ISAIAH 25:1-9
PSALM 23
PHILIPPIANS 4:4-13
MATTHEW 22:1-14
Sermon – October 9,
2005
Sometimes
people wonder if there really are, in the vast, complex book called The Bible,
phrases or sentences which are short enough to be easily memorized and valuable
enough that someone would want to memorize them. There certainly are a number and, in
addition to Psalm 23, worth committing to memory in their entirety. This morning’s Epistle is packed with them. You may want to save this morning’s service
leaflet, which has the scriptures on its back, and underline or highlight those
phrases you find especially meaningful.
Put it on your refrigerator, in your purse or briefcase or pocket or
wherever you might see it often. This
passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians is a “keeper.” And here are three sentences I especially
encourage you to “keep”, and memorize:
“Rejoice in the Lord always.”
“I have learned to be content with
whatever I have.”
“I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.”
First, “Rejoice
in the Lord always.” In the midst of a
world which is full of sadness as well as happiness, dangers as well as
delights, grave risks as well as rewards, God is the one upon whom we can always
count. Christ understands all about
risks, dangers and sadness and promises to be with us and for us
through thick and thin. Nothing in all
creation is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And Christ celebrates our good times with
us, too, and offers them added depth and meaning if we listen to his guidance
throughout our lives.
Therefore, we
can rejoice in the Lord always, whatever the circumstances of our lives.
This is in
contrast with the ethos of self-centered materialism, which finds nothing and
no one to take joy in unless one’s own health is perfect and bank account flush
with cash, on the theory that there are no other measuring sticks in
life. A believer can rejoice in
the Lord whatever his or her current circumstances, because God’s love
never fails and God’s ultimate victory over all sin and suffering is secure.
St. Paul did
not write those words while relaxing in a recliner in a posh office while a
tenured professor of deep thoughts at some ivy-covered university. He wrote them while he was in prison,
charged with promoting Christianity (and disturbing the peace and the existing,
oppressive, idolatrous social order).
Paul suffered years of hardships as he promoted the Gospel, and
eventually he was executed by the Roman Emperor, Nero. Yet, with deep conviction and the sincerity
which came from practicing what he preached, he advised the Christians of
Philippi – and us – to “Rejoice in the Lord always.”
Paul doesn’t
mean we should masochistically rejoice in suffering – although if it’s
suffering in the cause of Christ and/or while loving others in challenging
circumstances we might rejoice, as many Christians have before us, that we were
found worthy to suffer for the sake of Christ.
Paul means for us to focus on Christ, and rejoice in him
– his love, his triumph over evil and death, his wisdom and strength offered to
us. In any and all circumstances, we
can “rejoice in the Lord.” Let’s memorize that one.
“I have
learned to be content with whatever I have,” Paul writes. He continues, “I know what it is to have
little, and I know what it is to have plenty.
In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed
and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.”
“Contentment”
is a concept which horrifies self-centered materialism, which is forever urging
us to spend more, acquire more, get further in debt, on the theory that
“contentment” is either unimaginable, inexplicable, or bad for the economy and
therefore unpatriotic! “Buy, buy, buy,
for me, me, me” is the cry in the thousands of ads that assail us by every
available medium.
Paul would
say that western culture – we can’t call it Christian culture – has made an
idol out of money. I agree. Individuals – and the Federal government –
have over-extended themselves in the aggregate in this country. The worship of money has produced a “storm
surge” of spending – with way too much “creative financing” and credit card use
– which will leave a residue of debt as insidious as the mold which is taking
over much of New Orleans and making so many homes uninhabitable.
A critique
of the thesis that “money is the measure of well-being” has made it into the
pages of The New York Times recently, I was fascinated to see, and given
that the Politically Correct crowd doesn’t have much interest in Christianity
(aside from its scandals and intramural controversies) and Christianity’s
critique of western culture, it didn’t surprise me that the critique reported
in last Tuesday’s “Science Times” was essentially a Buddhist one.
“What is
happiness?” Andrew C. Revkin writes “In
the United States and in many other industrialized countries, it is often
equated with money... The gross
domestic product, or G.D.P., is routinely used as shorthand for the well being
of a nation.” [I would say it’s used as
that by materialists, but the Times assumes those are the only
people whose “shorthand” matters.]
“But the
small Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan has been trying out a different idea. In 1972, concerned about the problems
afflicting other developing countries that focused only on economic growth,
Bhutan’s newly crowned leader, King Jigme Singye Wargchuk, decided to make his
nation’s priority not its G.D.P. but its G.N.H. or gross national happiness.”
“Bhutan, the
King said, needed to ensure that prosperity was shared across society and that
it was balanced against preserving cultural traditions, protecting the
environment and maintaining a responsive government.”
