Misquoting Philippians 4:13

All the way back in the year 2000, I sat, glued to my tv in Redlands as I watched the Olympic high dive finals taking place in Sydney, Australia. Against all odds, the American diver, Laura Wilkinson, was in the medal hunt.

The broadcast commentators told us this surprised many in the diving community, because Wilkinson suffered a terrible foot injury earlier in the season. Hardly anyone expected her to finish rehab in time to compete in Sydney.

But through sheer determination, and excellent healthcare providers,

she charged through rehab and arrived in Sydney determined to give everything to the Olympic rings. She performed well, but not great, in the preliminary rounds, and entered the finals in eighth place.

And then everything changed.
Wilkinson stuck her first of five dives and moved up to fifth place.
She held steady during her second dive.
And she barely produced a splash on her third dive.
Suddenly, Laura Wilkinson, the long shot with a bad foot, stood in first place with just two rounds to go.

However, her fourth dive was the most difficult of her five dives.
She botched this dive in the preliminary rounds, and now she needed a great score if she wanted any chance to stand on the podium.
In the moment before she jumped,
with her toes hanging over the edge of a platform
more than thirty feet above a pool,
Laura Wilkinson whispered to herself,
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,”
and then leapt off the edge.

She nailed it.
The judges rewarded her with eye-popping scores and widened her lead.
In the next round, Wilkinson put in a solid fifth dive.
And then, on the last dive on the competition,
Li Na of China, the heavy favorite to win gold,
inexplicably flubbed her final dive.
Which secured the gold medal for Laura Wilkinson.

After the presentation of the medals and playing of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” NBC approached Laura Wilkinson and asked her about her remarkable performance. My dusty memory of this broadcast is that the interviewer asked Wilkinson how she pulled off her nearly impossible fourth dive with perfect form under the suffocating Olympic pressure.

Wilkinson smiled and said,
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Twenty-four years ago,
my little evangelical soul swelled with pride
at hearing these words from my Bible being recited on a national broadcast.
But today, I no longer have a little evangelical soul.
Instead, I have a soul that understands the tradition of Christianity
is just one religious tradition of many in this diverse and complex planet.
And reciting these words in an Olympic competition is theologically problematic (to say the least).

After all,
there were forty women who competed in the high dive competition in Sydney.
If we consider winning a gold medal as falling under the category of
doing “all things,” then the success rate of this verse
is less than three percent of athletes who could actually “do all things.”

Not only that, but Li Na of China practically belly flopped on her final dive.
Was Christ mad at her for something?
Did Christ dip the proverbial hand of God into reality
and knock Li Na off course to because God loved Wilkinson more than her?
Why wouldn’t Christ enable Li Na to “do all things”
in the same way Christ helped another diver to “do all things”?

Now an Evangelical may object and say,
“Craig, a personal relationship with Christ is what enables one to ‘do all things,’ and Wilkinson clearly had a stronger personal relationship with Jesus
than Li Na as evidenced by her winning the gold medal!”

But this objection quickly falls apart when we look
at the medal stands across the Olympics
and see people of all religions and lack of religions win gold medals.

Can you imagine if God created a reality
in which only people who believed in Christ won gold medals?
Can you imagine if your success as an athlete hinged entirely
on your personal relationship with God?

In this reality, athletes preparing for the Olympics
would stop going to the gym
and, instead, start going to Bible studies.

While some may believe God intervenes in sports and helps those with correct doctrines and beliefs triumph over their heretical opponents, the reality we live in disproves this theology immediately

Because you cannot win Olympic gold medals by believing in God a certain way.
Or, to put it in plain Christian terms:
you actually can’t do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Which leaves us with the question,
“Why then, did some random guy
from the distant past
on the opposite side of the world
in some other language
put pen to paper and write,
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,”
when we all instinctually know that one simply cannot do “all things,”
because of the religious beliefs we hold?

This question invites us to take a closer look at the historical context
in which these words were composed,
to see if there is something greater lying in their inspiration.

So let’s go back, two thousand years ago,
when the Apostle Paul received a letter
from the church he started in a place called Philippi
(which is located in the northern part of modern day Greece).

While we don’t know exactly what the Philippians wrote in their letter to Paul,
we possess the letter Paul wrote back to the Philippians in response.
Because the Philippian church kept Paul’s letter to them
and this letter eventually became the book of Philippians,
which is in every Christian church’s Bible today.

Philippians fascinates many of us today
because of all the letters we have from Paul in the Bible,
Philippians is, by far, Paul’s
most optimistic,
most joyful,
and most hopeful letter.

In other words, this letter is READY for Christian radio today because it is,
quite literally, the positive alternative to all of Paul’s other writings in the Bible.

This letter is so positive that, if you aren’t paying close attention,
Philippians can be mentally digested like cotton candy;
it tastes good,
but there is a whole lot of fluff
and hardly any substance.

But if you are paying close attention,
then Philippians is one of the most shocking books in the entire Bible.
Because while Philippians bubbles over with cheerfulness,
Paul wrote this letter, filled with rainbows and butterflies, while he was in jail.
He wrote these bouncy words while he was awaiting trial.
And if the court found Paul guilty, then he would be executed.
The scandal of Philippians is that Paul wrote his happiest letter in, perhaps,
his more dire circumstance.

As readers, if we want to honestly engage with Philippians,
we need to keep in mind that Paul wrote all of these optimistic words
with a blinding uncertainty about the future.
We need to live in the prison cell with Paul.
We need to feel the unsettling buzz of his anxiety as his life hangs in the balance.
We need to hold our unanswered questions close as Paul held on to his own.

