If you're reading this, then you're reading something that no one else is reading. I'm not posting it on FB. Just here. To see if my three readers will let me know if it makes sense. It's a sermon that I'm writing for Sunday morning. And I'm struggling with the writing. I write all the time. I speak all the time. But for some reason, writing a sermon is a struggle for me. So...here is what I have. Thoughts? Ideas? I'd love the help.
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Opening
Hear these words from Philippians 4:4-9,
5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Let us pray.
…
Last Spring Break, a friend and I took a trip to Phoenix to go to the Antiques Roadshow. While there, we took a day trip to Sedona to see some of the most beautiful country there is. To better catch the beauty of our surroundings, we decided to take a hike…and before I knew it, we were hiking full speed ahead up what looked like a very daunting mountain.
I don’t know about you, but I like to take my time when I’m hiking. Not only does it help me physically, but it also helps me mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. I like to go slow—really take in the sights, smells, and textures of my surroundings. Sometimes I stop to take pictures. Sometimes I stop to write poetry. Sometimes I stop to breathe. But on this hike, I wasn’t stopping for anything. The friends I was with were moving quickly up the mountain and there were strangers on my tail. I didn’t have time to do anything other than pray that I didn’t run out of breath or fall down or off the mountain. “Help, God, help” I prayed. “Help, God, help!”
Despite intense peer pressure to keep going to the mountain’s summit, I decided to stop half way up the mountain. I really had no desire to climb all the way to the top and I certainly didn’t want to do it at break neck speed. After convincing my friends that I really, truly did not want to keep going, I sat down in a little rock crevice on the side of the mountain and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Honestly, I’m still surprised that I found the courage to stand up for myself and stop the hike, but I did. And as I sat in that rock crevice, somewhat anxious about getting down the mountain alone, tears of relief filled my eyes. “Thanks, God, thanks,” I prayed. “Thanks, God, thanks!”
After sitting still and gathering my wits for about 15 minutes, I finally began making my way down the mountain. I took my time. I helped other people. I stopped and took pictures. I laid on a flat portion of rock for awhile, gazing at the crisp, white clouds in the bright, blue sky, feeling the warmth of the sun hitting my skin. I found an old river bed and imagined what it was like when water raged there. I marveled at the tree roots. I felt the smooth edges of river rock. I looked up at the mountain’s outline and wondered where my friends were. I had an absolutely glorious time alone, and all I could think was, “Wow, God, wow!” “Wow, God, wow!”
Help. Thanks. Wow. Three simple, yet almost essential, prayers of our faith.
Help
*play/sing “Lord, I Give It All To You”*
In our passage of scripture today, we find Paul in jail. He is writing to a people whose very lives are a source of worry. In the early church, in addition to the normal everyday worries of being a human being, there was added the worry of being a Christian, which meant taking one’s life in one’s hands. For early Christians, like the Philippians, being a person of faith was going against the accepted norm. It was risky. It was dangerous. It was life-threatening. Yet Paul’s solution to these worries? Prayer.
In vs. 6, Paul writes: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition…present your requests to God.
Did you hear that? In every situation. Paul stresses that we can take everything to God in prayer: We can pray for ourselves. We can pray for others. We can pray for forgiveness from the past, for the things we need in the present, and for help and guidance for the future. We can commit to God those near and far who are within our memories and our hearts. And we can pray for things that are easy to pray for as well as the things we’d rather not admit. Think about like this:
Any family with many children knows the struggles that go on daily to keep a good appearance in the front hall where visitors enter. Some convenient hiding place where all the clutter can be thrown under the stairs when company approaches is part of the equipment of any well-ordered home. To all appearances, guests find a neat house, but we would not have them see the disorder in the closet.
We all have something like a hall closet, where we conceal what we do not want company to see. We have ingenious ways of trying to forget what is in that closet—we keep very, very busy; we never take time to think; we seek continuous distractions and stay with the crowd. This is why Paul insists on making everything known to God in moments when we are alone and still with our decisions.
Such prayer is nothing more or less than putting ourselves in a position where ‘there is no place to hide.’ For inside each of us is that secret place where no human being can ever enter. Only God shares that. Help me deal with the mess that I am, God! Help! God! Help!
…
When we move on to verse 8, we read:
Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.
I don’t know about you, but I struggle to keep my mind on things that are true, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy. Instead, I find my mind wandering to the lies of fear and doubt; to the juiciness of gossip and sin; to the ickiness of the world that we live in.
Turn on the news or nighttime television for just five minutes and it’s plain to see how easy it is to focus on the things of this world rather than the things of God—
• Things that are True and will not will not let us down;
• Things that are Honest and dignified rather than cheap and attractive;
• Things that are Just and carry a duty to God and others;
• Things that are Pure and morally uncontaminated;
• Things that are Lovely—kind; sympathetic; patient; not vengeful, punishing, bitter, fearful, critical, rebuking, or resentful;
• And things Of Good Report that are fit for God to hear.
God, help us to focus on all that is excellent and praiseworthy.
God, help us to live lives worthy of your calling.
God, help us to focus on your love and your ways.
God, help us to look forward to a future of freedom while letting go of the weight of the past.
