When I was 15, I remember singing the lead in a song for the gospel choir at my church. It was entitled “Press Toward The Mark”. I remember what felt like hours studying the lyrics and learning the notes. And this past week I have found that this song has sustained me. I didn’t even realize I was singing through the week until I was preparing for this moment. It actually comes from the text this morning in Philippians.

 

The lyrics are these:

 

I count not myself to have apprehended, when I think of all the things I have done. But this one thing I do, I put the past behind me so I can press towards the mark of the high calling of Jesus Christ.

 

You see we all have sinned and fallen short of his glory but we can learn from our wrong…. But one thing you’ve got to do you’ve got put the past behind you, so you can press towards the mark of the high calling of Jesus Christ.

 

This message is one that I need and I feel many of us need. There is so much of yesterday and yesteryear that plagues our today.

 

And that is not to take away from that which has taught us who we are and influenced who we can become.

 

But there are many things that we have been taught that do not even belong to us and are that of which others have placed on us. But I know that God is faithful and will forgive my sins and promises to forgive your sins, why do we hold on to those things that keep us from pressing through and pressing on to the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ our Lord? So let us be confident in our knowledge that God is faithful and will forgive and has forgiven our sins, so we can press through.

 

Let us pray.

 

Gracious and loving God, thank you for this day that you have made. Thank you for this moment when we can come together and offer ourselves as living sacrifices to you and for you. Open our ears and hearts so we may hear what you have for us today. Loosen my tongue, Lord and use it for your purpose. Decrease me behind the cross so that you might increase and be glorified. Let the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing unto you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

I want to highlight the text from Philippians 3:13-14.

 

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.

 

Here we have Paul addressing the church in Philippi, still encouraging the people to be mindful of their status and reputation that proceeds them. And Paul, one who has been trained and equipped for ministry was the very one that wasnprosecuting Christians, because they were not Jews. A scholar of Scripture, a student of the most prominent schools, he was well educated and found himself among those with the highest esteem. He took it on himself to avenge the temple of God. And then he was converted. Blinded while on the long road of Damascus, and remained that way for three days. While fasting and praying his heart was pierced and opened to the way of Christ.

 

And then he spent the next few weeks learning the new way – this gospel of Jesus. And then he was the most successful missionary of the church in carrying the Gospel all throughout the Middle East and onto Rome. But in order for him to have this success he needed to forgive himself and forget all the things he had done to prosecute and destroy. He pressed through what others thought of him, pressed through what he felt about himself, he pressed on, on to the high call of Jesus Christ.

 

Early last week, Cornerstone was called on by the city to use our system and roster of food distribution for a truck load of food that was coming into the city with 1,152 boxes of food and gallons of milk. When the truck arrived in Norwalk we recognized this was going to be harder than what we are used to, since the truck did not have a power lift or a palette drive. 24 palettes of food and milk we needed to get off the truck so we could distribute it to the people. And after about 30 minutes of phone calls and redirection we moved the truck and started unloading.

 

I will never forget the way one of our volunteers looked at me and asked, “do you ever have panic attacks?” And I looked at her puzzled and said no, confidently. You see having a panic attack for me is debilitating and would disable me from serving the bigger purpose and that is to feed the people of Norwalk. Worst case scenario would have been a few of us climbing into the truck and off loaded one box, one milk at a time. The job would still get done. I know that God did not put me here to fail. If there is a will, there is a way. But their has to be a will. A will to win, a will to serve, a will to move for what we have been called to do.

 

I am a firm believer that we have been given everything we need for tomorrow’s circumstance. Even today, with all that is going on for each one of us. And sure, no one knows the trouble you’ve seen, no one knows the trouble I’ve seen, except for Christ. Christ knows, and yet Christ still longs for you to have a relationship with him so you, we might reconciled with God. All of us. Not one of us will be left behind.