With this heaviness in mind, let’s read the words Paul wrote
in the historical context of a frightening prison cell:

"Rejoice in the Savior always! I say it again: Rejoice! Let everyone see your forbearing spirit. Our Savior is near. Dismiss all anxiety from your minds; instead, present your needs to God through prayer and petition, giving thanks for all circumstances. Then God’s own peace, which is beyond all understanding, will stand guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, my sisters and brothers, your thoughts should be wholly directed to all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, decent, admirable, virtuous or worthy of praise. Live according to what you have learned and accepted, what you have heard me say and seen me do. Then the God of peace will be with you. It gave me great joy in our God that your concern for me bore fruit once more. You had been concerned all along, of course, but lacked the opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content in any circumstance. I know what it is to be brought low, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret: whether on a full stomach or an empty one, in poverty or plenty, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

My friends, the thesis of this letter is not
that we can do everything with Christ and win gold medals with our belief.
Instead, Paul makes an even bigger claim.
The thesis of his letter is that we can be content in any circumstance.
And this thesis should give all of us pause.
When we consider the indiscriminate wrath of natural disasters,
the unchecked oppression of injustice,
and the pain we feel as we bury a loved one,
we are tempted to say,
“That’s impossible Paul. How can I find contentment in this circumstance?”
And to that question Paul says, “I have found it is possible to be content in all things through Christ, who gives me strength.”

Do you realize what this means?
This means that, at the Olympics,
the only person who can’t quote Philippians 4:13 is the gold medalist.

Instead, this verse belongs to the losers.
This verse belongs to the people who did not qualify.
This verses belongs to the people who did not even make it on to the broadcast.

Imagine if, after the competition was over,
the interviewer from NBC bypassed the gold medalist
and went straight to the woman who finished dead last
in the high dive competition and bluntly says to her,
“You just finished in 40th place out of 40 in the high dive.
You lost.
You weren’t even close.
No one is going to remember you for your diving achievements.
You spent your entire life training for this moment
and you were the worst of all the athletes who showed up today.
All of those hours in the gym are a waste.
How are you possibly going to find any kind of value in your life
after such a catastrophic failure?”

And the woman in 40th place,
through tears in her eyes says,
“I believe I can find contentment here, even in last place,
because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

In this hypothetical scenario,
this woman’s response embodies the spirit of Philippians.
Paul did not write Philippians to tell the Philippians, or you, or I
that if we believe enough we too can win gold medals.

No.

Paul wrote Philippians to let others know
that we can live a life that is good,
no matter how much suffering we endure.
Paul wrote Philippians to let others know
that the Romans may imprison his body,
but they cannot imprison his mind.
Paul wrote Philippians to let others know
that even in the most dire circumstance in your entire life,
you can find contentment in the darkness.

This idea continues to resonate among us in the modern world.
In their 2013 book, The Courage to Be Disliked,
Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga illustrate the principles of Adlerian psychology by imagining a series of conversations between
a philosopher and a young student.

About halfway through their conversations,
the student summarizes the philosopher for a point of clarification
and says to his elder,
“You say people can change.
Then you take it a step further, saying that everyone can find happiness.”
And the philosopher responds,
“Yes, everyone (can find happiness), without exception.”

Really?
Everyone?
Without exception?

“Yes,” the authors would say, “Everyone!”
Happiness is available to everyone on the planet.
In every location.
In every situation.
And in every kind of suffering.
And while that may sound difficult for us to believe today,
the premise of Kishimi and Koga’s book
is nearly identical to what Paul writes in Philippians.
In which Paul says, “Contentment can be found everywhere.”
Even in wrongful imprisonment.
Even in heartbreaking betrayal.
Even in the face of execution.

My friends, your life,
with all of its heartache, imperfections, and sufferings, is a gift from God.

Being a person of faith does not mean you believe in unscientific ideas.
Being a person of faith means you trust counterintuitive and intangible ideas about the way God’s creation words,
and you’re willing to reshape your life based on these ideas
in the hope that you will be led into greater love.

In this passage,
Paul is not asking you to gloss over the things that make your life hard.
Rather, Paul is asking you to trust that contentment can be found in the hardships.

So this morning, I want to ask you: What do you trust?
Do you trust you can find contentment in all circumstances?
Do you trust your faith can help you find meaning in your crises?
Do you trust you can find beauty everywhere, even in a prison cell?

This idea takes a lifetime of practice to master,
but if you can find contentment in the hardships of life,
then you are, at that moment, living the presence of Christ.

Over 100 years ago,
the German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzche once told a parable in his book,
The Gay Science and asked the reader two follow up questions.

He wrote:

“What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!’

“Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke (this)? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered (the demon): ‘You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine”?

As you hear the words from Nietzsche today, which would you answer?
Would you be devastated to hear you must live this life over and over again?
Or would you be elated to hear you get to receive this gift over and over again?

I believe that Paul, even in a prison cell awaiting execution,
would rejoice in the Lord always
if he was given the opportunity to live his life over and over again,
even as he awaits his own execution in a prison cell.

And if all of this sounds delusional or irrational or naive or quite frankly impossible,
and you confronted Paul and asked him,
“How? How can you say this life is worth living over and over again
when you have suffered so much?”

I believe that Paul would smile at each of us
and slowly say,
“My friends, all things are possible through Christ who strengthens me.”

May your faith in Christ help you to find contentment in every circumstance you encounter.

1-Farber, Michael. “Bent on Winning Laura Wilkinson…” si.com. 10/2/2000

2-The Inclusive Bible