Philippians 4:10-20

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In October, I officiated two weddings on back to back weekends. I will admit that performing weddings has not always been one of my favorite things. Throughout my career, I have learned that at the wedding rehearsal it doesn’t matter how many times you tell people what the order of the service is, when to walk down the aisle, or where to stand, when it comes to the day of the wedding, everyone forgets everything.

As much as I enjoy getting invited to the rehearsal dinner, it is rare that I know anyone in the extended family or friends that have gathered together for that meal and I am almost always assigned to sit as the odd person out between Aunt Frida and Uncle Giuseppe, because if they’re at the pastor’s table, they have to be on their best behavior.

Can you imagine anything more exciting to do with a Friday night than to play referee between relatives that you don’t know and will never see again?

Before I was married, I never really enjoyed performing marriages, but after back to back weddings I told Irene, my wife, something’s changed and I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I like weddings now.

There is so much hope and joy at the start of a wedding ceremony. It is a sacrament, a sacred moment. The family starts to be escorted in, there are children that you have to strain to see and those children either sit down in the middle of the isle with their flowers and rings, or they sprint to show everyone how fast they are. The wedding party starts to come in and that’s when the anticipation goes into overdrive. You know it is just a matter of moments before you see two people that love each other stand before family and friends to say “I do”.

After the wedding party has found their place, there is a pause in the prelude, and if there is an organist at the service, this is a very special moment, because do you know what they’re doing with the organ?

Pulling out all the stops.

Not really all of them, organists do have to pull out the stops when they play.

As the music begins, there is this moment before the moment. We know exactly what is going to happen and we are excited, we are grateful, there is so much joy in this moment and we can hardly believe that we get to be a part of it, so the wedding march plays we stay seated, cross our arms, and stair straight ahead.

In that moment, we rise, we stand, we join in the joy. If you are married, in that moment you think back to your wedding day and you squeeze your partner’s hand, if you’re widowed you know how precious this moment is, if you’re divorced you might have some complicated feelings because you know that nothing vows aren’t always a guarantee, and yet even with all the messy feelings that you experience in this moment, you have joy and hope for the couple, so you stand and celebrate with them.

Think about other ways that we celebrate with one another. During this pandemic I can’t imagine sharing a toast with others, but it is something I am looking forward too. My nephew, Sebastian, lives in Boston, and Sebastian loves a toast, or as we sometimes call it, cheer cheer. It doesn’t matter the occasion, if Sebastian wants to spreed cheer with his apple juice, you make a toast and clink your glasses together.

In the presence of that kind of joy, we will go out of our way to give everyone a chance to join in that cheer. We don’t sit back, we raise our glass and say with a toddler and their apple juice, cheer cheer.

I would walk to Boston to be able to do that.

And let’s say we take a trip to Boston next summer after everything has, hopefully, settled down. We’re in Boston, it’s the summer, why wouldn’t we make the time to take in a game at Fenway? We get our peanuts and cracker jacks, we watch the game, we stick around for the seventh-inning stretch, but then something interesting happens in the middle of the eighth inning.

You recognize the song, but you can’t figure out why a song that isn’t about Boston, written by someone that’s not a local, and has nothing to do with baseball is being played. But the tune plays on and even the most cynical Bostonian starts to hum along to Neil Diamond and then sings from the top of their lungs, “Sweet Caroline, ba ba baaa”.

Do you join in the song?

Even if you’re a Yankees fan, the next time that chorus comes around you’re going to sing, ‘ba ba baaa’.

At the start of the wedding, whether you stand or not, the celebration has started and is going to continue. In the middle of the eighth inning at Fenway, it doesn’t matter if the Red Sox are ahead or behind, they are going to sing Sweet Caroline, and when a child comes up to you with a box of apple juice and says cheer cheer, you have a choice to make, will I receive and participate in and add to this joy, or not.

At Grace, we have devoted five months to the four chapters that make up Paul’s prison letter to the Philippians. We will be wrapping everything up next week and so, for the second to the last time, I’m going to invite you to open your Bible to Philippians, chapter four. If you don’t have a Bible, please let us know and we will get one to you.

