This reflection was written for the Sunday Devotion for Christ Episcopal Church, Yankton, SD on October 11, 2020
Philippians 4:1-9
My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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. 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.
The New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.
REFLECTION
+In the peace of Christ +
In a time of much divisiveness and tension in our nation and the world, it can be difficult to find something to be happy about; much less, something to rejoice over, but that is what Paul in his timeless letter to the Philippians is telling us to do. Of course, Paul is not talking about being happy with the way things are but rather experiencing and expressing true joy, no matter what is taking place around us. Joy and happiness, like fairness and equality discussed two Sunday’s ago, are not synonymous terms. Just as most of us settle for what is fair, most of us settle for being periodically happy, but joy, like equality, raises our experiential expectations considerably.
So much of what Jesus taught; so much of what the entirety of Scripture teaches is about depth perception, looking beyond and beneath the surface of all that entertains, glitters, and disturbs. Unlike happiness, which is a temporary emotion that comes and goes depending on the situation one finds oneself in, joy is a state of being; something that resides in and radiates from the core of one’s being.
Paul likens joy to gentleness. Joy tempers the edges of our emotions by presenting an undisturbed and compassionate presence; a sense of trust that all will be well even when everything around one seems to be falling apart. Joy is a gift few are aware of possessing, but like all God-given gifts, those who feel the joy of God radiate it.
Joyful people are prayerful people. Prayerful in this sense doesn’t mean someone who is on their knees most of the day and night but rather, like joy, prayerfulness becomes a way of being. Joyful people, like people of prayer, carry with them a sense of God’s nearness. There is an attitude of thankfulness expressed in their activities; a joy in being and a joy in being able to serve others. Their very actions and activities become acts of prayer in themselves.
Yes, there are times when we need to set aside time and, like Jesus, to be still and intentional in presenting what is on our minds and in our hearts. There are times when our thoughts run amok and we find ourselves worrying about things we can do little about. At such times, it is good to let those worries take on the form of intentional prayer. Prayer is a way to address what we can’t do on our own or struggle with doing. Prayer opens us to the possibilities residing in the inevitabilities of this life and allows the gentleness of joy to permeate such moments.
One of the most familiar and intriguing statements in today’s lesson is Paul’s comment on the peace of God: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Peace, like the word love, takes on many meanings, but strictly speaking peace means the absence of that which disturbs or disrupts. The “peace of God” is unfathomable. While it exceeds one’s ability to comprehend, it can be felt because the peace of God offers an equilibrium that defies definition. The peace of God is in the category of what one might describe the “holy” irrational (to borrow the psychologist and mystic, Otto Rank’s understanding of the irrational as necessary to and for human existence).
The closest expression of this sense of irrational equilibrium that comes to mind is found in Psalm 139: “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me;’ even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” [vs. 11-12]
In these two verses from the psalm comes a sense of something much deeper than contentment. They convey a sense of protection; a sense of being insulated from that which can disturb or disrupt our hearts and minds. In spite of what we may experience on the surface of life, beyond and beneath such experiences there is a peace that runs deep; a peace that puts everything in the balanced perspective of God’s love. This peace is what we experience as the presence of Christ expressed in the prayerful invitation to pass peace in our lives, “The peace of Christ be with you always.”
Both the joy and peace of God, like the love of God, flows deeply in every human soul. The peace of God is not affected by the the distractions that allure, disturb, and disrupt our lives. Paul’s invitation to rejoice is a call to access the depth of our being and to present in daily living the gentle joy, the irrational peace, and the all embracing love of God.
Amen.
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Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
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