The reading for the week of 20261004
Checking In
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, began each of his small group meetings with the question, “How is it with your soul?” But as Rev. Joseph Yoo points out, this is a far deeper question than “How are you?” He reframes Wesley’s question with the following:
- What are the things that I’m engaging in that bring my soul closer to God?
- What are the things that I’m doing that are putting a wedge between myself and God?
- What are the things that I’m doing that really make my soul shine brightly and flourish?
- What are the things that I’m engaged in that are draining the life out of my soul
Alternatively, you might check in with each other using the framework of John Wesley’s “General Rules” to look backward and forward.
Looking Back:
Where have I done harm this week?
Where have I done good in the world this week?
To what practices have I attended this week that have helped me stay in love with God?
Looking Forward:
What are my intentions for doing no harm in the coming week?
What are my intentions for doing good in the world in the coming week?
What practices will I attend in the coming week that will help me stay in love with God?
Scripture
Philippians 3:4b-14
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 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 9 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. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 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. 13 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, 14 I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Background
- Jane Lancaster Patterson notes that “Today’s reading follows Paul’s heated condemnation of evangelists who had been insisting that Gentile believers in Christ must be circumcised and become Jews in order to be brought into right relationship with God. Paul’s argument against Gentile circumcision [...] is actually the driving purpose behind everything that he says in this passage.”
- “Circumcision is the sign by which Jews and Gentiles are distinguished from one another. When, in Paul’s churches, Jews and Gentiles—the circumcised and the uncircumcised—eat together, interpret the Torah and the prophets together, discus how to live as witnesses to God’s holiness and mercy together, then they are living signs of the new age ushered in by the cross and resurrection of God’s Messiah. Their distinction-in-relationship is the sacramental sign of the power of the cross” (Patterson).
- According to Ekaputra Tupamahu, “Paul clearly shows his deep embeddedness in a Jewish tradition. He is from a Benjamite tribe, a Pharisee, zealous about his Judaic identity [...]. He describes himself as the best of the best—a rhetorical habit that appears in many of his other letters, a habit Krister Stendahl describes as ‘annoying.’ But he is proud of it.”
- According to the New Interpreter’s Commentary, Paul “uses the image of a profit-and-loss account to compare the advantages he enjoyed as a Jew with those that have come to him as a result of his being in Christ. The things that he once regarded as assets he now writes off as a loss for the sake of Christ.”
- “It is the obvious value of what Paul is now calling a ‘loss’ that gives power to his new estimation of things. All the riches of Paul’s previous religious experiences are ‘loss’ and ‘rubbish’ (NRSV; the Greek word is earthier, more like ‘dung,’ ‘excrement’) compared to the magnitude of what God is doing through Christ for the healing of the whole world” (Patterson),
- “Besides the theme of loss and gain, this part of the reading is structured by the focus on faith as the way in which people align themselves with the power of God in Christ. Paul uses the word faith twice in verse 9 [...]. Because believers are baptized into the body of Christ, they have access to the power of Christ’s own faith and faithfulness as they open themselves up to faith in him and faithfulness to his self-offering way of life. Faith is a channel of salvation for Gentiles and a channel of revelation for Jews, as they see the magnitude of God’s power to save all. Their shared faith makes it possible for Jews and Gentiles to respect each other in community, while they may maintain some distinct practices” (Patterson).
- “In order to grasp the power of the final verses, it is important to remember that Paul was in prison, a state that he refers to four times in Philippians [chapter 1], likely literally, as being ‘in chains.’ He also says that he has been ‘laid’ (1:16) there for the offense of defending the counter-cultural Gospel of Christ. But despite his physical bonds and extreme vulnerability, verses 12-14 are a beautiful blend of Paul’s subjectivity to God’s claim on him (‘Christ Jesus has made me his own;’ ‘the heavenly call of God’) and his inner activity, cause, determination, and agency (‘I press on,’ ‘straining forward,’ ‘I press on’)” (Patterson).
Discussion Questions
If you were to make a profit-and-loss account like Paul, what might you have once listed as “gains” or assets that you would now show to be “losses” as a result of your relationship with Christ?
Why do you think it was so important to Paul that Gentiles not be required to be circumcised? Do you think that Paul’s “gains and losses” argument is effective? Why or why not?
The issue of circumcision is no longer a source of conflict in today’s churches. If Paul were writing to the church today, what issues might he raise that highlight “distinction-in-relationship" and demonstrate the power of the cross?
How have you experienced the power of God in Christ in your life? In what ways have you experienced God’s claim on you?
In what ways do you express your own “inner activity, cause, determination, and agency” in responding to the heavenly call of God? What helps (or would help) you “press on” toward the goal?
Why do you think it was so important to Paul that Gentiles not be required to be circumcised? Do you think that Paul’s “gains and losses” argument is effective? Why or why not?
The issue of circumcision is no longer a source of conflict in today’s churches. If Paul were writing to the church today, what issues might he raise that highlight “distinction-in-relationship" and demonstrate the power of the cross?
How have you experienced the power of God in Christ in your life? In what ways have you experienced God’s claim on you?
In what ways do you express your own “inner activity, cause, determination, and agency” in responding to the heavenly call of God? What helps (or would help) you “press on” toward the goal?
Closing Reflection
How might you take these words from Scripture into your life this week?
How can we as a group best pray with you and support you this week?
How can we as a group best pray with you and support you this week?