Lent

March 31, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Philippians 3:4b-14

even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 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.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 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 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. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. –Philippians 3:4b-11

This is a letter to those of us who suffer from some degree of religious supremacy, and most of us do. In fact, we would not be participating in a religion we did not think was better, at least for us, than any other religion. I could easily write something like what Paul wrote in the opening section of the scripture quoted— born in the USA, a Christian born of Christians, baptized at the age of six. None of those matters, when I consider the great gift of grace, I receive from the love of God through Jesus the Christ. God’s righteousness must prevail not my self-righteousness for being born the right color in the right country to law-abiding parents who taught me to be law-abiding, even when some laws were/are unfair.

I purposely used the word supremacy because we are called to deal with it in our society today. Christian nationalism is also a phrase that evokes a marriage of church and state which makes me very uncomfortable. Indeed, my faith in God should drive every aspect of my faith, but I am not God and must not assume God’s role in the life of others even through manipulation of governance. God did grant us permission to love others—all others, no matter what and we can do as much of that as possible.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we take our privilege for granted. Help us to see how that may hurt others and help us make changes in our lives to correct such injustice. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.