12 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. ¹³ 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, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

This past Tuesday night I found myself seated in a church pew in the Marbletown Reformed Church over in Stone Ridge for the spring meeting of the Mid-Hudson Classis, the group of churches in Dutchess and Ulster county that are, because of their geographic locality, called to work together and support each other. The reason that I bring this gathering up is because at each spring meeting elections are held to decide who the various officers for the upcoming year will be. The election of the president was interesting in that the current president, who still had a year left on his term, decided to step down, sighting way to much stuff on his plate. This meant that the vice-president slid up into the president role. Not a big deal, so we’ll get back to that in a minute.

What I did find interesting was the nomination and election process for vice-president. I found it interesting because the person who was ultimately elected was sitting rather close to me so I was able to watch his reactions as the process went along. After the opening round of nominations, ten names were called out. His was the second to last. I looked at him as his name was called out and saw a mixture of surprise, but also honor. He doesn’t view himself as one of the ‘movers and shakers’ in the classis, but he is always there and is willing to serve when called. Four people immediately took their names out of the running, so six names, obviously including the person whom I was watching, went to an electing ballot. As this process began, a look of indifference was on the man’s face. He knew the other people who were being voted upon and I am sure was thinking, "there is no way that I am going to be chosen from that slate."

The votes were tallied and two names had made the cut. The first name was that of a pastor from the Port Ewen area. The second was of this elder, who actually doesn’t live all that far from here. Upon hearing his name, his eyebrows went up, while his jaw went down. He did a quick little shake of his head, trying to clear his mind of the shock that had clearly come upon him. After another moment, his face regained its usually composed demeanor, almost saying, "There’s no way people are going to vote for me over this pastor. No way."

Imagine his surprise when his name was ultimately called. Steve Sickler, the president who would be stepping aside after the meeting declared, "We have a new vice-president. Congratulations, John Roberts." And yes, that is St. John’s very own, John Roberts. The look on his face was priceless. He simply could not believe that he would be selected. That, and I think he was a little worried about Karen would say, but I digress. He was absolutely dumbfounded, and also extremely humbled. It was wonderful to watch.

If that wasn’t enough of a honor, both for John and for St. John’s, the individual who was the currently seated vice-president who was moved up to president, was the person standing before right now. Needless to say, with my connections to Philadelphia and its rather long history of election, lets call them, irregularities, there were cries of tampering and voter intimidation, but they soon faded into the background. Somewhere, in the infinite of wisdom of God, it was determined that both of this congregation’s representatives be ‘honored’ with these positions.

The reason that I use the word ‘honored’ is because as people inside the church have heard about these elections, they have passed along their congratulations, and then asked if we needed anything, …like a regal robe or scepter. Now I admit that these sorts of comments were made in jest, but how often do we, as we are able to acquire this or that title, or attain this or that level of status are, at least in the back of our minds, hoping, dare I say longing, to have a greater level of respect offered to us? As we move up the ladder of secular, economic, or ecclesiastical success we want to have the perceived perks that go along with it. We get promoted: we want that authority. We make more money: we want to be able to acquire more stuff. We are elected to positions of authority: we want people to view us as having at least a few of the answers.

Paul understands this sort of mentality. Apparently, the members of the Philippian church have begun to separate themselves. In their case, the delineator was the flesh, in specific circumcision. What this means is that there was a segment of the church that said unless you were circumcised you were viewed by God in a lesser way. Circumcision was becoming a mark of respect.

Paul says, "well, if that’s the case, if you, or "anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more."" So proceeds to list his list of Godly accolades. "I was ^"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; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless." What Paul is saying is that according to the ways of the religious world, nobody’s got anything on him.

And yet, as soon as he figuratively raises the bar, he follows that up with what? "Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ." What Paul is saying to the early church, and the church today, is that these markers of prestige, when viewed through the eyes of faith, are nothing, for in Christ, they are nothing; they simply do not measure up. I’m not saying that these markers of distinction are not blessings. In fact, I think they are. But if that is all they are, personal blessings that are only used to build up yourself, then what we are told is that they are nothing. The blessings of God are not to be warehoused, stored up to show how important we are, how smart we are, how rich we are. The blessings of God are to be poured out on others.

Last Sunday night a few of us went down to concert at Hopewell Reformed. While we were there one of the performers began to talk about just how blessed we are, how many accolades as a country, and as individuals we truly have. It was tough to argue with him. We look around at our lives and while most of don’t feel rich, we certainly aren’t homeless, or starving. Most of us feel like we are doing all right. The singer continued this understanding by saying that during the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas this nation spent some 500 billion dollars on gifts. 500 billion. To give that some context, the debt of all the African nations combined, the debt that is helping those countries to struggle as much as they do, is 250 billion. 500 billion in a month for gifts verses 250 billion that will burden generations. The specific numbers may not be correct, but the 2 to 1 ratio is.

Now I toss that stat out there not as a way to say, "oh, we’re so horrible", but instead to say, look at how blessed we are! God has blessed this nation. God has blessed this community of faith. God has blessed us individually. Whether or not we recognize that blessing is totally different from the fact that we are blessed.

But again, as Paul said, God did not bless us so that we might simply be blessed. Instead, God blessed us so that we might be a blessing unto others. God has blessed us so that we might be a blessing. The leadership roles that John and I were elected to are not so we can put a brass plaque on our door or say to other Reformed Churches, "look at whom we’ve got", but instead an opportunity for the will of God to be done through us. The numerical growth of this congregation is not a time to say, "look at how great we are", but instead a time to step beyond these doors in even greater ways so that the love of God might be felt in the greater community. Our individual wealth is not a time to say, "well, I’ve got all this money so now I can go out and get all this stuff." Instead it is a time to give in ways that will allow others to be supported in their moments of need.

Don’t merely be satisfied with the blessings of God that can so easily be understood as the accolades of the world. Instead, I pray, that each of us recognize the blessings of God as what they are: opportunities to, as Paul says, to press on toward the goal and share those blessings with the world. As I look out from this pulpit the blessings are countless, and yet at the same time I know that we, as a community of faith and as individuals, can do a better job of doing as we have been called, and share those blessings with the world.

God doesn’t bless us so that we are simply blessed. God blesses us so that we might be a blessing.

God, You have blessed us in ways that are awe-inspiring. However, many of us have bought into the mentality of the world that says that these blessings actually shine glory upon us. Lord, let us know that this is not the case. Let us know that the blessings that we have received are a reflection of Your love for us and Your call to us to share those blessings with the world. God, let us do that very thing and allow that with which we have been blessed to be a blessing unto the world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.