Rev.
Debbie Cato
Philippians
4:4-9
Fairfield
Community Church
November
12, 2023
Let us
pray: Gracious God, We are here to praise and worship you. Help us
to push distractions out of the way so that we can hear your Word spoken into
our minds and hearts. May you be
glorified through the reading and preaching of your Word to us today and may
these words change us and encourage us. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.
Change Your Mindset
If there was
ever a word of God’s grace and a message of God’s desire that we experience joy,
this is it in Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi. “Rejoice in the Lord, always; again, I will
say, Rejoice.”[1] Paul goes on to remind us that “the peace of
God surpasses all understanding.”[2] Perhaps this is a reminder that with God,
things are different. Apparently, the ‘peace
of God’ is different than any other kind peace.
Perhaps we can rejoice during times that rejoicing would not seem
obvious.
But joyful peace
is not always easily found amid the great anxieties and expectations that
surround us. The world can intrude in
jarring ways. Never mind the day-to-day
anxieties of our everyday lives. The things
that keep us awake at night. Money,
relationships, jobs, kids. And then catastrophe
strikes. A lost job, an illness, a diagnosis, or a death. Maybe you are in the
depths of a depression that you can’t pull out of.
Even when
everything in our own life is going smooth, the world around us is filled with
chaos and ugliness. School shootings, hate
crimes, war. Hurricanes, floods, fires …
Children needlessly dying.
Back in 2018, there was an unprecedented fire in Paradise, California. The 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, CA destroyed more than 90% of the town's homes and scattered its residents. There were around 700 people missing and 79 known dead. More than 151,000 acres burned; 17,000 structures including about 13,000 homes. Amid search efforts, it rained – as much as a ½ inch an hour The rain turned soot and ash to a thick paste and hindered the search.[3]
Jeremy Carr was a chaplain with the Butte County Sheriff’s
Office; the county in Northern California where Paradiseias located. He assisted first responders. He posted a blog so that people would know
what it was really like for the first responders. Jeremy reported that camaraderie ran deep and there was a
special kind of bond between everyone out there. “Maybe it’s the devastation
all around,” he said. “Or maybe it’s the
myriad hazards that creates a subtle awareness of our mortality. Maybe it’s
just a sense of being in “the suck” together. It feels immensely and deeply
human.”
As I read his blog I wondered: Is this
what Paul means when he says to rejoice always?
That the peace of God surpasses all understanding?
Jeremy went on to talk about the care for the living that the first responders were doing. He wrote that there were a “fair number of people who stayed up there, survived with their property and didn’t intend to leave.” “First responders left food and water with them and followed up. One woman,” Jeremy said, his partner found. “She was very old, lived alone and had no idea what was going on. She had been living off the defrosting food in her freezer and what was left of her cooking sherry. It got so bad she tried to take her own life by swallowing pills, but she threw them up. They were able to get her to EMS who took her to a hospital.”
And I wonder. Is this the
peace of God that surpasses all understanding? Can you rejoice in the Lord,
always?
And of course, Jeremy talked about the care for the dead. He wrote that as a chaplain, his niche was with
the coroner teams who searched hundreds of burned out buildings looking for
remains, while search and rescue likely searched more than triple that. “Often,
there’s just too much debris and not enough left to identify.” Jeremy wrote, “As a chaplain, my own sense of
uselessness kicks in here. What can be done for these souls? I don’t know. But
for the past few days since we’ve been collecting remains, I’ve felt lead to
finish my day by visiting our makeshift morgue and praying over each body or
set of remains recovered that day. I don’t know what else to do.” The peace of
God surpasses all understanding. Is there
rejoicing in the Lord, always?
You see, the peace of God IS different than our worldly sense of peace. Who could find peace in this kind of tragedy? Who can rejoice in this kind of tragedy? Yet the first responders did. Through their camaraderie – friendships made during tragedy and hardships; finding life in spunky characters in the heart of so much death and ruin; praying for unknown souls to a God who knows each one by name. They found the peace of God that exceeds all understanding. They were able to rejoice for what still existed, for one another, for a God who was with them in the midst of it all. It’s beyond our comprehension but God understands. And that’s what matters. And that’s why we can feel peace. That’s how we can rejoice in the Lord.
Jeremy closes by talking about sacrifice. He wrote, “MANY of our Butte County first responders lost homes up there. ALL of them are still doing their jobs. For those from Paradise Police Department, who knows if their job will even exist once this all settles down. Many were IN the fire, OVERRUN by the fire as they were evacuating residents and are STILL there, patrolling streets, performing welfare checks, putting out spot fires, identifying remains and recovering them. These people are incredible.”
