[From Feb. 13, 2020 archive]
[Today’s verses reminded me of a sermon
I preached on this title, attached below.
This prayer followed the sermon.]
O, Holy One, this week we will rejoice.
We will remember the goodness of your creation,
and how you rejoice in it.
We will see the little signs of your glory
reflected in kindnesses we receive and give,
and we will rejoice in kindnesses.
We will rejoice in each new day you have granted us,
and in the work you have given us to do,
and in the strength you have given us to do it.
And this week we will pray.
We will take time to enjoy your presence
and to experience your guidance.
This week we will be grateful.
We will not complain about our problems,
we will not look for life's torments
so that we can clench our teeth at them;
we will be grateful to you,
our Creator and Redeemer,
because we will see
the good you have created
and the power of your redemption.
Yes, God, this week with your help
we will rejoice, pray, and give thanks,
all in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Lectionary Readings
Ps. 97; 147:12-20; 16; 62
Gen. 27:30-45
Rom. 12:9-21
John 8:21-32
Selected Verses
Ps. 97:12
Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name!
Gen. 27:41
Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
Rom. 12:12
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.
John 8:31
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples…”
Pray, Rejoice, Give Thanks
Sermon Preached in Spencer NY
April 17, 2016
Elmer Ewing
1 Thessalonians 5:12-18
Philippians 4:1-9
In my first real job, I worked in a huge office. One day I stayed late; everyone else had left--just a room full of empty desks. Finally the boss left too. He had a sense of humor. As he went out the door, he quipped, "Elmer, I'm leaving you in charge. If you sell the place, be sure to get a good price for it." One way of reading the Genesis stories of creation is to say that God has left us in charge. But God doesn't mean for us to act like owners--rather, like stewards. And we must check back with the Boss all the time.
In today's readings, Paul gives the churches at Philippi and Thessalonica advice about how we check back with the Boss, and how we comport ourselves in between. Our text will be: Rejoice in the Lord always …in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
For years I have wondered about the similarity between our text from Philippians and three parallel verses we read from 1st Thessalonians. The verses in Thessalonians are: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
So in 1st Thessalonians we have "rejoice always"; in Philippians, "Rejoice in the Lord always. In 1st Thessalonians we have "pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances"; in Philippians, "…in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
Did Paul write the two letters at the same time, so these words were fresh in his mind? Apparently not. 1st Thessalonians is believed to be Paul's earliest letter, whereas Philippians was written at least five years later. Well, maybe Paul kept a copy of the first letter and consulted it when he wrote Philippians? Not likely. There were no Xerox machines then; and besides, Paul traveled light--probably didn't take along a filing cabinet.
Yet in both letters--written many years apart, with many travels and many travails in the interim--in both letters Paul links three verbs together: REJOICE, PRAY, & GIVE THANKS. We can surmise that throughout his ministry, Rejoice, Pray, & Give Thanks were three important action words for Paul; and he saw them as working together. Let's look more closely.
"Rejoice always," says Paul in 1st Thessalonians; "rejoice in the Lord always," he says in Philippians. How is it possible to rejoice always? Would that even be desirable? Would it not be a mark of insanity? Surely there are circumstances in which we do not rejoice. We do not rejoice over the civilian causalities from poison gas in Syria, nor over the wildfires in the West. On a personal level, we do not rejoice over bad news from our doctor, or about the suffering of a gravely ill child. No, but we do rejoice in our knowledge that through all our troubles, God is near us and cares for us.
Paul knew of the nearness of God and of God's providential care. Paul--a prisoner facing deprivation, disease, starvation, lashings, eventual execution--can still say, rejoice in the Lord always; and then he goes on to say, "Do not worry about anything… ." Do not worry about anything? That hits me between the eyes--my wife Marilyn and our children all think I'm the world's worst worrier. Well, Paul tells us what to do instead: in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
But Paul--are we supposed to somehow push out of our minds all awareness of global problems like climate change, mass starvation, terrorism, and wars? In our own country should we ignore unemployment, a stagnated economy, and a political climate so bipolar as to produce government in a state of near paralysis? In our private lives must we enter a hypnotic trance that will make us forget all the financial burdens, infirmities, family issues, and personal shortcomings that weigh us down?
Of course not. We have to be aware of our problems in order to help combat them. But it is one thing to be so wrapped up in our problems that we stew in our own juices or exhaust ourselves in frenzied, futile pandemonium; it is quite another thing to lay out our problems before God and seek God's help in coping with them. It is not as if, with a snap of God's fingers, the problems will all be resolved; it is that we will receive guidance for how we can proceed, and a peace to accompany the guidance. Paul promises the Philippians they will receive the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, peace that will guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. When we labor in that kind of peace, God is able to accomplish things with us that will surprise us.
Hear Paul again. "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." Notice Paul's linkage between prayer, supplications, and thanksgiving. Remember that in 1st Thessalonians he had said to "…pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances."
