December 21 – Philippians 4 : 4-7

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.

If you don’t know Paul’s story, you might think the Advent text for today is hopelessly naïve. But the Apostle Paul was no Professor Pangloss, thinking that everything happens for the best in the best of all possible worlds. He writes these words while he languishes in prison awaiting trial. If he is talking about this same imprisonment in the first chapter of 2 Corinthians, we know that he was “so utterly, unbearably crushed” that he “despaired of life itself.”

So what does Paul really mean when he tells us to rejoice? N.T. Wright suggests that “rejoice” might better be translated “celebrate,” in the sense of the celebrations commonly held in the Roman Empire to offer thanksgiving to the ancient pagan gods or the newest “gods,” the emperors themselves. The current emperor would be referred to as “son of God” and was praised for bringing peace to the world—through conquest, of course. We can begin to grasp the seditious nature of Paul’s words—and perhaps why he was in prison—if we understand that “rejoice in the Lord” may really mean to celebrate the fact that Christ is King, and Caesar is not.

So how do these thoughts relate to the Advent season? Matthew’s gospel makes clear that King Herod grasped the prophecy that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem and would be a threat to his reign, so much so that the Holy Family had to flee into Egypt to escape his wrath. But Herod, like Caesar, failed to grasp that the kingship of Jesus is much more countercultural than they could have imagined. It’s based on love and not coercion. So Paul tells us to celebrate quietly and graciously and lovingly as we play our part in serving God and humanity by making God’s good creation what it was intended to be. It is in this hope of the coming of God’s kingdom that the prisoner Paul tells us not to be anxious and to turn everything over to God in prayer so that the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds.

I did an interview a couple of weeks ago with someone who until recently held a good deal of power within a particular corporate structure. When asked what he was proudest of, he listed some things he had done to make life better for the most vulnerable in his organization. Then he said he was proud that he had followed the advice of one of his mentors to do everything professionally as though it would appear the next day on the front page of the paper. He said he was still able to look himself in the mirror because he resolved years ago never to do anything he was asked to do that was unethical, even if it meant he was fired on the spot.

In Philippians 4:8, the next verse after our reading for today, Paul calls on his listeners to do whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, and whatever is commendable. That’s what my interviewee has obviously attempted to do, and that is something to which we can all aspire as we celebrate the Christ child and the hope he brought into the world.

Written by Tom Scott
What am I passionate about at Heritage? I love our education program and the opportunity to teach an adult Sunday school class for the last 23 years. I love the fact that Presbyterians are so open to new perspectives, to metaphorical and poetic language, and to studying biblical texts in historic context.