Attitude Adjustment

For many of us, these verses in Philippians sound very, very familiar. Paul writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice!” Even now I cannot say it without getting that simple camp song in my head: “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice! Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice! Rejoice, rejoice, again I say rejoice! Rejoice, rejoice, again I say rejoice!”

“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 minds in Christ Jesus.” I have that verse tucked away in my memory for any time I feel anxious or worried, helping me give my anxiety and worry to God in prayer so that God’s peace may come upon me.

“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” This is yet another oft-quoted verse of scripture. In fact, the first part of it, “Whatsoever things are true”, even appears on the official seal of Northwestern University.

Three different, yet equally popular verses of Scripture, yoked together in this 4th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. And what great, encouraging verses to lean on for encouragement as we go through life. In fact, encouragement of the Christian community is Paul’s goal here in his letter to the Philippians. And it is pretty clear these are good, non-controversial verses of Scripture. Not many people – Christian or not -- would argue against rejoicing always, not worry about anything, and focusing on virtuous things. But as so often happens with popular Scripture, we have made these verses so popular that we have lost sight of the context in which they were written, and the origins of such words.

In the first part of today’s text, we hear of Euodia and Syntyche needing to be in the same mind in the Lord. It is at this point when, as Fred Craddock says, we are reminded that we’re reading someone else’s mail. This letter was written to the Philippians, who knew exactly who these people were and what the situation was. We however, do not know much about Euodia and Syntyche, or why Paul is bringing them up. We can only gather from context clues that these are two woman, probably prominent leaders in the church, who are in disagreement with each other. This disagreement is likely affecting the leadership of the church, for Paul sees it an important enough issue to address it in his letter. He urges the women to resolve the conflict at least to the point where they can move forward together in the work of the Lord. He then either appoints a mediator or appeals to a mediator already present in the church, a “loyal yokefellow”, who must help them resolve this conflict. What immediately follows is all of those well-known verses.

These verses, when placed immediately following the conflict and the appeal to a mediator, take on a new meaning. By placing them in their proper context, we see this not just as general moral teachings and words of encouragement, but a framework constructed by Paul for dealing with church conflict. Rejoice, show gentleness, don’t worry but turn to God in prayer, and focus on good, virtuous things. The church in Philippi is facing this conflict between Euodia and Syntyche, and need encouragement in the midst of this difficult time. Most importantly, Paul is wisely showing the church in Philippi, and us, that conflict can only be resolved when we set aside our desires to focus on the negative, and instead spend our time thinking about “these things”, that is the true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy things of life. Only in focusing on the virtuous things in life can we move past conflict. In other words, finger pointing and cynicism get you nowhere.

As we all know, we’re in the midst of one of the most hotly-contested political seasons. It’s a presidential election year, and many are touting this as the most important presidential election in our country’s history. I’ve never been a fan of political campaigning, mainly because from what I see, all that campaigning does is create conflict – conflict among candidates, among friends, among neighbors, among families, even among churches and among Christians. I’ve been watching the presidential and vice-presidential debates, and it seems that the only thing anyone wants to do is point the finger at what has gone wrong. Candidates love to spin their opponent’s voting record into something negative, look at the opposing party’s mistakes, and highlight all the things which will go wrong if their opponent is elected. It sickens me that there is usually more mudslinging in the debates and the TV commercials than there is presentation of one’s own platform. I guess if you break down someone else’s platform enough, you don’t have to establish your own, it seems.

I’ll be honest: I tend to consider myself an optimist. And this is why politics usually annoys me so much, because it is full of cynicism and pessimism. And in my opinion, cynicism and pessimism get you nowhere. It doesn’t lead anywhere except to misery. Paul is essentially an optimist in his letter to the Philippians. And remember, he writes optimistically and encouragingly in the midst of his current situation – sitting in prison. He writes optimistically and encouragingly to a community in the midst of conflict. And he gives the Philippians words of encouragement because he knows that in the midst of conflict, encouragement is what we need. Encouragement and positive thinking does not make us immune from the negative or difficult experiences in life, but encouragement and positive thinking guards us from cynicism and pessimism. It’s so easy to complain about all the crap, all the discouraging things in our lives and in our world. And yes, we must acknowledge that the world is not just peachy all the time. But Paul realizes that dwelling on the negative ultimately will not resolve the conflict between Euodia and Syntyche. Dwelling on the negative ultimately leads nowhere.

Some of you may have heard of or seen a movie a few years back called Van Wilder. In the movie, there is very little plot and very much immoral behavior. But despite these shortcomings, there is actually a lot of proverbial wisdom given by the main character, Van Wilder. At one point, this laid-back college student tells one of his peers, “Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.”

This is a modern way of saying what Paul said in his letter to the Philippians. Being anxious and worrying about this conflict within the church is giving the Philippians something to do, but it won’t get them anywhere. So they need to quickly resolve the conflict and put it behind them. Otherwise they will be stuck in a very cynical, very negative place. Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.

Now, the first advice Paul gives is not to worry, and the second is to focus on that which is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. It’s a list of virtuous things we are to focus on so that the peace of God will be with us. But where did Paul come up with such a list?

