Weekly Sermon of
Fr. Dave Johnson

 Episcopal Church of the Resurrection 

“What Defines You” (Philippians 3:4-14) 

April 4, 2025

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In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

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Many years ago, a professor in seminary gave us a morbid but insightful homework assignment—to write our own obituary. Writing your own obituary makes you consider who you are and what your life is all about. If you were to write your own obituary, what would you write? What defines who you are and what your life is all about? 

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Some obituaries read like resumes, as people may define themselves based on what has been done by them: their professional accomplishments or their academic achievements, or their athletic prowess, or musical talent, or creative ability, or how much money they made, or how many plays they starred in. Some people define themselves based on their family—how distinguished or revered their family is in the community, or by how successful their kids may be. Some people define themselves by the college they attended (or their kids attended) or what college they root for, or by their political party or their sexuality, or their relationship status, or by what kind of vehicle they drive, or what part of the country they are from, or what kind of music they like. Again, people define themselves by what has been done by them. 

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Other people define themselves by what has been done to them—perhaps from suffering a physical or mental illness, or a tragedy, or being the victim of abuse, or by being done wrong by some corporation or the government or the school system or the church—they define themselves by what has been done to them. 

Sometimes Christians define themselves as Evangelical or Catholic or Pentecostal, or by what denomination they belong to—Baptist or Southern Baptist or Presbyterian or Methodist or Assemblies of God or “non-denom.” There are approximately thirty-five major Christian denominations in the United States and hundreds more minor denominations. In fact, it’s very American that if you have had enough of your current denomination, you can even start a new one. Episcopalians often take particular joy in defining themselves as such. 

 

But when it comes to the gospel, ultimately, we are defined neither by what has been done by us nor by what has been done to us. Instead, we are defined by what has been done for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The defining word about your life belongs to God—and you are defined by the grace of God. 

During his second missionary journey the Apostle Paul planted the first Christian church in Europe, the church in Philippi. Several years later he was imprisoned in Rome, and while there he wrote his Letter to the Philippians. In today’s passage Paul describes how he was not defined by what had been done by him even though his religious pedigree and background are quite impressive: 

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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 (Philippians 3:4-6). 

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If you unpack this you will find that Paul’s being circumcised on the eighth day was in accordance with Old Testament law (Leviticus 12:3), that Paul was a pureblooded Hebrew—as opposed to being of mixed ethnic descent like the despised Samaritans, that he was from the tribe of Benjamin—one of the two sons of Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel, that he was a brilliant Pharisee whose passion for keeping God’s law was so strong he persecuted the church whose faith was not founded on keeping God’s law but on faith in Jesus Christ. And yet Paul would not define himself by any of those positive things done by him. Neither would Paul define himself by the negative things done by him, as he wrote to his protégé Timothy: “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence” (1Timothy 1:13). Nor would Paul define himself by what had been done to him, even his sufferings which he delineates in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: 

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Five times I have received the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea…in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:24-25, 27- 28). 

 

Paul knew that he was neither defined by what had been done by him nor to him, but by what had been done for him in Jesus Christ. Paul knew that he was defined by the grace of God, a grace he experienced with the Risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9), a grace that marked a brand-new direction for his life. To Timothy Paul wrote, “The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:14-15). And again, in today’s passage from his Letter to the Philippians, after citing his impressive resume Paul reveals how is life had been defined by the grace of God: 

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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 as 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 3:7-11). 

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Paul refused to define himself by what was done by him or to him but instead defined himself by what God had done for him, “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” And the good news of the gospel is that is true for Paul is true for you. Ultimately you are defined by the grace of God, defined by what God has done for you in Jesus Christ. Through faith in Jesus Christ, you have received righteousness from God. Paul then describes how this grace of God gives us the ability to press on: 

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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 (Philippians 3:12-14). 

 

The grace of God in Jesus Christ not only defined Paul’s life, it also gave him the ability to keep on keeping on: “I press on,” he wrote, “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.” In his Letter to the Galatians Paul put it this way: “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). The grace of God defined who Paul was and what his life was all about. 

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The grace of God gave Paul a brand-new start in his life, and this same grace of God can give you a brand-new start in your life. That is why here at ECR we receive God’s grace in Jesus Christ and share that grace with one another and the world. The grace of God in Jesus Christ enables you to keep on keeping on, to press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ. 

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What about you? Perhaps you have defined your life by what has been done by you—pride in the good things you’ve done and shame about the bad things you’ve done—both of which can be a very heavy burden. Or perhaps you have had some awful things done to you or awful things said to you that have defined your life or how you see your life—and that too can be a very heavy burden. 

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The gospel relieves you of all those burdens, because your life is defined by the grace of God. The grace of God gives you a brand-new start. The grace of God gives you the ability to press on—to press on regardless of what has been done by you, to press on regardless of what has been done to you, to press on because of what God has done for you, to press on because Jesus Christ loved you and gave himself for you and made you his own. 

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The same Jesus who changed Paul’s life on the road to Damascus offers invites all of you who may be weighed down by what has been done by you or to you: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28, 30). Regardless of what is written in your own obituary, God’s obituary for you has already been written by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You are defined by the grace of God. 

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Amen.