I am so swamped today I do not have time to write much. We are getting snow though and quite a bit of it. I got to use the Cub Cadet to blow snow which was fun. I am trying to get everything done today so I can go hunting tomorrow and Friday with one of our elders. Here is my sermon. God's blessings on your Advent services.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our Text for today comes from the Epistle Reading of St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians specifically looking at verses 11 through 13:
“11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
If I asked you to think about it, you probably all know someone who is pretty easy going. You could think of someone who is always seemingly happy with life no matter what is happening to them. For me this person is my sister who some of you might have met this last weekend. She is the most easy-going person I have ever met. She just goes with the flow, no plan, no expectations, and no qualms. She doesn’t need a lot of nice fancy things to make her happy, she doesn’t let very much get under her skin, and she just always seem to be chill and mellow. Her life has had many highlights and great memories, but she has had some very difficult struggles too. At one point she had a brand new house, new car, and living above comfortable. Then she went to renting a bedroom in her friend’s house and taking a second job to cover school loans and debt. Her senior year of college she was taking 18 credits and working 40 hours a week at a full time job. Through thick and thin she has always been pretty positive, happy with where she is and what she is doing, and always willing to help others. Now obviously she is not like this 100% of the time, but for the majority of it she is just content with life. Again, most likely you have known people like this too. They take whatever life throws at them with a positive attitude, and most days even do it with a smile. They may not have two dollars in their pocket and yet when you talk to them you quickly realize they have everything they need. Easy-going, down to earth, go with the flow kind of people who are just content. Maybe you are that type of person yourself and good for you if you are.
In our text for today St. Paul writes about being content. “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” St. Paul definitely knew highs and lows in his life time. Before his conversion on the road to Damascus, he was climbing the ranks of Jewish religious leaders very quickly, especially considering how young he was. He had quite the reputation for imprisoning and persecuting Christians, who in his Jewish state of mind where blaspheming against the true God. Being very good at what he did, helped him to reach a high status level in the Jewish world. However, once his conversion did happen, and he joined the apostles’ mission of spreading the true Gospel, his status changed a little. He was still highly loved and adored by now the Christian church; however, the Jewish realm saw him as a traitor. He was now the one being imprisoned and persecuted. In Lystra, they stoned him so badly that they dragged his body outside of the city thinking he was dead. Paul found himself in prison several times, and when being transported as a prisoner was in a ship wreck. On top of all of this, he had the constant “thorn in his side”, which was some physical ailment that would cause him pain the rest of his life. St. Paul is very genuine when he writes that “he has known how to be brought low and how to abound, and facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. And yet he shares that he has learned the secret of being content in every circumstance.
I think this is the secret to life most Americans are missing. Our culture tells us we need to have as much as possible to be happy. The bigger the better, the more stuff we have, the better off our life is and the happier we can be. Consumerism thrives on this attitude of always needing more, always needing newer, always needing bigger. The problem with this attitude is it can never be satisfied because there will always be something else we “just have to have”, instead of just being appeased with what we already have. Can you imagine what the world would be like if we were all just truly content in every situation?
Today is Thanksgiving, a day set aside for all of us to be reminded of everything we have. Everything we are thankful for. Some families even start their thanksgiving dinner by going around the table and saying what they are thankful for. That’s what this holiday is all about. That’s why it absolutely bewilders me how the Friday after the day of giving thanks has become Black Friday. A day set aside especially for buying as many things as possible for as little as possible. A day of pushing, budging, caring about nobody but yourself, because after all there are only three TV’s or five computers, or so many of whatever and if you don’t get a little aggressive you won’t get one at that amazing price. The worst part is Black Friday is taking over more and more of Thanksgiving. Stores are now opening at 8 or even 6 pm on Thursday, on Thanksgiving! Which means now, people have to be in those long lines at 1 or 2 to make sure they are going to get exactly what they want. People are looking at magazines, cutting out ads and coupons immediately after lunch or maybe some even do it as they are eating their turkey. The day of saying thanks for everything we have, is becoming the first of two days of buying more things, having to have more items, more stuff. Are we really so thankful for what we have if we immediately start planning and scheming on what we have to have next? Are we really content with any situation if we think we just have to have those items at those prices?
