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3rd Sunday of Stewardship CampaignOctober 24, 2010
“Cultivating Contentment” Reverend Michael D. PowellPhilippians 4:11b-13 |
It’s the third week of our stewardship campaign, “Discovering Joy through Simplicity and Generosity.” I began by talking about how the American Dream has become a nightmare for many people.
But, enough of the stress and the agony. It’s time to focus on joy and contentment. Joy and contentment are like happiness, they do not just happen. Things that happen by chance are called happenstance. If your happiness depends on a chance occurrence, you’re in trouble. That’s why I’ve entitled this sermon “Cultivating Contentment.” Contentment has to do with choice, not chance.
I’ll get around to the stewardship and tithing part of this message and explain how it fits, but let’s start where we ought to start, with scripture. Paul’s letter to the Philippians is referred to as “The Epistle of Joy.” It was written from prison. When Anni and I went to Israel we actually visited the jail where Paul wrote those wonderful words:
I have learned to be content with whatever I have.
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.
I can do all things through Christ Jesus,
who strengthens me.
When we visited that prison cell, we discovered that Paul was lowered down through a hole in the floor and dropped into a cavernous, damp pit, where he sat waiting for the news of whether or not he would be executed. Here’s a picture of what’s called “Paul’s Prison.” Whether or not it’s the actual pit nobody really knows.
Few of us have suffered the discomfort Paul suffered, and yet every line of his letter exudes peace and joy. What did he know that we don’t know?
You probably haven’t been imprisoned in a damp pit, but I suspect every one of us has experienced a dark pit of despair at times. We may not have been behind bars, but we’ve all experienced being imprisoned in the stress of uncomfortable situations, strained relationships, restless nights of worry over everything from family to finances. Is it even realistic to think that we can cultivate contentment, no matter what the circumstances of our lives?
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) causes twitches and contractions in the legs, usually right when you’re trying to relax and go to sleep. Restless Heart Syndrome (RHS) works in a similar way, but in the heart and soul. In The Gift of Change, Marianne Williamson writes about how she goes back and forth between thinking the world is beautiful and then thinking it’s completely screwed up. (p. 65) And that, of course, is because both are true. We read in Genesis that God created the world and said it was good (Gen. 1:25) But that was then. Check out the latest news, Lord. Have you read about the typhoon in the Philippines? Things don’t look so good now! And don’t get me started on all the other, more personal things there are to worry about. Have you ever woken up in the early morning with RHS? I was suffering from a bout of Restless Heart Syndrome earlier in the week. I went to bed mildly depressed and woke early in the same mood. I rose in the dark, put on my boots and went out for a prayer walk in the dark. About 45 minutes later the sun began to illumine the clouds with a glorious pink lining.
Thank God for the light, for those wonderful first birdsongs of the day. “Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them, springing, fresh from the Word! Praise with elation, praise every morning, God’s recreation of the new day!” (Morning Has Broken, p. 145 UM Hymnal) The Persian Poet, Rumi, puts it this way:
Lord, the air smells good today, straight from the mysteries
within the inner courts of God.
A grace like new clothes thrown across the garden,
free medicine for everybody.
The trees in their prayer, the birds in praise.
That’s contentment. That’s joy. That’s peace. And it is not happenstance, not dependent on the random chance of everything going well. We have to carefully cultivate, and to faithfully practice being content. Paul knew contentment in all circumstances, even when he was in prison, because he had practiced, and learned to be content by trusting that he could do all things through Christ who strengthened him. It’s called “Dwelling in Christ,” or dwelling in that which does not change, regardless of the circumstances of life.
The stresses and the dramas of life are like weather patterns, they’re inevitable. We can’t resist them or we find ourselves contracting in a defensive state of fear or anxiety - our shoulders, our brow, our heart and our mind all become tight, which is the exact opposite of contentment. The storms and the stresses of life come to us all. We need a place of safety and comfort where we can take refuge.
When life is stormy, we can retreat into the House of God. The House of God is more than just a figure of speech. It’s where the living Christ lives in us. In the 23rd Psalm we read about coming through the dark night of the soul, the valley of the shadow of death, and into the promise of the dawn, which concludes with a ringing affirmation of faith, “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
The House of the Lord is a real place! It’s a path of practice and devotion.