Paul writes, beginning in verse 10 of chapter 4:

I was very glad in the Lord because now at last you have shown concern for me again. (Of course you were always concerned but had no way to show it.) I’m not saying this because I need anything, for I have learned how to be content in any circumstance. I know the experience of being in need and of having more than enough; I have learned the secret to being content in any and every circumstance, whether full or hungry or whether having plenty or being poor. I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength. Still, you have done well to share my distress. You Philippians know from the time of my first mission work in Macedonia how no church shared in supporting my ministry except you. You sent contributions repeatedly to take care of my needs even while I was in Thessalonica. I’m not hoping for a gift, but I am hoping for a profit that accumulates in your account. I now have plenty and it is more than enough. I am full to overflowing because I received the gifts that you sent from Epaphroditus. Those gifts give off a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice that pleases God. My God will meet your every need out of [God’s] riches in the glory that is found in Christ Jesus. Let glory be given to God our [Creator] forever and always. Amen.

There is a lot going on in this passage – Paul writes about gladness and finding contentment, but Paul also writes about distress and loss, about struggles that have been shaped by a partnership, a way of sharing with one another no matter what comes our way, there a giving and receiving, a sharing of grace and peace, that gives glory to God.

As much as it might seem like Paul is jumping from one idea to another, there is something more going on here. Themes and ideas and hopes that we have seen throughout this letter to the Philippians are starting to be tied together, so let’s walk through this passage together and start to see what Paul is up to, because if we can see it, it’s like we’re standing at a wedding, singing ‘Sweet Caroline’ and rising our glasses with one another.

Paul writes, “I have learned the secret to being content in any and every circumstance” and in Greek the word that is used in this passage is αὐτάρκης (autarkēs). The prefix autos means self and the suffix arkes comes from the Greek word for sufficient.

Just on a linguistic level, saying, “I have learned the secret of being self-sufficient” is a lot less inspiring than, “I have learned the secret of being content…”

But we know that Paul is not writing this letter because he is an isolated individualist. In our passage today, Paul writes, “I am full to overflowing because I received the gifts that you sent from Epaphroditus.” We can never forget that this is a prison letter, and in the Roman prison system, you didn’t eat unless you had friends on the outside to pay for your meals. This letter to the Philippians is, in part, a thank you note because without their gift, Paul would have starved.

Paul is writing this letter because he is anything but self-sufficient, so there has to be something else going on here.

The letter continues with Paul writing, “I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength” Strength in this passage is ἐνδυναμοῦντί (endynamounti). The root of this word is fantastic because it is δύναμαι dýnamai, curiously similar to the word English word dynamite. There is this dynamic power and strength that Paul says comes from the one who gives it to him, which means it’s not something that Paul can claim for himself.

There is an interesting dynamic at play here, because Paul is writing about contentment and about a kind of self-sufficiency but that self-sufficiency and contentment expressed in a thank you note to the Philippians that provided Paul with something he could not give himself.

Paul has some reason to claim self-sufficiency. Throughout Paul’s life and ministry he was imprisoned, shipwrecked, chased out of town, he did not always know how to win friends and influence people. In all of Paul’s experience of being in need and in the experience of having more than enough, Paul has found contentment, there has been a level of self-sufficiency, and finding his own way forward but this self-sufficiency comes not from Paul’s own strength, but from the the power of the one, the God, that gives Paul this dynamic endurance, and in addition to that, Paul thanks the Philippians for their gift and support.

How would you diagram that?

There is this continual movement of independence defined by interdependence, this movement of giving and receiving shapAs we read on, however this relationship and partnership works, however the Philippians and Paul are in mission and ministry together with this independence and interdependence that is held together by the grace of God, this connection that they share has existed for awhile.

Paul writes, “You Philippians know from the time of my first mission work in Macedonia how no church share in supporting my ministry except you. You sent contributions repeatedly to take care of my needs even while I was in Thessalonica. I’m not hoping for a gift, but I am hoping for a profit that accumulates in your account. I now have more than enough. I am full to overflowing because I received the gifts that you sent from Epaphroditus. Those gifts give off a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice that pleases God. My God will meet your every need out of [God’s] riches in the glory that is found in Christ Jesus.”

