In J.R.R. Tolkein’s Fellowship of the Ring—A band of individuals with disparate backgrounds come together to accomplish an important quest. After Frodo and Sam, my favorite character is Smeagol—the hobbit who became Gollum. His character teaches an important lesson about the consequences of idolatry and isolation.
He lived for his precious—the ring that he had acquired by murdering his cousin and best friend, Deagol. Although Gollum loved his ring for its powers, it also gave him a long life in darkness and isolation. To make a long story short, Bilbo found the ring in Gollum’s lair and passed it onto Frodo.
There’s an incredible scene in The Two Towers where Gollum is guiding Frodo and Sam with obvious internal conflict. His eyes flicker back and forth between grey (Smeagol) to green (Gollum). He wants to trust the hobbits, and he appreciates Frodo’s kindness, but he is also desperate to take his ring back. This scene represents his final opportunity to turn toward Smeagol, away from Gollum.
And so Gollum found them [Frodo and Sam] hours later, when he returned, crawling and creeping down the path out of the gloom ahead. Sam sat propped against the stone, his head dropping sideways and his breathing heavy. In his lap lay Frodo's head, drowned in sleep; upon his white forehead lay one of Sam's brown hands, and the other lay softly upon his master's breast. Peace was in both their faces.
Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and grey, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head, as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling hand, very cautiously he touched Frodo's knee—but almost the touch was a caress. For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought that they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing.
Sam wakes up to see Gollum hovering over Frodo and yells at him for sneaking around. He calls him an old villain. In Letter 96, Tolkien calls this “the tragedy of Gollum who at that moment came within a hair of repentance - but for one rough word from Sam.”
In a moment where Gollum longed for the kind of companionship he witnessed between Frodo and Sam, after this exchange with Sam, Tolkein writes, “the green glint did not leave his eyes.”
In this scene, Tolkein beautifully illustrates our universal longing for fellowship and the power of our words.
Every church bears similar goals for fellowship, but not all produce the same fruit. In Philippians, Paul is concerned to reveal his genuine appreciation for these beloved saints. He chooses his words carefully to build them up.
Many of you know what it’s like to long for a community where deep friendship can form, but always feeling like you’re on the outside. That is a miserable place to be, especially when it is the church. Because now we feel torn between our obligation to one another and our God-given desire for something that truly resonates with us at a more profound level.
Everyone longs to be a part of a genuine community where they can give and receive loving support. And they recognize the difference between joyful and miserable service.
Paul’s love for the saints in Philippi is rooted in their mutual commitment to the gospel which fills him with gratitude and joy.
Read https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Php1.3-5 (Philippians 1:3-5).
Remember With Gratitude (3) Not only are the Philippians on his mind often, but his thoughts about them fill him with gratitude. He is thankful for them. Gordon Fee points out that Paul typically gave thanks for people not things.
On the one hand, gratitude...
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