Mar_25_07 Gerber

There's a bit of a sticky wicket developing in the U.K, and indeed across all of Europe, costing millions of dollars to control and causing battles between officials and lobbyists in the halls of government. It's a crime wave of unusual proportions that threatens public health and safety everywhere from subways to street corners, and police have become extra vigilant looking for the perpetrators. Awareness campaigns have been launched with billboards and media blitzes calling for the public to eradicate this menace.

Just what is the problem that has the Old World's knickers in a twist and stuck in a climate of disgust and disarray? A new form of terrorism? A potential pandemic that threatens public health?

You could say that it's both ? sort of. It's black (and other colors), it's insidious, and while it may not be life-threatening it is certainly gag-inducing.

Chewing gum, i.e., gum that has been chewed ? and eschewed, expectorated, spit and spewed, right out onto the sidewalks and streets of London and elsewhere.

Europeans have been disposing of their gum everywhere but in the trash bin. The gross remains of someone's ABC (Already Been Chewed) gum are being found increasingly on the streets where it turns black, sticks to people's shoes and is virtually impossible to clean up using conventional methods.

Given the gummed-up reality of the problem, some governments have chosen to act on the side of prevention. Ireland recently enacted a form of gum control legislation that fines offending stickers $160 if they are caught putting their gum anywhere but the dust bin. Originally, Ireland and other countries had wanted to impose a tax on gum purchases to fund cleanup operations but that plan was opposed by lobbyists for the chewing gum industry (which also includes representatives from mega-gum manufacturer Wrigley). They are against taxing gum as a deterrent "because it sends a message to gum chewers that it's okay to spit it out because they've paid (the government) to clean it up," says Gibson.

The result is that public education and fines have become the preferred method of dealing with this sticky situation. Gibson says that the strategy seems to be working in some places, where fines have cut gum litter by up to 80 percent. "At the end of the day, it's really down to getting gum chewers to put their gum in a piece of paper and put it in a bin. It's not that difficult a thing to do when you think about it," Gibson says.

Yeah, you'd think that ? but apparently the issue runs deeper than just common sense and courtesy. Rather than make the effort to ditch the old flavorless gum by disposing of it in an appropriate way that doesn't gross out the rest of the public, most rogue gum stickers would rather believe that their convenience is more important than the sensibilities of the rest of us. They leave their marks of self-interest out there in the open for everyone else to step in ? things that get uglier and harder to remove the longer they hang around.

Of course we all know that this is not just a European problem. It happens too disgustingly often right here at home. The other day on my way to make visits in the hospital I dodged the bullet so to speak. I was looking where I was walking and missed stepping on ABC gum twice only to put my hand on the railing in the elevator and was exposed to freshly chewed gum on the underside of the rail.

Of course I washed my hands prior to making visits, but I wondered who had that gum, what kind of germs did it carry, how many other hands might have touched it, etc.

So what does this have to do with anything?

The same situation occurs when we don't properly deal with the stuff that sticks to us from our own pasts ? those emotions, actions, memories, sins and failures that turn blacker and stickier the longer we let them go improperly disposed of, affecting ourselves and everyone around us.

Paul was focused on the sticky nature of the past in Philippians 3:4b-14. Paul urged his readers to properly dispose of their flavorless pasts and strive ahead toward a new future made possible by their relationship with Christ.

He begins by telling the Philippians of his own past, which is actually not something that most of his Jewish peers would want to cast aside so quickly. Paul was a poster boy for the observant Jew ? a Jewish mother's dream come true. A "Hebrew of Hebrews" according to the Mosaic law, a Pharisee who had checked all the right boxes ? including persecuting those in the early Christian church who he then believed had failed to keep the law to the letter. The Pharisees generally believed that God would only return to Zion and dwell with his people if all of them kept the law, so Paul had simply done his part well.

He was in that sense a Teflon teacher ? one who in his former life was "blameless" and to whom no accusations would stick (Philippians 3:4b-6). Paul recognized that he had spent much of his life simply chewing on his successes.

But when he met Christ on the Damascus road, that former life began to lose its importance. "Knowing Christ" and "the power of his resurrection" became a fresh new burst of flavor for Paul that made all that he had accomplished before seem like so much "rubbish" by comparison (vv. 7-9). In fact, the NRSV translation really softens the full impact of the word skybala, which could mean something more like "excrement" or "refuse" ? nasty stuff, the kind that sticks to pavement. That's a pretty strong way to look back at a life that others would consider successful, but that's how powerfully Paul understood the impact of his new life in Christ.

"Knowing" here means more than mere intellectual belief, but connects more deeply to the Old Testament idea that knowledge of God is based primarily on God's self-revelation. It's not knowledge about God but a vital personal relationship with God that Paul wants to promote to the Philippians ? a relationship that requires giving something up in order to get something better. Paul saw himself as wrapping up and tossing aside his own "righteousness" which "comes from the law"? not that the law was invalid, but that the law on its own could not eliminate the black mark of sin or the stickiness of self-righteousness. Without some outside intervention, a life dependent on one's abilities to live up to the requirements of law would result in a constant cycle of one's spirit being chewed up and spit out by failure over and over again.

For Paul the only real solution for cleaning up that mess and preventing the cycle from polluting one's life is Christ. The best way of living through "faith" is the righteousness of God demonstrated through the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. Paul had already told the Philippians that Christ was to be their primary example (2:5-11) ? an example that Paul himself wanted to follow, becoming "like [Christ] in his death" in the present. As Christ's death led to resurrection, so will dying to self in the present life of his disciples lead to a transformed life both in the present and in the age to come (3:10-11).

Paul was quick to admit that he hadn't yet experienced the fullness of that resurrection life. Unlike his former life which had been characterized as "blameless," Paul now realized that perfection was not determined by what he did or failed to do as much as by whom he knew ? the resurrected Christ who had "made me his own" (v. 12). Paul had his mind on a goal that required an application of effort in a new direction. Wrapping up the past and depositing it in the appropriate bin, Paul was now "straining forward to what lies ahead" (v. 13).

Scholars debate what the "prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus" is about (v. 14). Some have argued that he was talking about heaven itself or a special reward for the faithful who have faithfully run the course of life. Both of those interpretations look toward the future. You could make the case, however, that Paul also has a more immediate context in mind ? that the goal of the Christian life is to become more like Christ in this life and that the "prize" is the full pack of benefits available to those who realize that Christ is making them "his own" right now: assurance, peace, grace and transformation. The "heavenly call" may be to experience life, as we pray in the Lord's Prayer, "on earth as it is in heaven."

Regardless of how you interpret it, Paul understood clearly that following Christ and becoming more like him involved proper disposal of old ways of living ? be they good or bad. We don't let our past failures or successes stick around for others to see, nor do we want to keep stepping on them continually ourselves. The past is past, wadded up and replaced by what Thomas Chalmers called, "the expulsive power of a new affection" ? a full and vital relationship with Christ.

If your past keeps sticking to you, know that the only solution that can get you unstuck is the one offered by Christ, who can scrape the blackened decay of death from our lives and offer us a brand-new flavor of life!

Breathe in the breath of God. Breath out the rubbish. You can be cleansed by properly getting rid of the sticky things that hold you back. Turn them over to God and accept God's refreshing burst of flavor. Breathe in God's love, breathe out the stale, sticky things in your life that hold you back.

Let Us Pray.....