Padding Your Résumé 6-9-07
Galatians 1:11-24
When I was with La-Z-Boy, one of my duties was to hire the staff for my store— salespeople, office staff, warehouse workers and drivers. Now, most of the time, people would just come in to the store and fill out an application and I would have to derive their qualifications, level of education and past work history from that. But occasionally, someone would come in really prepared and hand me a resume along with their application. They wanted their potential employer to know everything about them before the interview process began— not only their level of education and past work history but also their career goals and maybe some personal information. Resumes are very helpful in identifying the right candidates for a particular job. I would look over the resumes, look at the applicant’s qualifications, the types and number of different jobs they had over the years, and determine if I wanted to call them in for an interview or if their application and resume should wind up in round file. Some of the resumes I looked at were quite interesting, the different jobs people had or their life experiences, but they no where near as entertaining as the ones I ran across a few days ago. Some people really should enlist the aid of a proof reader before handing out their resumes because these are actual examples of what recruiting executive Robert Half calls “resumania.” Again, these are from actual resumes:
- When leaving call back information- “Please call after 5:30 p.m. because I am self-employed and my employer does not know I am looking for another job.
- When touting one’s own strengths- “I am very “conscientions” and “accurite.”
- Other assets one could bring to a job- “I am also a notary republic.”
- Showing a willingness to move- “My consideration will be given to relocation anywhere in the English-speaking world and/or Washington, D.C.”
- Under physical disabilities: “Minor allergies to house cats and Mongolian sheep.”
- And reasons given for leaving the last job: “the company made me a scapegoat- just like my previous three employers did.” (Business Times- http://net.bible.org/illustration.php?topic=466)
Obviously, these people were not applying for the job of rocket scientist.
Many people pad their resumes for a variety of reasons— they want to show that they are more educated than they really are, they want to show that they have more experience than they really do, or because they want their prospective employers to think that they are eminently qualified for a certain position— that they are experts and the ultimate authority in their particular field. And to some people, Paul’s words to the church in Galatia almost sound as if he’s trying to pad his resume— trying to make the people think he’s more qualified to speak about the Christ than anyone else. But, he does this in kind of a weird way— in order to make himself look good, he writes about what a scumbag he was. He almost sounds like he is bragging about his zealous persecution of the Christians. And, I guess in some respects, he is. But, some people still have a problem with Paul. They just can’t get past their impression of Paul as a braggart, as someone who always seems to want to call attention to himself. They look at the last line of this passage and point to it as evidence that Paul thinks it’s all about him, “And they praised God because of me.” Paul often sounds like he is bragging on himself, doesn’t he? — how holy and wonderful he is, especially in comparison to the churches he is writing to. And, I guess Paul could have worded this last line differently and said something like, “And they praised God because of what God did through me.” Maybe that would make some of Paul’s writings more palatable for some— if he would at least appear to give God the credit rather than take it himself.
You know, you don’t normally tell people how rotten you were if you are trying to win them over. But, God knew what Paul had done, his contempt for those Jews who thought is was no longer necessary to follow the Law of Moses// and God called Paul anyway. In fact, Paul’s past treatment of Christians, and the forgiveness that he received for that persecution, actually made him uniquely qualified to spread God’s message of redemption through Jesus the Christ. I mean, if someone with his credentials in the Jewish community could be forgiven for everything he did, people might begin to think that there’s something to this Jesus guy after all. Paul felt the power and the presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, in spite of his brutal past. His words would carry some weight with the people.
But, I think we must look at the overall tone of what Paul is writing rather than the individual statements he makes. I don’t think Paul really cares if we think he is arrogant or a braggart. I think he is primarily concerned that his overall message gets through. Having said that, I think it’s pretty clear that Paul is actually lamenting his past life of being “extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” He is ashamed that his obsession with the traditions and institutions of the Temple actually prevented him from hearing the message of hope and love that was to be found in the life death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. And I think, in this passage of scripture, Paul is more concerned that the church in Galatia, and the church everywhere, does not fall back into the same trap of thinking the law of humans is paramount to faith in God and Jesus the Christ— that the traditions and institutions of religion mean nothing in comparison to the overall message of salvation found in faith in Jesus the Christ. To that end, Paul tells them over and over again, almost to the point of overkill, that the words he speaks, the gospel he is preaching, is not his own but rather it has been given to him by God, “I want you to know that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” Paul is telling the Galatians, “Guys, you can’t make this stuff up. This message is bigger than any single human being and it is meant for all people and God is using me to share it with the world.”
I also think Paul is telling the Galatians that they have been called to preach the gospel as well. By admitting to his malevolent past, Paul is saying that everyone, not only the super-holy, not just people ordained by the church to do so, but everyone who accepts Jesus as Lord and savior of the world has a responsibility to tell others about the peace and joy that they have found because of faith in Jesus Christ. Paul did just that in Syria and Cilicia, he shared his faith. And, the people there saw that God can and will forgive even the most despicable person and give even them the hope of salvation. The people in Syria and Cilicia saw the transformation that had taken place in Paul because of his new found faith in Jesus Christ, and they praised God.
In this scripture, Paul was not trying to pad his resume to show his authority to the Galatians. He didn’t have to. In spite of everything he had done in the past, Paul had been forgiven and given the authority to share the gospel by Christ himself. Many of us may have done things, that we would consider, just as ruthless, just as abhorrent as the things Paul did. But, somewhere along the road of life, Christ called us too. Some of us may never have expected to be forgiven or feel the love of God in our hearts, but one day we turned around// and there was God, ready and willing to accept us just as we were and ready and willing to give us the authority to tell the world what new life in Christ has meant to us. if you have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of the world, know that you have been called by God to tell the world of the good news of Jesus the Christ, that God loves them so much that God sent his only son to give us all the promise of eternal life in paradise. You don’t have to pad your resume. You don’t have to have a seminary degree or be ordained by the church. You just have to share your faith— share the joy you feel knowing that God is a part of your life, share the confidence you have that even though you may have done things in the past that may cause people to question your character, you have been forgiven. And when you do, others may praise God for what God did through you.
