Philippians 3:17-21
March 15
David A. Davis
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A few weeks ago, I led a webinar for Presbyterian pastors in Ohio and Michigan on preaching on the occasion of the celebration of baptism and communion. The title was Preaching Between Font and Table. You can guess that the content was designed to encourage preachers to engage the imagery and theology of the sacraments in their sermons. To see the sermon as an opportunity for teaching the congregation more about the sacraments and to see the sacraments as a means of deepening the congregation’s engagement and participation in the proclamation of the word. At one point during some questions and answers, an older pastor shared that he was serving a small congregation in farm country about an hour from Columbus, OH. “Dave, I appreciate your invitation and challenge to us to use the sacraments more as a tool for preaching. But it is a real challenge in my context.” He went on to share that he couldn’t remember the last time they celebrated a baptism. As I thought with gratitude about how often we gather at the fount here at Nassau Church, I tried to offer a word of encouragement and suggested a baby-less baptismal sermon or a “remember your baptism and rejoice” sermon because the sacrament of baptism is such an important sign for us, a gift of grace, in our life in Christ.
April’s baptism this morning is indeed a celebration for Shawn and Allegra and their entire family. But it is a celebration, a sign, and a seal, for all of us. A sign and seal for all of us every time we gather here. In the Reformed theological tradition, we believe that at our baptism we are ordained to the priesthood of all believers. St. Augustine wrote that the sacraments are “a visible sign of an invisible grace.” The Reformer John Calvin wrote that the sacraments are “an outward sign by which the Lord seals on our consciences the promises of God’s good will toward us.” A visible, outward sign of God’s unending grace poured out. Baptism is a visible mark that we belong body and soul forever to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A sign that drips with the love of God that nothing and no one will ever be able to take away from us. Baptism is a sign that God will walk with April all the days of her life, that the invisible grace and the presence of the Holy Spirit will go with her. It is a once and future sign for all the baptized that leans into the very resurrection promise of God. The waters of baptism. A sign that our citizenship is in heaven.
Philippians 3:17-21
New Testament scholar Matt Novenson, teaching Philippians 3 here this morning, shared with me over lunch this week that the use of the Greek word for “citizenship” is unique to Paul here in Philippians. Paul uses the word earlier in the first chapter: “Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ”. Live your life as a citizen worthy of the gospel of Christ. Citizenship. An uncommon word in the Greek New Testament and an uncommon word in the letter of Paul. Matt suggested that, as Philippi was a colony of Rome, the use of the term, the contrast, the play on words would not have been lost on the Philippian Christians in receipt of Paul’s letter. Perhaps, akin to the question of the psalmist, “how could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Ps 137). Or the priestly prayer of Jesus in the Gospel of John. “I have given them your word”, Jesus prayed, “and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world” (Jn 17:14). Or Paul in Romans 12. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what the will of God is- what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2). “Our citizenship is heaven”, Paul writes to the church in Philippi.
If you grew up in a church, or were in a youth group, or went to a retreat where the common practice was to underline important verses, verses that struck you, verses emphasized by the preacher or keynote speaker, verses to memorize, pretty much all of chapter 3 would be underlined in your bible. Paul on his yearning “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection”. Paul on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Paul on pressing on and forgetting what lies behind. Paul on the prize of the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ and being of the same mind and holding on to what we have attained in and through Jesus Christ, who has made us his own! And as the glorious rhetoric that sings of the tremendous, unmerited gift of our life in Christ echoes off the walls of Philippians, chapter 3, Paul reminds the Philippian Christians, those who take the name of Christian, the church, and you and me that the tremendous, unmeritied gift of the Risen Christ making us his own makes a difference in how we live our lives. Paul exhorts the Philippian Christians, those who take the name of Christian, the church, and you and me, to believe and so live because our citizenship is in heaven.
