There is little doubt that the Philippians loved Paul (and that their affection was returned in full measure). After all, they had received from him the message of the gospel, which had changed their lives! But it wasn’t just affection that fueled their giving. They were all in for the spread of the gospel to other communities. They were committed to Paul’s work, and so they were his partners in that work. That’s likely how they saw themselves, as partners and supporters.
Over the last 50 years, the standard of living has steadily increased in Western Europe and North America. For example, the size of the average home has more than doubled since the 1960s and spending on vacations and eating out have soared (Americans spend on average $1100 per year, per person on vacations). We have every imaginable creature comfort at our fingertips from dishwashers, to smart phones, to flat screen TVs.
It is no coincidence that we begin Philippians, a book written by a man who truly found joy, during a season of the year when joy permeates songs and greetings. For all its hopefulness and good feeling, the Christmas season sometimes draws into sharp relief how little joy we seem to experience. We sing, “Joy to the World,” but there is so much misery. As Christians, we are to be a people marked by joy, but so many of us struggle to find it. Even when we resolve to fight for joy, as we often need to do, we wonder how to grab hold of it when our lives are so far from perfect. We’ll explore those topics in this series, but the answer lies in the very person we’re celebrating during Advent, Jesus Christ.
There are so many great Christian resources on romance, desire, and sex, including both lay and scholarly commentaries on Song of Songs. Below some works/authors I highly recommend. You'll find them in the Calvary Church bookstore or online.
Anderson Cooper, Oprah, and Lady Gaga are talking about sex and romance. Your kids’ friends are talking about it (parents, don’t be naïve). The Disney Channel is talking about it. It’s on Youtube, iTunes, TV commercials, and billboards. We are not going to get away from this topic, and that’s okay because we need to be talking about it. God does. There is sex in His book! While we’re NOT talking about it, marriages are being destroyed, singles are living in guilt, and teens are struggling. Our silence is deafening.
Here's real for you: Ever since Christ rescued me and gave me new life in Him, I have become painfully aware of other things in my life that I run to for rescue. Scripture calls them idols of the heart. Some have appropriately called them "functional saviors." When I have them, my little kingdom is good. When I don't, the temptation to sin becomes very evident in my life. You may resonate with this.
Waiting. C'mon, nobody likes to wait. Don't leave me hanging here. In the fast-paced, microwave, fast food, immediate gratification culture that we've been saturated in, the challenge is intensified. That's one of the most challenging things when it comes to prayer and trusting God. He ALWAYS answers us, and He ALWAYS keeps His promises. He just doesn't always do things WHEN I think He should. Often times I think it's midnight, and He's like, "Relax, it's only 9:45." And He doesn't always answer our prayers or keep His promises in the WAY we think He should. He is free to surprise us and He often does. That is why it is even more crucial that we get to know Him. So that we can trust Him, even when we have to wait, even when His answers don't come exactly how we think they should. Experiences like this drive a person either away from Him or deeper into Him.
Our faith is in God, who has the power to heal and holds power over the grave. Our complete hope and trust is in Him. But that does not mean we don't completely lose it at times. It does not mean we don't struggle at times with why He is allowing this to happen to our sweet and beautiful little girl or wonder how we're gonna make it over the long haul, let alone another hour.
It is tempting to moralize suffering by adopting the world’s “this for that” mentality. Good people are good and so receive blessing and bad people are bad so they are cursed. The problem with this view is the fact that there are no "good" people, plus Jesus has severed the link between "suffering" and "deserving" once and for all at Calvary.
How could we ever have imagined that this would be the road God would have us walking down at this time in our lives. We couldn't. And yet we could. God has appointed to each of us a measure of adversity in our lives. We live in a broken world, and every single one of us suffer. Suffering is a part of the fabric of our lives because of the fall. I preached a sermon back in August 2011 titled, “Living Strong When It All Goes Wrong,” and I needed to preach it to myself again this week:
Jonah's is one of those stories that most people think they know. He’s the man God told to go to Ninevah and preach, but who ran away instead. He’s the guy who was swallowed by a fish, gave in to God, and got a second chance to preach. That’s the story I often heard in Sunday School growing up. It wasn’t until seminary that I finally understood this book, and then I sat in class thinking, How did I miss this? How did I not see that Jonah was a book about God’s grace?
