When I turned 40 years old, I had just landed a great new job, and my future was looking pretty bright. I was finally making a fairly decent salary and was even considering enrolling in an MBA program – all the better to work my way even farther up the ladder. This past week, I turned 49 years old. As is pretty obvious, this last decade did not turn out anything like I thought it would. At 40 I was planning an MBA – now at 49, I have an M. Div – a Masters of Divinity, and an ordination certificate, and a salary that is about one-third what it once was… and I couldn’t be happier or more filled with joy to be right where I am this morning.
So, in case the Holy Spirit, despite your own plans, has seminary in your future; I’m going to give you some technical advice that might serve you well in your seminary career. In seminary, you’ll have to take New Testament courses. No surprise there. And in those courses there will be Scripture ID quizzes, where you have to look at a verse of Scripture and tell which book of the Bible that verse comes from.
God help you if you go to one of the more evangelical seminaries and have to know book, chapter and verse! At the Episcopal seminary I went to, identifying the book that a verse or two of Scripture comes from was enough.
There are lots of little tricks that will help you out Scripture IDs. One is to remember that the royalty doesn’t mix with the hoi polloi in the maternity ward. If there are three Kings in your maternity ward, you’re in Matthew, where Jesus’ royal lineage and his kingship of Israel are chief concerns. If there are shepherds in your maternity ward, you’re in Luke, and his concern for the poor, the lowly, and the disadvantaged will be apparent.
Anytime you read “beloved disciple” hit the buzzer! You’re in the gospel of John. And when you see the word “Rejoice” make no mistake, you’re in Philippians.
The Apostle Paul loved the Philippians, and the Philippians themselves had a deep and abiding love for Paul. Paul went to Philippi because of a vision he had in a dream. A man of Macedonia stood before him and implored his help. He was welcomed by the fledgling Jewish community in Philippi led by the trader in purple dye Lydia. He was thrown in prison in Philippi only to be set free when an earthquake crumbled the walls of his cell and loosed the chains that held him captive. And later when Paul found himself in prison again, this time at Rome, the Philippians sent one of their own -- Epaphroditus -- with material support. And the Epistle to the Philippians is the thank you note that Paul writes in prison to send back to his loving and supportive friends.
Not surprisingly this thank you note is filled with Paul’s declarations of love for the Philippians and his exhortations to them to be joyful. Our reading this morning begins as Paul bids the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice!”
Another thing they teach you in seminary in New Testament class is that each of Paul’s letters was written to a particular community at a particular point in that community’s history. The epistles are specific. They address people Paul knew or knew about in great detail.
If you didn’t know differently, given today’s epistle reading, you’d think the Philippians were facing a great economic crisis all the while enduring an increasingly negative election campaign. Philippi circa the year 60 sounds quite a bit like America circa 2008.
It’s almost as if Paul has had to sit through a few hours of television attack ads when he tells the Philippians that rather than ruminating on all the negativity that’s all over the air waves, that they should concentrate on, and really think about, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just and pure, whatever is pleasing and commendable. Paul says that if there is any excellence, anything worth of praise, think about those things first and foremost.
It’s not easy advice to follow. We can all come up with a litany of worries and wants and fears much more readily than we can come up with thanksgivings and causes for rejoicing. Tabloids, Gossip websites and those incessant email rumors wouldn’t exist if we didn’t love to see others at their worst, if we weren’t so quick to believe bad news. And, obviously, it’s easier for some to find fault with their political opponents, than to articulate a thoughtful, hopeful vision for our nation in times such as these.
Name calling is easy. Being worthy of praise, being honorable and commendable – that’s hard. I not sure what the economic outlook was in first century Philippi, but it Paul sounds ready for it. Paul has some experience with market volatility and financial crises. He tells the Philippians that he knows about being well-fed and he knows about being hungry. He knows what it is to have plenty and what it is to be in need. But whether he’s faced with times of feast or famine, Paul knows what really matters.
Earlier in the epistle he tells the Philippians: “Whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus.”(2:7-8)
The vision that Paul has for the Philippians and for us is one very like the wedding banquet that the king has planned in today’s gospel. Dancing and feasting and all around rejoicing. And everyone is invited. God’s plan for all of us is one of abundant life in him. To forswear the banquet to return to the farm or the business as some of the guests do is to turn our backs on the abundant love and care that God has for us.
After these past few weeks on the presidential campaign trail and on Wall Street, this might not seem like the right time for feasting and rejoicing, but I think that might be exactly what we should be doing and we should invite everyone we can find to join in. If we find it hard to keep our courage up, we’ve always got Philippians. Take it and out and read it if you need to. It is filled with rejoicing from beginning to end. And it’s short too, only four chapters of good wishes and joyful intentions that are impervious to market swings and campaign rhetoric.
Or read our bishop’s most recent pastoral letter. I’ve made copies and put them on the Welcome Table in the back of the church -- and it’s posted on our parish website. Here’s a little of what Bishop Sisk has to say to us:
"(S)uch moments of crisis… have the power to elicit the very best that the human heart has to offer. It is that very best that Christians are called to offer, now and always. There can be no dispute that the physical circumstances of our lives are important, yet the truth that we have been shown in Jesus is that the ultimate, the real, foundation on which our lives rest is not on the health of our bank account, but rather upon the abiding love of God. The gospel that we have heard, and have been called to proclaim, is not that the darkness is not dark, it is rather that the light of Christ will over-come it… The hope that is ours is rooted not in an unbroken chain of triumph and success but rather the cross of Christ that brings life out of death.
Now more than ever, at this time, when our society is in such turmoil, it is our vocation as Christian to be, in ourselves, beacons of hope. We can be such beacons of hope not because we possess a secret answer to complex financial and economic questions, but rather because we know that the One through whom all things were made possesses us in the palm of His hand."
As we sang just a few minutes ago, “The King of Love our shepherd is and his mercy faileth never. We nothing lack if we are his. And He is ours forever.” No October surprise is going to change that very potent reality. The markets may fall and the election may become quite bitter. There could be some dark days ahead – and it may seem like an unlikely time to say so, but nonetheless, I say rejoice in the Lord. Again I say, rejoice.
+Amen.
© The Rev. Mark Robin Collins
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