Philippians 4:4-9
Introduction
I think I mentioned a couple weeks ago, after the Easter and Pentecost seasons we enter a season of the church year called “Ordinary Time” which is a time when the Church emphasizes Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom of God by engaging in issues of daily life and concerns of the community, nation, and world.
This season of “Ordinary Time” comes right after we have remembered Christ’s sacrifice on Good Friday, rejoiced in his resurrection on Easter, and celebrated the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. And since we have done such, we therefore come to this season secure in the knowledge that God is with us…with us at work, in our leisure, when we give and receive love; when we are anxious, afraid, joyful, lonely, struggling, succeeding, and failing.
“Ordinary Time” for the church is a time to simply be… a time to focus on nothing more than being children of God who are always in God’s constant and abiding presence. Certainly, it’s still a vast and immense space, but yet it has an ease to it in many ways.
Preachers call this “Ordinary Time.” Pretty much everyone else calls it “Summertime.” Which is fine; however, it should be noted “Ordinary Time” continues well into the fall, ending on the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent, which this year is December 2nd. So we have a bit of time here in the ordinary.
But is it so ordinary? And is there anything, as Paul says, to rejoice about?
Move 1
Ok, so why the long, drawn-out explanation of something that really doesn’t have a lot of bearing on our everyday lives?
Well, all of this talk about “Ordinary Time” presented itself to me during a week that was very much “out of the ordinary.” Plus, I suspect the idea of talking about “ordinary time” would probably get many of you thinking to yourself, “There’s nothing ordinary about this time.” And so it all sparked thoughts and prayers into my head and heart because for certain nothing seems to be very ordinary about this past week, or any time recently for that matter.
I mean… the specter of wildfires in Canada infiltrated our lives significantly this past week, casting a figurative and literal, heavy and ubiquitous haze across our landscape and our summertime activities. In all my years of living in northeast Ohio, I have been privy to widespread events having an impact upon a broad swath of our state—weather related, pandemic related, politically related, protest related, etc.—but never have I seen forest fire related impacts. And the impacts were vast and without prejudice.
Pools were closed, hikes were canceled, community concerts moved inside, the Alison Krauss and Robert Plant concert at Blossom was canceled, the Cuyahoga Valley National Part cancelled events, recreational sports activities were cancelled, even businesses closed—why you couldn’t even play a round of Putt-putt mini golf anywhere! (I know this because my family tried.)
Violet was away at Girl Scout Camp this past week and no sooner had Julie and I wondered about how they were managing the situation for their campers did we get an email from the camp informing us how they were managing the situation for their campers.
All of it—especially the eerie sights of the heavy haze, both in person and in pictures, that made the northeast Ohio landscape look like we were on the planet Mars, got me and Christian talking about possible biblical correlations. I told Christian if frogs started falling from the sky and livestock started falling over dead, I would not be in the office, because I’d be off looking for a lamb to sacrifice. (That’s a theological joke based in the 10 plagues God sent upon Egypt when Moses was working to free the enslaved Jews from Pharaoh.)
And it was with all of that… (see this has been going somewhere)…that God led me to skip the “Ordinary Time” lectionary texts and instead turn to Paul’s letter to the Philippians where Paul, in his infinite wisdom and ability to ignore the powers that were always at work to kill him, says, “Rejoice in the Lord…always! Again, I will say, Rejoice! The Lord is near!”
All of it can easily lead us to respond to Paul’s call with an understandable, “Really? You think we ought to rejoice? Really?”
But while such a decree seems obtuse at best, and beyond ridiculous at worst, Paul has a point. He has a point when he said this to the Philippians, and he still has a point when he says it to us. We really should, and we really can, rejoice in the Lord, always. Even when there seems no justifiable reason. And maybe, especially when there seems to be no justifiable reason.
Move 2
Ask pretty much anyone if they think things in our world are getting better or worse and they will tell you things in our world are undoubtedly getting worse. Compared to how life was in the past, to how life is today, people generally believe things have been getting, and continue, to get worse and worse than ever before. But such a statement begs the question to be asked… Are they? Are things getting worse?
A new study published in Nature argues that even though every generation thinks society is worsening, that such is probably not the case. And the argument put forth for this belief is that every generation thinks the same thing—things are worse now than “back in the day.” And if every generation thinks things are worse, then logically, it can’t be true. Unless that is, we’re on a sliding scale of debauchery that really gets worse with every generation.
Move 3
Look, I get it. I have my “Get off my lawn you whippersnapper” moments just like everyone else. But the more we think about this question, “Are things really getting worse?”, the more we can realize we’ve had this problem, this belief, this perspective for a long time.