Years ago, a colleague who was serving at the time as the pastor of the Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Annapolis was proud to show a group of us the new sanctuary that had only been finished a year or so before our visit. Being there in Annapolis, one can imagine there were some nautical features to the architecture. There was also a columbarium in the rear wall of the sanctuary, celebrating the presence of the great cloud of witnesses, the communion of saints, the pastor explained. What he was most pleased to show us was the baptismal fount. The rather large fount was in the center of the center aisle, right at the second pew. As we gathered around the fount, he invited us to look down. The fount was bolted to the floor with several very large bolts. That fount isn’t going anywhere. “Now, when a bride and groom ask me to move the fount for their wedding, I can say, ‘Sorry, I really can’t.’” He went on to ask us, “Is there a more important day to remember your baptism than when you are making your solemn vows to one another?” Before God and these witnesses, beginning life together and affirm that our citizenship is in heaven.
It is striking to me that when it comes to this heavenly citizenship, Paul doesn’t go to great lengths to describe the life of discipleship here. There is no list of the fruit of the Spirit. That’s Galatians. No reference to the gifts of the Spirit. That’s Ephesians. No exultation to love. That’s Corinthians. No, bound by the chains of the empire, Paul, writing from prison, chooses to warn the Philippians about the many “who live as the enemy of the cross of Christ.” Paul doesn’t identify the enemies of the cross of Christ. But I am guessing that, sort of like his use of the word “citizenship”, the Philippian Christians living under the reign of the Roman empire know exactly who Paul is referring to. He didn’t have to be specific. “I have told you about them before, many times. Now I tell you through tears.” Paul chooses to point to what must be obvious to the followers of the Risen Christ in Philippi. “Their end is destruction, their god is the belly; and their glory is their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.” But…but no. Not us. Not you. Not the disciples of the Lord Jesus. “Our citizenship is in heaven.” We cling to our heavenly citizenship and press on, wanting to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. Believing that he has the power to make us and this old world a new creation. With that power, he works to bring all things subject not to the whims of the emperor and the evil of the empire, but to himself, the One who sees visions of a kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven.
Baptism is a sign of that kingdom. The kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven. The kingdom Jesus announced in Luke after he stood up to read from the scroll of Isaiah. “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” he said as all the eyes of those who listened were fixed on him. Baptism is an outward sign of the kingdom of God. The coming kingdom, the prophets proclaimed. “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Is 2). You know it as well as I do. Every time we come to these waters and splash in the waters of the invisible grace of God, every time we look into the face of a beloved child of God, there is an unspoken, yet fervent prayer that the world will be a better place for the one baptized. That Paul’s more excellent way of love will wash over the world, and those whose citizenship is in heaven will, by God’s grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit, be the hands and feet of Christ in making this old, broken world a new one. Standing with one hand in the waters of the matchless grace of Jesus and with the other anointing the creation God called good with the faithfulness of our lives. Our citizenship is in heaven!
That same group of pastors around the fount at Woods Memorial were again around a fount, probably a decade later. This one was in the sanctuary of the Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale, Arizona. The architecture of the Pinnacle Church also reflects its surroundings in the desert landscape of the southwest. The sanctuary organ is to the front and right of the chancel. Floor-to-ceiling windows are behind the chancel, the table, the pulpit, and the lectern. Outside the windows, there is a dry stream bed, a wadi that runs alongside the church. The baptismal fount is on the front left, and the design is intended to provide the sense that the wadi flows into the fount. It doesn’t, of course. The fount is self-contained with water running into the fount. A pump keeps it running most of the time. Think fountain and hot tub kind of arrangement. It is very striking. Though when we were there, the pastor shared that the fount had been leaking despite several attempts to fix it. We could see the water leaking out at the base near our feet onto the stone floor of the nave of the sanctuary, with a little stream forming toward the pews.
It occurred to me then, and it occurs to me now, that it is not a bad image, really. A fount that leaks with the waters of baptism, the waters that are a visible sign of God’s invisible grace. A fount that leaks toward the body of Christ, called by Jesus and sent by Jesus out into the world. That in and through the disciples of Jesus, the baptismal waters leak into the world. Not just with a little stream but with an everflowing stream; the waters of justice and the streams of righteousness. April, you and me. Signed and sealed by the grace, the love, the resurrection promise, and the salvation of our God in and through Jesus Christ.
You whose citizenship is heaven, remember your baptism and rejoice.
