Isaiah 25:1-9
Philippians 4:4-9
It’s possible that almost all of the sermons ever given could be split into two categories:
Sermons that talk about how easy it is to be a Christian
or
Sermons that talk about how hard it is to be a Christian
You’ve heard both kinds of course.
Some sermons talk about turning the other cheek, forgiving our neighbors, putting others before yourself, caring for those in society who cannot care for themselves, and following the example of Christ’s sacrificial love for others. Those are the times when it is hard to be a Christian, because it goes against what society practices, the idea of looking out for number one.
Other sermons talk about boiling down Christianity to some basic truism that is meant to cover all of the complexities of human life: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” or “love one another” or “What Would Jesus Do?”
This is certainly not a new experience. It has gone on for hundreds of years, thousands of years even. God’s covenant with Israel that we read about in the Old Testament is rich and complex, covering many generations back to the beginning of the world. Yet in the midst of that is the 10 Commandments – a clear list of how simple it can be to follow God.
Even in the New Testament, we read of those who went to Jesus, asking him to summarize the law of God into what we might today call a sound-bite. And He did: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Yet He also said that not one smallest point of the law was to be dismissed.
Today’s reading from Paul’s letter might sound like he was giving them a simplistic view of Christianity. After all, he was able to summarize their job as Christians down to just these three things:
Paul uses several key words that are important for us to look at more closely. These words tell us of Paul’s understanding of the Christian life as comprehensive, all-encompassing, a 24/7 existence which touches on everything that we do, everyone we meet.
He begins with “always”
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
“Always” rejoice. We respond with our lives, showing our faith.
Now it is important to understand that we do not break this command by being saddened by events in our lives. Jesus wept for the death of Lazarus. Jesus prayed that His life might be spared. Jesus turned out the money changers in the temple. But His life was an example of faith and trust in God, not because He was not blissfully ignorant of the world’s problems, nor did He turn a blind eye to those who were in need. Yet despite it all, He came back to praise God. He prayed that His life might be saved but concluded speaking of His trust in God’s providence.
Of course the road of life will take us down dark paths from time to time, the valleys, the shadows. Our faith does not make us immune to troublesome times, instead our faith tells us that there will be an “after” — that the troubles we face are not the end of the story, that we trust that eventually we see better days.
At the same time, it also reminds us that we are not to wait until all of the conditions are right for us to praise God. There will always be something or another that we can point to and say, “If only this were not so” or “If only that would happen” as a condition of our praise to God. To this Paul says, No! We must praise the Lord, even when we are in the midst of our struggles, because by praising God we affirm our faith, confirm our faith, strengthen our faith, and restore our hope in the promises of God.
He continues
Let your gentleness be known to everyone.
To “everyone” .... “Everyone” includes friends and enemies. People we love and people we who make us grind our teeth. People we enjoy and people we try to avoid. People who make us laugh and people who make us angry. We are to be gentle people.... gentle of spirit, gentle of attitude, gentle of tongue and of thought, gentle of action. Remember the words of James in his letter when he wrote that the tongue can be like fire. We can do damage with our tongues and with our attitudes.
But instead we are called to gentleness. Not that we will never be angered. Someone once said that the only people who never get upset are the dead. Anger is a natural response, and some might even say an appropriate response. But as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “in your anger, do not sin” making a clear distinction between anger and sin.
Anger itself is not a sin. Of course, it is nothing to be proud of either, but it is what we do with our anger that matters.
I once heard that the true test of a Christian’s heart is best discerned by listening to what they say when they stub their toe. I think that trivializes what God wants from us. I think that we will drown our lives in hyper-criticism if we were to be that rigid, that grace-less, to say that our immediate response to pain should be given significant weight when evaluating our Christian faith.
Let’s start by working on what we think about when we have times of quiet reflection, when we think about how we interact with the world, our general attitudes towards one another. Let’s start by working on being sincerely kind to one another with our actions, by speaking words of encouragement more than words of criticism, by asking how we can help rather than wondering why things aren’t getting done.
Let’s start by facing up to where we have been judgmental, where we have been overly critical.
Let’s begin by looking for ways to extend Christ’s love and grace to those who need it most, rather than only to those who make it easy. For if we love only those who love us, what is our reward? Do not even the Pharisees do as much?
Of course our first response when we think about changing our behavior is how others will respond. Often we are greatly disappointed when we realize that just because we are making an effort to live at peace with others does not mean that others are going to make that same effort towards us.
Turn the other cheek – and it too may get slapped.
Follow the golden rule and you might find out that your neighbor is busy “looking out for number 1.”
