“Learning Contentment”

A Sermon Based Upon Philippians 4: 10-20

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv., DMin.  

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Pentecost 23+, November 15th, 2015

Do you remember Stanley Johnson?  He was the humorous character in a TV commercial for a lending agency.

With a self-satisfied smile, Stanley introduced himself and his family, complete with two children and a dog.  He showed us his four-bedroom home in a great neighborhood, his swimming pool, and his new car.  With obvious pride, he let us know that he was a member of the local gold club.  Grinning into the camera while he turned steaks on the backyard grill he asked, “How do I do it?”  Still wearing a silly grin, he confided with us, his audience by answering his own question:  “I’m in debt up to my eyeballs.  I can barely pay my finance charges.”  He pleads at the end of the commercial, 

“Please, somebody help me.”

Stanley Johnson was able to grab attention because he is not unusual.  He’s typical of far too many people in our culture.  He represents the kind of financially irresponsible, socially acceptable, and overreaching debt that helped plunge the American economy into the ditch soon after the commercial appeared.  When we met Stanley Johnson, most Americans carried an average $9,000 debt on their credit card.  If they only made their minimum payment, it would take thirty-one years to pay off.  They would pay $29,000 only in interest.  In one year when that commercial aired, more people declared bankruptcy than graduated college. 

James Harnish tells of a husband who hit the ceiling when he saw the credit card bill.  He asked his wife, “How many times do I have to tell you that it’s economically irresponsible to spend money we don’t have?”  She replied, “I don’t know about that.  If you never get the money, at least you have something to show for it?”  Hasn’t this been the much too prevalent attitude of our instant-gratification, credit addicted, consumption-oriented culture, Harish asks.   This irrational myth of the good of ‘more’ and having it ‘now’ has caused too many people to put their soul on loan and mortgage their grandchildren’s future (From “Simple Rules for Money,  James A. Harnish, Abingdon Press, 2009, pp 37-38)

Answering Stanley Johnson’s cry for help is not about loaning him more money.  Because God really cares for ‘Stanley’, God wants to cure him from his addiction to things and money, finding nourishment substantial enough to satisfy his hungry soul.   No matter what the addiction is, as every counselor knows, the cure is not to take away the craving, but to replace it with a more nourishing fare.

I HAVE LEARNED TO BE CONTENT

In our text today, the great apostle speaks of times ‘being in need’ and having ‘little’ (Phil. 4: 11-12).   Being a child of parents who grew up during the Great Depression, I was constantly reminded of times like this.  When I would get my Christmas presents my parents  continually reminded me that they only got ‘fruit’, ‘candy’ or ‘one simple hand-made toy’ at best.  It was something I didn’t always want to hear, but they impressed it upon my mind anyway, reminding me that I should be ‘grateful’ for what I was receiving.  But who learns how to be ‘grateful’ in times of plenty when I am receiving everything I need and want?

Perhaps this is exactly what Paul is getting at.  Paul tells his readers that he has ‘learned to be content with whatever (he) has” (v. 11).  Sometimes what he has is ‘little’ and other times what he has means ‘plenty’.   It is by accepting all and any of his ‘circumstances’ that he has ‘learned the secret of being well-fed and going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.”    As you read this, you don’t have to guess which ‘circumstances’ have taught him the most.  It is certainly not the ‘times of plenty’.

As Paul writes this letter, he is in real ‘need’ (4:11).  Paul was in prison for preaching the gospel, but even this prison letter that he is writing from prison has been ironically named Paul’s letter of ‘joy’ (Phil 1.4, 2:2).  Paul is able to find joy, peace, and contentment, even in his very negative circumstance because of what is inside of him, not what is going on around him.  Paul has ‘learned’ it because his contentment is not about having everything the way he wants it, when he wants it.

Is this kind of contentment which can make positives out of negative situations even possible in a world where we already have so much, and even too much stuff?   Do we have to have everything taken away to learn this secret?  Or is there another way to ‘learn’ to curb our desire for more and more.  

THROUGH HIM WHO STRENGTHENS ME

Paul tells us that he learned contentment ‘’through him who strengthens me’ (4:13).  We know who this ‘him’ is and this same Jesus should be our ‘teacher’ in contentment too.  But how do the spiritual teachings of Jesus teach us?  Even more importantly, in a world with so much how can Jesus teach us to even want to learn this kind of contentment?

Well, let’s consider one person in the gospel account whom Jesus tried to teach contentment?  We often call him the ‘rich, young, ruler’.  In the gospels of Matthew and Luke we learn that this rich, young man had everything, including religion, but he still wasn’t very content.  He had been taught as a child what it meant to follow the law that should give life and contentment, but he says that he still needed something more. He asks Jesus: “Good Teacher, what good deeds must I do to have eternal life?  (Matt 19:16, Luke 18:18ff).  Seeing that this rich young man was still lacking contentment and peace, Jesus tells him he will only find contentment if he sells everything, gives the money to the poor, and then comes and follows Jesus.  No doubt, such a prescription for contentment was as much of a ‘shocker’ for him as it would be for us.  And just like most of us we would be, we are also told that this wealthy, young fellow is not ready nor willing to do what it will take for to learn ‘contentment’ from going on the kind of adventure of life which Jesus might offer.   So we read that he goes away ‘grieving’ because he can’t accept this RX for contentment.   He is unwilling to let go of those things which do not make him content to learn contentment the only way it can ever be learned from Jesus, or from anyone.

