Sermon 10-9

Philippians 4:1-9 & Matthew 21:1

As this week's events unfolded, I found myself returning to a prayer that the Trappist monk Thomas Merton offered after the dropping of the first atomic bomb.

“Lord, mercifully hear this prayer which rises to you from the tumult and desperation of a world in which you seem to have forgotten, in which your name is not invoked in love, your laws derided, your presence ignored”

As we are still coordinating our responses to the two hurricanes that came from the Gulf Coast, we hear more horrific news this week. On Wednesday, almost 2000 people were buried in mud from landslides caused by excessive rain in Guadalajara. There were so many people buried so deep in the mud that the government is considering not retrieving the bodies and just calling it a mass grave. Yesterday, 18,000 people where killed in an earthquake in Pakistan, with another 40,000 injured. And then you put on top of this family bickerings, that are all the more painful because you feel guilty for worrying about the petty in the midst of such great tragedies. And it seems like so many in our immediate circle of friends are suffering as well. It seems like too much. And then, when your personal dreams and aspirations are thwarted by unforseen circumstances and you feel like you are just spinning your wheels, well, its hard. In fact, one wouldn't sound crazy for saying that it seems like we must have been abandoned by God.

Now this is where the discipline part of the relationship between us and God comes in. These are the times when we really need to blow the dust off of our Bibles, remove it from its special place in our house and bring it to our reading chair, and crack it open. And I believe that it helps if you have a plan going into it. By the nature of my vocation as a minister, my Bible reading plan generally revolves around the weekly common lectionary- the texts determined by an ecumenical council that would be read in the mainline churches.

And what did I read? If you find it helpful to follow along, we will be mostly looking at Philippians 4 starting with verse 4. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”

Well, that is not exactly the words that were on my lips, God. And if you will excuse me the contrary spirit, I think I need a little more convincing. Rejoice in the Lord always indeed.
And then, what came next?

5”Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.”

Now, if I were an organized preacher like Pastor Monica up the road, I would have known months ago that a focus on the theme “God is closer than you think” would go great with the text, “The Lord is near”. But I am not an organized preacher, so my sermons are worked on and prayed on the week before I come before with what God has put on my heart. The Lord is near. Well that just my knocked my socks off.

Hear what Martin Luther King Jr. had to say about this passage.
“Not only is there a God; he is near. He will neither forget nor forsake you. Only be gentle to all, and let God care for you; leave it to him how he is to support and protect you. Has he given you Christ the eternal treasure?... With him is much more than anyone can take from you.... [Y]ou possess in Christ more than is represented in all this world's goods. On this subject the psalmist says (Ps. 55:22): "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain you," and Peter (I Pet. 5:7), "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." And Christ in the sixth chapter of Matthew points us to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. The thought of these passages is the same as the Lord is near.

Now follows, [in verse 6] Do not worry about anything.

Take no thought for yourselves. Let God care for you. The one you now acknowledge is able to provide for you.... So let the whole world grasp, and deal unrighteously: you shall have enough. You shall not die of hunger or cold unless someone shall have deprived you of the God who cares for you. But who shall take him from you? How can you lose him unless you yourself let him go? We have a Father and Protector who holds in his hands all things, even those who, with all their possessions, would rob or injure us. Our duty is to rejoice always in God and be gentle toward all.... It should be our anxiety not to be anxious, to rejoice in God alone and to be kind to everyone.

(Source: Martin Luther, Sermons, vol. 6, pp. 93-112. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983.)