James is probably the oldest book in the New Testament, the first to be written after Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was penned by James, a brother of Jesus, who was the pastor of the first church in Jerusalem. He was writing to the people of God who were followers of Christ, “the twelve tribes,” scattered all over the world. His is one of the few letters not addressed to a particular church in a particular location. All of the wisdom in this book is easily applicable to the whole church.
Sometimes our work feels meaningless, frustrating, and painful because we live in a fallen world. We have ALL felt that, haven’t we? It comes our way in so many forms from a cantankerous boss to a lazy co-worker to a downturn in the economy that cuts our company to pieces. God’s beautiful creation has experienced a fall—the fall, to be exact—and it affects our entire lives, even our work.
I once had a rather odd conversation with a young man fresh out of college and headed to seminary. During the course of our talk, he asked, with considerable frustration, “How do I get an invitation to speak at a leadership conference in Africa?” I couldn’t believe my ears. Since I didn’t want to be a jerk, I didn’t say what I was thinking, which was that he needed to learn something before he tried teaching anything. What I’ve discovered is that if you go to grad school for a million years; learn Hebrew and Greek; study theology; write lots of papers; prepare and deliver about 3,000 sermons, lectures, and Bible studies; stay with two churches for 25 years through good times and bad times; and work really hard everyday, then occasionally someone will invite you to say something. What I think this young man was missing is that our work life takes some, well, work. And there is a right and wise way to go about working.
We have all heard the medical benefits of sleep extolled, and warnings about the health consequences of too little rest: stress, weight gain, anxiety, headaches, memory loss, and many others. But what about the spiritual effects of too little rest? There is little doubt that many aspects of our contemporary culture and the pursuit of the American dream wage war on a solid theology of rest. The idolatry of work, the equating of work and self-worth, and the pursuit of material abundance have made work for many of us an all-consuming obsession rather than a part of our calling. Until recently, Western society carved out times for rest and wove them into the pattern of the week and the year. On Sundays, most people enjoyed a day free from work and commercial activity, free to spend unhurried time in worship, sleep or with family. Intense periods of work in certain seasons of the year were balanced with periods of leisure and recuperation. Weddings, holidays, parties, and festivals were often multi-day events, opportunities for protracted feasting, conversation, and lingering in one another’s company.
Theologians have developed the concept of vocation—the idea that people are called by God to certain kinds of work—through passages in Genesis 4, and Exodus 35, and 1 Corinthians 7 among others. Vocation encompasses our calling as husbands, wives, and parents, as well as our calling to be masons, ministers, managers, and mechanics. We can be devoted followers of Christ wherever God has assigned us while doing whatever he has called us to do. (That’s the message of 1 Corinthians 7 in a nutshell.)
I was reading an article in The Atlantic this week that provided some cultural commentary on the messages in animated movies. The point was that perhaps we’re overreaching a bit in our effort to convince kids that they can be anything they want to be. In the Disney universe, yes, an overweight panda can become a kung fu master (Kung Fu Panda), a sewer rat can become a French chef (Ratatouille), a common garden snail can win the Indianapolis 500 (Turbo), and a crop duster can challenge jet planes in a race around the world (Planes). However, in the real world, we have to ask the question: Is it true that we can do anything we want to do? Moreover, is this a good message for our kids? (Note that this isn’t an anti-Disney rant. I love animated films, including some of those listed above.) The answer to both question is no, so let me provide a biblical alternative to the ubiquitous statement.
There is a story about a crew of medieval stonemasons working on a new building project. A curious visitor asks what they’re doing and receives vastly different replies. “I’m cutting a stone,” says one. “I’m making a living,” answers another. However, a third responds, “I’m building a cathedral for God and for his people.” All three masons were doing the same job, but they certainly had very different habitudes.
Sometimes work can be difficult. How many of you recall the Florida DJ who locked himself in the studio and repeatedly played the song “Take This Job and Shove It” by Johnny Paycheck? He told his audience that he was mad at his employer and he was going to keep the doors barred and play the song over and over again until they agreed to give him a raise. Absolutely hilarious!
One of my favorite places in the world is the National Gallery in London. I like art, and I can get lost in a beautiful painting. In fact, whenever I can arrange a layover in London on my way to some foreign destination, I do just that. I hop the tube into Central London to look at art. I was there 2 weeks ago and saw the same works I always visit. I saw something else I always see: crowds of people staring.