As I studied the text this week, I really wanted to know where this list came from. Did Paul just make a list of the buzzwords of the day? Did he just write down whatever sounded good?
Actually, I found several scholars who point out that Paul is obviously borrowing from a well-known list of first century Greek virtues. Fred Craddock notes that these listed virtues in verse 8 were “the virtues extolled by the ethicists of Greek culture.” Now, the Greek ethicists were outside of the circles of Jewish and Christian faith. Their religion was ethical and philosophical study. So then, as Craddock asks, “How can persons nurtured in philosophies and [pagan] religions…embody virtues appropriate to believers in God and in Jesus Christ?” That is, how is it that non-Christians, non-religious people, can be virtuous, moral beings?

For Christians, this is often a slightly embarrassing question. We pride ourselves on our “Christian morality”, but the fact remains, as I said last week, that one can follow the moral laws of Scripture, such as the Ten Commandments, and not be a Christian.

Jonah and Betsy are good people. Jonah is an engineer, and Betsy is a textile designer. They recently married and currently reside in Chicago. Both are extremely concerned with ethics, business and otherwise, in their respective fields. If you were to visit Jonah and Betsy, you’d find that they don’t own many of what people call “the finer things” in life. They do not have a big-screen TV or the fanciest furniture, they don’t have the most luxurious cars or the biggest house. They live in a fairly modest apartment, use public transportation whenever possible so as to reduce their carbon footprint. And they are very generous people. They are considerate, loving, caring people – people you just love being around. They are generally concerned with looking on the positive side of things, and are more thankful for what they have than upset about what they don’t. Let’s review: they are extremely ethical, concerned about the environment and their own role in the preservation of it, and are not ruled by vices such as greed, envy, or cynicism.

Well, okay, they are cynical about one thing: religion. Growing up, both had extremely negative experiences with Christianity – Jonah with the Lutheran Church, Betsy with the Catholic Church. And both have been so hurt by the church that it’s unlikely they will ever consider religion to be a necessary thing in their life. They find it difficult to believe that they need religion in their lives in order to live a moral, virtuous life. And while I hope and pray that they forgive the sins of the churches that hurt them, and one day return to the Christian community, I know that they are right. They live virtuous lives, yet reject religion altogether. In fact, I can say that Jonah and Betsy live a Godly life – they just wouldn’t call it that.

Yes, a virtuous life, a moral life, is a Godly life. All that is good and virtuous in the world has God at its root. God is found in virtue – in those things that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy. I hate to break it to you, but we Christians have not cornered the market on virtue. It’s found outside of our bounds. Virtue is found all around what many call the “secular world” – in music, art, creation, acts of kindness, friendships – in all these things we find God. Earlier I quoted Van Wilder – a movie widely considered immoral in almost every way imaginable (and I’d agree that it is). But this secular, immoral movie still had a nugget of proverbial wisdom that is not much different than Paul’s words in Holy Scripture. My friends, we can encounter God everywhere. Our natural surroundings are pure, pleasing, excellent, and praiseworthy. The civil rights movement was true, honorable, commendable, and just – and it was not limited to Christianity or even to religion. A beautiful work of art is pure, pleasing, commendable, and praiseworthy – whether it is a painting of Christ or a painting of people sitting in a park. This morning, we prayed an opening prayer that comes from Eric Clapton, who is not a self-defined “Christian musician.” He is a classic rock legend, a man who sang songs such as “Cocaine” and “I Shot the Sheriff.” But many of his songs and songs of other “secular” artists possess deep spirituality or theology, even if they would not define it as such.

Yes, we can encounter God everywhere and in everything that it virtuous. This is what Paul’s letter shows us. We see that sometimes we can draw the good from “pagan society” and claim it as the presence of God in everything, Christian or not. We see here that perhaps the best way to resolve our own failings inside the church walls is to learn from those outside of these walls. God reaches us in many ways, including ways that we may not expect. God may even teach us virtue through people who despise organized religion. And unless we are willing to open ourselves up to such opportunities for learning, we will be just like Euodia and Syntyche, mired in cynicism and petty conflict, unable to move forward and focus on that which is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy. For in focusing on these things, we focus on the God to which all these virtues point. For where we see truth in the world, we are looking at the God who created truth. Where we see honor in the world, we are looking at the most honorable high God. Where we see justice in the world, we are looking at the God who makes justice roll down like water. Where we see purity in the world, we see the God who makes all things pure. Where we see those things that are pleasing in the world, we see the God who created pleasure. Where we see commendable acts, we see God acting in commendable ways. Where we see excellence in the world, we see God who is excellent. Where we see praiseworthy things, we are reminded that it is God whom we praise for all praiseworthy things.

Therefore, my beloved, let us go from this place and seek the virtuous life. Let us not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication let our requests be made known to God. Let us rejoice in the Lord always, for it is the Lord who has created the virtue that we see all around us, and it is the Lord whom we see behind all that is good in the world. Let us go remembering that the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds, and that the God of peace will be with us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.