Life Can Be Better Than Just Managing

“Life can be better than just managing” – January 19^th, 2025 (Philippians 1:1-11)

The relationship that C. S. Lewis, aka “Jack,” had with his wife Joy was transformative. Here’s a glimpse into what happened when an unwelcome interruption in their lives confronted Jack with the depth of love and the pain of loss.

Today we begin a ten-week journey through a beloved New Testament epistle. We are calling this new sermon series Philippians: The Epistle of Suffering Matched by Joy. Life can be better than just managing, just getting by. God wants us to not just survive, but thrive!

You may have heard the Apostle Paul’s letter to Philippians described as the epistle of joy. That is true. But an even deeper truth is that God matches our suffering with joy. God matches our personal suffering with joy that far exceeds what we can contain or explain. And because God sent Jesus (God in human form) and because Christ Jesus bore all of our sin and sorrow and suffering on the cross, God has matched the suffering of the entire world – past, present, and future – with infinite joy.

Countless philosophies and numerous religions state clearly that life and suffering go hand in hand. Jesus’s way, the way of love, Christianity, states and shows in both timeless theology and countless changed lives that in the upside-down kingdom characterized by restoration towards universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight. Meanwhile, we wait and we work together towards God’s ultimate undoing of all wrongs and setting everything right. Life can be better than just managing because God matches our suffering with joy.

Beloved author, minister, and theologian, the late Frederick Buechner, and one of my favorite wordsmiths, writes that “Joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances, even in the midst of suffering, with tears in its eyes.” He also goes as far as to say, “That’s what sin really is . . . not being full of joy.” This is a definition well worth pondering!

We don’t know what suffering will accompany 2025. What we do know is that there will be suffering this year. We don’t hope for suffering, of course, but as followers of Jesus we do want to live in the real world with courage, compassion, and connection. It’s easy to say that suffering is an illusion until you stub your toe or you have an anxiety attack or you lose someone you dearly love. Although suffering is an unwelcome guest, there is no doubt that there will be suffering this year.

How do we live with that hanging over us? We might be able to state theologically with great confidence that God created us to enjoy relationship with God and one another and to enjoy all of God’s good creation. We might be able to describe the ultimate joy that awaits all who are willing to receive it at the end of the ages. We might be able to encourage someone else to keep their chin up and their eyes on Jesus because joy might break through at any time. And yet we might personally struggle to actually experience joy consistently. Why is that? Because we’re human. We forget. We get all disconnected inside of ourselves, disconnected from God, and disconnected from one another. We forget how much God loves us. We forget how good the good news is. We forget to live in the present. We forget to keep things simple, to love and be loved, to know and be known. We need reminders of all of these things.

When Paul and I were raising our kids, I noticed that we both tended to give the same “talks” over and over on certain things. Clean up after yourself, do your best, live in the light, resist evil, give generously, work hard, do good wherever you can, beautify what you can, express gratitude. I also noticed that some talks needed to be repeated more frequently than others. Some children struggled with remembering or putting into practice certain things more than others. But as parents, we realized that all children need reminders at times, especially about the most important things. Just as we need GPS or some kind of map when setting out on a long journey, children need guidance and training in their life journeys. We all do. Paul and I sought to give frequent reminders to our kids in some very specific ways. We did whatever we could to remind our children to become caring, competent, courageous, creative, confident, and courteous; ethical, encouraging, educated, equipped, empowered, and engaged. Some of these reminders were needed so frequently that I would jokingly press an invisible button on my heart and say something like, “here comes talk number 2934.” We did happy dances when we saw our children make their own self-reminders. We rejoiced when we noticed our children reminding others of the wisdom or habits that they had integrated into their lives.

This is somewhat analogous to understanding why the Apostle Paul wrote Philippians. He wrote this letter as a kind of series of friendly reminders to keep going. Although Paul wrote it specifically to the church at Philippi, it was understood and intended that this letter would be passed around to all of the churches then. Because of its inclusion in the canon of Scripture, Philippians continues to be passed around to all of the churches now. Paul wanted each sister and brother in Christ, both individually and as a united community, to live the abundant life that Jesus came to give, our best possible life, a life of flourishing, wholeness, and delight!

Let’s talk for a couple of minutes about theology. In order to better understand Philippians, we need to realize that Paul’s theology doesn’t have a central focus. Paul’s theology is better described as a keep-it-moving, dynamic theology that begins and ends with the grace of God. If we mapped out Paul’s theology on paper, it might take the shape of a circle. Paul continually points us towards the grace of God, which is God’s initiative towards us in seeking relationship with us, to bring us into God’s eternal embrace of love. God’s grace evokes in us a response of faith founded on the belief that God is for us. This faith starts us in right relationship with God. The Holy Spirit is given to all who respond in faith. As Ephesians 4:4-6 tells us, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” The Holy Spirit brings us into freedom, making us into the shape of Jesus, the cruciform shape of love: gratitude to God and love for others. Our works of love keep us in right relationship with God, pointing us back to where we started – God’s grace. Move aside Disney and Elton John, this is the true circle of life, the Pauline Circle: God’s Grace -> Response of Faith -> Reception of Spirit and Freedom -> Works of Love -> God’s Grace

That long introduction brings us to today’s passage in Philippians chapter 1. Each week during this series, we are going to take a close look at a small section from this epistle of suffering matched by joy. As I read today’s scripture, let it sink deep into your soul. Receive whatever good gifts God has for you today. These are words of life! Philippians 1:1-11 (NRSV):

“1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.

