Where Your Deep Gladness and the World’s Deep Hunger Meet
“Where Your Deep Gladness and the World’s Deep Hunger Meet” – February 23rd, 2025 (Philippians week 6)
For many years now, I’ve had a growing realization that if we really knew how good we have it, we would pay more attention. One example of how good we have it has to do with how we spend our time. When I was a teenager, I remember thinking, “I don’t have enough free time to do what I want to do.” Later, during my university studies, I thought, “Now I know what it’s like to not have enough free time.” Then when I commuted to work long hours each day while learning to “adult,” I realized that I had not previously understood what it was like to lack the ample free time that I desired. Years later, in the throes of raising and teaching six children at home, I felt like I finally figured out what it meant to not have enough free time to do what was in my heart. As my children launched into the next phases of their lives, I assumed I would regain this elusive free time I had wondered about. All I can say is, after going through all kinds of seasons of life and hopefully gaining some wisdom from God along the way, I’ve realized that it doesn’t really matter what our life circumstances are, because we are all given the same allotment of time each day. It’s kind of a silly concept calling it “free time” anyway, because God has created us to be free agents. We are free to manage the time we’re given however we choose. Of course, we are not free to spend all of our time the way we might want to because life comes with legal and moral obligations. However, paying attention will help us to gratefully welcome and generously share the good gifts God gives us in the time we have been given.
Before we look at today’s passage in Philippians, I want to share a quote with you from one of my favorite authors that illuminates beautifully how we go about figuring out where we are to generously share the good gifts God gives us. The late Frederick Buechner penned these poignant words: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” We will come back to this quote later on.
Today’s passage in our journey through Philippians, the epistle of suffering matched by joy, focuses on two individuals and how God worked in and through them in the church at Philippi. Before we turn in our Bibles to chapter 2 of Philippians today, let’s remember that Philippi was quite a different place from where we live today, in a different era that would make us feel out of place and very uncomfortable. But in spite of vast cultural differences, Philippi was filled with people who were just like us. They wanted to be happy. They loved their children. They worked to provide for their needs and the needs of their extended families. They had conflicts with their neighbors that were really hard to resolve. They were afraid of the unknowns. They wrestled with worries and anxieties. They longed for lasting joy and peace. And most importantly, whether they knew it or not, God was doing a good, holy, and beautiful work in the lives of each and every person there, just as God is doing in the lives of each and every person in our own place and time!
Certainly, God does a general good, holy, and beautiful work in each person’s life. For example, Ecclesiastes 3:13 tells us that “it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.” Jesus said in Matthew 5:44-45 – “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” God blesses all people everywhere and at all times as the sustainer of life, providing good, holy, and beautiful gifts like food and drink and sunshine and rain, to all, no matter who we are.
But beyond that, God sends and calls individuals to do specific things. We are not clusters of cookie-cutter clones. We are not deterministic and barren droids or bots. We are not vague gases that merge in some kind of conglomeration or incorporation into the cosmos. We are beloved children of the personal creator and sustainer of all that there is – God, who revealed God’s self in the person of Jesus Christ, that we might know who God is and that we might know who we are! God’s love for each and every person is so vast and so deep and so intimate and so real that God has good, holy, and beautiful invitations for and collaborations with each one of us, personally. This is one of the ways in which we not only taste but experience God’s amazing grace, that God would send and call specific people to do specific things. God chooses to and desires to partner with you and with me, with us, in carrying out God’s plans.
Timothy
As we read Philippians 2:19-24, let’s meet the first of our two individuals.
Philippians 2:19-24 (NRSV) – “19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be cheered by news of you. 20 I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But Timothy’s worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. 23 I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me; 24 and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon.”
Our passage today begins with the apostle Paul’s words, “I hope in the Lord Jesus.” This is not a casual phrase like “I hope to go to the beach this year, God willing.” It’s Paul’s way of reminding the Philippians that what he says and believes and does is the same in bad times as well as good. He wants to assure them that all of his ideas, hopes, and plans are subject to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He can speak and act in both hope and confidence because he has already surrendered himself and his future to the Lord. When we surrender ourselves and our future to the Lord, we, too, can speak and act in hope and confidence. We are not hoping for particular outcomes. When we surrender all of our ideas, hopes, and plans to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we can then rest secure in God.