Paul says we should live in a perpetual state of rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks. Now, a perpetual state of prayer does not sound realistic in today's world. Muslims are called to pray five times per day, and many make every effort to do so. That seems impressive, but five times a day is still a long way from praying without ceasing.
Monks and nuns traditionally spend much of their time in contemplative and prayerful endeavors; but they are far, far removed from our life styles. We have work to do, lives to live, money to earn, children to care for--and a need to spend time recuperating from all such things that wear us out.
Charles Schulz expressed how we feel some days in one of his Peanuts comic strips. In the first panel we see snow falling and just the silhouette of Snoopy's doghouse, including Snoopy lying on top of it, completely covered with snow, head to tail. Snoopy is saying to himself, "It snowed last night." In the next panel he says: "Now I can't see a thing…suddenly I'm shut off from the world, and all its problems." In the third panel there is just more snow falling--no other motion or speech. In the final panel, still lying immobile under the white blanket, he says: "Let's hear it for the snow!!"
We have days when we would like to be shut off like Snoopy from all the world's problems, including our own; but that is no reason to dismiss Paul's teaching. Paul is calling us to an outlook on life, a way of living in which we awaken in the morning with a sense of the joy of creation; in which we go through the day giving thanks and praying and giving thanks that we can pray; and in which we go to sleep at night secure in the knowledge that we are in the hands of a loving God. Try setting aside times each day to be quiet with God.
In addition, we can form the habit of taking advantage of unplanned short breaks in our day's activity--waiting in the dentist's office, or for the elevator to come, or for the walk sign when we cross the street. No doubt you have heard of using these times for "flash" prayers. The prayers need not always be full of words asking for God's help. They can be moments of enjoying God's presence.
There is certainly a place for spoken prayers, too, including supplications. Sometimes we worry that we should not trouble God over little, trivial things--only about big, important matters. We would feel all right about praying over upcoming surgery, but not about finding a good parking place. That would be trivial, and also selfish, we think.
Let's consider the selfish part first. Jesus taught us to pray for OUR daily bread, but not just for MY daily bread, and certainly not for my daily sirloin steak or chocolate cake. If we pray in the name of Jesus, we do not pray for selfish advantage over others, whether big or little.
That being said, I think we can overdo the attitude that God doesn't have time for trivia. I see two problems with such an attitude. First, our little minds are not always able to distinguish between what is trivial and what is important. We have all experienced how neglect of a small detail has led to a major problem; just as we have experienced how what seemed like an overwhelming difficulty suddenly turned out to be no problem at all.
My wife is very allergic to cats. Perhaps for that reason, she has never developed a fondness for them. Our young granddaughter carries cats around in her arms, and was entranced when one of their cats had a litter of kittens. She had a question for her mother: "Momma, does Mumsi (her name for Marilyn) not like cats because she is allergic to them, or is it that she just doesn't like them?"
"Well," her mother answered, "maybe both." "But Mama, she goes to church…” It had not occurred to Marilyn or to me that Marilyn's feeling about cats was important to our granddaughter; but obviously it loomed large. If I don't know what is important to my own granddaughter, who am I to decide what is significant and what is insignificant in the eyes of God?
The other concern about not wanting to pray for small things comes because we underestimate God's willingness to be with us in all that we do, big or little. Sure, with 7 billion people on the planet, it would seem we shouldn't bother God so often; but God is the ultimate multi-tasker. God can handle it.
So, when is a request to God too small and unimportant to bother God with? Paul's linkage between prayer and thanksgiving suggests a rule of thumb. Here it is: if what I prayed for was so small that I would not pause to give thanks for it if I received it, then it was too small to pray for. Of course that applies to very big items as well--big or small, if we are willing to make a prayer request, we should be willing to follow with a prayer of gratitude, regardless of the outcome. In everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
Earlier I mentioned flash prayers. The person who popularized the concept of flash prayers was Frank Laubach, missionary to the Philippines. He used to say he asked God to help him guide his razor each morning when he shaved. It was not that Frank had an irrational fear of nicking his nose; it was just that he wanted to feel the nearness of God from the time he arose until the time he went to bed. Laubach even challenged himself to think of God for at least one second every minute of the day.
Well, you say, Dr. Laubach was not a practical person, too busy with spiritual matters to get much done in the world. Not so. Frank Laubach was famous for developing the "each one teach one" method of teaching literacy. Over a period of 32 years Dr. Laubach visited 105 countries to help teach literacy; he created reading lessons in 315 languages. His methods are credited with teaching millions of people to read in their own languages. Dr. Laubach understood what Paul meant when he said "pray without ceasing."
In all the bustle and babble of daily life, in our laughter and in our grief, in our coming together and in our going apart, from our birth until our death, we live in the presence of a compassionate God, a God of steadfast love, the God made known to us in Jesus--Jesus, who showed us how to live and love and be happy--Jesus, who showed us how to suffer and die and live again. Surely that is reason to rejoice; surely it is cause for prayer and thanksgiving.
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