9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”

If we read other letters from the first century, we would notice that they always include the Greek word chairein, which means, simply, “greetings!” Paul, a wonderfully creative writer, opts to tweak that word just a little, to charis, grace. Beyond surprising hearers with its similar sound, Paul has a higher purpose in choosing this particular word. With Paul, everything starts with grace. Charis, the grace of God,describes the source and the spring in the heart of God, God’s initiative toward human beings to bring us into the eternal embrace of God, to have relationship with us. Charis describes the source and the spring in the heart of God from which salvation flows. It is such an important term that Paul and other New Testament writers use this term over 150 times. In his manner of greeting and closing, Paul wraps Philippians, as he does in almost all of his letters, with grace!

Paul then makes an important addition in his greeting: eiréné, the Greek word for “peace.” This corresponds to the well-known Hebrew term, shalom. To live in peace is to live as ones who have responded to God’s grace, allowing God’s blessings to flow in, among, and through us. The more we live in the grace of God, the more the peace of God will touch every arena of our lives – family life, friendships, communities, workplaces, interactions, reactions. Paul is reminding us, his brothers and sisters in Christ, that God is moving things towards the restoration of all things to the way they are supposed to be – universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight. Paul is reminding us that no matter what our circumstances, God’s grace and peace enable each of us to participate in the work of restoration, together!

So, we see that Paul’s greeting of “grace and peace” is not just a nice way to say “hello!” It’s an invitation to transformation and life together with God! Life can be better than just managing. Jesus said in John 10:10 that he came that we may have life, and have it abundantly. The Message translation puts it like this: “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” This real and eternal life of which Jesus speaks is to be lived not by and by or far away. Real and eternal life is to be lived here and now. And Jesus reassures us in Matthew 28:20 to “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Sometimes we get discouraged because it seems like things are far from the way they are supposed to be. Take heart – God is the one overseeing the restoration! We are pilgrims on a long journey, and this is slow, hard work. Our job is to be faithful and to endure as we do this work together with Jesus, by the grace of God, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

After Paul’s greeting, the remainder of today’s passage is an affirmation of assurance and a pastoral prayer. Paul assures us, the church, that “the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” Paul gives us the confidence to live in the assurance that God, who began a good work among us, will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ! Paul goes on to pray for us, the church, that our love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help us to determine what is best. Why? So that we can stand before God at the end of all things, and to be enabled to produce “the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.” May it be so in us, oh God!

Life can be better than just managing. I want to leave us with two practical ways in which we can move away from just surviving and toward really thriving.

The first practical way to not just survive but to thrive is to talk about our own suffering. There’s a kind of false humility that tries to ignore our own suffering or pretend that we don’t have any. We are all in need of healing, whether old traumas, more recent losses, or current pain. In talking about our own suffering, we don’t have to unload the entire story in every conversation. I’ve always loved the account of Jesus healing the ten lepers. After they called on Jesus to have mercy on them, he simply saw them and sent them to the priests (the ones who had the authority to welcome or ban them from community life). Luke 17:14 then states simply, “On their way they were healed.” It’s as we go on our way, sharing authentic life with one another in all its glorious messiness that we are healed. It’s not healthy to share only those stories that are already neatly wrapped up in a bow. It takes great courage to share our suffering in the here and now. As we take one brave step after another, we will find that in bringing our own suffering, traumas, losses, and pain into the light in community, God is faithful to match our suffering with joy. Doing this also encourages others to take on the same kind of courage.

During my multi-day sermon preparation this week, I came across a very fitting quote from an audio book I am currently recording for my YouTube channel. In case you are unfamiliar with George MacDonald, he is the Scottish author and minister of whom C. S. Lewis said, “I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself.” George MacDonald is one of my favorites, too! Here’s the treasure I discovered this week, from The Princess and Curdie: “They did not lose courage, for there is a kind of capillary attraction in the facing of two souls, that lifts faith quite beyond the level to which either could raise it alone.” Simply deciding to face one another in the inevitable hardships on this faith journey together actually strengthens our faith together!

The second practical way to not just survive but to thrive is to enter into the suffering of others. Let’s unpack five common anxieties or fears regarding this.

• We probably won’t know what to say. That’s okay. Words are highly overrated. What if being present conveys love more clearly than the most eloquent speech?
• We might not completely understand the situation. That’s okay. Complete understanding is highly overrated. What if being present helps us to gain just a little more understanding and empathy?
• We probably won’t be able to fix someone else’s suffering. That’s okay. Fixing is highly overrated. What if being present helps ease someone else’s burden?
• We might become overwhelmed with pain and not be able to hold it together. That’s okay. Holding it together is highly overrated. What if being present helps release a flood of pain that has been wreaking internal damage for far too long?
• We might feel uncomfortable with this kind of vulnerability. That’s okay. Being comfortable is highly overrated. What if being present helps to increase the desire for real freedom, instead of just managing?

We do not need to be afraid of or anxious about entering into either the depth of love or the pain of loss. May we simply choose to be present with ourselves and with others in the presence of God and see what happens! Life can be better than just managing because God is faithful to always match our suffering with joy. Come, Holy Spirit!