He goes on, saying, “The road ahead for Paradise and the
surrounding communities is a long and painful one. But if humanity truly is
capable of a FRACTION of the neighborliness and decency I’ve seen this last
week, then I think we have a chance. My biggest fear is that after the urgency
of this disaster fades, so too will the humanity with which we have been
conducting ourselves.” Jeremy closes with, “May this never be.”[4]
4 Rejoice in the Lord
always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 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.
We often hear this text at funerals. Deaths, especially tragic deaths, can leave us with our ability to understand the will of God completely shattered.[5] Lately, there is so much senseless violence. So much senseless death and loss. It makes me cry out, “Why? Why, God? Why?”
And then last Sunday, we rejoiced because Sandy can see! After discouragement and fear of her cornea replacement failing, her sight has returned! Rejoice in the Lord always.
We praised God because after two years, Cindy’s crippling back pain
is gone. She’s moving around without crutches
and beginning to lead a normal life.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
We gave
thanks and praise because Brooke, whose diagnosis seemed hopeless, learned that
75% of her tumors are gone. 75%. Rejoice in the Lord always. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The
kind of joy Paul refers to is not some superficial cheerfulness because we are
happy. Paul is not thinking of something
that is merely an emotional experience but rather he is speaking of a deep and
lasting joy that comes through a deepening relationship with Christ. The fact
that this joy is “in the Lord” reminds us that it comes from the God, not stuff
or people or the circumstances around us.
And
that peace of God Paul talks about? I
think that’s the strange quietness you feel in your heart amid total chaos and
catastrophe. Even though you have no
reason to feel a sense of peace, you do.
This my friends, is the peace of God that transcends all understanding.
Now I don’t know about you, but I certainly do not find Paul’s advice easy. He tells us not to worry about anything! But we tend to worry about everything – don’t we?! Our attitude tends to be the opposite of the trust in God that Paul commends. It is sobering to remember that Paul was in prison, facing a capital charge, when he wrote this letter. And that was not his only problem, his responsibility for the churches was a constant concern to him. The secret to Paul’s composure and the foundation of his advice is that he is relying on God, and not material goods or the things of the world. This joy and worry-free attitude are a mark of Christian maturity – our ability to trust in God and find joy in Him in all times, in all situations.
And so,
Paul directs the Philippians to pray with thanksgiving. Without thanksgiving, our anxiety about the
future obscures the benefits that have been showered upon us. Gratitude in God for all that we have been
given will allow the peace of God to guard our hearts and minds, protecting us
against all that might destroy us.
I
would say this is our greatest blessing.
This is our greatest thanksgiving.
That no matter what we are going through; no matter what the world
throws at us; we have a God who loves us. This God who loves us more than we
can imagine, is always with us in all things and all times. He is always faithful, even when we are
not. No matter what this life is like;
we have the promise and the hope of eternal life when all of creation will be
restored to the way God created it – and us.
The pain and the heartache and the worries and the suffering of this
life will no longer be; but rather we will live in peace and harmony with our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
We live in such a violent and hate-filled time that we long for the presence of the kind of peace that God promises. The reality is that sorrow and tragedy cannot be avoided, even on days reserved for rejoicing. Amid the harshness of the world’s impulses and demands, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,” can prove elusive despite Paul’s assurance that it “will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”[6]
I’m beginning
to think more and more that we need to pay more attention to the little things –
the blue sky on a cold day; the smile of a stranger as we pass on the sidewalk;
the laughter of children on a playground; a song that brings memories of a
special someone. Perhaps these are the kind
of things that will bring us peace in this world. Even if just for a moment.
Why can we
not live in peace? Are we destined to
know only that peace “which passes all understanding”? Possibly.
That peace is of God, and it is good.
It comes to us when we need it most and with no other options, we yield
ourselves to God. The only way we will
ever “understand” peace is one small act of peace at a time and welcoming the
One who comes to us, the One who understands.[7] Amen.
[1] Feasting
on the Word. Year C, Volume 1. Philippians 4:4-7. Pastoral Perspective. Philip E. Campbell. Page 62.
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/california-fires-latest-2018-11-20-camp-woolsey-paradise-recovery-search-rescue-live-updates/
[4]
Jeremy Carr Facebook post November 13 at 9:55 pm
[5] Feasting on the Word. Year C, Volume 1. Philippians 4:4-7. Homiletical Perspective. Joseph R. Jeter. Page 67.
[6] Ibid. Page 64.
[7] Ibid.
