Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost (A/RCL)
Philippians 4.1-9
October 12, 2008
Holy Trinity, Manasquan
We hear, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!” and we may wonder what planet that person lives on. If we know someone who seems to be happy all the time, that’s probably because we’re not with them all the time. We might think the person who says, “Rejoice always!” is being unrealistic, because he has it easier than the rest of us, leads a charmed, trouble-free existence, lives off a trust fund that will never be in danger of drying up, is in perfect health, has a supportive family, and has rosy prospects for the future.
And if we thought that – if we assumed the Bible’s message isn’t likely to apply to my life – we’d be wrong. St. Paul penned this letter to “the Philippians,” his friends who lived in Philippi, Greece, from a prison cell, not a resort or a retreat center. He’d been charged with a capital crime and knew there was a very real possibility the Romans were going to execute him. In his life as a follower of Jesus, he hadn’t had it easy. He’d been heckled, beaten, jailed, shipwrecked. Becoming a believer had made his life more difficult in many ways. And yet: he was the one who encouraged others to:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!”
He loved the people to whom he was writing. We can tell from the tender way he addressed them:
My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown… my beloved. (Philippians 4.1)
He loved them and wanted them to experience the fullness of life, joy, peace that faith in Jesus Christ brings! There was a “grapevine” even back then, and through that grapevine Paul knew there was bickering among some of the leaders in Philippi. He wasn’t afraid to name the people who weren’t talking to each other and to ask the community to help them focus on their common love of the Gospel and get over personal differences. He doesn’t just mention the current conflict, though; he also affirms the gifts the women have shared with the community. With that little bit of background, listen again to this passage, as it’s translated in The Message. If you listen closely, I think you’ll agree it has much to do with our lives today, despite the fact it was written almost 2,000 years ago. Human nature hasn’t changed much, and the bedrock of our faith hasn’t changed at all! Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul is addressing us now and not just them then.
My dear, dear friends! I love you so much. I do want the very best for you. You make me feel such joy, fill me with such pride. Don’t waver. Stay on track, steady in God. I urge Euodia and Syntyche to iron out their differences and make up. God doesn’t want his children holding grudges.
And, oh, yes, Syzygus [loyal companion], since you’re right there to help them work things out, do your best with them. These women worked for the Message hand in hand with Clement and me, and with the other veterans – worked as hard as any of us. Remember, their names are also in the Book of Life.
Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. (Philippians 4.1-9)
Two of the big messages in this rich passage are: 1) Do rejoice; 2) don’t worry. We can’t really be happy and worried at the same time. Joy and anxiety refuse to share the same space. I got a text message from Mark’s daughter Heidi the other day, with a one liner that caught me up short: “Worry is a substitute for prayer.” I thought to myself, “Guilty as charged.”
We don’t make a conscious choice to worry instead of pray. But if we put the hours in a day we spend worrying on one side of a scale and the hours we spend praying on the other, which side of the scale is going to dip lower under its heavy load most days?? If we tracked and added up the time we spend worrying about things we can’t control, we’d probably be horrified at the time we invest in such a dead-end mental activity.
There are beautiful little sayings, powerful mantras we can repeat to ourselves when we realize worry is sucking the life out of us. You probably already have some of your own. One of my favorites to pray before I even get out of bed in the morning is: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” another pearl from this same letter to the Philippians (Phil. 4.13). There’s another prayer that doesn’t come directly from Scripture but is a faithful shorthand for much that does: “Lord, remind me that nothing is going to happen today that you and I can’t handle together.” And when the wind of worry is blowing strong and the waves of worry are piling up high, there’s always Jesus’ command to the sea which we can issue to our own internal chaos: “Peace, be still!” (Mark 4.39)
The peace that passes understanding is a gift that only God can give. Apart from the gifts of life and eternal life, this peace that the world can’t comprehend, peace with no rational basis, peace in the midst of upheaval, is one of the most precious gifts of all. In The Message, Eugene Peterson’s way of expressing that miracle is:
It’s wonderful when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (Phil. 4.7)
Your stomach may be in a knot because your savings are being eroded by the current financial crisis, or because you didn’t have any savings to lose. You may be losing sleep puzzling over problems that a child, spouse, parent, friend are facing, that seem insurmountable. You may have lost your spiritual composure because of serious illness whose outcome is uncertain. You may be worried because a friend is acting cold, or because you realize a treasured dream was a pipedream after all, or because you feel lost in life without any internal GPS on which to rely. If any of those scenarios describes you, know that God is speaking through St. Paul today to you. However crazy it may seem, God’s command is:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!”
In order to do that, though, you have to allow joy to elbow out worry, through the power of prayer. Joy and anxiety refuse to appear on stage together. Which would you prefer to be on center stage in your life? Remember, “Worry is a substitute for prayer.” Remember,
It’s wonderful when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Amen
Pastor Mary Virginia Farnham