contentment | Pastor Partridge

Contentment or Envy?

by John Partridge

December 2024

By the time you read this, Thanksgiving will be over. Already our church is decorated for Advent, and we will celebrate Christmas in just a few weeks. But, this past Sunday, I was reminded of a meme that said something like:

“Only in America can we fight over a discount just one day after giving thanks for what we already have.”

And that got me to thinking about both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Whether we sat down alone or with family and friends at Thanksgiving, most of us at least briefly considered just how blessed we are. We live in a nation that guarantees us many freedoms that other people in the world do not have. We have food, clothing, shelter, and family and friends that love and care about us. We could spend considerable time making a list of all the things for which we have to be grateful and principle among these is a loving God who cares for us and watches over us.

But with Christmas on the horizon, most of us are already shopping for gifts for family, friends and, if we’re honest, for ourselves. But since we’ve just celebrated Thanksgiving, we should consider how grateful we appear to be if an outsider were to witness our Christmas shopping.

In Hebrews 13:5 the Apostle Paul offers this advice:

^“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”^”

As we give thanks to God, and as we shop for gifts, it is that middle part where Paul instructs the church to “be content with what you have” that should give us pause.

It not only causes us to pause, but it is also both concerning and troublesome for those of us who live in a culture that constantly preaches a message of unbridled consumerism.

The meme I mentioned earlier is meant as a joke but, at the same time, it pulls back the curtain and reveals a little of our culture’s dark underbelly. Only the day after we gather to give thanks for what we have, we set out in the wee hours of the morning to fight through crowds of others like-minded individuals to buy even more, consume more, and not because we do not already have enough, but only because we have been sold on the idea that no matter how much we have, we should want even more. We have been convinced that just because it’s new, just because someone else already had one, or just because it can be owned, that we should want one, or perhaps that we should feel that we need one (or several).

And unfortunately, that desire for more has a name (or two).

Wanting more than we really need, and wanting things just because other people have them, or simply because they exist, is either envy, or greed, or both.

This desire for more is the opposite of contentment.

Maybe this doesn’t happen in your home, but we are all familiar with family and friends that spend so much on gifts at Christmastime, that they live in fear of the credit card bills that will arrive in January. We all know people who drive themselves into debt, sometimes deeply, spending money that cannot really afford to spend, just so that they can give gifts that “measure up” to what our culture has convinced us is normal, or to what our friends, coworkers, and classmates will show off when we return to work or school.

Paul could not have envisioned the consumerism of our twenty-first century, but his world was familiar with greed and envy. There were many “haves” but far more “have-nots” that dreamed of more, and many of those dreamed of simply having enough to feed their families. And it was to these folks that Paul cautioned to “be content with what you have.”

And so, as we prepare for Advent and Christmas, let us pause, as we did at thanksgiving, and consider why we are shopping for Christmas, what sorts of gifts we are buying, and how much we are choosing to spend.

Let us consider Paul’s words and ask ourselves…

…Does our Christmas shopping show contentment?…

…Or envy?

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*You have been reading a message presented in the Christ United Methodist Church newsletter on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com . All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Shades of Rip Van Winkle

Guest Post by Rev. Stanley Partridge

One of the most delightful stories told is the one by Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle. After his very long sleep, he returns to his native village which is supposed to be the most familiar place that he knows. As was his custom, he goes to the tavern. There instead of finding the face of King George on the swinging sign, he sees the face of a man whom he comes to know as George Washington. Most people have enjoyed the story, but not everyone discerns the moral of it. In truth, Rip Van Winkle slept through a revolution.

The American Revolution is dwarfed in comparison to the era in which we are now living. The times of which we are a part is the greatest period of revolutionary ferment the world has seen. Wherever we may turn, the fires of strife in one form or another are blazing, and far-reaching changes are under way. Many political foundations which seemed so secure a few decades ago, are now shaking and sagging before our eyes. The vast colonial empires, so familiar to the older generation, are now becoming an eclipse and who can tell the shape of the new world that is just emerging?

Tragically, too many people today are unaware or just do not care about this global war of ideas, and like Rip Van Winkle, they are sleeping through a revolution. It was at a crucial point in the ministry of Jesus, that of the Sadducees and the Pharisees combined their forces against him. They said to him, “Show us a sign from heaven that you are under God’s authority.” Our Lord answers, “Why do you ask me for a sign? You are the experts in signs. In the evening when the sky is red you say that it is going to be a fine day tomorrow. In the morning if it is red and lowering you say we are in for a stormy day. You know how to interpret the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” They were like Rip Van Winkle too, in that they were asleep to the great potential of the man that was before them. They knew all the “Tricks” of the Roman political games and missed the one who would tower above men of all history—unique, solitary, and majestic.

These searching words of Jesus, “You cannot interpret the signs of the times,” apply to us also, for there are many on business, industry, politics, economics, yes and even the Church who can read most of the signs of our times but cannot see, or refuse to see, what is obvious. How long can the world seek for PEACE and refuse demands for “clean air” and “pure streams” and a better living environment when the only god they know and have known is a god created in man’s image. This age of materialism calls us all to bow down to its demands and has lulled us into a peaceful sleep of lethargy.

Our greatest need today is to begin to bridge the yawning gap between our profession of belief in human freedom and justice and our lamentable practices that discredit us in the eyes of the world and one another.

This is the season of Advent, a time when we again take time to remember that there was a man who came to bring to the world a new lifestyle that wasn’t meant to be encumbered with the trivia of life. He comes to bring to us the things in life that want most but won’t turn to him to find. He comes bringing peace, love, joy, and contentment, but we go our merry way attempting to find peace, love, joy, and contentment in any other place than in him.

Here is a goal for all of us: To follow in the footsteps of Christ our Lord who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, who kept loving men who hated him, who died for men who were unworthy of his sacrifice. But you see, he released a Spirit in the world that alone can draw people together in the bonds of human love and peace under the over-arching care of an eternal God.

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* Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.