In this section of the text, Paul uses a business term that would have perked up the ears of his first century listeners, “profit that accumulates in your account.”

There was an expectation of reciprocity in the Roman Empire. If you received a gift, you were expected and obligated to return the favor. You had to give a gift back, but whatever you gave in return needed to be worth just a little more than what you received. There was a profit that accumulated in gift giving, so, in the Roman world, deciding to give a gift was a delicate matter. As soon as the giving and receiving started, just like Pringles, you can’t stop.

In the Roman world, relationships were defined by transactions and the question what have you done for me lately? A lot of us can relate to that. Someone sends us a card and as much as we appreciate the gesture we think to ourselves, do I have any cards lying around or do I have to run to the store and pick one up?

We’re used to transactionalism. They paid for the movies, but I paid for dinner, and since dinner was more expensive, they should pay for popcorn but I’ll pay for the drinks and we’ll be more or less even.

Transactionalism is so engrained in our minds that whether we are conscious of it or not, it shapes how we often see God.

It’s as if we see God as a cosmic CPA in the sky, keeping accounts with everything that we do. We do something good, it goes into one column, we do something bad, it goes into another, and in the end we hope that God’s accounting shows that our good deeds outweigh our bad ones.

But the God that Paul knows through Christ isn’t transactional, this God is trinitarian.

The God that Paul has in mind doesn’t have a scoreboard in the sky, better than that, this God is an endless giving and receiving community of oneness.

God is not static, disinterested or distanced, God is this movement, this flow, of giving and receiving. In the early church, there was a Greek word, περιχώρησις preichorisis, that described what God is like.

Chorisis is is where we get the word choreography or dance. In the early church, they saw God as movement, God as a dance continually reaching out a hand and inviting us in.

Early in this letter to the Philippians, Paul writes in chapter 1, “I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus.”

Sometimes, Paul is blunt and to the point, and there is a very direct point here, the God that began a good work within you will be with you to complete it – you are not alone and God is not distant or disinterested. But Jewish authors like Paul often fill their writings with references to other passages in the Hebrew scriptures. The words good, work, and day are all prominent words in the creation poetry of Genesis.

It is as if Paul is saying that when we find our place in this dance, as we enter into this holy movement of giving and receiving grace and peace, the same energy, the same potential, the same power that created the cosmos is at work within us.

Just a few verses later in Philippians chapter 1, starting in verse 9, Paul writes, “This is my prayer: that your love might become more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight. I pray this so that you will be able to decide what really matters so you will be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ. I pray that you will then be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes from Jesus Christ, in order to give glory and praise to God.”

There is this prayer, this connection to the spirit, that encourages us to become more mature and complete in our love for one another and ourselves, this prayer, this connection with the spirit, that invites us to be filled with righteousness, with justice and joy and grace and peace, and this righteousness comes from Christ so that it gives glory to God.

It is this endless movement where God gives the Spirit, the Spirit gives to Christ, and Christ gives to God, so God receives from Christ, Christ receives from the Spirit, and the Spirit receives from God.

With this God, there is no scoreboard, there is no cosmic accountant that keeps track of who is giving and who is receiving, because there is only the continual movement and flow that is always giving and always receiving.

If we are created in the image of God, as that creation poetry in Genesis says we are, then it makes sense that in our closest and healthiest relationships, we can’t keep track of who is giving and receiving. At our very best, in our relationships with one another, even when we give, we can’t help but experience everything we are receiving.

Last month at Grace we celebrated the confirmation of our students and even beneath their masks, you can see their smile. (scroll images) We believe, and we know, that students need to have safe, reliable, and caring adults in their life, so every confirmation student has a mentor to join them on their journey.

I’ll speak on behalf of the mentors and say that they don’t have everything figured out. I will call them saints even if they will not claim that title for themselves, but in confirmation, these mentors represent some of our highest ideals as a church, because they are entering into the journey, they are participating with Coreen and our students as they learn and explore our faith, not claiming to know it all, only promising to be with one another through everything that comes our way.

