Philippians 3:17–4:1 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
The Second Sunday in Lent Sunday, March 16, 2025 “Walk This World as a Citizen of Heaven”
It was just a couple years ago I was with a group of pastors returning from a conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If I recall correctly, it was an accident that shut down I-10 along our route, so we took a detour along with quite a few other vehicles. Driving on roads meant for much less volume and much slower speeds all the way down to Bisbee and back to Tucson meant that our 6 and-a-half-hour trip ended up taking over eight hours. That’s what comes to mind for me when I hear the word “detour.” In my experience, detours take longer. They are not as convenient. It’s frustrating to see a road closed and a detour posted. If I could, I would rather stay on the main road, stay on the shorter path, stay on the faster route. When I take a detour, it’s usually because I have no other choice. The theme of our service today suggests that there are some detours that people are not forced to take. Some detours are ones that people choose. While you wouldn’t choose to add a couple hours of slow, frustrating driving to a trip home, you might choose one of these detours in life when it seems that the detour is an easier path, a path that doesn’t have as much pain or challenge to it. In fact, that’s what this sort of detour is. It is choosing an easier way, an easier path, instead of staying true to what God commands and teaches in his Word. All of today’s readings connect to that idea somehow, but the section before us from Philippians 3 and 4 speaks most directly to Christians about dealing with the temptation. None of the readings actually use the word detour, but all of them recognize a different way, a different path. Paul’s letter to the Philippians looks right at it and says, “Don’t go that way.” It tells us to walk this world as a citizen of heaven. Paul doesn’t use the word detour, but he talks about the way that enemies of the cross of Christ walk. And he makes it clear that the temptation to go that way is a real danger for the Philippians. He has warned them about it repeatedly. Now, he writes, that he is doing so while weeping. Could it be that some people who had once been a part of the church family of the Philippians had taken such a detour away from the faith? Paul was joyfully teaching the Philippians about the freedom that they had in Christ, but some may have been suggesting that freedom meant they were welcome to do all that they had done as pagans, all that the pagan people around them continued to do. About all who follow this path, Paul warns, Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite, and their glory is in their shame. People like this were pleased and proud of their sin. They saw the things that they did as badges of honor. They encouraged others to join in wickedness. Wickedness is exactly what such actions were. What those people were really doing was serving their own appetites. They made their appetite into their god. The things that they selfishly wanted, they pursued. To be clear, these were the things that their sinful natures wanted for them. The things that seem to bring pleasure and happiness. The things that avoid suffering and pain. The things that meet my desires now. Paul warns that their end is destruction. A detour like our I-10 diversion is meant to still get you to the same place. Sure, it took longer, but we got where we were going when we left Albuquerque. A detour into a life of sin ends in a very different place than the life of a Christian. The detour ends in destruction. It ends in hell. Really, that means that this life ends with an existence of suffering that doesn’t end. Paul points to his own life as a better pattern, one worth imitating. He instructs the believers to pay attention to those who, like him, are walking according to God’s Word. They are walking according to God’s will, since that is what God reveals in his Word. And Paul doesn’t just want them to observe his life and imitate it. He had taught them previously about the pattern they were to follow. He had taught them about living in love and serving others. He had taught them to focus on the needs and concerns of others above their own wishes and interests. Walking this world as a citizen of heaven means imitating