This Sunday's sermon was taken from Philippians 3, and our guest speaker (Dr. Kirkpatrick Coholl, Lenox Road Baptist Church) spent some time looking at the life of Paul: his cultural heritage, his education, his call to ministry, and his understanding that to embrace Christ meant that he must consider his cultural heritage and his educational accomplishments to be worthless.
What irony, to preach such a sermon in the face of a band of men whose affiliation is not Christ, but Cornwall College. I will even go out on a limb and say that if Pastor Sam had not attended that high school, his former classmates probably would not have been in our church this past Sunday.
Please hear me out, and don't send me hate mail- you know I love Pastor Sam and any friend of his is a friend of mine, just as we who are in Christ are all siblings in the kingdom of God. I'm simply making the observation that, in light of Paul's letter to the Philippians, we all have some soul-searching to do concerning the supramundane power known as "school spirit". (That's a task for all of us, even those of us who never attended school, because of the way we act and respond when certain institutions are being discussed.)
I've gotten to the point where I can't stand telling people what school I'm in. I've experienced that when they find out, they treat me differently. It smacks of favoritism, elitism, all those "isms" that create division and stratification. I dread the prospect of ever having to preach in my doctoral robe, and am in fact praying that Tina Scott remains alive and healthy so that, when that day comes, she can make me a nice clergy robe that can't be tracked to any particular educational institution.
What is the prize? Education is not the prize! Cultural heritage is not the prize! Talk to us, Paul: "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things" (Philippians 3: 7,8). In the glorious light of God, even the greatest learnings "at the feet of Gamaliel" are nothing (see Acts 5 and Acts 22).
Cornwall, you are nothing in the face of Jesus.
KC, you are worthless in the face of Jesus.
Ivy League, you are a complete loss in the face of Jesus.
At the end of the sermon Dr. Kirkpatrick left us with an amazing thought: Jesus frees us to give up our contacts.
Friends, are you ready to give up your academic connections for the sake of knowing Christ?
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