One of my favorite images of what resting secure in God looks like comes from Deuteronomy 33:12 in which Moses is dispensing blessings to the people of God – “The beloved of the Lord rests in safety— the High God surrounds him all day long— the beloved rests between his shoulders.” When I was a young mother, the Lord impressed this image on me in a significant way through personal experience, as I comforted, cuddled, kissed, and rocked Peter, our firstborn. I tend to be a slow learner when it comes to resting securely in God, so these lessons extended to comforting, cuddling, kissing, and rocking Jonathan, Michael, Cascade, Karis, and Esther, too, in the wee hours every single night until they were each about 18 months old. This is the image that Deuteronomy 33:12 evokes: an infant or young child nestled in the arms of a loving and attentive parent, with their head resting on your shoulder, face tucked into your neck. The rocking motion over time soothes the child’s cares away and eventually they drift off to sleep, their unfiltered faces offering glimpses of the explorations and adventures of their dreams. To me, it is a beautiful and intimate image, one that floods my heart and mind with such delight, gratitude, and joy. This tender description in Deuteronomy helps us to understand how God enfolds each of us – God’s beloved children – in God’s comforting arms, resting on God’s shoulder, our faces tucked into God’s warmth and love. God’s embrace and presence allows us to rest in safety, no matter what is swirling around us. The High God surrounds us all day long just like that!
It is from this place of secure hope in God that Paul speaks of Timothy. Paul cares deeply for the church at Philippi and is concerned for their welfare. He knows that there is a genuine need for help from outside of the community because they are struggling. Paul’s circumstances are such that he is not able to personally go right now. God is the one who sends Timothy to go out, and Paul participates with God in sending Timothy to go out.
Let’s look at what happened from Timothy’s perspective. Timothy has been mentored by Paul and has spent a lot of time with him. Timothy is ready, willing, and available to travel all the way to Philippi, a very long and arduous journey. He is ready, willing, and available to drop whatever he’s doing in order to be there for the church at Philippi. He is ready, willing, and available to be present with them, come alongside them, and do whatever he can to bring resolution to a messy and difficult problem among them. Timothy is motivated by genuine concern and love for the Philippians. Timothy allows God to send him to Philippi, with the blessing of Paul and the church from which he is sent.
The word Paul chooses to describe Timothy’s “genuine concern” for their welfare, merimnēsei, is the same word Paul uses of himself in 1 Corinthians 11:28, when he says, “I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.” This kind of care includes overtones of the pressure or weight of anxiety that grows out of true concern for the welfare of others. New Testament scholar Ralph P. Martin explains that Paul is reflecting on the world around him as he remembers that in a world of selfishness and self-seeking, it is a rare thing to find a person like Timothy. Timothy is not just okay with but is really anxious to promote the welfare of other people. He is eager to give himself over to a fatiguing journey. He is well-prepared to get involved with other people’s messes and the resolving of personal quarrels in the Philippian church. Paul puts a higher priority on the cause of Christ than the welfare of his local community. Let’s allow that to sink in. In verse 21, we see that Paul actually equates care for this distant church at Philippi with putting Jesus Christ’s interests first. Notice the free-flowing devotion among Paul, Timothy, and the Philippians. Each one’s concern for the other outweighs their own self-interests.
As with the Philippians, we, too, live in a self-first saturated culture. As followers of Christ, God instructs us to put Jesus Christ’s interests first. We cannot assume that this means we are to put first our own interests or the interests of our own church, community, city, or nation. We are to give first place only to the interests of Jesus Christ. Paul calls us to resist structures that oppress people, and to resist being shaped by worldly systems. Paul reminds us that following Jesus means that we walk in a new way, the way of Jesus Christ. Paul also warns us that following Jesus is not like following a formula. We cannot presume to fully know what Jesus Christ’s interests are in a given situation. None of us has enough knowledge or wisdom or discernment to know that on our own. What it does mean is that as followers of Jesus, we are to surrender all of our ideas, hopes, and plans to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And we are to make ourselves ready, willing, and available for our Lord to send us wherever and to whomever God sends us.
Epaphroditus
As we read Philippians 2:25-30, let’s meet the second of our two individuals.
