We can do all things, bear all things, persevere in all things, through Christ who strengthens us.
Do you remember where you were when the second twin tower was struck by a plane on 9-11?
Do you remember who was with you at the time?
I distinctly remember standing with coworkers in the parlor of the church I served in South Carolina. It was a Tuesday morning. The workday had just begun. When we received news of the first plane hitting the tower, we rolled out the old boxy television that was strapped to one of those tall metal carts, plugged it in, and found a signal from one of the primary news channels. Standing there, gazing in shock at the live broadcast of the first tower with its gaping, flaming hole, we witnessed the second plane arriving out of nowhere, entering the frame, and plunging into the second tower. History took a sudden, unexpected, and shocking turn. Our lives and the life of our nation would never quite be the same.
Thousands upon thousands of families were directly impacted by those terror attacks. Their stories are still being told; the ramifications of that fateful day are still playing out. There are children whose parents never came home from work that day. There were long planned wedding days that came and went without the presence of the bride or the groom. There were parents who were looking forward to that next visit from their adult child and who never saw that day come. And, of course, there were many families of policemen and firemen who discovered what it was like to have their worst nightmares come true.
When we consider the horrors and grief related to that fateful event fifteen years ago, it seems a bit odd to talk about contentment in all circumstances. Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Philippi: “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 who strengthens me.” Another way to translate that last sentence is:
“I can bear all things, I can manage all things, I can handle all things,
through the One who gives me strength beyond my own.”
In fairness to Paul, he was not writing at the time about the aftermath of a terror event such as 9-11. Paul was, in his own wordy way, trying to thank the Philippians for a material gift of support that they had sent through a young church member named Epaphroditus. The gift had been given and so Paul takes this occasion to thank the congregation for their generosity. He calls their gift a fragrant offering to God, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Paul exclaims that he is not simply grateful for the gift that will help him meet his basic needs; he is most grateful for the fruit that the gift will bear within the Philippian congregation. Paul knows the secret of giving generously–that the giver of the gift so often receives far more than the recipient.
While Paul is primarily talking here about material needs or possessions, his words extend to matters of the heart and spirit as well. Paul has learned not to be defined either by wealth or poverty or any other circumstance, because he has come to know a contentment in Christ that transcends conditions. Paul has learned to survive each day by a power – in Christ – which has enabled him to live and even rejoice in any circumstance. For Paul, “Being in Christ is adequate for all situations.”
Significantly, at the time of his writing, Paul is in prison awaiting a possible execution. At the beginning of the letter he writes, “for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain.” He did not know whether he would soon die or not. He was facing his own mortality, as he had done numerous times before, but, in the face of poverty and death, he claims defiance in the face of potential fear. Neither fears nor anxieties will bind him or control him. He will find peace and even joy regardless of conditions.
We have much to learn from Paul’s attitude. We have become surrounded by messages that teach us that “to have is to be”, “to consume is to live”, and “to accumulate is to gain security or worth”. A large percentage of our nation statistically lives in the top 10-15% of the world’s wealthy, but so many still suffer from a consistent lack of contentment. Stoic philosopher Epictetus believed that suffering is the result of trying to control what cannot be controlled. As it happens, there are many things in life that are not in our power to control. Most often, these things turn out to be transient—health, property, and life, and unreliable things like possessions and the opinion of others. Epictetus suggested that the mistake people ordinarily make is to focus their attention and energy on things that are not in their power to change. The Stoic believes that we should focus only on what is in our power to control. The idea of what we can control and what we cannot control is the essential key to the understanding of contentment.
Paul’s uses the word “content” in this text, drawing upon the Greek term utilized by the Stoics. Paul is able to claim this because he had discovered that the peace of God and even joy can become available even in the midst of crises. In one of his letters to the church in Corinth, Paul writes that he received forty lashes – a beating with a whips – five different times, three times he was beaten with rods, once he received a stoning, three times he was shipwrecked, for a day and a night he drifted at sea.
