Day 60: Epistle of Joy, part 2

Now we turn the corner into chapter 3 of Philippians.  I have to admit that this chapter is memorable to me for at least one reason:  my uncle (amateur theologian) used to use it as an example of the colorful, earthy language in the Bible.  In chapter three Paul is trying to describe that it is really true, he is really willing to give up everything, everything, for the sake of knowing Jesus and being found in him.  He's not just willing to give up his sins and the things that weigh him down, but even the things he thought were valuable, his birthright as a Jew, his righteousness under the law.  All these, Paul says, he counts as "loss" or "rubbish", compared to Christ.  Except that he doesn't use the word "rubbish."  He uses the Greek equivalent of the word "shit."  At least, that's what my uncle told me, when I was an impressionable age.  (and now that I have studied Greek, I have discovered that he is right).  "We try to make Paul and Luther too genteel", my uncle would say to me.

There's a tantalizing little detail here about a couple of women name Syntyche and Euodia.  They are (um) having a fight (even in the early church, there were fights).  Paul takes a little time to tell them to find a way to agree in the Lord.  There is important work to do, and they are an important part of it (no mere women's work for Euodia and Syntyche).

Finally, Paul closes this letter with memorable words of Joy.  We are tempted to consider Paul a Pollyanna, saying that he has learned to be content with plenty, and with scarcity, that they should rejoice in the Lord always, that they should not worry about anything.  He seems a sort of Pollyanna, telling them to "Accentuate the Positive, and Eliminate the Negative", until you remember that he is in prison.  He is not telling them to "put on a happy face."  He's telling them to look all of the reality of this life in the face, and still believe that God is with them, that God is blessing them, that God is near them.