on the Jaycees’ dais while civic leader after civic leader praised me as the outstanding young man of Boston—then to the White House—the clawing and straining for status and position—“Mr. Colson, the President is calling—Mr. Colson, the President wants to see you right away.” … You see, Chuck Colson did not have a miserable past. He was proud of his past, just like the apostle Paul. But as long as he clung to the past, as long as he held on to his pride in all his accomplishments, he missed out on the future that God had for him. He had to let go of his 3

past, he had to let go of his pride, he had to repent of his grasping for power and control, in order to receive the new life that God offered him. When he left Tom’s house, Colson pulled over to the side of the road about 100 yards from Tom’s driveway. He writes, With my face cupped in my hands, head leaning forward against the wheel, I forgot about machismo, about pretenses, about fears of being weak. And as I did, I began to experience a wonderful feeling of being released. … And then I prayed my first real prayer. “God, I don’t know how to find You, but I want to try! I’m not much the way I am now, but somehow I want to give myself to You.” I didn’t know how to say more, so I repeated over and over the words: Take me. … After that night Chuck Colson faced indictment, conviction and prison time for his role in the Watergate affair. But when he got out, he started a prison ministry called Prison Fellowship, and that ministry now has over 40,000 volunteers visiting prisoners in over 100 countries. I don’t know if you look back on your past with pride or regret, but it does not matter. Either way God has a future for you that is better than your past. That’s why it is not worth clinging to your pride, nor your bitterness. Even when it’s an uphill slog, the better life, the one to which Jesus is calling you, is still ahead. - Ken Onstot June 30, 2013

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