On his frequent missionary journeys, he was in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from his own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked, and besides all this, he says, he was under daily pressure because of his anxiety for all the churches. Only Paul, who had been “initiated into” relying upon Jesus Christ for strength through all these trials and tribulations, could be taken seriously when he wrote: “Rejoice in the Lord, always. Again I say, rejoice.”
In Christ, Paul has discovered that he can do all things. He can bear all things, believe all things, hope all things. In Christ, his love for God and for the Philippian congregation will never end. “Poverty or plenty makes no difference to Paul, for he has ‘learned the secret’ of facing both with equanimity.” “Learned the secret” can be literally translated as “been initiated into,” which is a term popularized by the Greek mystery religions.” Paul’s secret is that he has been initiated, by his sufferings, into full reliance upon Jesus Christ for strength and for life. The secret of Paul’s spiritual freedom in whatever circumstance is his keen dependence on the strength of Jesus Christ.
In the aftermath of the events of 9-11, many Americans throughout the nation struggled with panic attacks and anxiety disorders. I distinctly remember one young mother’s reaction. She was the mother of three children and married to a Vietnam veteran. After the planes struck the towers and the Pentagon that day, this young mother struggled to hold on to any sense of security. Even though she lived a thousand miles away from the epicenter of those terror attacks, nevertheless she began having panic attacks. She lost sleep. She could not eat. Her world was circling in on her and she could not find a way out. And her reaction was not uncommon.
My friend, Tom Tewell, heard firsthand many survivors’ stories. He wrote: “Our world changed on September 11, 2001. During the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., our nation came face-to-face with our vulnerability. For the first time, many people came to the realization of their need for a Higher Power. As a Pastor in New York City on that fateful day, I spoke with countless people on the streets who realized that they were distant from God.” In the face of vulnerability, many found themselves standing on shaky ground.” Vernon Gramling wrote earlier this week: “Paul had learned, and it is the gospel he preached, that contentment has to have another basis than worldly circumstance. Paul’s sense of happiness and satisfaction could not be dependent on external measures or secular standards… The source of our contentment has to be from God. We may not be ‘happy’ in the secular sense, but (regardless of circumstance) we (can find) the strength to persevere. In the midst of all that we know and experience, God is there.”
The Wall Street Journal published a beautiful article this past week about one of the heroes of 9-11. Welles Crowther was a young businessman who grew up in New York City wanting to become a fireman. As often happens with childhood dreams, the former college lacrosse player did not become a fireman. Instead, he went to work in a suit in a corporate office. When the first plane ripped through the South Tower on floors 78-84, Welles was working on the 104th floor, above the impact. Fortunately, he and others found an open staircase and began rushing down the stairs. But when Welles got to floor 78, where there was a large sky lobby, he noticed many persons lost in the confusion of the fire and smoke, many of them waiting for an elevator. Abandoning his own escape, he entered the fire and smoke to help others. He began by carrying one injured woman down dozens of flights of stairs, and then he went back up, guiding numerous others to a safe passage from the flames. No one knows how many people Welles led to the safe passage of the open stairwell. He is officially credited with saving five lives, but there were likely many more.
On the day of 9-11, unknown to his family, the 24-year-old had an application pending with the New York Fire Department. Six months later, when they found his body in the lobby of the South tower, he was among the remains of many firemen, his childhood dream at least partially realized. Welles could have made it out of the tower like the ones that he helped, like the ones that he guided to that open stairwell. But his courage and his inclination to help those in need was stronger than his fears or anxieties related to self-preservation. Peggy Noonan, who shared the story, writes: “The way I see it, courage comes from love.
There is a big unseen current of love that hums through the world and some plug into more than others, more deeply and more surely, and they get more power from it. And it fills them with courage. It makes everything possible.”
The Apostle Paul was no doubt connected to that unseen current of love that hums through the world. For him, it made all things possible in Jesus Christ, even contentment in the face of poverty or death. In Jesus Christ, we can do all things, bear all things, persevere in all things. In Christ, we discover strength and courage beyond our own.
Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
September 11, 2016
