Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout\nhuman history, people have worshipped all kinds of things, as gods. Many of\nthese so-called gods have been described as having human features, though they\nwere often faster, more beautiful, stronger, wiser (but not always) than their human\ncounterparts. The gods of the Greeks and Romans that the Apostle Paul\nencountered and the God\u2019s of the Norsemen that St. Patrick encountered fit into\nthis category. Other gods took on fearful images, with some human\ncharacteristics, but also with animal features and sometimes dragon like\nfeatures. Other gods took on images from nature, like trees and mountains, but\nyet others do not appear to have an image at all, some of these are related to\nthings like wind and rain and fertility and wisdom and such. But, in all of my\nstudies of ancient and foreign religions, I cannot recall, a single one of them,\nas setting aside the belly as their god. Buddha has a big belly, but no one\nworships Buddha\u2019s belly; in fact, no one really worships Buddha and much of\nBuddhism speaks of fasting and controlling one\u2019s desires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So,\nwhat was the Apostle Paul talking about in Philippians chapter 3, verse 19? What\ndid he mean, by saying that, their god is the belly? Actually, Paul was using\nan old Biblical reference, related to passages found in Job, the Psalms and\nHabakkuk. There the belly was understood, at least figuratively, as being the\nseat of a person\u2019s affections, passions, desires and moods. A person who makes\nhis belly his god, is one who worships (not literally but by his\/her actions)\nall that will make him\/her happy, satisfied, beautiful, strong, rich and maybe\npowerful. Paul included among such people, those whose minds were set on\nearthly things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thinking\nof today, who might we put into that group? Without mentioning names, we all\nknow those who put success above all else; there are those who can\u2019t take their\neyes away from their mirrors (Planet Fitness has a commercial where the person\nexercising complains that there are not enough mirrors for others to look at\nhim looking at himself); there are those who put their wealth above the needs\nof all others; and there are those who simply put their own wants, whether it\nbe food or something else, above the needs of others. Again, we all know such people;\nPaul knew people like this and some of them were among those who claimed to be\ncalled to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and who were trying to get\nrich doing so. Paul said of them, \u201cTheir end is their destruction; \u2026 and their\nglory is in their shame; \u2026. Funny thing! Paul was not inclined, to speak in\nsuch a powerful manner against the Gentile authorities who persecuted them, but\nwas inclined to speak against those so-called apostles; they were supposed to\nbe above such base desires; they were supposed to have the will and love of\nJesus central to their being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nbelly, that is the passions, the emotions, the wants and desires, are not to be\nworshipped as a god, by anyone who belongs to the Body of Christ; they are to\ntake a back seat to the love of Jesus and God\u2019s will. The problem today, for us\nhere in the United States, is that so many of our country have, it seems,\nturned to the worship of the belly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe\nit\u2019s a side effect of our capitalism, but it is the extreme; now a days it\nseems that most everyone is out only for their selves. And our policy as a\nnation seems to lean towards isolation, there is this desire to keep our great\nnation and its resources for ourselves and from the rest of the world by\nkeeping out the poor and oppressed, by pulling out our protection from other\nnations and by making trade all about what benefits the United States. All of\nthat is not bad, we need some protections and some trade loyalty for our home\nindustries, but the feeling that I get is much more extreme, the people it\nseems are turning to worship their bellies, \u201cit\u2019s all about what\u2019s good for me,\nus;\u201d \u201cit\u2019s all about what is good for our area; it all about what is good for\nour nation and then what happens to everyone else is not our concern.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If\nthere was no God; if there had been no Jesus; if it was just for our bellies\nthat we lived, there would be no better way for us to act, but there is a God\nand there was and is a Jesus and the purpose laid out for us is not about our\nbellies. You see, we who have received the love of God in Jesus are citizens,\nfirst and foremost, not of the United States of America, but of heaven, and\nthat should make it so that we look at things in a different way. No pun\nintended, we have a higher calling. That is not to say that we should not be\nfaithful to our citizenship to the United States, but that citizenship, for us\nas Christians, is always secondary and if, or when, our country professes\nthings that stand against our faith, we are honor bound to stand with our Christian\nfaith and if necessary, stand against our country. We don\u2019t always think this\nway. Heaven seems to us so far away, and our country is right here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nApostle Paul was a Jew, a Pharisee, a Roman citizen, but above all of these, he\nwas a Christian called upon to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul spoke\nfor Christ in the synagogues until they kicked him out; Paul spoke against the\nunilateral need tor the adherence of Gentile Christians of the laws and\ntraditions representative of his Pharisaic training and he proclaimed his faith\nbefore Caesar (as was his right as a citizen of Rome) and because he refused to\nfollow an unjust law of Rome, because he would not worship Caesar he died at\nthe hands of Rome. St. Patrick likewise set his faith above all else. Unlike\nPaul his faith did not lead to his execution, but like Paul his faith led to\nmany of the Irish embracing Jesus as their Savior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\nis just one citizenship that stands above all others, for us, and that is our\ncitizenship in heaven, and so as citizens of heaven we follow the love and will\nof Jesus. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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) Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}