Celebrating Contentment

We come to the conclusion today of Paul’s thank you note to the church at Philippi. Remember Paul is in prison, which meant that he was dependent on friends to care for him. The church at Philippi sent Epaphroditus with a care package – food and money, maybe clothes or hygiene items. Paul needed them, and he is grateful for them and likely to need more. Afterall, during his years of ministry Paul spent nearly a quarter of the time in prison. The Philippians have been leaders in supporting Paul, and he is grateful…and careful not to take advantage of their devotion or become the object of their devotion. Which leads to a bit of an awkward end to the thank you note.
Remember, writes Paul, you were the first congregation to support my missionary journeys, and for a while the only. When Paul left Philippi and traveled the 100 miles or so to Thessalonica, several times the church at Philippi sent support for Paul. Then, Paul is careful, “Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit which increases to your credit.” This is not about me, Paul is saying. Your offerings are not because we are friends. They are about you dedicating your resources to ministry that bears fruit. This is the offering God wants; this is a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

“I am good,” says Paul, “I am good if I have little; I am good if I have plenty, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have.” Contentment does not come naturally for us. We are, by nature, discontent. The allure of more dangled in front of Eve from the tree in the Garden of Eden. We were created with longing for something. A space within us that needs to be filled, that gnaws at us. We all have it. We all try to fill it. There’s a whole field of study trying to understand it – it’s called advertising. The goal of advertising is to inform, to persuade, and to remind…to inform you that there is a gap, a hole that needs to be filled, to persuade you that what they are advertising can fill the hole, and to remind you of your desire to fill that hole.

I clicked on an interesting article this week, “34 Things You Probably Didn’t Know Existed Yesterday and Now Might Not Be Able To Live Without Today.” Turns out – there were some interesting things. A pistachio pedestal – so you can put your pistachios in the center, raised tray and your empty shells in the tray below. A temperature controlled smart mug that you control with an app on your phone – it sounded useful, until I saw that it is $100. Of course, I looked at every item, reading about what it did, considering whether I “needed” it. I didn’t need any of it. If I had sat down to make a list of things I wanted, I would not have had any of the things in this article on my list. And yet, I am still trying to figure out whether I could possibly use any of them.

The average person sees between 280-310 advertisements a day. 310 ways you can fill that nagging longing for something more. So, we buy gadgets and goofy things like a picnic table for a squirrel – with little red solo cups to put peanuts in. The problem isn’t that we buy this stuff. It’s that we believe this stuff will fill that longing. Paul knows it won’t – he’s thankful they took up an offering, thankful for the food, but he knows it is temporary and will run out, and he’ll still be in prison.

But, he’s learned to be content there. Our natural inclination when we find ourselves in circumstances that are crummy is to try to fill that gap between what we think ought to be and what is. Chris and I met with the doctor on a Tuesday afternoon and learned that not only did I have cancer, but it was aggressive and I would need a double mastectomy and chemo as the first steps in fighting it. On Saturday, we headed to Orlando with the kids for a week. It was a natural reaction, to escape, to spend time while I still felt healthy with the kids at the Happiest Place on Earth. We couldn’t stay there, and we couldn’t escape forever. When we got back, I had to learn to be content. How would I allow God to use me and the circumstances I was in? I started a devotional blog, “Through the Stained Glass Window,” of my journey through cancer and faith. Paul’s ministry continues even in prison. He doesn’t allow it to put his life on hold. Whatever his circumstances, Paul allows God to use him. His purpose is the same – to spread the Gospel. And in prison, he sees he has the opportunity to spread the Gospel to the guards and other prisoners. From our perspective, we see how Paul’s time in prison resulted in letters that are still teaching and shaping the church.

The original hearers, the Philippians when they gathered to listen to Paul’s letter, would have heard another layer than we hear. The word we translate “content” in Greek was a term related to the Stoics, and to philosophers like Seneca who were contemporaries of Paul. To learn to be content also meant to learn to be differentiated. Paul had learned the wisdom of relationships based on shared values and interests rather than on need. Paul is not friends with the Philippians because they send offerings. Paul is saying, “While I am thankful for your gifts, our relationship does not depend on you meeting my needs.”

Paul has learned the secret to happiness, the missing piece to the puzzle of wholeness, he’s found the key to unlock contentment – “God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

It sounds nice, but what does that mean? God will satisfy every need you have. And then something about “according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” It might be easier to understand what it does not mean, first.

Paul knows that it does not mean that he will have all the material things he wants, or even the things he needs. Paul could very well starve to death in prison. There is no promise that God will bless you with a house, a car, a job, food, clothes or anything else you need…and certainly not anything else you want…because you are a good person or because you are faithful or because of anything you might do. God is not a vending machine. Worshiping God, serving God, obeying God, following Jesus…none of these are payment to get out of God what you want.

Paul knows it does not mean that he will be released from prison. He knows he may very well be executed. There is no promise that God will bless you with circumstances of life that are smooth sailing. In fact, Scripture says “It rains on the just and the unjust.” Life has storms for all of us. Worshiping God, serving God, obeying God, following Jesus…none of these are an insurance policy against the storms of life.

Paul knows that contentment does not come from relationships based on needing one another, on one person being alpha and the other catering to them, on hierarchical or dominating or controlling relationships. Throughout the thank you note, Paul addresses the church as “siblings” – we tend to translate it either brethren, or brothers, or brothers and sisters, but the word in Greek really means siblings. We are all children of God. Brothers and sisters in Christ. No one is better, no one is closer to God, no one’s prayers are more listened to or more effective than any other’s, all are meant to serve one another in mutuality.

Paul knows that this earthly satisfactions are at best fleeting, but the glory attained for us in Christ Jesus, the riches of reconciliation with God and glory of God’s presence, the hole we were born with? The one we were created with? It was meant to be there. So that we would search, so that we would long for the one who could fill it.

So that we would be able to affirm with celebration our contentment that “The Lord IS my shepherd, and I shall not want for anything more. The Lord provides what I need, in green pastures the Lord makes me lie down and he leads me beside still waters (sheep only lie down when they are safe and they prefer to drink from water that is not moving), rest and renewal, security and peace. The Lord restores my soul and leads me in paths that are righteous so that through me, the Lord is glorified, praised because of how I live my life. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because you are with me. Even though I might not have enough – I might be hungry or homeless or without medicine – even though I might face terrible circumstances – I will have storms in my life, and I will die – I will not fear that evil will be able to take over in those circumstances and cause me to turn from you, because you are with me. You prepare a Table, a feast, for me in the presence of my enemies, right here in the midst of the rain, in the shadow of the valley, in the trials of my life…you set a banquet table to celebrate me because I am yours, and so you anoint me, you choose – me – and my cup overflows. The hole that I was created with, the longing for something more, is full to overflowing. Surely my whole life long I will be pursued, chased down, by your tov and hesed.

Tov – goodness, but not just any “good”ness, the “good”ness of God speaking “Let there be light” and declaring the light “Tov” It is good. It is as God desires it to be.

And Hesed – loving kindness, God’s favor, God’s “Yes.” In the words of 20th Century Reformed theologian Karl Barth, “Jesus is the eternal “yes” of God to humankind. God is “for” us.

Therefore, with Paul, we are able to celebrate contentment, knowing that we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us by showing us with his very life that God is “for” us, pursuing us to fill our longing, with life as God desires it to be.