Just look at this quote from a book published in 1624 by English preacher Thomas Barnes. You’re gonna love the old English…“Youth were never more sawcie, yea never more savagely saucie … The ancient are scorned, the honourable are contemned, the magistrate is not dreaded.”
Barnes was writing a scathing indictment of the younger generation of his day—in 1624. That’s 400 years ago. People then, like today, were looking at how things were in the past in comparison to how things were in the present, and all they could see was the downward spiral of morality and humanity. The world was falling apart then too, and of course, the younger generations were to blame.
And here’s the fun cherry on top of this cliché generational rant— Barnes wrote all about this in his book entitled, “The Wise-Man’s Forecast Against the Evil Time.”
I mean, can you just hear the “Boomer vs. Millennial vs. Gen. Z” dichotomy oozing in that book title? (As a strong and proud Gen X-er I just roll my eyes and scoff.)
But maybe the 17th century just wasn’t all that great. So what about Biblical times? Surly they must have been the “good ol’ days” right?
Well, let’s go back to the Apostle Paul, and the letters he wrote to the early church that was trying to figure out how to be a presence of Christ in a world that had little to no understanding of what it meant to be a presence of Christ.
Each of the churches Paul wrote to had their issues, the Philippians included. But none of the issues compared to that of the Corinthians. If you have ever really read Paul’s letters to the Corinthians—really read it, and not just chapter 13 where Paul outlines what love is—you will find he is trying desperately to address all manners of forecasts of evil: factions, infighting, pride, a deep lack of love, and sexual…well, sexual everything. Oh, and many of these early Christians weren’t so sure about the resurrection. But this was still nothing new. Go all the way back to the time of the judges, and we find devolving morality was also an issue in the life of Israel when everyone did whatever was right in their own eyes.
So really, if we are longing for the “good ol days” then we are going to have to go all the way back to the Garden. But guess what? That was a mere two chapters of “good.” Once we get to Genesis 3, everything starts to go off the rails. Adam and Eve ate that forbidden fruit and said to each other, “Wow. Life was so much better in Genesis 1-2. Those were the good old days just minutes ago, weren’t they?”
And so all of this has me wondering… In this grand narrative of creation, fall, and redemption we all live in, could these days actually be thee “good ol’ days”?
Conclusion
I have said this many times before, but I am going to say it again, partly because as I have told you, often I am preaching to myself. But I am going to say it again because I don’t think we can be reminded of this truth too much.
We always have a choice. And among the choices we have is the perspective we take on what is happening to us and around us. We cannot control what is out of our control, but we can choose how we will control what is in our control. And among what is in our control are: our thoughts and actions; what we give our attention and energy to; how we handle challenges; how we see others and how we treat others.
And what else we are in control of, is remembering three truths.
One, all people are yearning for hope. Two, we have enough voices and prophets proclaiming all the doom and destruction happening around us. But what we don’t have enough of are voices who consciously choose to remember a third truth… We can, and we must, rejoice in the Lord always. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything. Don’t focus on all the bad and all the debauchery, focus on 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 you have learned and received and heard and seen in Christ Jesus, and the God of peace…it will be with you.
So again… I will say…and I hope and pray all of you will say… Rejoice…today is a good ol day…and so is tomorrow…and the day after… Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, July 2, 2023
Gracious and loving God, we give you thanks for your good and faithful servant who shares with us, across generations, messages of hope, which all of us yearn for. Help us to hear that message to rejoice in you always, to let your gentleness be known to everyone, and to let all come to know, through our faith and lives rooted in your, that you are always near.
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Lord of all, we recognize true freedom comes through you, that our ultimate loyalty belongs to you and our real identity is bestowed upon us by you. Every day is a gift, every breath a moment to give you praise, every hour one in which to live what you command. Knowing you are Alpha and Omega, we ask for the wisdom to properly order all else.
On this weekend when we celebrate our country’s independence, we give thanks for the many blessings we enjoy in this land: the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; the ability to speak what is on our minds, even when what we have to say is contrary to popular opinion or public policy; and the freedom to worship (or not). Help us to recognize that such marks of human dignity are for all people and that you, O Lord, love and value every person and place you have made.
We pray our patriotism be subject to your law; that our loyalty to country is never higher than our obedience to your will; that our pride of nation is always secondary to our humble attempts to follow Jesus Christ.
As we commemorate our country’s Independence Day, we remember that all people are created equal, because you Lord created us all and called us good. May our words, actions, laws, hearts, and spirits always reflect the character of you our Creator.
Hear now O God, the prayers we have in our hearts, that we need to lift to you in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Savior, in whom we rejoice, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”