Philippians 2:25-30 (NRSV) – “25 Still, I think it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus—my brother and co-worker and fellow soldier, your messenger and minister to my need; 26 for he has been longing for all of you, and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 He was indeed so ill that he nearly died. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, in order that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. 29 Welcome him then in the Lord with all joy, and honor such people, 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for those services that you could not give me.”
Now Paul mentions someone we’ve never heard of before, a guy called Epaphroditus. Who is he, anyway? From the way this passage is worded, we see that Epaphroditus carries this letter from Paul to the church at Philippi. And we also see that Epaphroditus is originally from Philippi because Paul is urging the church to welcome him home again, being mindful of his condition – he had been very homesick and was only now recovering from a serious illness. Epaphroditus is a “local” from Philippi, someone who is valued and trusted by both the Philippians and Paul. Paul knows he can count on Epaphroditus to plead for the unity he desires. He knows that the Philippians will listen to him. Paul knows Epaphroditus and the church’s deep hunger and their deep gladness, and he connects them together.
Let’s take a little side trip here to discuss Epaphroditus’s name. Although it’s quite a tongue twister and foreign to our ears, it contains the word “Aphrodite,” a goddess whom almost all of the Greek world worshiped at the time. N. T. Wright tells us in his book Surprised by Scripture that every generation must confront and resist idolatry, as it remains very much alive and well today even as in ancient times. Wright names the three most obvious gods with which both the ancient world and our modern world are very familiar: “Mars, the god of war, Mammon, the god of money, and Aphrodite, the goddess of erotic love.” Lots of babies were named after idols or gods in the ancient world. In the early church, a common practice arose in which a believer would assume a new name at baptism, symbolizing a changed life. Often this new name pointed to some kind of virtue or practice that the believer wanted to imitate. This practice continues today with some kind of name association with a new name or patron saint received at baptism, christening, or confirmation. However, early church leaders did not expect or force anyone to change their name, respecting the freedom each person has in Christ. An Iranian pastor today has chosen to retain his birth name because of his fond affection for his grandfather, after whom he was named, and so he goes by Reverend Mohammed.
Not even the Apostle Paul demands that this church leader, Epaphroditus, change his pagan idolatrous name to something more Christian, because he knows that a Christian is not one who merely possesses a Christian name. I’m sure we all know plenty of people named after virtuous people or practices whose life choices do not line up with their names. A Christian is one who practices the life of Christ, one who follows Jesus Christ.
Paul speaks of Epaphroditus with five descriptors, each one chosen to affirm Epaphroditus and to encourage the church: my brother / my sister, my co-worker, my fellow soldier, your messenger, your minister. These terms along with their pronouns are deliberately chosen by Paul to convey what is important to him: we are together the family of God; we work together as a team to spread the gospel; we share in the work of the gospel and in the suffering of Christ; church relationships are marked, not by superiority or inferiority, but by equality and partnership; and individuals are selected and sent out to do specific tasks of service. Again, we notice free-flowing devotion among Paul, Epaphroditus, and the Philippians. Each one’s concern for the other outweighs their own self-interests. God is the one who calls Epaphroditus to come home, and Paul participates with God in calling Epaphroditus to come home.
Conclusion
I told you we would come back to that first quote I read today: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Buechner says something very profound in these few well-chosen words. God sends and calls us to specific places. In God’s boundless creativity, God has wired us to notice things that others may or may not notice. God has shaped us to advocate for justice and contend against opposition that others may or may not care about. God has formed us to find solace and courage and joy in ways that others may or may not understand.
In considering this past year as a suggested time frame, let us examine ourselves with a few reflection questions that will hopefully help us to better pay attention. Even if we feel like we’re too overwhelmed, too distracted, too tired, too upset, or too cold-hearted, I want to encourage us to take a deep breath, be still, and make room for the Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts and minds.
Let us firstly consider the world’s deep hunger. Which distinct person, entity, or group have you noticed? What specific situation has prompted you to pound your fists in frustration? What particular happening has broken your heart?
Now let us consider your deep gladness. What wholesome habit has soothed your soul? What periodic practice has steadied your mind? What regular routine has brought you joy?
The big question we can each ask ourselves today is: Am I willing to make myself available to God as an agent of mercy, to proactively connect my deep gladness with the world’s deep hunger?
Could it be that God is sending and calling me to a distinct, specific, particular place of service? What could happen if I were to surrender all of my ideas, hopes, and plans to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Come, Holy Spirit!
