Tag Archives: God's peace

Pray, Petition and Request

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“Pray, Petition and Request”

Philippians 4:4-7 (4:6) –November 20, 2022

Sharing together. We share many things together. We share conversations, we share meals, we share good times together. We share sadness, we share worry, we share bad times together. We also share prayer praises and prayer requests together.

            I’m reminded of the time each Sunday we set aside in the services here at St. Luke’s Church, specifically for prayer concerns. We ask for concerns as well as praises. We lift up the joys that happen in our lives as well as the sad times. This time is a time of drawing closer together, of affirmation, and of caring and concern for one other as a community.

            We can see this kind of care and concern here in our Scripture passage for today. The believers in the city of Philippi had real love and concern in their hearts for the Apostle Paul. We see Paul had a deep and warm love for this group of believers in Jesus Christ.

            Paul was not the kind of guy who stayed in one place for very long. He was an itinerant minister, almost a circuit-riding teacher, preacher and evangelist. But, traveling around as Paul did, things came up. From Paul’s own account, a lot of things happened to him, and many of them were very unpleasant, including beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, and other kinds of dangers. If anyone here is interested, a first-person account of some of Paul’s life and journeys as an itinerant preacher can be found in 2 Corinthians 11.

John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens in between the things you plan.” I’m sure the Apostle Paul could relate. Somehow, the Philippian believers found out about the difficulties Paul was having. Without any letter requesting money, without any beneficence inquiry, without anyone from the apostolic development office asking for a donation, the Philippians decided on their own to take up a collection and send it to Paul.

They weren’t close by, so they sent a member of their community to hand-deliver their love-gift to Paul, their pastor, Epaphroditus. There was a complication. Paul was in prison. Not just in some sleepy little backwater of a town. No, Paul was in jail in the capitol city. Serious jail, guarded by career army personnel. The Philippians needed to send their gift all the way to Rome.

As Dr. McGee said in his commentary, the Philippian church was the group who came to Paul’s need when he was in prison. They sent him badly needed support! Paul was their former pastor, and their missionary, too. [1]

            One of the reasons that Paul wrote this letter in response to the Philippian believers was to send a thank-you letter. Sandwiched in among the suggestions and commands Paul gives his friends, long-distance from Rome, is this command—“don’t worry!” What a thing for Paul to say! Of all people, he had good reason to be anxious and concerned about his own situation!

He is waiting in prison—remember, in serious jail—looking at the capital charge of treason and blasphemy for denying that “Caesar is Lord.” At this point, it was quite possible that Paul was going to die, probably from beheading. From our point of view, today, just thinking about all that Paul was dealing with, how could he say “don’t worry!”??

            Worry can be insidious. Gnawing away at our insides. Like acid, eating us up. (And sometimes that is exactly the case, as in stomach ulcers!) You and I have lots we can potentially worry about: the economy, the government, fighting and violence near and far, our health and our loved ones’ health, our homes, our families, even worry about our pets.

            Now that we know a little more about what Paul was facing, let’s listen again to several verses from chapter 4: “6Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

            Wow! Paul—in prison, mind you!—tells the Philippians “don’t worry!” But instead—pray! Pray, and let your requests be made known to God! Paul says that prayer is the antidote for the problem of worry!

            I am especially intrigued about what Paul says after “Pray!” He says that God’s peace will replace worry. This peace of mind from God, from above, will guard your heart and mind. The Greek word “guard” means “will stand watch over your heart and mind.” In other words, the peace of God will come and occupy the place anxiety once held! Like a nightwatchman, or a soldier keeping watch. God’s peace helping keep us peaceful!

            How many of us know people who worry? How many of us are related to people who worry? . . . How many of us are people who worry? Such a difficult habit to dislodge when worry is so deeply ingrained. Worry and anxiety can become a terrible, negative, corrosive habit. As I said, eating us up, from the inside out. Here, the Apostle Paul gives us the antidote for worry. Prayer! And, we need something to put in the place of worry and anxiety.  

Let us list Paul’s Pointers on Worry. We’ll recap! One, Don’t Worry! Two, Pray! Three, God’s Peace will stand guard over your heart and mind! And now, Four: God is going to help us develop a new mental program, a new way of thinking that will build us up, instead of tearing us down. This new way of thinking will be nurturing and helpful, instead of negative and corrosive.    

Verse 8 tells us, “whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about these things!” God doesn’t want us to be worried and anxious. That is not living life abundantly. God dearly wants us to have positive, helpful, nurturing things on our minds and hearts. To be helpful and loving, inside and out. What a command from Paul!

Don’t worry?? Yes!! And God will help us with this new way of thinking, anytime we want to start! We can leave worry and anxiety behind, and God’s peace will help us guard our minds and hearts. Then, we are freed from worry to live life God’s way. The positive way. Thinking and acting in nurturing, loving, praiseworthy ways. Lord, let it be so. Alleluia, amen!

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

[1] McGee, J. Vernon, Through the Bible, Vol. V (Thomas Nelson Publishers: United States of America, 1983), 286.