Let us take a step back and remember where Paul is when he writes this letter to the Philippians. He was in prison. Not a cushy country club prison like where we can expect Kenneth Lay to end up. No, Paul was in serious Roman prison. That meant that any day could be his last. It was a very real possibility that in the middle of writing this letter, he would be interrupted to be fed to a starving lion. Think about it. What would a 'normal person's' state of mind be in such circumstances? What would yours be? If we skip ahead to verse 11, we see that he is at peace. He tells us, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty.”
I'll be honest, because if church is anything, it is a place of accountability. That would not be my reaction if I were in Paul's shoes. I would be raving about the government, “Can you believe this Caesar who unjustly imprisoned me?” I would be calling on every last friend and acquaintance to get me out of that prison and I would be praying the prayer that I started this sermon with. “God, where are you?” But the fact of the matter is, is that Paul is demonstrating what it means to be a true witness to Christ, or to use the Greek term, he is a martyr, an example who we look at and say, wow, I want the peace that he has. A man who gives us those comforting words, hey, God is closer than you think.

So, lets look for this peace that Paul has. What kind of peace is it? Is it the peace that comes from having all obstacles, trials and tribulations cleared from your path. No, in John 16:33, Jesus says “33 I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’”. You know, Adolf Hitler said that he wanted peace. And I believe him. His means to peace was to eliminate conflict. He reasoned that if he killed all of the Jews, Gypsys, homosexuals, Catholics, and anyone that didn't like the way he ran things, that there would be peace. No enemies equals peace. And this type of thinking is pervasive in the world today. The definition of peace and freedom that the world holds is to hunt down and destroy your enemies one by one. Jesus the Christ was not crucified because he preached peace and love. The Romans and the temple authorities had nothing against peace and love. He was killed because he exposed that what the world calls peace is just another face of evil.

No, we read of a different peace in the Bible. We read of a peace that is not determined by outside forces. Rather, peace is nothing more or less than being in right relationship with God. Ghandi summarized his ethics like this, “be the change you want to see.” In other words, don't focus on what others need to be doing or not doing. Focus on perfecting your own righteousness. Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a wedding banquet that we are all invited to. In fact he goes out of his way to say that both good and bad were invited. But there is a dress code. In baptism, we were given a robe of righteousness. And we had best wear it lest we find ourselves speechless before the king and he says to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 14For many are called, but few are chosen.’

“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown,” as Paul puts it, how can we be a part of the few who find peace- The peace that Paul is sharing with the Philippians?

“Stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.”

If your still with me look at verses two and three. “Be of the same mind in the lord.” Be in harmonious community in the lord. “Be one with God, one with other and one in fellowship with all the earth”, as our communion liturgy says. In other words, be church. Help each other as we struggle beside each other in the work of the gospel. And in so doing, our names shall be written in the book of life. We will be at the wedding banquet dressed to the nines.

Well what else? “4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”

As we already mentioned, this is hard, but what a burden is lifted when we change our mopiness and exchange it for rejoicing. What a relief when we give our burdens to Jesus and leave nothing but the rejoicing. In case you missed again I say rejoice.

In verse 5, we are reminded that in order to be the change we seek, to be peace, we need to “Let your gentleness be known to everyone.” And somehow connected with that, in the same verse, Paul tells us the “The Lord is near.” If that is not cause for peace, I don't know what is. We are offered such an intimate relationship with the creator of all, the big cheese behind the big bang, that we have no reason to worry about anything. We have been given the gift of prayer and “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving [we can] let our requests be made known to God.

And here is the promise. Here is the good news sisters and brothers. “7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Our hearts and minds will be guarded, protected, shielded and we will be at peace. Amen? Part of peace is a purity of mind. Part of peace is is praying unceasingly so that there is room for God and God alone. “ 8Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” In a nutshell “9Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in [the example of Paul], and the God of peace will be with you.” Closer than you think!

This is a tall order. Being peace and having peace are quite counter cultural in a world that depends upon, that thrives upon, and has known no other way of operating except by war. Being peace in the face of natural disasters takes a strong will and faith and reliance on the goodness of God. But here is my last bit of good news. If you get nothing else from this time together here this morning, in fact, if I get nothing else from the time spent in prayer and study and writing and preaching this week it should be this. In fact, there just may be a Bible Bee next week with this as the answer, so you might even want to write this down.

Philippians 4:13. If you know it or have it open in front of you, say it like you mean it with me.

13I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Amen?