The Rev. Frank Logue
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
December 17, 2000

 Prescription for Peace
Philippians 4:4-9

This is our third week of Advent—the third of four weeks of preparation for Christmas. The Advent wreath on the mantle now shows three candles lit. This week we light the pink candle as well. The three purple candles show the color of the season and remind us that Jesus is the King of Kings—a king unlike any who came before or since. Then there is the tall white candle reserved for Christmas Eve and Day as we show that the Jesus we are expecting has come into the world, bringing the light of God among us all. This one pink candle stands apart from the other candles. The reason for the different color is so old that we are in danger of forgetting why this week is set apart.

The season of Advent once carried a stronger message of repentance than it does now. Advent was a time to remind us all that we need to turn back from the things we are doing that separate us from God. In Advent, we would turn back to God. That’s why we get a Gospel reading like the one today where John the Baptist instructs the people gathered around him how they should act as they wait for the Messiah. Centuries after John the Baptist preached, many people marked this season of Advent with special acts of devotion, like fasting—going without food—one day a week. At that time, this third week of Advent was a week off. This is the week when you would relax whatever harsh rule you had put on yourself. And the pink color marks this week as a more joyful, a more peaceful week among the four of Advent. That’s why we hear the reading from Philippians where Paul writes that we should rejoice in the Lord always.

OK, so much for what is happening in the church. We all know what is happening in the stores and on the roads. It seems like everyone else needs to shop at the same stores I do at the same time I am there. Wal-Mart and Kmart are busier than ever, along with all the other stores. I don’t even want to go into the stressful trip Victoria and I made to Jacksonville to shop. This should be a time for joyful anticipation, but everything I saw looked like stress and more stress, headaches, and confusion. The rush to find just the right present at the right price in time for Christmas takes its toll. The Christmas lights and music are beautiful, but I don’t see more joy and peace.

Paul has a plan for us this morning. We heard a reading just a few minutes ago from the apostle’s letter to the church he founded in Philippi. The apostle Paul gives a prescription for peace. Paul said rejoice all the time. Paul even went so far as to say that we should not worry about anything. Rejoice all the time? It’s a safe bet that Paul never had to circle the mall endlessly looking for a parking space. Do not worry about anything? I am pretty sure that Paul never had to find PlayStation2 at a time when it seems to be not available in any store.

And what about real problems? What about marriages falling apart? Parents and children who no longer speak to each other? What about corporate downsizing? Navy transfers? What about all these stresses and strains that the people who wrote the Bible knew nothing about? Who does this guy Paul think he is to give us advice on Joy and Peace? Let’s take a quick look at this guy Paul. Knowing something about the writer and the audience for this letter will help us take a closer look at Paul’s prescription for peace.

Paul was given the name Saul by his parents at birth. The name Paul won’t come up again until later in the story. Paul writing about his early days described himself as a Jew’s Jew. He was on the fast track to being a mover and shaker in the religion of his parents. Young Saul went to all the right schools, impressed the right people and more or less had his career path mapped out. He would be a powerful leader in Judaism. About three years after Jesus died, faith in Jesus was starting to really take hold and grow in very significant numbers. Christianity, was at that time known as The Way. Followers of Jesus saw themselves as Jews who were following in The Way of the Messiah. This movement within Judaism, was threatening the status quo, the way things are, for Jews who did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah.

The up and coming Saul saw this as the perfect time for a decisive fellow to make a name for himself and so he did not hesitate to act. Saul became the chief persecutor of those people who considered themselves part of The Way. Saul was there, holding the cloaks for the people who did the deed, as Stephen was stoned to death for his belief that Jesus was the promised Messiah. This was the first time a follower of Jesus was killed for their beliefs. Saul intensified the efforts to stamp out faith in Jesus. And it was during his campaign against Christianity that Saul had a life changing encounter.

This is the way the event is described in the Acts of the Apostles,

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to The Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

Saul’s life was forever changed. He came to see and experience for himself that Jesus was the promised Messiah—the Son of God. Saul the persecutor of the new movement within Judaism, become Paul (taking on a Roman name) the one who was sent by God to proclaim the good news of Jesus to those who were not Jewish. But Paul’s work in spreading the Gospel came with a high cost. Paul was beaten and imprisoned time and again. We know of five occasions when Paul was given 39 lashes with a whip, which was the harshest sentence minus one. Three times Paul was beaten with rods. He was stoned once and shipwrecked three times in his travels. Eventually, Paul was beheaded in Rome on order of the Emperor Nero in 67 A.D., thirty years after his conversion on the road to Damascus.