Do you see that part, if not the main part of this rich, young, man’s problem was that was also making his ‘salvation’ another ‘thing’ to have?  Instead of finding a way of salvation and contentment in how he relates to God and others, he makes salvation something he must ‘have’.  He failed to find contentment because true contentment can only be found from a life of being in God and sharing with others, but not from ‘having’ only what he wants for himself.   Only the person that moves toward the source of true contentment can ever expect to find contentment.   But how do you ‘teach’ someone to want to learn this kind of spiritual and relational path? 

Recently I received an email from a friend in Germany who asked what she could say to someone who said she was content in life, but did not need any kind of faith or relationship with God?  Unlike this rich, young man who came to Jesus because he knew that something was missing, many of those around us don’t even notice what is missing in their lives because they seem to be ‘content’ without any kind of spiritual connection with God or with others.  “And she seems to be content,” my friend told me.  “What can I say?” She asked. 

Her question does not have and easy answer.  People who have everything they need seldom realize or reveal the needs they still have which can be hidden under the surface or pushed away into a dark closet . Instead of ‘going away sorrowfully’ as did the young man in the gospel,  they are content to go away from God, as rich, happy and perfectly satisfied people, who have little or no spiritual need for God at all.  What can we say to people like this, who are content to learn nothing from what Jesus has to offer to them?

“IT WAS KIND OF YOU TO SHARE…”

Contentment is hard, if not impossible to learn from a position of power or prosperity.  Jesus himself said it is nearly ‘impossible’ for a person with wealth to enter the ‘kingdom of God’ (Mark 10.23).  In saying this, Jesus did not mean that you couldn’t get into heaven if you had money as much as he meant that because you have money you probably aren’t the least bit interested in it.  And that’s the problem, isn’t it?  For the most part, people only learn the things they have to learn.  If you feel as if you don’t need to learn anything new, why should you? 

Here, at this difficult intersection of need and want, is where we need to return to the our character Stanley Johnson.  Remember, he was the guy who not only ‘had it all’, but he was also the fellow who felt like he had to have it all, until he ended up in ‘debt up to his eyeballs’.  As we consider Stanley Johnson’s desire that was much bigger than his pocketbook, we need to ask what Stanley’s problem really was.  Was it just a money problem that Stanley had, or was the problem he had even bigger than money?  Was Stanley going after so much stuff, more than he could afford, only because he wanted it, or was it because he was trying to feed an even greater emptiness?

Recently CBS’s news magazine Forty-Eight hours told the story of a Wall Street Hedge Fund founder who was worth Billions before he was thirty years old.  He was a genius who amassed a fortune of money and moved with his wife to Costa Rica, where together they lived in an unbelievable, “James Bond like house”, located in the middle of a rain forest.   It was a ‘dream-like’ existence that was ‘surreal’ to the reporter, but was accepted as normal for this couple who seem to have it all.  But the reason 48 Hours was there reporting was not because their money, but it was because of the alleged ‘murder’ of this Wall Street genius by his own wife.  She says she didn’t do it, and that may be true, because this her husband had confided in a friend that he was going to kill himself. 

Whether he did or she did is still being decided in the third trial.  But for us, we ought to decide already that ‘having’ is never any sure way to contentment.  In fact, needing, wanting, desiring and having is normally a sign of discontent.  Many times people who will amass great wealth for themselves live with some sort of emptiness they are trying to fill, that will never be filled with money or great wealth.

Trying to understand what kind of ‘wealth’ will bring lasting contentment is what Paul’s closing words to the Philippians reveals.  As Paul began this final chapter of his letter he refers to this congregation as his ‘joy and crown’ (4.1).   And in our text, beginning in verse ten, he is elated that as he has entered prison for preaching the gospel their ‘concern’ for him has been ‘revived’ and they have had an ‘opportunity’ to show it (4:10).  Upon receiving their care package, he politely says it was ‘kind of them to share in his distress’ (4:14).  Do you see what is going on here?  Do you see that the source of his contentment is the evidence of genuine care and concern? 

If you have ‘eyes to see’ and ‘hears to hear’ you’ll notice it doesn’t take much to make a person content when they have strong relational bonds.   But when these bonds are missing, all the money in the world can’t seem to fill the void.  Stanley Johnson’s problem may be that he needs to get curb his spending, but better yet, he probably  needs to find a community to live in where people care more about having friendships, having faith, and being family than having to have all the things money can buy.  As the saying goes, money will never buy anyone true happiness or contentment. 

“My God will satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus?” (4:19). This concluding line from our text today is how Paul sees the true source of contentment.  Notice that he says,“My God…”.  Don’t think that Paul is pointing to his own personal opinion about God, but he is speaking in a very personal  and relational tone.  He speaks this way because true contentment will become personal.  Learning contentment is about living in relationships that we give our lives to which will give our lives back to us.  People who don’t have such ‘personal’ connections with God and with each other probably won’t realize what they are missing until they come to realize ‘who’ they are missing. 

Interestingly, you only realize who you are missing when discover the love that is missing in you.  “I have been paid in full and have more than enough.  I am fully satisfied…” (4:18), Paul concludes.  Even when he has practically nothing left in that prison but his life, he still says, “I have more than enough… I am fully satisfied.”    Paul’s satisfaction is not in the ‘gift’ he has received, nor in the situation he is in, but it is in the people who care about him and it and it is in the God who continues to give him ‘grace’.   All the money in the world can’t buy the ‘strength’ and ‘joy’ such concern and love gives him.    You can’t put this kind of contentment in your wallet.  You can only put it in the only place where true contentment can be found: In your heart.   Amen.