Think About These Things (Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost)

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Things are kind of depressing in the world around us right now. Every time we look at the news, we hear about the death and destruction caused by multiple wars that are going on, and which don’t seem to be ending any time soon. Every time we have to pay bills or fill our gas tanks, we’re physically needing to shell out a significantly larger amount than we did 5 or 6 years ago. And while most of us say “things are fine” when people ask, it’s often the case that many of us are dealing with personal grief, family illnesses or stressful situations that would take too long to explain to the average person anyway.

It can be overwhelming. In fact, sometimes it can be all-consuming. It would be great if there was an easy way to make it all better, or at least to find a way to get back to some kind of situation that, at least in our memories is “normal” or “the way it used to be.”

And it would be great if I could tell you that Paul gives us an easy solution in today’s Bible reading from Philippians! But, he doesn’t! In fact, in order to really understand the context of Paul’s words, you need to know that these words were almost certainly written while Paul was a prisoner in Rome. He fully expected to be executed shortly. And it turns out, he was right about that.

He knows he’s about to die. And the Philippians know it, too. Moreover, it’s not just Paul whose future seems pretty depressing. The tiny groups of Christians throughout the Roman empire also face not only danger from the authorities, but also ridicule and ostracization from their wider families. Oh, and besides all that, Paul alludes to the fact that Euodia the Council President and Syntyche the Chair of the Finance Committee, were fighting over next year’s budget again… (or something like that!)

Things were bad, and probably going to get worse. Things were depressing and there was no immediate end in sight, even if they expected Jesus to return in the not too distant future.

Yet faced with all of this, Paul doesn’t tell them that their problems aren’t significant, or that things could be worse, or that they should just not worry and be happy… (the things we often get told by well-meaning people when we have problems…)

Instead, Paul tells them this, as a way of helping them be sustained through the all the bad stuff: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

That’s actually harder than it sounds. If you’re like me, it’s really easy to be distracted away from the good stuff by all the bad stuff that we’ve got to deal with. I would much rather Paul tell me how to make the bad stuff go away, or how to take a vacation from it and pretend the bad stuff isn’t there.

But, denial never helps and Paul is a realist and knows what the world is like, and what it will be like in the future. And so instead, he tells people (and he’s surely reminding himself) that “the Lord is near.” And that’s not just an immanent hope for Jesus’ return in glory sometime by next Tuesday at the latest!  Rather, it’s a realization that God is with us and our world right now; that God is doing things that are good and worthy of praise right now; and that, even and especially in the midst of pain and trouble, we’re called to be instruments of God for good in the world around us right now.

And it’s also important to understand that while our English translations usually say, “think about these praiseworthy things”, the verb doesn’t just mean “try to do something to keep your mind off the bad stuff.”  Instead, the verb means to put your whole self into the consideration of the weight of God’s goodness in the midst of trouble.

And that means that “think about these things” is not an escape into denial, but rather an active thing we’re called to do as we:

• Look for and focus on the things around us that are pure, honorable, just or worthy of any praise; and sometimes, this is hard, and it was for ancient people, too. “If there is ANY excellence and ANYTHING worthy of praise” means you sometimes gotta look hard for it, because after all it’s much easier and simpler to grouse about the bad stuff…!)

• Invest ourselves emotionally in the good things – this is why it’s not simply important to do this a mental exercise; when you invest yourself emotionally in the relationships and the activities and the events which give life to you and to others, it gives you and other people strength to endure the rest of the stuff going on in the world…

• “Keep on doing the things” that we have learned and received and heard. “Thinking about” is not just a head trip, but an active exercise, in which you don’t give up being part of – and also initiating – the things which are good and praiseworthy, even and especially when things are bad and you don’t know whether what you’re doing will make a difference. But sometimes, just resisting evil by being an agent of good is what gives you and others the strength to keep going on…

So, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” That is a lot harder to do than it sounds, but it makes a difference.

And it’s important to remember that this is not Paul singing a first century version of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!”  This is not about living in denial, ignoring the very real problems around us or even taking a short vacation from them.

Instead, “thinking about these things” is important because doing so focuses us on God’s presence in our lives and in the world around us. “Thinking about these things” is important because it builds emotional resilience to help us stand strong in times of chaos and uncertainty.  And “thinking about these things” is important because it motivates us to physically involve ourselves in what’s good and true and commendable so that we become signs of Jesus’ presence in the lives of others.

Amen.