The definition of content is to be “in a state of peaceful happiness.” This is how Paul lived his life, in the ups and the downs, in the beatings and sufferings, and in the praises and joys. He lived in a peaceful happiness. How? How can Paul live in a peaceful happiness through everything that he experienced? The answer is because the happiness of the Gospel gave him peace. The Gospel message that no matter what happens in this life, his future is secure gave him peace. Paul was a sinner, maybe the worst of sinners, personally persecuting the church of Christ, imprisoning and killing Christians. When God speaks to him on the road to Damascus, God says to him, “Why are you persecuting me?” God accuses Paul of persecuting God himself, by persecuting His church. And yet, even this man who was personally accused of persecuting God can live in peaceful happiness, because of the power of forgiveness. Christ died on the cross for the sins of all people. Not just Israelite, not just Jew, not just Gentile, not even just believers, but all people. He offers forgiveness as a free gift to all people. This gift of forgiveness cleanses us of all our sins. There is no unforgivable sin with repentance. The only unforgivable sin is the unrepented one! Christ took every sin you and I have ever committed and ever will commit on His shoulders when He hung upon that cross dying to save you and me. All of those sins, the sins of all human kind, including original sin, were taken to the grave with His dead corpse. Then when Christ walked out of that tomb, alive, risen from the dead, it is called the empty tomb! It is not called the empty tomb only because Christ was no longer in there, but because all those sins, all sin of all of humanity that was in the tomb with his dead body, is no longer in there when He walked out. It is the empty tomb because it truly is empty, free from all death, free from all sin. Christ has removed our sins from us as far as the west is from the east. He offers us this forgiveness of sins that completely removes all sins, leaving us perfectly cleansed and holy in the eyes of our judge. We are born unrighteous sinners, but in the forgiveness of Christ we are made righteous. In our baptism we were clothed with the righteousness of Christ. With this new righteousness, we are given eternal life in the name of our Savior who removed all those sins from us. This eternal life is certain and guaranteed. It is a done deal. We have our eternal life right now. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ, there is nothing that can remove us from the palm of His hand. We are His and we will one day be welcomed into paradise with Him. One day we will be in His Kingdom to live and serve Him as His free people for all of eternity. This is the reason Paul has peaceful happiness. His future is perfectly secure. His life in Christ for the rest of eternity has already been granted and he is living that eternal life. So since his future is secure, his life being perfectly secure in Christ, he has peace. In this peace he is happy with whatever life brings. He is content because Christ has given him his forgiveness, his salvation, and his eternal life, so anything else in this world no longer matters. The ups and the downs, the pains and the joys, the threats and the praises all amount to nothing compared to the joy of this salvation. We have this same Gospel message as Paul. Christ has given us our forgiveness of sins, our salvation, and our eternal life. We are living as forgiven, righteous, saved, eternal sons and daughters of God right now. Everything else we will ever endure in this world cannot compare to that joy and good news.
And on days when the world seems too dark, when the suffering seems too great, St. Paul gives us the words of verse 13. “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” In this sinful world we live in, the joy off the Gospel can become hidden and forgotten. The idea of being content, being peacefully happy in a world of war and sadness seems impossible. Nevertheless, Christ gives us the strength to endure it all. Jesus our Lord, who has given us our forgiveness, our salvation, and our eternal life, gives us the strength to remain faithful to that Gospel. He gives us the strength to endure pain and suffering. He gives us the strength to make it through the sad times and struggles. He gives us the strength to resist the temptation of thinking we have to have more stuff. He gives us the strength to take on anything sin, death, and the devil can throw at us. He has claimed us as His righteous people, and He gives us the strength to make it through every day remembering that Good News. He gives us the strength to live in a state of peaceful happiness because He has secured our future. He gives us the strength to be content because His Gospel is our peaceful happiness!
In the name of the one who gives us the strength to do all things, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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