As our confirmation mentors give students a symbol of our faith, who is really giving and who is really receiving?

Our church put together some care packages to share with folks in the community. We wanted to share a tangible sign of grace and peace, and in these care packages we included some art from the Grace preschool. The preschoolers knew that they were doing something good, that they were creating and crafting not only art but a smile on the face of whoever received it. As we shared and gave away those care packages as a church, who was really giving and who was really receiving?

In the last eight months of the pandemic, our church has provided well over 800 meals to the central Iowa homeless shelter. We have a small group of volunteers that get together on the first day of the month to cook with one another so that others can eat. Even as our volunteers cook and give their time and energy for the sake of others, those volunteers can’t help but receive.

At our Tuesday free medical and mental health clinics, you could say our church is giving and providing a vital and necessary service to our community, because we are. But if you talk to any of the volunteers, doctors, and nurses, as much as they give, as hard as the work can be, they give just as much as they receive. The same can be said of our Justice for Our Neighbors legal clinic.

Just like Paul, I can say that Grace, that we, are “full to overflowing because I received the gifts that you sent…”

Every time you give, you are providing a safe and holy space for students to learn and grow, every time you give, you are feeding our neighbors, every time you give, you are working to ensure that our community better, healthier and whole, both mentally and physically. Every time you give you Grace, you join in this trinitarian dance of giving and receiving because every time you give to Grace you are empowering others to give and receive with us.

Just like Paul thanks the Philippians for their monetary gift, I have to thank you, because your gifts make everything we do possible.

In church conversations about money and giving, there is almost always a conversation about how much is enough. The churchy word that often gets thrown around is tithe, and throughout the Bible we see this guideline of 10%. But too often when churches and pastors talk about tithing, there is an undercurrent of obligation, accompanied with a hint of, if you just do this, God will be happy with you until your next paycheck when you have to do it again.

As we’ve already seen today, God is not an accountant in the sky.

Guideline can be helpful, but guidelines do not and cannot determine your dignity, worthy or value in the eyes of God. God know we can all give something, because God knows we all way to join in the joy, we all want to add to the excitement, just like we all stand at the wedding, raise our glasses together, and sing Sweet Caroline at Fenway.

With or without you, the wedding is going to begin, the glasses are going to clink together, and Boston is going to sing – the giving and receiving of God’s grace and peace will continue to flow among us, the question is, will we join in?

For everyone that calls Grace their church, I am asking you all to provide us with an estimate of giving, with a pledge for next year, but before I say anything more about that I simply want to thank you for joining in the dance, for being a part of the movement of grace and peace, giving and receiving and empowering others to do the same.

If you are joining us from facebook or youtube, in the description section of the video there is a link to where you can make your pledge for next year. If you can’t find that link in the description of the video you can find it on our website at gracedesmoines.org With your pledges and estimates of giving, we can begin to set our church budget and figure out what it will look like for us to join with God in giving and receiving.

Your pledge for next year helps us to faithfully use the resources that we are blessed with, but your pledge is not set in stone. If you make a pledge today, and next year you need to adjust it one way or another next year, that is OK and I understand completely. And to thank you for your pledge, we’re going to give everyone that pledges to grace a mug.

I know I shouldn’t find this as funny as I do, but I giggle to myself every time I think about giving you a mug because I’m mugging you to get your pledge.

I know conversations in church around money can feel like a mugging, and that is the last thing I want for any of you. Whatever you are able to give, however you are joining in this movement of giving and receiving, I need you to know how grateful and thankful I am for you. Every time you give, you are making a difference, and every time you give, I pray you receive back the goodness and the grace and peace that your giving makes possible.

Just as God reaches out a hand and invites us into the dance, just like we rise at the beginning of the wedding march, just like we clink our glasses with one another at a toast, just like we’ll join in singing “Sweet Caroline” at Fenway, let’s join in this joy of giving and receiving with one another and with our church. Together, we get experience this joy and we get to enhance the joy of one another because we get partners with Godin the endless flow of giving and receiving the grace and peace.

