Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Throughout human history, people have worshipped all kinds of things, as gods. Many of these so-called gods have been described as having human features, though they were often faster, more beautiful, stronger, wiser (but not always) than their human counterparts. The gods of the Greeks and Romans that the Apostle Paul encountered and the God’s of the Norsemen that St. Patrick encountered fit into this category. Other gods took on fearful images, with some human characteristics, but also with animal features and sometimes dragon like features. Other gods took on images from nature, like trees and mountains, but yet others do not appear to have an image at all, some of these are related to things like wind and rain and fertility and wisdom and such. But, in all of my studies of ancient and foreign religions, I cannot recall, a single one of them, as setting aside the belly as their god. Buddha has a big belly, but no one worships Buddha’s belly; in fact, no one really worships Buddha and much of Buddhism speaks of fasting and controlling one’s desires.
So, what was the Apostle Paul talking about in Philippians chapter 3, verse 19? What did he mean, by saying that, their god is the belly? Actually, Paul was using an old Biblical reference, related to passages found in Job, the Psalms and Habakkuk. There the belly was understood, at least figuratively, as being the seat of a person’s affections, passions, desires and moods. A person who makes his belly his god, is one who worships (not literally but by his/her actions) all that will make him/her happy, satisfied, beautiful, strong, rich and maybe powerful. Paul included among such people, those whose minds were set on earthly things.
Thinking of today, who might we put into that group? Without mentioning names, we all know those who put success above all else; there are those who can’t take their eyes away from their mirrors (Planet Fitness has a commercial where the person exercising complains that there are not enough mirrors for others to look at him looking at himself); there are those who put their wealth above the needs of all others; and there are those who simply put their own wants, whether it be food or something else, above the needs of others. Again, we all know such people; Paul knew people like this and some of them were among those who claimed to be called to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and who were trying to get rich doing so. Paul said of them, “Their end is their destruction; … and their glory is in their shame; …. Funny thing! Paul was not inclined, to speak in such a powerful manner against the Gentile authorities who persecuted them, but was inclined to speak against those so-called apostles; they were supposed to be above such base desires; they were supposed to have the will and love of Jesus central to their being.
The belly, that is the passions, the emotions, the wants and desires, are not to be worshipped as a god, by anyone who belongs to the Body of Christ; they are to take a back seat to the love of Jesus and God’s will. The problem today, for us here in the United States, is that so many of our country have, it seems, turned to the worship of the belly.
Maybe it’s a side effect of our capitalism, but it is the extreme; now a days it seems that most everyone is out only for their selves. And our policy as a nation seems to lean towards isolation, there is this desire to keep our great nation and its resources for ourselves and from the rest of the world by keeping out the poor and oppressed, by pulling out our protection from other nations and by making trade all about what benefits the United States. All of that is not bad, we need some protections and some trade loyalty for our home industries, but the feeling that I get is much more extreme, the people it seems are turning to worship their bellies, “it’s all about what’s good for me, us;” “it’s all about what is good for our area; it all about what is good for our nation and then what happens to everyone else is not our concern.”
If there was no God; if there had been no Jesus; if it was just for our bellies that we lived, there would be no better way for us to act, but there is a God and there was and is a Jesus and the purpose laid out for us is not about our bellies. You see, we who have received the love of God in Jesus are citizens, first and foremost, not of the United States of America, but of heaven, and that should make it so that we look at things in a different way. No pun intended, we have a higher calling. That is not to say that we should not be faithful to our citizenship to the United States, but that citizenship, for us as Christians, is always secondary and if, or when, our country professes things that stand against our faith, we are honor bound to stand with our Christian faith and if necessary, stand against our country. We don’t always think this way. Heaven seems to us so far away, and our country is right here.
The Apostle Paul was a Jew, a Pharisee, a Roman citizen, but above all of these, he was a Christian called upon to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul spoke for Christ in the synagogues until they kicked him out; Paul spoke against the unilateral need tor the adherence of Gentile Christians of the laws and traditions representative of his Pharisaic training and he proclaimed his faith before Caesar (as was his right as a citizen of Rome) and because he refused to follow an unjust law of Rome, because he would not worship Caesar he died at the hands of Rome. St. Patrick likewise set his faith above all else. Unlike Paul his faith did not lead to his execution, but like Paul his faith led to many of the Irish embracing Jesus as their Savior.
There is just one citizenship that stands above all others, for us, and that is our citizenship in heaven, and so as citizens of heaven we follow the love and will of Jesus.