6/18/50

Scripture: Philippians 3: 7-15

Text: Philippians 3: 12; "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after ...."

Christian tradition, preserved in the writings of scholars and church fathers, informs us that Paul was in prison when he wrote his letter to the Christians at Philippi. But, though physically detained, he was spiritually free and unfettered. For one of Paul’s faith and vision, the heavy walls of a prison have their limitations. His soul went right on growing. "Not that I have already attained," he wrote, "or am already perfect; but I follow after ..." or "I press on..." Weymouth translates this verse to read, "I do not say that I have already reached perfection. But I am pressing on ..."

These words suggest two things. Paul had an ideal of perfection. He must have taken seriously Jesus’ urging: "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect." [Matthew 5: 48]. At the same time -- grand old spiritual warrior, converted man of zeal and spiritual saint that he was -- he knew that he was exceedingly imperfect by that standard. The only standard that suggests perfection on the part of a human being is the easy standard of one who has gotten satisfied with things as they seem to be. Man only partly is what he hopes wholly to be.

There is truth in words written by Beth Caddy:

"Thanks

For sorrow

Which makes happiness shine brighter

In a somber background.

For selfishness

Which etches a loving heart in indelible.

For ugliness

A renegade of beauty

Which contrasts its former self.

For our lives

So imperfect that they give us work to do."

Now I know there are early limits to which one can push the thought in words such as those.

Last Thanksgiving Day, the union service was held in this church. Rev. Warren Sautebin was the preacher. In his sermon he quoted the saying of some thoughtful person who, thinking of the want and urgent need of food for people in many parts of the world, had said that she was thankful for dirty dishes on Thanksgiving Day. Obviously the dirty dishes after dinner on that holiday signify a meal of plenty for most Americans.

Two or three hours later, members of my family, having eaten to satiety at our own Thanksgiving dinner, contemplating without enthusiasm the dishes we had used; and remembering at least that much of the sermon, suggested that we call neighbor Sautebin over and permit him to be very thankful indeed over our kitchen sink.

Obviously, it is easy to push such words too far, and I feared for a moment that those words were due for a jostling. But the truth is still there. I think Rev. Mr. Sautebin is a good preacher and I am happy that at his church today his good work in his ministry is being recognized by his ordination to the advancing rank of presbyter.

In order to apprehend the reality under which we live it is necessary to recognize contrasts -- the perfect -- even though it may be known only in the ideal -- and the imperfect; the saint and the sinner, combined in varying degrees in each personality. The word "saint" has sometimes been shunned as having association with hypocrisy. The word "sin" was generally avoided for a generation or so as being outmoded by psychological understanding. Both those words stand for a reality which has to be recognized if we are to know at all what life is about. The time for recognizing our appalling shortcomings is terribly short on civilization’s calendar. And the glory of the hope of perfection, compelling us to do something persistent and fundamental about our imperfections, is the brightest ray on the horizon.

1) Someone uses the phrase "The Courage of Imperfection." By this I suppose he means that we must do things in spite of imperfection. Perhaps he even means that we must attempt the "better," because of the "not-good-enough." Haven’t we all known people who refused to do needed work --- maybe it was teaching children in the church school, maybe it was taking the responsibilities of citizenship; maybe it was rearing a Christian family --- because they were too conscious of standards of perfection? They were willing to glory in the ideal of perfection, but failed to find any glory in doing something constructive about their imperfection.

Paul’s words are an incentive to action. He intended that effect on the Christians of Philippi. They encourage us to act, to accept ourselves for what we are, instead of always waiting for what we may be some day "if we get around to it." We are amateurs in the enterprises of living. But having the courage of our imperfections we go ahead with our jobs of preaching, teaching, healing, farming, home making, child training, working for better economic order, trying for a peaceful world --- with all the insights we have accumulated up to now. We will not sit back and do nothing just because we are not experts, but will hammer out, by doing, that degree of expertness that evolves from practice.

2) Paul’s point of view, which may be our own point of view, opens the door to growth. The great New England minister, Horace Bushnell, once preached a sermon entitled "Our Advantage In Being Finite." The advantage is that we can grow. Dr. Bushnell puts it this way in that sermon: "-- the scholar, the clerk, the apprentice, who should have it forced upon him that he is going never to take a new idea, never to acquire a more ready dexterity in his employment, never to advance upon himself, would be utterly crushed by the discovery."

