Superman may have died back in 1992, in the pages of DC Comics.

But now he's back, and he's stronger than ever.

Turn on the radio, and you'll hear contemporary songs about Superman. Punch your TV remote, and you can see the new and very popular series "Smallville." Superman's shield is now worn by the real stars of September 11 -- fire fighters and police officers.

Talk about your superheroes.

Of course, if you want to soar through the sky like a bird or a plane, you need to act like Clark Kent and put on a Superman suit. And this is not just a comic book fantasy -- scientists are actually hard at work on developing the necessary outfit.

According to Wired Magazine, a team at MIT has developed materials with properties closer to human muscles than anything yet seen. They believe that their innovative muscle material will be perfect for the anti-gravitational suits needed by fighter pilots, as well as for therapeutic and commercial devices.

The team has recently launched a company called Molecular Mechanisms to develop the technology. They expect to produce a variety of working prototypes that may even lay the foundation for a "superman suit" for the armed forces. Such a suit could enable soldiers to run, jump and lift to a nearly superhuman degree.

Now, as many of you know, I am not anxious for our armed forces to invade Iraq. I've made no secret of my belief that we need to build consensus as a nation and a world community before we take any military action. On this World Communion Sunday in particular, we are challenged to think of our Christian brothers and sisters around the world -- including fellow Christians in Iraq -- and ponder how our actions will affect them, before we stage any invasion.

But if we DO go in, it would be great for our troops to have the advantage of these superman suits, made of materials that are 100 times stronger than natural muscle. (David Cameron, "Artificial Muscles Gain Strength," Wired Magazine, February 15, 2002, www.techreview.com/articles/cameron021502.asp)

In fact, just about all of us would love to have this kind of strength. Not just physically … but emotionally, morally, spiritually. One of the most discouraging dimensions of day-to-day life is our ever-present human WEAKNESS. We collapse in exhaustion before our everyday tasks are finished, we break down emotionally when confronted by severe stress, we given in to temptation instead of showing moral strength, and we take the path of least resistance instead of the demanding road of dedicated discipleship.

None of us is a Superman ... or a Superwoman. We're human. We wobble and wear out, we fall down and mess up.

Even the superheroes of the Bible have serious limits to their strength. In today's lesson from Philippians, the apostle Paul looks back over his life and boasts, "If anyone has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless" (3:4b-6).

Circumcised, Israelite, Benjaminite, Hebrew, Pharisee, blameless -- that's a powerful package. For a Jew of the first century, he was a regular Man of Steel.

But as a Christian, Paul admits that "whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him" (vv. 7-9).

Paul is ready to jettison all of his old sources of strength in order to gain the "surpassing value" of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord. Knowing Christ, trusting Christ, and having faith in Christ has become the most important dimension of his life. Paul is willing to deep-six his membership in the tribe of Benjamin, his status as a purebred Hebrew, his accomplishments as a law-abiding Pharisee, his spotless record as a passionate persecutor of the early church -- trash them all in order to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. These qualities may have strengthened him in the past, he admits, but now he sees them as worthless, and he is ready to flush them all away.

In place of these old characteristics, Paul craves a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death," he says (v. 10).

Suddenly, Paul sounds suspiciously like Clark Kent, doesn't he? He's an ordinary man who dreams of extraordinary things -- the power of the resurrection and the sharing of his Lord's sufferings. Fortunately, for Paul and for us, this is no fantasy: We really CAN gain Christ and be found in him, we really can get wrapped up in our Savior through faith.

For Paul, and for each one of us, Jesus can be a Superman suit.

When we clothe ourselves with Christ, we trust our Lord to give us a whole new set of powers. Not the ability to run, jump and lift like a superhero, sailing over walls in a single bound, but instead the truly superhuman powers of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love, peacefulness and thankfulness (Colossians 3:12-15). When we clothe ourselves with our Savior's suit, we are protected not by synthetic muscles but by the whole armor of God: The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:13-17).

It's all about the outfit -- the Superman suit that is given to all who have faith in Jesus Christ.

As people who are empowered and protected by this extraordinary outfit, we have a mission to perform in this world. "I do not consider that I have made it my own," admits Paul to the Philippians, "but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). Paul presses on, like a Man of Steel on a mission, determined to live out everything that Christ has called him to do: To spread the truth, to fight for justice, to liberate the oppressed, to share the gospel, and to anticipate -- through it all -- the heavenly prize that is waiting for him at the end of his earthly mission.

The same is true for us, ordinary men and women who have been given an extraordinary power. We feel it when we hear God's Word, when we experience the Spirit's presence, when we receive the body and blood of Jesus in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. For those who believe, this meal contains nothing less than the power and the presence of our Risen Lord, a strength that helps us to leap any obstacle. As the apostle Paul discovered, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

I can do all things … through him who strengthens me. That's a super power. And it's available to all who have faith in Christ. Amen.

 

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