 

I sat a meeting this week with the Bishop and he took the time to stress how important it is for each local church to be faithful in helping the conference and the denomination become Antiracist. He is working hard to make it happen. He is loosing sleep and taking a lot of push back from both sides, as to be imagined, but he is pressing through. Committed to learning and being in the conversation.

 

You see he is pressing toward the mark of the high calling of Jesus Christ and that means to love all of us even when we are on opposing sides, even when he missteps or misspeaks. He is in the fight in the learning. He is committed to serving God fully even when he is uncomfortable and doesn’t know what will happen or come next.

 

Yesterday, in bible study I challenged those becoming disciples that if they are too comfortable in their church, in our church, and if I am not pushing them beyond themself enough then maybe they are in the wrong church. The ladies in the Tuesday class come every week ready with questions and answers that challenge me and push me closer to the mark of the high calling of Jesus Christ. You see, transformation is active and usually uncomfortable. It requires change and a turning around. So if you are comfortable, you have not accepted the call of Christ, fully.

 

But even with that, let me slow down a minute. They are many of us who are comfortable in discomfort and have refused to be the ones to make a change. And I honestly believe that is why the fellowship is so important. To keep up on track and focused on the prize. And to ensure no one gets left behind. There are people we met along the way that helps us along and some are even so bold to drag us with them, when we are stuck. Or bold enough to sit with us where we are so we can know what it means to be fellowship. Recognize that we all need both in our life to press through and press towards the mark of the high calling of Jesus Christ.

 

This brings me to highlight the text from the gospel lesson this morning. Another parable from Jesus, in Matthew 21:33-46:

 

³³ “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. ³⁴ When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. ³⁵ But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶ Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. ³⁷ Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ ³⁹ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

 

⁴⁰ Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹ They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

 

⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? ⁴³ Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. ⁴⁴ The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” ⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶ They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

 

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

 

So what do we have here. Another one of Jesus’ parables. Another one about the vineyard. What is the lesson, for this one sounds different from the others. In this parable, the “produce” was fine, but the delivery system was malfunctioning. The problem was not with the vineyard’s production but with the tenants themselves. For they were extremely violent tenant farmers, harming and slaughtering the various groups of slaves sent by the landowner. And they tell us why. They were self serving. The reason for their brutality and murderous ways is stated explicitly when the son visited in 21:38: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance” Are we tenets of Christ’s vineyard in the same way?

 

The produce is ripe, but we fail to recognize those that God has sent our way to reap the produce. We want to be in control so much so we refuse to see those in need standing at the door. The vineyard is the church today. The gifts of what God has sowed is ready to be harvested for those in need.

 

But I keep hearing the Church is dead. I keep hearing that after the impact of COVID congregations will never open their buildings again. And not because they have decided to rethink church. But because they have stopped doing and being the church altogether.

 

Beloved, let us not be these same kind of tenets of God’s vineyard, but harvesters who provide for any and all who come within. Let us be ready to give all we have, all our possessions and gifts to those in need. Let us not be concerned with things of the flesh that serve us only. Let us not make any more excuses for why we can not, for excuses build monuments of nothingness and roads that lead nowhere.

 

Let us become the church, living and willing sacrifices for God. Let us be ready when Jesus comes and prove to him that He is the Cornerstone of our life. The very foundation on which we stand and rest. Let us be faithful witnesses in all that God has done for us and prove that prayers are answered if we just believe.

 

Let us press through our current circumstance and search for the solution for tomorrows issue. Let us stop asking what will we do and start making decisions that will impact tomorrow’s leader.

 

I need each of you to ask yourself the question, am I willing to be in God’s service?

 

What do I need to do now to move in Gods way?

 

What do I need to do differently so I can hear when God call my name?

 

And do not be fooled. God is calling you, each one of you. Right now in this very moment.

 

I see how Cornerstone has shown up on the radar of this city, in our district and in this conference. And whether you were ready or not, the time is now. Are you willing to say yes, here I am Lord, send me?

 

I pray that you are.

 

This is God’s word for God’s people.