REJOICE INDEED!
SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 13th 2009
Philippians 4: 7 “The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
These words are very familiar to us – being the first part of the blessing at the end of every Eucharist in our Prayer Book. Today they are part of a very significant Epistle, as short as it is. It begins with the word, “Rejoice”, which is the theme of this third Sunday of Advent.
Twice Saint Paul exhorts the Philippians to rejoice. And then he says: “Let all men know your forbearance”. We don’t use the word forbearance much these days. It’s an interesting word, and on another occasion Saint Paul exhorts, forbearing one another in love. The Greek word is Ephiakas. It means gentleness, tolerance, consideration, forbearance. What a contrast this is to today’s Gospel: “You brood of vipers”, says John the Baptist, and goes on to condemn them.
John could not be accused of forbearance, yet alone gentleness and tolerance! But it has the desired effect. “What shall we do?”, asks the crowd? John gives them some practical answers….share with the less fortunate, do not extort, or do violence, or lie.
These people are thinking that John might be the Messiah, but he goes on in this Gospel to make it quite clear that he is not the Messiah. He is the fore-runner. The Christ, the Messiah, is coming after him.
The image that John paints in the Gospel is interesting. Here is a Christ who judges, and baptises with the Holy Spirit. Now we know that Jesus did on occasion speak harshly, especially to the Pharisees and the authorities, and in that notable event when he cleansed the temple.
But how does this image of a Christ who judges fit with Saint Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians to forbearance? The two readings seem to be in marked contrast to each other. Gentleness in the Epistle; stirring, judging words in the Gospel.
One of the things we do know is that the people who John spoke to had different ideas about this Messiah. Some thought of him as a conqueror like King David, who would overthrow the Romans and restore the great Jewish kingdom. Others saw the Messiah as ushering in God’s kingdom centred in Jerusalem.
Pilate himself asked Jesus: “Are you the King of the Jews?”. And Jesus’ reply was: “My kingdom is not of this world”. All of them wanted a solution to their situation – all of them wanted the Messiah to solve the problem.
This third Sunday of Advent reminds us that God’s solution is rather different. It was to send a baby, to establish a kingdom of love and justice. A kingdom whose subjects would forbear one another in love. That is the link between the Epistle and the Gospel today.
“The Lord is at hand” says Saint Paul in the Epistle. And he exhorts the Philippians to rejoice and forbear one another in love. John the Baptist says, “One who is mighty than I is coming”, and he exhorts the people to amend their ways.
The people’s prayer for a Messiah was answered by the coming of Christ. Yet we know that even then they were not satisfied – neither in what they expected, nor spiritually.
I sometimes think that is how it is with the way of the world. The world is still not satisfied 2,000 years after Christ. And maybe we always aren’t so satisfied spiritually.
For instance, many people think that prayer and worship are a means to an end. A bringing together of a community as a rallying cry for some political or community purpose. That what we do here is just a means to something else.
But surely worship is an end in itself? That its end is to worship God and lift our hearts to him. Surely we are here this morning to come close to God? To feel his presence and to know that he listens to us. That surely is an end in itself?
Similarly prayer is an end in itself. For it is the lifting of ourselves and our concerns to God. To take what is of us into his presence, that we might be strengthened for the week ahead. Of course when we pray, we want God to answer our prayers. However, when we pray for something in particular we know that doesn’t always happen, and sometimes the answer is no.
Looking again at the Epistle, Philippians 4:5-7, we see an enlightening comment about prayer. Firstly Saint Paul says, “do not be anxious”. One of the reasons we pray about something is because we are anxious – either for ourselves, or a situation, or for someone who we love. So we beat the gates of heaven with our prayers – knowing that Jesus said, “ask and you will receive”.
It’s not hard to be anxious about our praying. Yet what Saint Paul is saying, what he is suggesting or telling us, is to just hand everything over to God, and then let our requests be known to him. Handing over to God is easy to say, but not so easy to do. But that is what Saint Paul is telling us. Prayer is handing it over to God. “Do not be anxious”. “Rejoice”.
I am reminded of words attributed to Pope John XXIII that he is supposed to have prayed every night before he went to bed: “Lord it’s your Church, I’m going to bed”!!
In today’s Epistle Saint Paul is not saying that things will turn out the way we want, or that we shall sail through the storms of life with comparative ease. In fact, that didn’t happen to him. He sailed through life with all sorts of storms.
2,000 years later, Christians don’t find it any easier to be gentle or forbearing, and neither did John the Baptist when we look at today’s Gospel.
But Philippians 4: 7 does have this promise: “The peace of God which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”. That surely is a good end and result of prayer and worship – that we should feel that peace.
It is also a good reason why today bids us rejoice….because the peace of God does keep us in Christ Jesus. Rejoice is the message of this day – for as we look to Christmas the Incarnation is a cause of great rejoicing. The Incarnation means that God always knows our needs and our anxiety – because he sent Christ to be part of it all, so that we would have a great High Priest who is able to sympathize with us in our weakness, as Hebrews says.
Do not be anxious! Rejoice in the incarnation!
This is all beautifully expressed in a latter-day John the Baptist, the famous Dr. Billy Graham:
“The doctrine of the Incarnation means that God came right down amid the sin and confusion of this world. It means that God was capable of participating in our pain, our suffering, our conflicts, and our sorrows……
He came to the world, once and for all, that we might forever know that he has an absorbing interest in the way we live, the way we believe, and the way we die.
He came to demonstrate to us that God and mankind belong together. He came to mankind to mend the gap and fill the gulf that separated the creature from his creator. And he accomplished what he came to do”.
And so indeed we rejoice!!!