“Let your gentleness be known to everyone,” and someone may very well take advantage of your generosity.
God knew this. Paul knew this. And yet the command stands. We can’t control the actions of others. More importantly, we cannot let ourselves be controlled by the actions of others. All we can control, to some extent, is our own actions. All we will be called to account for is our own actions, not for the actions of others.
Paul anticipates the barrage of “What If” questions that are sure to follow that statement:
Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Does that mean we are never to have a care or concern in life? Of course not. We know of times when Jesus and Paul each felt concern. But do we live in fear? Are we consumed by anxiety – not a chemical-imbalanced anxiety but an imbalance of control, feeling that we have to be able to know and control everything in my life? Do we characterize our lives more by trust or by worry? Paul wants us to remember that we are called to strive towards trust.
By doing this we seek to open a place in our lives – in our hearts, in our thoughts – for God to step in and fill those areas that used to be taken up by anger, by hardness of heart, by the knots that kept us bound up inside.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Not only will the peace of God come to us, but it will “guard our hearts and minds.” The more we follow these practices, these spiritual disciplines, the more we will find ourselves taken over more by the peace and love of God than by all those things which used to control us.
Paul is talking about learning new ways of acting, new ways of being, new ways of thinking. He is talking about a transformation from within that we can help God accomplish within us
Finally, 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.
Does that seem a strange command, that Paul would give such an extensive list of things and conclude just by saying “Think about these things.”
For me it reminded me of the advice that my parents gave me, that many of your parents probably gave you, and that you have may have even given to others. It goes like this: “Be careful who your friends are, for you become like they are.” This proverb seeks to remind us that the people we spend time with, shape part of who we are.
Paul gives us the same guidance for our mind. He knew that the things with which we fill our minds shapes who we are, how we act. It influences our mood, our outlook, our ability to be faithful to our calling.
In the same way, the phrase Garbage In / Garbage Out (as crude as it may be) teaches the same lesson. If we fill our eyes and ears with things that are unpleasant, things that are not honorable, not just, not true, not pure, not worthy of praise, then it is going to make a difference.
We have a limited capacity for the number of things that we can think about, the number of things that we can remember. (Some more than others!) What we feed our eyes and ears goes to our heart and mind the same way that the food that goes in our mouth goes to our stomach. And just like food that is bad for you can do damage to your body, so we can also do damage to our hearts and minds – to our souls – by what we feed them.
We have choices to make. No, we cannot control everything that we see or hear, and no we should not keep ignorant of pain and suffering in the world simply so we can keep a happy outlook. But what do we dwell on?
It occurs to me that the word “dwell” could serve as a summary for the Christian life.
There are 3 definitions for the word dwell in my dictionary, and each one seemed more and more appropriate to the issue at hand.
The first is: “to fasten one’s attention: kept dwelling on what went wrong. See synonyms at brood.”
And then they used this example... I’m not making this up... the example they used was “dwell on the need to trim the budget.” (God can speak through dictionaries, amen?)
The second definition is: To exist in a given place or state: “to dwell in joy.”
And the last definition is: To live as a resident.
Where do you dwell in life? What do your thoughts dwell on? Where do you life? Do you live in a place of brooding, of intensity, of frustration, of anger, of disappointment, of memories of the wrongs that you have suffered or sins of the past that you have committed?
Friends, that is not what God wants for us. He did not send His Son to die for us so sit in a pile of our own pity, crucifying ourselves for our mistakes or brooding over the mistakes others have made towards us or to others.
Paul knew this. And so he said: Fill your thoughts with good things, and you will fill your heart with goodness. Think about things that are good and it will change who you are.
Of course we have to do more than just think about them, but that is where we start. Once our hearts and minds have been transformed, our hands and feet will follow. Once our hands and feet have been put in motion, it will be easier to tame our tongues because we’ll keeping busy with the work that we do.
It is obvious that Paul knew we had to act on these things as well as think about them, because his final words in today’s reading are:
Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Keep on doing the things that you have
learned
and received
and heard
and seen.
Keep on doing those things.
Learn from the good you have observed.
Remember the good that you have heard.
Rejoice for the gifts that you have received.
Keep the memories of those who have shown you love and grace close to you.
Remember the good. Think of those things. And let your life follow that leading.
Follow the path of gentleness and respect which they began.
May God take control of our hearts and minds, our hands and feet and tongues.
May we listen to the message that God has sent to us.
May we think on them, and may keep doing them, following the example of those who have gone before us, through the power of God’s Holy Spirit who goes with us and strengthens us to do all good things through the name of Jesus Christ, the risen Lord. AMEN.