Some of you received a pledge card in the mail, and if you are watching this online, you can click the link to complete your pledge at our website. Thank you for being a part of this movement of grace and peace, thank you for being open to the divine dance of God’s economy where as we give, we always receive.

 

Philippians 4:10-20

I was very glad in the Lord because now at last you have shown concern for me again. (Of course you were always concerned but had no way to show it.)  I’m not saying this because I need anything, for I have learned how to be content in any circumstance.  I know the experience of being in need and of having more than enough; I have learned the secret to being content in and every circumstance, whether full or hungry or whether having plenty or being poor.  I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength.  Still you have done well to share my distress.  You Philippians know from the time of my first mission work in Macedonia how no church shared in supporting my ministry except you.  You sent contributions repeatedly to take care of my needs even while I was in Thessalonica.  I’m not hoping for a gift, but I am hoping for a profit that accumulates in your account.  I now have plenty and it is more than enough.  I am full to overflowing because I have received the gifts that you sent from Epaphroditus.  These gifts give off a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice that please God.  My God will meet your every need out of his riches in the glory that is found in Christ Jesus.  Let glory be given to God our Father forever and always, Amen.

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Worship for Sunday, November 15, 2020, Philippians 4:10-20

Thank you for joining us at Grace today! Announcement and links are in the description below: Learn more about Grace and donate online at gracedesmoines.org Make your 2021 pledge to Grace - https://gracedesmoines.org/2021-stewardship-campaign/ Sign up for an Advent activity bag - https://forms.gle/ioqQDtmMYosFVds2A Bring your own rake, wear a mask, and help Grace rake on Saturday, November 21 at 9 am Youth Group Christmas Wreaths and Greenery Fundraiser Pick up available on Saturday, November 21 from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 22 from 10:00 - 12:00 p.m. If you scheduled for delivery you will have yours on the 21st Support Bidwell Riverside They are in need of the following supplies that you can drop off at Grace: Bidwell Riverside Laundry Detergent Toilet Paper New warm socks New warm hats & gloves� Soap (bar or liquid)� Hand Soap or Body Wash Soap� Shampoo� Dawn Dish Soap �Size 4, 5, 6 diapers� Baby Wipes� Canned Vegetables� Cereal �Peanut Butter� Canned Fruit

Posted by GraceDesMoines on Sunday, November 15, 2020

November 16-21, 2020

Monday

Read – Matthew 20:1-16, Luke 12:32

Notice – Jesus showed that God’s generosity goes way beyond “fairness.”  People who worked all day watched the landowner pay people who’d only worked one hour the same amount that they had agreed to work for — and they got angery.  (We can almost imagine the pro-rated mental calculations.)  But the vineyard owener didn’t cheat them.  Sadly, the landowner asked the upset workers “Are you resentful because I’m generous?”  does the master’s way of paying the workers in this story feel unfair to you?  “It was not unfair, of course.  No one was underpaid; it was just that some received ‘unreasonable’ generosity.  That is what the kingdom of heaven is like.”*  In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul said Christ was treated as we deserved, and we are treated as he deserved.  In what ways does that “unfair” exchange deepen your gratitude for Christ’s generosity?

Pray – Loving God, in fall foliage, winter snow, and spring flowers, every morning and every evening, you delight in giving to me.  Keep my generosity growing, even though it will never match the magnitude of yours.  Amen.

* R.T. France, article “Matthew” in New Bible Commentary, 21st Century Edition, Downers Grove, IL; InterVarsity Press, 1994, p. 930.

 

Tuesday

Read Luke 12:33-34, 48, Acts 20:35

Notice – Our culture often acts as though “mine” is one of the most priceless English words.  Jesus always challenged that all-too-human possessiveness.  When we loosen our grasp, he said, we can live lighter lives free of worry and stress.  Investing our treasure, time, and talent in God’s mission to uplift and redeem the whole world is, according to Jesus, the one truly safe investment we can make.  In verse 34, Jesus said, “Where your trreasure is, there your heart will be also.”  True security and satisfaction, he taught, came from seeking God first, not from externals like food, clothing, or material possessions.  How does Jesus’ teaching challenge the ways you’ve learned to think and act about the level of security and satisfaction “stuff” can bring you?