When There Is No Peace

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“When There Is No Peace”

Luke 1:46-55 (1:52) – December 5, 2021

            What do you remember most from Christmas celebrations? Holiday laughter? The joy of giving? The family gatherings? What about Christmas carols? Hearing and singing of Christmas music is so memorable, and so meaningful for so many people.

            Our Scripture reading this morning contains the lyrics to a song. Shortly after the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her the news that she was going to be the mother of the Messiah, the Son of God, Mary burst into song. She had to express her emotion in some way – and what a way to express these deep-down, amazingly rich feelings. Amazement, yes! We find abundant joy, awareness, questioning, curiosity, and excitement here, too.   

            But, let’s take a step back. Perhaps several steps back. When many people today consider Mary, the mother of Jesus, some probably see her through the lenses of the modern-day. Some perhaps see Mary dressed in rich robes of blue, with fair skin and blond hair, as many paintings and depictions through the centuries show. What do we know about Mary?

            Mary was a teenager, and we know she came from a Jewish family of the lineage of King David. Her family was probably not well-to-do. Yet, Mary was biblically literate. I suspect she could read and write. She certainly was familiar with Hannah’s song from 1 Samuel. And, she had maturity beyond her years – certainly, beyond most teens of today.  

            How many teenagers do you know who could sing such a revolutionary song? Because, that is exactly what Mary did, about the moral, social, and economic turning upside down of the world with the coming of the baby she would bear.

            What kinds of songs do we sing today about the Baby born in Bethlehem? So often, these gentle songs, hymns and carols talk about the coming of peace. Just think of these lyrics: “Peace on earth and mercy mild,” “All is calm, all is bright,” “Peace on earth, good will to all.” Listening to these modern carols, we might think that the coming of the Christ Child was neat and tidy, picture perfect, like a lovely Christmas card. Can’t you see the shiny glitter glued on the outside to make it extra pretty?

            This is the second Sunday of Advent. The second candle of the Advent wreath is the candle of peace. So many people look at the birth of the Christ Child as so peaceful – and it was. So many people gathered together, as they hold hands and sing to praise God.

            However, I believe Mary had the right idea, when she talked about the overturning of everything the greater society held dear. She lived in a time of foreign occupation. Israel was occupied by a foreign power, the Roman army, with Roman governors and administrators in charge. I think Mary was on to something profound when she saw with unusual maturity that God can bring peace when there is no peace.    

            Sure, the first century had little peace, and Mary sang a revolutionary song about the coming of peace, crashing through, into the weary world. What about today? What does it look like to explore the idea of peace in a chaotic and uncertain time, like right now?

My friend Rev. April Fiet reminds us that “both the Greek and Hebrew words for peace (eirene and shalom) have more to do with wholeness than with quiet or rest. Eirene comes from the verb that means “to join together” or “to tie into a whole.” Shalom is about wholeness and goodness in the relationship between things.” [1]

Oh, to have wholeness in this world, right now! Everything seems so fragile, so broken, so disjointed, disrupted, and just plain falling apart. Things are so divided, in terms of the fragmented relationships between individuals, groups, nations, and the uncertain state of humanity and the world. Mary certainly had to deal with a great deal of grit and difficulty in her personal life, as an unwed teenaged mother. Her social situation was not easy, by any means, even with the support of Joseph, her betrothed. Yet, she was able to sing a revolutionary song telling of the turning of the world.

Are things today much different than they were for Mary, so long ago? She was able to sing joyously, and look forward with clear eyes, wide open – even though her world was anything but peaceful and peaceable, Mary still had an inner sense of peace within her very being that was a wellspring of God’s peace for her. Yes, and God-given hope and joy, too!  

In modern-day terms, “Perhaps, our calling in a world without peace isn’t to strive for days off, or quiet hours, or interruption-free days (though those things are blessings, too), but to participate in the work of tying things back together. In peace-less days, we are called to be peacemakers, with all of the grit and difficulty that will entail.” [2]

In the words of a modern retelling of Mary’s song: “Though the nations rage from age to age, we remember who holds us fast: God’s mercy must deliver us from the conqueror’s crushing grasp. This saving word that our forebears heard is the promise which holds us bound, ‘til the spear and rod can be crushed by God, who is turning the world around.” [3]

            No matter what storms and distress rock each of us or batter our lives, our hearts can still sing to God. Even when we are too weary or too uncertain, God does indeed hold us fast. We can see, as Mary joyfully saw so long ago, that God brings wondrous things to those who wait. We can all take refuge in God. Yes, we can find God’s peace where there is seemingly no peace, because we have faith in our mighty, powerful God, who can turn the world upside down.

@chaplaineliza

(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: www.pastorpreacherprayer.com, matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. and  A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!

[1] https://aprilfiet.com/my-thoughts/advent-for-uncertain-hearts-week-2-when-there-is-no-peace?fbclid=IwAR3xUZFElo2UtTUuD5qYh_cPIEQ7Txbrvcq28sDZCmTHAmQYQJme1eYn_0w

[2] Ibid.

[3] Cooney, Rory, “Canticle of the Turning,” (GIA Pulications, Inc. Chicago, IL: 1990)