It’s that place in your heart and mind where the awareness of the spirit, the presence of God dwells. It’s where I try to go on my Morning Prayer walks, and it’s that place in Paul’s heart and soul and mind where he found his strength, where he retreated to when he was in prison. It’s where you can also find shelter and refuge when the storms of life are raging. It’s that place in your heart and mind where your perception of what’s real and what’s not real is based only on the Risen Son of God’s eternal realities, on the Resurrected Christ who is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. The love of God through Jesus Christ is eternal and unchanging.
Everything else in the world is always changing, and it’s scary. We’re born, we get sick, and we die. We get money, we lose money, we get married, we get divorced, we have children, they grow up, we get new jobs, we lose old jobs, some people bless us, and some people disappoint and anger us. Life is hard, and getting old is not for sissies, but it’s unavoidable. And every change is a challenge, an opportunity to remember what’s true. The love of God is the only absolute reality. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life which never changes and never dies. Dwelling in that Christ Light which does not change, while things around us are changing all the time, slipping in and out of the dark shadows, this is our key to contentment - and it’s a choice!
The good news is, we have a choice about which tent we live in. (1) There is discon-tent-ment, or con-tent-ment, and we choose one or the other in large part by deciding what life is about. I talked last week about discovering our life purpose and asked the questions:
1. What is your life about?
2. Why do you exist?
3. Do you exist simply to consume as much as you can and get as much pleasure as you can?
4. Or do you have a higher purpose?
5. How do you understand your life purpose – your vision or mission or calling?
And, because of our emphasis on stewardship and discovering joy through simplicity and generosity, I threw in another question:
6. Are you spending your money in ways that are consistent with this life purpose?
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” (Luke. 12:15)
We all want to be happy, healthy, comfortable and successful. That’s just part of being human. Nobody consciously, deliberately and intentionally sets out to be unhappy, unhealthy, uncomfortable or unsuccessful. But, if we link our sense of success or failure, satisfaction or lack of satisfaction to anything other than God, we’re setting ourselves up for a fall. Nothing in this world can give us deep joy and contentment because the spirit is not at home in the world. To the extent that our sense of well-being is tied in any way to the things of the material world, we will be prone to worry and anxiety. Jesus said it best, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Therefore, lay up treasures in heaven, not on earth.” (Matt. 6:21)
So, Adam Hamilton suggests a couple of keys to contentment. First, when you’re about to buy into the consumer mentality of the culture which tells you your worth is based on stuff, not spirit, when you’re about to purchase something, ask yourself, “How long will this make me happy?” The answer to this question comes from experience. We have to have made a few mistakes before we can grasp the truth that nothing on earth can make us happy for eternity. Hamilton tells a story on himself. He lusted after a particular car but, a few years ago instead of buying that car; he rented it for a few days. After spending a whopping $49.99 a day, he returned it and realized that he was satisfied, that he no longer had the burning desire to own it. What a savings! The second key to cultivating contentment is developing a grateful heart. Gratitude is essential. As Paul says: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 A grateful heart recognizes that all life is a gift. Contentment comes when we spend more time giving thanks for what we have than thinking about what’s missing or wrong in our lives. In any situation, we can either complain or be grateful. We can focus on the disappointments, or give thanks for the blessings.
It all goes back to how we understand the purpose of our life. We are blessed, and we were created to be a blessing. We are followers of Jesus Christ, and Christ teaches us to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Christ teaches that our life purpose is to glorify God, to seek justice and to do mercy. To be a Christian is to follow Jesus Christ and seek to do his will in our lives.
So, since this is a stewardship sermon, I’ll close with three final questions. Hamilton suggests that whenever we’re looking for happiness through buying into the consumerism of our culture, we ask ourselves:
1. What are the long term consequences of this action?
2. Is there a higher good or a better outcome if I use this resource of time, money, or energy in another way?
3. Will this action honor God?
Hamilton preaches to his congregation what he has discovered in his own life, that less is more, and that it is possible to discover true joy and contentment through simplicity and generosity, by living beneath our means and therefore not being anxious every month about how we’re going to pay the bills, and in dedicating the Biblical tithe of a tenth of our income to God’s work though our local church.
My prayer is that each and every one of us will discover this sense of joy and gratitude, simplicity, generosity, and contentment. My prayer is that God will continue to use us as a healthy and vital church, a congregation with a passion for sharing the Good News. My prayer is that God will be glorified by all that we think and speak and give and do, in Christ’s name.
Thanks be to God, and may Christ be your shalom. Amen.
(1) John Maxwell popularized this way of framing the question, though it was first published in 1975 by Viola Walden in her Sword Scrapbook 11 (Sword of the Lord); p. 40