God, help us to have courage and strength as we pass through pain.
God, help us to be breathe when patience is running thin.
God, help us to stand up for ourselves when we know we are in situations where we do not feel right.
God, help us to know and to take the next right step.
God, help those we love. Please God, help those we love.
Help, God, Help!
Help, God, Help!
Thanks
But it’s not just help that we should pray for. Go back to verse six. We read:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
The church in Philippi was actually one of Paul’s favorite churches and the people some of his favorite people. They were the only church that Paul had accepted financial gifts from and they had sent gifts of money, help, and prayer to him throughout his ministry.
In his letter to the Philippians, then, Paul is not writing to clarify theological doctrine or to offer advice on how to be the church, rather he is writing to say thank you to a people he loved and missed and to declare that there is joy in Christ for all who believe.
In fact, that theme of joy in Christ runs throughout the entire book. In verse four of today’s text, we read:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Rejoice! Be thankful! Let your heart overflow with the goodness of God through Jesus Christ!
And not only that, but: Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
In other words, let your thanksgiving translate into gentle action toward all, for God is near, all around, moving and working in our every day lives, through all times and circumstances…but it is up to see it.
And how do we see God moving and working in the world around us? Through adopting an attitude of gratitude based first and foremost on our salvation and the redeeming power of Jesus Christ in our lives.
Once we have adopted that attitude, we can live a life thankful for the people, things, places, and experiences that make our lives what they are. Remember what Paul said: Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS. And again I say Rejoice! We do not rejoice because things are always perfect.
Take Paul as an example. He was in jail, awaiting a trial that very well may have ended his life, and yet he was still able to rejoice and to commend his favorite people to do the same. We, like Paul, rejoice because we have more than enough in Jesus Christ our Lord…
I want you to take out a pen or pencil and some paper if you have them. If you don’t, reach in the pew in front of you and use the little golf pencil and an offering envelope or your bulletin.
I’m going to give you two minutes to write down as many as you can of the people, places, and things for which you are thankful. Write down anything that comes to mind—nothing is too big or small. Rejoice in the Lord, ALWAYS. And again, I say rejoice.
No matter what you may be going through, take two moments to rejoice now.
(wait two minutes)
Oh, God, we give you thanks today. Thanks, God, Thanks! Thanks, God, Thanks!
(pause)
Wow
A few summers ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Iceland. I’ll never forget my first overseas experience and just how beautiful it was. In fact, my first visit in Iceland, a waterfall, was so beautiful that I just stood there and cried. I couldn’t formulate any other thought than Wow. As Ann Lamott says in her book Helps Thanks Wow:
“Wow is often offered with a gasp, a sharp intake of breath, when we can’t think of another way to capture the sight of shocking beauty or destruction, of a sudden unbidden insight or an unexpected flash of grace. ‘Wow’ means we are not dulled to wonder. We click into being fully present when we’re stunned into that gasp, by the sight of a birth, or images of the World Trade Center towers falling, or the experience of being in a fjord, at dawn for the first time. ‘Wow’ is about having one’s mind blown by the mesmerizing or the miraculous: the veins in a leaf, birdsong, volcanoes.”
Wow. We’ve all had Wow moments in our lives. In preparing for this sermon, I had quite a few wow moments in my reading. This scripture passage alone is a Wow moment if you really think about it!
Remember: Paul wrote this passage to a group of people who loved and supported him but who were not living on Easy Street. Just to be a Christian in those days was quite a risk. There was only a handful of people in Philippi defending the faith against a hostile ruling class. Yet the Philippian church was faithful. And Paul saw their faithfulness and wanted to write his words of love and thanksgiving to them…all while he had been stripped of everything in the world that human beings naturally want. And still he writes:
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Wow!
Here is a man in prison, likely to be beaten and killed, writing about the joy and peace of Christ!
Wow!
There is a mystery to this joy and peace of Christ. Such a peace is really quite different from the peace that we often think about. We tend to think we want peace that passes understanding, but what we actually want is a peace that is very easily understood. We want the peace that grows out of the tranquility of our surroundings, the pastoral scene where all goes well, the peace of being made to lie down in green pastures and being led beside the still waters. But the peace that Paul had in mind was past all understanding because it was his amid tempestuous surroundings, amid riot and storm, and under the threat of the headman’s ax.
So what is the peace of God? It is our outlook on life. Paul wrote that the peace of God allowed him to be satisfied with what he had in any situation. The peace of God, then, allows us to see every situation with wisdom.
• We can see if something is really important or not, whether it is worth troubling with.
• We can see the places where we should place our attempts to do God’s will.
• We can know that no matter what happens, God is working in every situation to redeem.
God’s peace allows us to understand:
• That our lives are important, but our problems are not the only things to be considered;
• That there are things we can do to help, but we must rely on God in the final analysis;
• And that we always have help and comfort through his spirit.
The peace of God passes human understanding and is available to those who believe. Wow, God! Wow! Wow, God, Wow!
(pause)
Conclusion
Do not be anxious about anything, church, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things…And the God of peace will be with you. Now and forevermore.
Help.
Thanks.
Wow!
Amen.
Benediction
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit now and always, and To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
