As we observed last week, at the time Paul wrote the letter we call Philippians he was in prison. We don’t know what he was charged with, but we can be pretty sure it had something to do with disturbing the peace by refusing to stop preaching. We can also be sure that in the relative misery of a Greek prison, Paul, who traveled fairly light as it was, found himself with nothing: no clothes, no money, no community of friends, not even a clear path to the future. But even so, for some peculiar reason, Paul concludes his letter by telling the Philippians that he has learned something important behind bars. "I have learned the secret of being well fed,” he writes, “and of going hungry, of having plenty, and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:12-13).

Do you recognize that last verse? I bet some of you do. It is a fairly famous phrase, often featured as a memory verse at VBS or on posters in Youth rooms. For my part, when I hear Philippians 4:13 I always think of the Mega-Man Power Team of central Texas. You see, every October, way back in the early 90s, the Power Team would appear on the sidewalks of the University of Texas to perform astonishing feats - like tearing phone books in half, lifting motorcycles with their teeth, breaking boards with their shaved heads – you get the idea. The real meaning of their superhuman stunts was only revealed at the end of the show, when one of the Team would shatter the fetters on police-issue handcuffs, and they would all shout, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Then you found out it was evangelism.) Whether their witness got people thinking Jesus might just be Lord and Savior I do not know. (I do know it got me thinking that we as a society need to buy our police better hand-cuffs.) And I do remember their theme verse.

But today I find myself wondering if the Mega-Man Power Team may have given us a bit of a misimpression. What did Paul mean when he told the Philippians he’d learned a secret in prison – that he could do all things through the One who strengthened him? Does that mean that Jesus will help me, help you achieve any goal, overcome whatever challenge, personal, social, financial, that is before us? We might like that idea, in a season of declining fortunes and diminishing purchasing power. Many of us are feeling a little puny, unsure of the future, of our ability to send kids to college or retire or even perhaps pay the mortgage. It would be pretty good news to hear that Jesus will send us the power to do all things like these!

But I’m just not sure it would be The Good News - or what Paul really meant. The secret Paul has learned has to do with his being given the strength he needs to do what Jesus has called him to do. That discovery was very important to Paul. As we noted last week, he’d had to give up so many of the things he had worked so hard to accumulate in life. Remember, Paul gave up his good name, his fast-track career, his fortune, and certainly all his friends for the sole sake of following Jesus. Perhaps he was thinking of this when he said: "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.”

Right about now, that’s an uncomfortable word! Many of us are beginning to get acquainted with what it is to be in need, maybe more than we’d like. We’d just as soon get back to knowing how to deal with plenty, plenty enough to sock into college savings, plenty to pay the mortgage, plenty to pay off the card we use to fill up the gas tank. Given the choice, we’d just as soon have plenty.

Would it surprise you to hear that there are people who have a hard time with plenty? When they receive plenty of love in a relationship, they don’t feel blessed. They feel unworthy, and maybe they sabotage it because that love seems like it’s meant for someone else. Others have received abundant blessings, like steady work or reliable paychecks or a home they can afford, but they do not see these things as blessings because they are too focused on the flaws in them. The job is not what they hoped, the paycheck not as much as they deserve, the house not enough to accommodate their desires. Do know anyone who struggles with plenty?

There’s a secret, says Paul, to holding on to plenty, and to letting go of plenty. The secret is to open your life to the strength of Jesus Christ. That’s what we’re doing here, what we’re inviting people to be part of, seven days a week: to move off the sidelines, where sit admirers of Jesus the Rabbi, and get into the game as disciples of Jesus the Christ. The invitation to follow Jesus is always an overture to great blessings, blessings encountered along the road of inevitable loss. Loss of our prior dreams for ourselves, our future. Loss of our illusions of independence and self-determination. Loss of our freedom to make idols of competence, romance, patriotism and success – any thing, all things that will not save us.

I realize that to hear some preachers tell it, the strength of Christ is given so we can grasp at and take hold of plenty! But these prophets of profits, these preachers of the ‘gospel’ of wealth and success, tend to ignore the part of our service of Word and Table, when we speak of Jesus laying aside his divinity, to come and be born as humble and poor as any of us. His earthly parents couldn’t even afford a decent sacrifice when they came to present him at Temple (Luke 2:24; Lev. 12:8). Jesus lived as the poor of his day lived, knew what hunger was, but also somehow knew what the living Bread of God’s Word tasted like. When the time came, he gave generously, lavishly, his life for us, saw it spill out onto the earth as if wasted, but knew instead it was being spent. Spent…for us. Jesus knew the secret of the strength that flows whether one is hungry or filled, but only when seeking after the will of God the Father.

This is the strength he offers to those who, after his example, are obedient to his Father. To those who will submit to giving of their time to do as Christ did and does, to care for those who have lost their homes, who come from broken homes, who never had homes. The obedient will care for these, even when time is scarce. The obedient will give of their abundance, or of their scarcity, to provide for those unable to make a living, in part because some have been making a killing, for those who have no bread unless by the abundance of our Table, they are fed. The obedient will provide for these, even when money is scarce.

Frankly, there is not much good we can say about the tumbling of world financial markets. None of us know how this will end, or how we will feel its effects. But of one thing we can be certain: we who seek after God’s Will know the strength, know the power that comes from the living Savior, Jesus Christ. We know he walked our dusty streets, learned a craft and lived within budget. We know that he knows what hard times are like. We can be sure he knows what Paul would later learn in jail: the secret to being content whether full or empty, secure with or without plenty, comes from the certainty God loves us.

It may be that our community needs this message more today than at any time in generations. Ours is the moment to arise and be secret-sharers, contentment-bearers, hope-givers to those who live in a fearful season of scarcity. Now is the time for us to look, and seem, and be different. It may be that our balance sheets will not register that difference. But the Good News is our greatest debt has already been paid. Because of that, says Paul, my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (4:19).

Thanks be to God.