It is a glory of life that we can grow, improve ourselves, learn new things, go ahead to better attainments. Progress is a part of this eternal tension between perfect and imperfect. The very ideal of progress fails if we believe ourselves completely to have attained.

Once in a while I look back over a sermon I wrote and preached some months or years earlier. I may remember that it seemed to go rather well at the time, that it was received earnestly and that someone remarked that it had been a help. But usually I have a feeling that I can do much better than that now -- or at least I should be able to do better.

Probably you have the same feeling about your accomplishments. We are dealing here with what I feel is a great truth. Two years ago, it was my privilege to speak to the seniors of Lincoln High school and their families and friends at their Senior Vesper Service. Some feel, when they reach such a milestone as graduation, that they have arrived in some comprehensive sort of way; that they may never again know such carefree zest, enjoy such friendships and pleasures as those they have thus far known. I said then, and I believe it thoroughly now, that every graduate may, and should, look forward to better achievements, greater happiness, more progress, deeper friendships than ever before. I wouldn’t trade my life right now for any of the joys I have known in earlier life -- and I have been through three commencements. I have been blessed repeatedly and continuously by God’s providence since then.

Someone has suggested: "If what you did yesterday still looks big to you, you haven’t done much today." I was not present at the commencement exercises of the University of Wisconsin last Friday, but I did attend, by means of the radio, that portion of the program during which Mr. George W. Mead had conferred upon him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. I think that one reason why the degree is so well deserved is that none of his significant accomplishments has been marked as the finish of his efforts, but he has constantly moved ahead to undertakings that are broader and finer than those of yesterday. To grow is to outgrow.

The Greek philosopher, Epictetus, put it another way: "One man finds pleasure in improving his land, another his horses; my pleasure lies in seeing that I myself grow better day by day." Our ideal of perfection, or even of improvement, has significant meaning only by contrast with our imperfection. There is zest and glory in the struggle.

3) In this knowledge we are inspired to action, our fears are overcome daily, the door is open to growth, and also, we find hope that life will be better farther along the road. Even though everything we have done be tainted with a measure of imperfection, and nothing we have done is perfect, we have potentialities for the perfect. This is a real basis for our human aspirations.

However, there is nothing automatic about our growth toward the perfect. The hope is real, and the attainment is possible, and growth toward the attainment is probable, only when one gets into right relationship with God, and serves in the spirit of Christ. For Paul, "pressing on" meant a deeper commitment to Christ, a passion to be made like Him and to make Christ’s values his values. "For to me," said Paul, "to live is Christ."

If we should fail at this point, our scientific and technological advance could rush us toward death and destruction instead of peace and plenty. Power of any sort is safe and constructive in the hands of only those who acknowledge a solemn, lasting responsibility to God for the use of that power. Nothing here is finished. Everything we achieve combines the sense of accomplishment with a divine discontent and "a consciousness that life may be larger than we have attained, that we are to press beyond what we have reached, that joy lies in the future (if obedient to God’s plan for the world), in that which has not been found, rather than in the realized present." This is the glory of the struggle from the imperfect toward the perfect.

Lincoln Steffens wrote that there was not a perfect railroad, nor a good government, nor a sound law. He insisted that the greatest pictures remain to be painted, the most splendid drama remains to be written. "Everything in the world remains to be done," he said, "or done better." Not as though all were perfect, we press on the make life and living better. Jesus taught, "One is your Father, and all ye are brothers." [Matthew 23: 8]. We still have a long way to go in effective adherence to that teaching.

Democracy, one meaning of it, is equality of opportunity for all. We still have a long way to go in establishing a complete democracy. The Christian church is a community putting into practice the spirit of Jesus. We still have a long way to go in perfecting the church. Let’s create, with His help, that worthwhile practice!

What about mankind? We are imperfect. And the knowledge that we are so gives us an incentive that we would not otherwise have. Therefore we press on.

I once tried my hand, while a student, at selling books to farmers. Riding my bicycle into one farmer’s yard, I began the sales talk only to have him look straight at me and say to me, "Young man, I know all there is to know about farming." I didn’t sell him a book. But I knew that if he thought he knew all that there is to know about farming, he needed my book or something like it. For nothing here is finished. It is all becoming.

"Not that I have already attained, or am already made perfect, but I press on."

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, June 18, 1950.