I don’t know how many of you know this, but my favorite movie for many years was the late 80s classic, “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” My freshman year of high school, my best friend and I would walk the halls quoting the entire script. We knew every word, every action, every song. We loved the movie so much that we wrote a parody movie entitled, “Don and Ed’s Bodacious Odyssey Through Time.” Creative, I know. Suffice it to say, the script was terrible and never made it to the big screen…or to any screen for that matter. When the sequel, “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey” was released on my fifteenth birthday in 1991, I made sure I was there in the theaters for opening night. When the third movie came out in 2020, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, my family and I went to see it at the drive-in. After all of these years, I can still quote a significant amount of the movie’s dialogue. Throughout the movie, Bill and Ted seem particularly fond of one word: Excellent.

In a key moment, when Bill and Ted are put on the spot and must say something inspirational, Bill puts one hand over his chest and raises the other in the air and says, “Be excellent to each other.” That has become the most famous line from that movie. I even have a T-shirt with that line on it. “Be excellent to each other.” That line is repeated over and over in all three movies. It represents what Bill and Ted’s legacy is supposed to be, bringing about world peace. “Be excellent to each other.”

This week, we are appreciating “whatever is excellent.” In order to do that, we have to know what “excellent” means. If I were to ask you for some synonyms of the word excellent, what would you say? Yeah. We might say good or great or outstanding, maybe even superb or sublime. Given those definitions, what might it mean to be “excellent” to each other? What would it look like to be outstanding to each other? In the context of the Bill and Ted movies, it seems to mean being kind and compassionate, and living peaceably with one another. So, is that what Paul means in Philippians 4:8 when he tells us to appreciate whatever is excellent? Is that what Peter means in his second letter when he tells us to support our faith with excellence? I would wager that the answer to those questions is yes, but I’d like to add a bit of depth and context to that answer.

First, I’d like to look at the word that both Paul and Peter use in Greek that has been translated as “excellence.” The word is areté, which means “excellence” or “virtue”, specifically virtue that is displayed to enrich life. I think a lot of times when we use the word virtue, we think about the ideals that are sometimes called the seven cardinal virtues. These are basically designed to counter what we know as the seven deadly sins. Do you think you could name the seven deadly sins? Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, wrath, and pride. So, what would be the opposite of those then? The opposite of lust would be? Chastity. The opposite of gluttony? Temperance. The opposite of greed? Charity. The opposite of sloth…diligence. The opposite of envy…kindness. The opposite of wrath…patience. And the opposite of pride? Humility. So, if we are defining excellence as striving to live out these seven virtues, then appreciating whatever is excellent would seem to be about appreciating obedience to those virtues.

I’d like to suggest a little different take on that, but first I think a little context for Paul and for Peter might be helpful. Paul was writing to the church in Philippi. Paul first encountered the Philippians when he followed a vision in a dream calling him to Macedonia and ended up docking in Philippi. There Paul met Lydia and a group of women praying by the river. They welcomed him, and he shared the gospel with them. When Paul wrote his letter to them, they were still a young church. He wrote to them to thank them for the support they had been providing him, but he was also concerned about the challenges facing the Philippian church. As a Roman city on a busy trade route, Philippi was a very diverse community. Paul’s deepest concerns for the church were unity and humility. His list of characteristics to appreciate were things that would aid in that unity and humility.

Peter’s second letter seems to be written to a church facing the threat of persecution and the influence of false teachers. Scholars think that Peter was probably writing to believers spread throughout Asia Minor. Their communities may have been small and disconnected, leaving them vulnerable to being led astray. Peter’s focus on standing firm and living fruitful lives.

Given these contexts, what might Paul and Peter have meant when they used the word areté/excellence? Now, you may have noticed that the NRSV translation of the Bible that we read from this morning translated areté in 2 Peter as “goodness” rather than excellence. Does that better define what Peter meant? What Paul says is, “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” If there is any excellence, think about these things. Should this one be translated as goodness, too?

Goodness is an okay translation, but this is not goodness for the sake of our own personal righteousness. We’re not talking about being good in order to get into heaven. For Paul and for Peter, this was a goodness that had the wider community in mind. For Paul, this was a goodness that would unite a diverse group of people, a goodness that would keep us humble by lifting others up. For Peter, this was a goodness that connected people across long distances with a common purpose and a common faith, a goodness that encouraged each other toward fruitful living.

In the present day church, we hear a lot of talk about personal virtue, about living lives that abide by certain rules in order to avoid death and achieve entry into eternal life. Excellence has become a goal for us to strive for through righteous living. We want to be more chaste, more humble, more diligent, more temperate, more patient and kind, more generous, not so much because those things will help others, but because that kind of living will get us to heaven. Many times we want to be all of those things in order to feel better than others. I’m way more generous than him. She’s such a glutton. I give far more money to the church than he does. Excellence can become a way to compare ourselves to others.

But excellence SHOULD be about the way we enrich the lives of others. Am I an encouragement to those who are struggling? Am I generous in ways that bless others? Do I treat others with kindness? Am I making the world (at least in some small way) better than it was? Do I love my neighbors, not only in word, but in deed?

I want to do something a little different this morning. As an action step, I wanted to encourage you to think about people you’ve encountered or encounter regularly who’ve impacted your life in a positive way. This could be anything from a smile shared with you by your cashier at Target to a person who saved your life. I wanted to have you think about those people and then make an effort to thank them in some way. And I still would encourage you to do that. But I want to do something right now, right here. If you’re willing, I’d like you to share very briefly about one person who made an impact in your life in the past week, someone who made your life a little bit better. It doesn’t have to be anything big, but I invite you to share about that person.

(Leave space for sharing.)

Let me share with you one of my experiences this week. It was a small thing, but it brightened my day. On Monday morning, I met up with a friend for coffee at a local coffee shop. April and I used to go to this coffee shop somewhat regularly and got to know some of the baristas that worked there. But it had been quite a while since I’d been there. So, I came in, got my coffee, sat and visited with my friend, and when I was heading for the door to leave, one of the baristas, who I hadn’t seen when I came into the shop, shouted out to me, “Have a good day, Jeff!” She remembered my name. It had been months since I’d visited the shop, but she remembered me. It was a small thing, but it had an impact on me.

Appreciate whatever is excellent, those things that build up the community, things that unite rather than divide, things that lift others up rather than pulling them down, things that make the world a better place, if even for just a moment. Appreciate these things and seek to create your own excellence in the world, so that others will talk about the impact you had on their lives. If we all did that, imagine what our world would look like. Amen!