Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
We just want to know what comes next. We just want to know how things will turn out. Will we be safe? Will it be okay? What will the new baby be like? Who’s going to win? Did you get the job? Will you get accepted? Will that special person say “yes”? Will they find a cure? Waiting for answers; having to sit by while the test results are taking forever; can be frustrating, scary, and almost painful. We really want to know. We need to know.
If we knew what was coming, we would know what to do to be ready for it. We would know how to brace for it. If we knew what was coming, we could take steps to prevent the bad and encourage the good. If we knew what was coming, we could have some control over it. When we don’t know what will happen next, we are not in charge. We are not in control and we don’t like it. We need to know.
On the fringes, there has always been a brisk business in fortune telling. Palm reading and dealing out Tarot cards aren’t taken seriously by most people, but we’re all a little intrigued. It’s hard not to imagine that our minds would be just a little more at ease if we really could learn something from horoscopes and Ouija boards. Looking for ways to know the future is not limited to the occult and the ridiculous, however. Quite a bit of “mainstream” energy goes into trying to figure out what comes next. There are people whose full time job is to predict the weather. Millions of dollars of equipment and generations of computer programs have been developed to help them. There is an entire industry devoted to political polling aimed at predicting the outcome of elections. There are trailers to upcoming movies, and armies of fans who dissect and analyze those trailers for hidden hints of what will happen in the film.
A lot of this is simple curiosity. There is not much at stake in the real world when it comes to the plot of a popular movie series. The only thing at risk there is some temporary disappointment. But for things of real consequence, for times when everything rides on future events that we cannot foresee, what is really at play is worry. We worry that our medical test will give us answers we don’t want. We worry that new political leadership will take us in dangerous directions. We worry about our friends and our family. We worry about war and disease and disaster. We worry that what we have can be taken away in an instant.
“Don’t worry about anything.” So says our second lesson for today from Saint Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. Don’t worry about anything. How exactly is that supposed to work? You don’t worry about things you don’t care about. You don’t worry if you aren’t aware that any can go wrong. We all have plenty of things we don’t worry about at all. But “don’t worry about anything”? Anything? What about really important things? What about matters of life and death? Are we not supposed to care? Are we not supposed to pay attention?
History is full of religious and philosophical movements that have gone in that direction. They identify emotional attachment as the ultimate source of pain. If you don’t bond with anyone or with anything, then you won’t be hurt when those people leave, or when those things are taken away. If you don’t care when have them, you won’t care when they’re gone. This, of course, is not at all what Jesus says. Jesus tells us to love our neighbors. Jesus says to pray for our enemies. Jesus says that everyone matters. What we do matters. What we opt not to do, and what we fail to do also matter. The gospel is that Jesus cares about us. Jesus cares about our lives. Jesus cares about us all. Jesus is attached. The baby in the manger is proof of that. The healing, teaching, and feeding that Jesus did among us is proof of that. His willingness to face a horrible death for us and his utter refusal to let death keep him away, are proof positive that Jesus cares. Jesus is attached to us. And through Jesus, God is attached to us.
Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)
How can you not worry about things that matter? How can you not fear the loss of people, of things, of institutions that matter to you? How can you find peace when there is so much beyond your control; when there is so much that is uncertain?
We are deep into the season of Advent. Advent is a time of waiting. In Advent, we get ready to celebrate how God came to us at Christmas. We gear ourselves up to joy in the coming of Christ. There is more to our waiting however than just a countdown to Christmas. In Advent we don’t just pretend to wait for something that happened millennia ago, and then feign surprise at the birth of Jesus. Advent is a time of real waiting. It is a time of real anticipation and expectation. It is a time to look toward what comes next. It is a time to look forward to the promised return of our Lord.
We all know the phrase “the peace which passes understanding.” It is something that gets used in worship all the time. It is a peace that doesn’t come from what we know, or what we can understand. It is a peace that comes in the face of uncertainty. It is a calmness, a gentleness, that cannot be chased off by the fear of the unknown. The peace the passes understanding is a gift that keeps worry at bay.
We do not know what will happen next. We cannot predict when tragedy or great fortune will come into our lives. Wars and sickness, new trends, and unforeseen technological innovations continue to surprise us. We can’t see into the future ― with one exception. We know that Jesus will come again. We know that no matter what happens, God is with us. We know that in all things and at all times, Jesus loves us and claims us as his own.
The peace of God does not come from what we know. The peace of God is beyond our understanding. The peace of God comes from trust in God’s presence. The peace of God comes from faith in the words and works of Jesus. The peace of God comes from our Lord’s promise of forgiveness and resurrection. The peace of God comes from hope.
Amen.