Lest anyone
think this approach means no “progress” or nothing that can be objectively
measured, Bhutan has gone from having “no public education system in 1960” to
having schools, at all levels all over the country, and the average life
expectancy – a key measure of public health – rose from 47 years to 66 years
between 1984 and 1998.
Moreover,
surveys taken all over the world show that there is not a direct
correlation between income and self-described “happiness” by societies. While the “unhappiest” societies all had
below average incomes, after a certain level of income, other factors mattered
more in happiness than money. The
United States ranked second in Gross National Product per person among
countries and territories surveyed – and 14th in the self-described
happiness of its people, behind, among others, Nigeria, El Salvador, Colombia,
Ireland, Mexico, and the world leader, Puerto Rico. All countries with far less wealth than America.
Are we
missing something?
I think the
Buddhists are far closer to Christianity than western materialists. I’d love to have asked the Dalai Lama about
this passage from Paul. Failing that,
let’s ask ourselves! Is contentment a radical position in 21st
century America?
Let me cite
my friend Fr. Harold Roberts, Rector of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer,
Biloxi, Mississippi. His rectory was on
Beach Blvd. in Biloxi. There’s a
foundation slab still there. His
church’s building stood on Water Street in Biloxi. There’s a foundation slab still there. I don’t want to in any way belittle the loss of special things
with special memories, which was cataclysmic, nor the trauma and
dislocation. But when I finally was
able to reach him after cell phone service was restored three-and-a-half weeks
after hurricane Katrina, he mainly expressed thanksgiving. He and his wife are alive and as well as can
be. There were no fatalities in his
congregation. His people are holding
onto each other, rejoicing in each other’s aliveness, worshiping and serving
together, determined to move forward although there are huge problems and great
uncertainties.
He and they
have life, faith and community. Therefore, what they suffered was a
disaster. To a materialist, the loss of
possessions would have been a catastrophe.
There’s a big difference.
Thinking
about the Gulf Coast puts acquisitiveness in perspective. And we glean some understanding of the
attitude of the people going into this disaster if we know that, historically,
the most generous financial stewardship in the Episcopal Church has been in the
South and that the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast (Southern Alabama and
extreme Western Florida) has often had the highest average household giving in
the country.
New Jersey,
which has the highest median income of any state, trails every
state in the South in giving – in absolute numbers, and therefore trails the
South by even more – in percentage giving.
It seems that Episcopalians in the South didn’t “buy” the idea that
their money was just for personal consumption; they have a culture of
generosity already.
Maybe life,
faith and community are values we can lift up as Christians here in
this, far more affluent part of the country.
And perhaps one secret of that is Paul’s wondrous serenity; “I have learned to be content.” “Stuff” is not essential. And having more stuff, beyond the
essentials, will not necessarily lead to more happiness, more serenity, or more
contentment. Maybe Bhutan – and
Mississippi – have something to teach us. Certainly Paul does. And
Paul, remember, was also raised with those radical words of the 23rd
Psalm, which one rendering puts as “The Lord is my Shepherd; I have everything
I need.”
Which leads
us to today’s final fabulous phrase from Paul: “I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me.” Just as we
shouldn’t obsess about what we don’t have materially, we also shouldn’t get
ourselves depressed by concentrating on the abilities we don’t think we have,
but on those we do, and on the wondrous possibilities that are before us
if we truly believe that “we can do all things” – all good things –
“through Christ who strengthens us.”
Joy. Contentment. Strength. That’s a “package” many people seek. They
can’t be bought, though many people will try to sell them to us! God offers them to us, and then
invites us to be contagious and share them. That’s a large part of why churches were invented: to help
people learn about, receive and share the gifts of God.
This month
you’re going to hear a lot about stewardship.
Today we start with “The Stewardship of ideas” – the Parish Survey. Everyone’s opinions and suggestions count. Next week, we’ll expand our focus to the
stewardship of Time and Talent – offering many ways for people of different
ages and situations to affirm life,
faith and community by sharing the time and the talents that God gave
them. And on October 23rd
we’ll start confronting the idolatry of money itself by starting to make
financial pledges to our shared work affirming life, faith and community, together as a congregation. Pledging scandalizes materialists, because
pledging affirms that we believe life, faith and community to be more important
than an extra batch of “stuff” the “pushers” are trying to sell us.
The way we
can be good and generous givers of ideas, time, talent and treasure and “build
for a new generation”, as our theme is this year, is by learning about,
receiving and sharing the gifts of God
to us, which are free, - and priceless.
Joy. Contentment. Strength. There’s our “three course meal” for today.
(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard
St. Barnabas Episcopal Church