Jack Palance Theology

 

Text:  Philippians 3:4b-14

Theme:  "Jack Palance Theology"

Fifth Sunday in Lent

March 17, 2013

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

 

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in^[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us, in one way or another, have tried out "Frank Sinatra theology" before.  What is "Frank Sinatra theology"?  Well, you remember the signature song of Old Blue Eyes:  "My Way".

Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

It's not that my way or your way has always been wrong.  Sometimes my way or your way is right.  But if all we're left with is doing things my way and/or your way, then we quite forget about God's way.  So good, solid orthodox theology -- Bible-based, Gospel-centered theology -- exposes "Frank Sinatra theology" for the sham that it is.

A bit closer to the heart of things is what I'm going to call "Jack Palance theology".  He does a little bit better than old blue eyes!  Those of you who have celebrated a few anniversaries of your 39th birthday will remember Jack Palance.  He won an academy award for his role as Curly Washburn, the tough-as-nails trail boss, in the movie, City Slickers. A group of men from New York City, all going through some sort of mid-life crisis, head out  West to get away from it all.  They go on a trail ride, and the motion picture  presents all the entertaining hijinks that occur along the way. 

Now, Curly Washburn -- Jack Palance's character -- has a line in the screenplay that stands out above them all, and we'll get to that in a moment.  You probably already know what it is. 

What you might not remember is that when Mr. Palance wasn't making movies, he was occasionally on contract with Mennen.  Mennen, you'll recall, makes grooming supplies for men.  One product is called Skin Bracer.  It's this green liquid -- alcohol-based -- that you sort of slap on your face.  Palance did a commercial for Mennen Skin Bracer, and this is what he said:  "I don't need some fancy cologne to tell me that I'm a man.  I use Skin Bracer; it smells great.  But it also cools and tones my skin.  Confidence is very sexy.  Don't you think?"

Here we spot part one of Jack Palance theology:  confidence!  Oh, how great it is to be confident!  Perhaps it is even God-pleasing!  The virtues of confidence have been extolled for years.  Who wants to be a person who lacks it?  No one.  Better to be confident about God, confident about yourself, confident about your background,  confident about your plans, confident about your hopes, confident about your skills and abilities, confidence about you name it. 

Personally, I was much more confident when I was younger.  There I was in college and headed to grad school.  I felt ten foot tall and bullet-proof.  I was a confident man with a plan.  Now, after a few anniversaries of my own 39th birthday, my confidence has been tempered somewhat.  For example, I'm supremely confident that I can sit down and play chopsticks on the piano without a mistake.  There are some hymns -- even in the Presbyterian hymnal -- that I think I can play without a mistake.  But if you ask me to sit down at this beautifully-tuned instrument and play Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune, I have no confidence in that whatsoever.   Don't any of you dare to mention Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue either.  The only thing I'm confident about is that I would butcher it thoroughly.

Confidence waxes and wanes, doesn't it?

Needless to say, confidence is a whole lot more than slapping on some after shave.  What we want to know is what God says about it.  Today's New Testament reading from Philippians gives us a load of talk about confidence.  Better yet, it comes from a man who was just brimming with it.  It all but oozed from his pores.  

"If anyone thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more," says St. Paul.  So, first of all, we note that confidence is something you "put in" to something else.  In this case, he speaks of the flesh.  That was his term for the self.  In short, he's talking about self-confidence.  In terms of self-confidence, he's one hundred foot tall and machine gun proof!  No one holds a candle to him. Listen to him; he says:  "(I was) circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless."  "You want to vet me?" he seems to be asking.  "Go ahead; make my day.  See if you can dig up some dirt.  Good luck because you ain't gonna find any!"

In terms of his race and religion, he was the best of the best.  In terms of what motivated him -- his "zeal", he called it, no one could match him.  And, as far as his morals were concerned, he was without a fault. He was the fundamentalist's fundamentalist! Oh, he was bursting with self-confidence and pride, and he had the pedigree and the resume' to back it up.  He didn't need any Skin Bracer.

But then it happened.  God happened!  He plum got knocked off the huge pedestal he had created himself.  And he discovered that his confidence was no longer put in the flesh.  It was completely and thoroughly redirected. 

Listen to him:  "Whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ," he says.  His life was like a general ledger with its list of debits and credits.  At one point, the list of credits was long.  It was everything that made him confident about who he was and what he was doing.  There were no debits -- and if there were, they were too few, too few to mention. But now, what once were the credits were now the debits.  The credit list was vacated.  But it wasn't vacated for long.  He discovered that there was one item on his credit list now. 

What was that item?  Listen to his own words.  He called it the "surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."  That's the one thing.  And that one thing brought with it so much more.  It brought righteousness to him -- not the kind that you earn by being 100% right 100% of the time.  It's the righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ.

As a result, his life was redirected.  He would press on to more fully take hold of the Christ who took hold of him.  Christ taking hold of you:  that's faith! You pressing on to more fully take hold of Christ:  that's life, my friends, real life!

The Jack Palance character in City Slickers actually picked up on this a bit, and so we come to part two (the best part) of Jack Palance theology!  They're out there riding along on their horses.  Billy Crystal's character, one of the New Yorkers with a mid-life crisis, is talking to Curly Washburn about the problems in his marriage.  Finally, Curly slows down his horse and looks Billy Crystal in the eye.  He says:  "Do you know what the secret of life is?"  Crystal replies:  "No.  What?"  Curly then holds up one finger and says  "This."  Crystal says:  "Your finger?"  Curly says:  "One thing.  Just one thing.  You stick to that and everything else don't mean (a four-letter word meaning excrement)."  Crystal says:  "That's great, but what's the one thing?"  "That's what you've got to figure out," replies Curly.

By the grace of God, St. Paul had that one thing figured out.  It was -- and is! -- the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus the Lord.  He knew that the love of God in Christ had taken hold of him. It changed him.  It's the same power that changes us -- and continues to change us -- so that we can press on to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.  That's pretty good theology.  It's a lot of good news for you and me -- today and every day!  Amen.