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The Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost
Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always precede and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 23)
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The Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost
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A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
✛
Some Counsel against Anxiety
Rejoice in the Lord always…The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything…
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
First, a few words about our author. He was roughly a contemporary of Jesus, probably younger, although he did not become a disciple until after Jesus’ death. For a while he was a persecutor of the first disciples, known as Saul of Tarsus, a strict Jewish Pharisee. After he encountered the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, he became a premier disciple and apostle and was known as Paul. Transformed by Jesus, he became a virtual co-founder of the Church as we know it, second only to the Lord himself in historical importance. Saint Paul made Christianity a universal Gospel and became the messenger of God’s salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ and of the human heart set free in Christ. His writings comprise about half of the New Testament.
Today’s epistle, a portion of his letter to the Philippians, was written from jail. Since Paul was often imprisoned, scholars debate from which jail he sent the letter; but Rome is the traditional choice. If so, Paul is on trial for his life, and, in any case, he will soon be martyred with many other Christians under Emperor Nero, who blamed Rome’s problems on the growing church. By that time, Paul, who was well-born, a Roman citizen by birth, and well educated from one of antiquity’s cultural centers, had been disinherited. He learned tent-making as a trade to survive. As an apostle, he had nearly been killed in riots, assassination attempts, criminal and civil lawsuits, beatings, stonings, shipwreck, and many other dangers. So when he tells the Philippians to rejoice and not to be anxious, he communicates with the authority of personal experience.
There is a vivid second century physical description of Paul which a number of scholars are inclined to credit. “And he saw Paul coming, a man little of stature, thin haired upon the head, crooked in the legs, of good state of body, with eyebrows joining, and nose somewhat hooked, full of grace: for sometimes he appeared like a man, and sometimes he had the face of an angel.” ¹
The Philippians were the first church Paul planted on European soil – in Macedonia, across the Aegean from Asia Minor (Turkey). It started with a bang. Paul and Silas had been imprisoned for disturbing the peace. In the middle of the night (as they were singing hymns) an earthquake broke up the prison cells. Assuming his prisoners had escaped, the Philippian jailer, being a good Roman, drew his sword to commit suicide; but Paul shouted out, “Don’t hurt yourself; we’re all still here!” Trembling, the jailer asked what he had to do to be saved. Paul baptized him and his whole household.² The Philippian church was generous, contributing to Paul’s fund-raising effort on behalf of the famine-impoverished mother church in Jerusalem. They also contributed money and sent personal help to Paul in prison, more than once it seems. Paul rejoices in their faithful support, and in return conveys priceless counsel and wisdom that other churches, such as the anxiety-stricken churches of New York, such as our own beloved Saint Thomas, need badly to hear at this time. So now let us hear it.
To care, as the Philippians cared for Paul and for their fellow Christians, is a virtue, an expression of love. But to foster cares and worries, to fret about things we cannot control, is actually a sin; for it reveals a lack of trust in the Lord. Fretting leads to self-inflicted inward suffering caused by faithless fears and worldly anxiety. Against this, Paul says: Rejoice, for the Lord is at hand. The cure for worry is prayer and commitment to God, in whom we rejoice and to whom we give thanks for life and health, fellow human beings, family and friends, honest work and good conversation. Even more, we give thanks to God in Jesus Christ, who has saved us from our sins and everything that could separate us from God and who by his death and resurrection has overcome the world and all its tribulation. Make your requests known to God in your prayer – for food, shelter, health, work, loved ones, the church and society. Do these things concern us? Then pray to God earnestly each day for them.
I confess that I fall into worry for Saint Thomas and our people in this financial crisis. But then I recall all that the Apostle went through, and I am convicted by his serenity under such hard circumstances and take heart at his counsel. Then I recall the prayers and faith of our forebears here – through fires and financial panics and depressions, through city riots and civil and world wars, through God knows how much tribulation. And now consider: Here is this church, our beloved Saint Thomas, now, celebrating this liturgy, hearing Saint Paul’s 2000-year-old epistle conveying the Word of God urgent and relevant in this hour. Behold: a miracle of God’s providence! These thoughts take me to my knees in prayer and thanksgiving, where God’s presence casts out fear.
The Apostle says he has learned, in whatever state he finds himself, to be content. “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me.”
The “secret” is that peace of God which passes all understanding to which Paul refers. It “keeps” our hearts and minds “in Christ Jesus.” It is a straightforward matter of setting our minds on Christ, on thinking of, by, with, and in him. When the tribulation of the world (like the “breaking news” which moves across the bottom of the screen on 24-hour cable news channels) rattles us, it is time to turn off the station, to fast and abstain from the worldly fear, and to focus our minds and hearts on Christ. Nothing has overtaken us that people have not faced in other times and places. These trials are the troubles of the kingdoms of this world. But Christ has overcome this world and offers us a better kingdom, the kingdom of truth, peace, love and eternal life. These are treasures where moth and rust do not consume, and where thieves do not break in and steal. They do not disappear with a stock market crash and a credit crunch.
The apostle learned these truths from Christ and tested them for decades in the school of life and hard knocks. He replaced self-reliance with Lord-reliance. He says that he (and we, if we will hear him) can learn this peace and joy which you can take with you everywhere, including through death and into the unveiled kingdom of heaven.
I have a suggestion. If you are feeling paralyzed and afraid because of what has been going on, release yourself by making a pledge to Saint Thomas Church for 2009. It is an act of thanks for Christ’s amazing performance through all circumstances, and an investment of faith in his Lordship over the present and the future. In the world there is tribulation. But let us be of good cheer; for Christ our Lord has overcome the world.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
__________
¹Acts of Paul and Thecla, quoted in The New Bible Dictionary, J.D. Douglas, ed., (Eerdmans 1979), p. 943.
²Acts 16:11-40