Pray – Jesus, when I stop to realize who you are, I realize that your whole earthly life was an act of massive generosity.  Let the awareness inspire me to greater generosity in my life.  Amen.

Wednesday

Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

Notice – “God has the power to provide you with more than enough of evey kind of grace” (verse 8).  “You will be made rich in every way” (verse 11).  The apostle Paul, certainly not a rich man by any human standard, wrote that!  Even to people who lived in the large city of Corinth, he used the language of harvest, of God increasing their crop.  He challenged them (and us) to rethink what “rich” and “more than enough” really mean.  God sows generously.  He asks us to produce a generous harvest.  Paul did not invent the idea that “God loves a cheerful giver.”  2 Chronicles 31:4-10 said that after King Hezekiah’s call to supply the Temple, “the Israelites generously gave the best of their grain, new wine, oil, honey, and all their crops–a tenth of everything, a huge amount”  Why would God want us to give from free, grateful hearts without coercion or pressure?  When have you felt the joy of giving freely from a grateful heart of love?

Pray – God of abundant life, teach me how to better calibrate my standard of “enough.”  And grow in me a heart that cheerfully welcomes invitations to give to bless others.  Amen.

Thursday

Read 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Notice – So much around us, including some approaches to retirement, tries to convince us that money is the most important part of a satisfying life.  As scholar N. T. Wright said, “Every advertisement, every other television program, many movies and most political manifestos are designed, by subtle and not-so-subtle ways, to make us say, ‘If only I had just a bit more money, then I would be content.”*  What are the main drivers of the way you live your life?  What kind of outcome to your life do you most wish to avoid?  What life goal(s) are you pursuing with all your might?  What steps can you take today to resist the temptation to look mainly to money for happiness, fulfillment, and ultimate security?

Pray – Jesus, thank you for being my ultimate mentor, guide, and accountability partner.  Teach me to value what you value, to take hold of what is truly life.  Amen.

* N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters, Louisville Westminister John Knox Press, 2004, p. 71.

Friday

Read – Acts 2:41-47

Notice – The very first “Christians” (they didn’t even call themselves that yet–cf. Act 11:26) were a fairly small, largely unknown group, living in a city that had crucified their Lord.  But they lived out their faith in ways that have changed the world for over 2000 years now.  The apostles’ teaching, prayer, fellowship, and a radical spirit of joyous generosity bound them together.  They found such joy and meaning in their lives that they told others, who invited others, who invited others and so on until (as Pastor Hamilton often says) eventually someone invited you.  And now it’s your turn to keep the story going.  The teaching of the apostles and power of the Holy Spirity moved the first Christians to share their possessions, setting aside their own gain to bless others.  That spirit made their lives joyous, not miserable–“they shared food with gladness.”  How does your readiness to find joy in saring with others reflect God’s impact on you life?  How do you respond inwardly to being part of a congregation that specifically and intentionally exists to reach beyond our walls, to reach, serve and uplift our neighbors and and our communities?

Pray – Generous, joy-giving God, I offer you my gratitude.  Help me to be willing to adjust my life in whatever ways I need to so that my gratitude isn’t just words, but joyful service to you and to your children.  Amen.

Saturday

Read Exodus 36:3-5, 2 Corinthians 9:6-9

Notice -Moses led the people in building the Tabernacle to honor God (cf. Exodus 35:30-35).  The workers met a welcome but surprising problem.  They told Moses, “The people are contributing way too much material for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.”  Amazing generosity!  As the apostle Paul gathered a gift for Christians in Jerusalem, he cared more about the spirit in which people gave than the amount raised.  “God love a cheerful giver” was not a catchy slogan, but a call to check why they gave.  “They shouldn’t give with hesitation or because of pressure,” he said.

PrayJesus, you poor out your gifts freely, from the “ordinary” ones like morning sunshine to the biggest gift of forgiveness and salvation.  Help me keep learning how to live in generous spirit.  Amen.

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