Don't Go Belly Up!

Don’t Go Belly Up!

 

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Our citizenship is in heaven 

 

3:17 Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.

 

3:18 For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears.

 

3:19 Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.

 

3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

3:21 He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.

 

4:1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

 

I have long been a fan of Elon Musk because of his brilliance in literally “creating” the electric car world, advancing the cause of solar power, and most especially, launching SpaceX as an independent and highly successful space transport system. His Falcon 9 boosters launch almost every other day with payloads for various governments and corporations, and as you have most likely seen, SpaceX keeps the costs low by returning those same boosters safely to earth, to be reused numerous times. (I follow launches through an app on my smart phone called “Next Space Flight,” which alerts me every time a launch is pending, anywhere in the world.)

 

In today’s text, Paul warns the Philippian Christians about allowing their “belly” (wealth, lust, literal hunger) to become their “god,” or the main, guiding force in their lives. This is exactly what appears to be happening with Elon Musk, my former “hero.” With his billions going to his head, along with the power they have bought him—right into the Oval Office, in fact—he has succumbed to this “belly god” thing, hasn’t he? A man who impressed me with both his brilliance AND his humility a few years ago has been transformed into an egotistical, race-bating, lying and slanderous man who has been put in charge of a willy-nilly slashing of the federal budget and work force, ranging from the social safety-net programs to the support of our military veterans. And to what end? More for his hungry “belly.” A billionaire and the world’s richest man, he is in charge of cutting government spending with the goal of freeing up funds for planned big tax cut. And if things stand true to past forms, this tax cut will benefit the wealthiest Americans most of all, even IF it provides some relief for those of us in the “great unwashed” ranks of society. (The belly-god people hold on to power by throwing the poor “dogs” a bone, from time to time.)

 

But there are consequences to selling out to one’s “belly hunger.” Musk’s Tesla is falling on hard times, with its vehicle sales and stock prices cratering. And speaking of falling, his SpaceX “Starship” venture has been exploding and raining flaming debris on a large section of the Caribbean! When is the last time you heard anything about his innovative solar roof tiles, his impressive battery technology to store solar power, or his truly fascinating “Neurolink”? Even for a genius, giving in to your “belly lust” for power, and coming to believe you are the ONLY ONE who can “fix” anything, extricates you from your own signature achievements, which may then fall into disrepair. 

 

We have certainly seen many of our favorite celebrities done in by this belly-lust, haven’t we? The rare Tom Hanks types, who have managed to keep both relationships and career stable and to some degree humble, become notable by their seeming ability to eschew the belly-lust for power. Neither do they seem to be swallowed up by the considerable wealth their success has brought them. Some famous figures like Warren Buffett have made commitments to donate sizeable portions of their largess to charity or noble causes like climate change or poverty. In their rare case, that their own bellies are “full enough” has enabled them to look beyond their own needs to see that they have been “empowered” to help the world in other ways. In the movie “Contact,” a wealthy multi-billionaire industrialist named S.R. Hadden bankrolls scientific ventures aimed at unlocking secrets of the universe. He confesses, though, that as his life is being eroded away by cancer, he has “taken much” from the world, and now wants to “give back” before his days are done. The fictional S.R. Hadden historically mirrors American industrialists—what have been dubbed “robber barons”—like Andrew Carnegie, who “gave away” much of their wealth before they died. In Carnegie’s case, much of it went to establish community libraries, while interestingly, some was used to install “state-of-the-art” pipe organs in churches throughout the Pittsburgh/Allegheny County area. This “guilt washing” is a very different type of philanthropy; in the scriptural metaphor, it is almost a kind of regurgitation of their ”belly-lust,” for it was their hunger for wealth and power that led them to “fill their bellies” in the first place, and their latter-day guilt over how they accomplished that that led to the “vomiting up” of some of their larder. 

 

Spiritual “giants” aren’t immune to this belly-lust, either. The Christian realm is overflowing with examples of evangelical “luminaries” who got greedy or power-hungry and destroyed their ministries. Billy Sunday, about whom some say was the model of Sinclair Lewis’s novel “Elmer Gantry,” comes to mind, as does Jim Bakker, the founder of the television ministry, “The PTL Club.” He and his weird wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, built an evangelical empire in Charlotte, North Carolina, only to lose it all to multiple bouts of belly-lust. As a pastor in my first church, I found that more than one of my parishioners had succumbed to the temptation to become a “life member” of Jim and Tammy Bakker’s giant Christian “Disneyland” in Charlotte, sending hundreds and hundreds of dollars their way, only to lose their ”membership privileges” when the Bakkers were prosecuted and their “Heritage USA” complex was sold to a Jewish businessman. Even beyond the initial scandal, the indigestion from belly-lust didn’t rest, as while Jim was in jail, Tammy Faye divorced him and ran off with the general contractor of “Heritage USA.” 

 

[I might add a personal side note here. In my prior career, working as the director of small, non-profit cable TV enterprise that produced local TV shows and aired them on local cable TV stations in Venango County, we aired Bakker’s “The PTL CLUB” program, which was sponsored by a local church. In the late 1970s, we received this show from PTL Ministries on expensive video tapes each week. After airing the Monday-Friday nightly program, we would package the tapes and send them along on the “bicycle,” meaning on to the next cable station that would air them. As Bakker’s PTL Ministries company continued to grow, at one point, we were not being told where to ship the tapes to next, and they began to pile up in our storage room. I called PTL and spoke with a supervisor named Jim Hightower, who asked me if we could erase and reuse these tapes in our TV production work. I told him we certainly could, as these were expensive items, and the tapes from PTL were “top of the line.” “Fine,” Hightower said, “we’re just rollin’ in it down here (meaning money!) and if you can use ‘em, KEEP em’!” It was then that I could see that PTL Ministries was heading for a bellyache of IMMENSE proportions!]