This is Paul. A man who was constantly on the road. His method was to move to a town and set up shop as a tentmaker. While working at his trade to cover his own expenses, Paul would begin to teach about Jesus and form a new community of faith, a new church. This is exactly what Paul did in the prosperous Roman Colony of Philippi, named for Philip of Macedon who built the town 400 years earlier. After getting that group established, Paul was arrested, imprisoned, and asked to leave town. Paul moved on, continuing to juggle the demands of his work with those of teaching a message that would, from time to time, get him arrested. It was during another prison stay that Paul found the time to send word back to Philippi to encourage the church there. Paul loved these guys. Of all the letters Paul wrote, Philippians is the most clearly loving. He told them that he thanked God every time he thought of them.

Paul wanted the Philippian Christians to know that he was doing fine despite all the persecution. Earlier in the letter he wrote, “I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel.” Paul knew all about hardships. Paul knew all about loneliness. Paul knew all about oppression. But, Paul was tapped into a deeper source of peace in his life and he wanted to make sure that the Philippians could also experience this peace. That’s why, just before his close to the letter, Paul gives the prescription for peace that is our reading for today.

Paul counsels the Philippians, telling them how they have inner peace in any circumstance. Paul prescribes one thing to avoid and two things to do. The thing we are not to do is worry. Paul is in good company with this advice. Jesus put it this way in Luke’s gospel, “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?” Paul then writes what we are to do while we are busy not worrying. Paul gives two actions and each of these comes with its own promise of peace.

Paul writes, “…in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.” We are to take all that junk we are worrying about and thankfully give it over to God in prayer. Just talk it all out with God. You do not need fancy words or complicated prayers, just tell God what you are worried about. Paul promises that if we do this, then God’s peace will keep watch over our hearts and minds. Paul tells us that the peace of God is beyond all understanding. Paul should know. He was writing about God’s peace from a prison cell.

Turning over your worries to God can really work. A friend of mine, Phil, shared with me this advice that has stuck with me. Phil said that he used to stay up at night fretting over things. Then one day he decided that God could handle it better. Phil told me, “The way I look at it, God is going to be awake anyway, so why not let God worry over my problems instead.” Phil started turning over his worries in prayer before going to sleep and he found that he was soon sleeping through the night.

Then Paul says the rest is simply a matter of thinking about good things. It’s been boiled down to the power of positive thinking, but I don’t think it’s quite that simple. There is a difference. Paul doesn’t tell us to think positively, which would mean to think and act as if everything you want to happen will happen. Paul counsels us instead to dwell on good things and he does so at some length in such beautiful language, “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.” Then to spell it out further, Paul reminds them to do the things they learned and received from him in both his words and actions.

How often do we really do this? How much time have you spent this week thinking about things that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, excellent or worthy of praise? It is too easy to dwell on things that are going wrong. This very letter to the Philippians is an example of thinking on things that are true and worthy of praise. In this letter, Paul writes from prison to encourage the Philippians. He doesn’t dwell on the downside of his present circumstances. He could dwell on the problems of prison life, the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen to him next or when. But Paul points out how his time in prison presented him with an opportunity to share the gospel with others.

It reminds me of the story of two boys. One is put in a room full of toys. There is everything from Legos to Nintendo and more. The second boy is put in a room full of horse manure. After an hour, the boy in the room full of toys is crying because one of the toys broke almost as soon as he started to play with it. Meanwhile, the boy in the room full of manure is covered in horse poop and grinning from ear to ear. He has created tunnels everywhere. When asked what he is doing, the boy beams, “with all this horse poop, there’s got to be a horse around here somewhere.”

That boy was thinking positively. Unfortunately for him, he was positively wrong. There was no horse in the room. Paul does not peg his peace to positive thinking and some vague hope that everything will turn out all right in the end. In fact, Paul is pretty sure that he will be killed for his preaching and teaching. Paul’s peace was secured to something more stable, more enduring. Like someone who has read the last chapter of a mystery before starting the book, Paul knew how the story would turn out: In the end, God wins. Paul knew that nothing bad that the world could throw at him was beyond God’s power to redeem and turn for the good. This doesn’t mean that everything that happens is good. But God can take the bad things that do happen and redeem them. This gave Paul assurance that allowed him to turn his worries over to God in prayer and then to dwell on the good things in life.

So I give you Paul’s words for this week of Christmas anxiety: Don’t worry. Give your troubles to God in prayer. Think on things worthy of a child of God. Then God will give you peace that surpasses human understanding.

Amen.