 

I get a weekly email from an organization called MinistryWatch that reports on various financial impropriety and scandal in Christian ministries. It is so sad to read their account of WAY too much belly-lust going on in “the church.” Embezzlement, marital infidelity, sexual misconduct with children and youth, are just a few of the things happening because people may so easily allow their “belly” to become their god. In 1887, British Lord Acton wrote to Bishop Creighton of the Anglican Church, warning him that both public and religious leaders should be held accountable because “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!” He was perfectly describing the “discomfort” of belly-lust.

 

We may be living in a world today where belly-lust and the “Belly God” reign supreme. Not only do we indulge UNBELIEVABLE grabs of power and wealth by politicians and billionaire industrialists, shopping magnates, and “content creators,” but we “commoners” shell out HUNDREDS (even thousands?) of dollars for tickets to sporting events and concerts because the “entertainers” involved rake in piles of money for their often sub-standard output. Are we not “feeding” their belly-lust by doing so? I just got a notice from my cable TV company after the first of the year that my “annual” rate increase would again be almost 10%, meaning that I am currently paying more for my TV service than I paid for a car payment during the first 20 years of my marriage! I may be the next one to “cut the cable.” These prices are going UP because every single programmer needs to feed their growling belly, er bank account.

 

Paul is writing this stuff to his friends in the church at Philippi for good reason: the early church was not only not IMMUNE to this “god of the belly” phenomenon, but it was ripe for it. The budding Christian church, unlike the rather structured synagogues and temple of Judaism of the day, had little “official” structure and almost no accountability. It relied on the higher “ethics and morals” of the teachings of Jesus, but as they say, “When the cat’s away, the mice will play,” and until the early church built in some structure and accountability, belly-lust was awfully strong, and the newest converts were often weak against its hunger pangs. And, of course, the fledgling church was also ripe for those who wanted to prey upon it, and that is at least partly what Paul is speaking to in this passage. I know, as Christians with a conscience, we all may say, “How could they do that?” Well, look around. Have you heard of SCAMS over the phone, the Internet, or via texts going on today? And who are the victims? Often the most vulnerable among us, especially senior citizens and the less educated. It happens in the church, too, as many of these con artists KNOW that religious people are often too easy in doling out trust and too guilty if successfully scammed to report it to the authorities. This is a fertile field for scammers! In his day, Paul loved the folk at Philippi and didn’t want them to be either victimized or controlled by people with terminal belly-lust. We feel the same way today about our loved ones, but the only way to remain diligent is to be AWARE of its power and “reach,” and be willing to share information designed to protect each other and the church against such exploitation. This is why groups like Ministry Watch exist, as well as financial giving watchdogs like “Charity Navigator,” which is a great online tool to “check out” any organization you may wish to support. 

 

Friends, none of us is immune to making our own desires or personal lusts into a god at whose “feet” we worship. I’m amazed at how even a moderate amount of sudden financial gain or acquisition of power can change a person. Years ago, we had a member of our home church who was stricken with a disability due to an errant medication. She became paraplegic, and received a multi-million dollar settlement from the drug company. As our church was involved in a building campaign, the woman offered a generous gift to assure that all aspects of the new building would not only meet the current ADA guidelines, but would have various helpful “conveniences” included. However, once her settlement was “in the bank,” an attorney advising the woman STRONGLY urged her to renege on the gift, governed by his own “fear” of her running out of money. It was his belly-lust that quenched the Spirit, in this case. Likewise, one of my saddest stories from 36-plus years in ministry tells the tale of WAY too many families that were negatively affected by an inheritance, even very moderate ones. The belly-lust generated by a few tens of thousands of dollars, even, put brothers and sisters, or children and parents at loggerheads with each other, and/or seemed to turn generous, caring individuals into fearful, overly paranoid ones, or even into spendthrifts, buying things they had “lusted” after for years, or using their “found wealth” to move into larger quarters, none of which they could support when the inheritance ran out.

 

So, beyond the caution Paul gives us of the lure of belly-lust, what are we to learn from this passage of scripture? Paul suggests we develop a “hunger” for the Kingdom of God, of which he reminds us we are citizens. If we hunger after the teachings of Jesus, and after the contented, Christian life, our psychological “tummies” will be satiated with grace rather than “grease.” As many of you know, I went on a personal “crusade” to lose 50 pounds and make myself healthier. With counsel from my dietitian/wife, I used an app to keep close track of what I ate and to properly portion my intake to lose a pound a week. Now that I am at the weight I set as my goal, I have remained diligent, and STILL use the app daily to record what I’m eating, and have set it to “maintain.” This is a decent metaphor for how to keep our spiritual “tummies” happy—monitor what you are doing to “feed” them, worship with other believers and interact with them, as they are a much healthier “environment” for you! You won’t be tempted to give in to the belly-lust yearning so easily! In my healthier eating goals, it meant staying out of McDonalds, Taco Bell, or a the bakery section of our market, and learning to eat smaller portions. You can figure out your own spiritual parallels to these “eating” behaviors—I trust you. I had a dietitian to help me along the way in my weight management quest. WE have the living Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and a “cloud of witnesses” (our fellow Christian friends) to keep us on “our program.” Just remember: when your tummy “growls,” you can either fill it with good, nutritious “foods” and a reasonable amount of them at that, or give in to the belly-lust and order up a couple of Big Macs, fries, and a Coke. Spiritual interpretation? Stay away from Joel Osteen and start your morning with one of the Apostle Paul’s epistles with a side of Richard Rohr! Bon Appetit!