October 9, 2005 David Martin

SERMON: "Think About These Things”

Those of you who attended the reception and luncheon for Pastor Tom a few weeks ago
had the privilege of hearing Pastor Tom’s friend Phil Sqroi
speak from his wheelchair
about how much Pastor Tom’s friendship
meant to him as a person with disabilities.
Phil began by saying something like the following:

What we look for affects what we think about.
And what we think about affects our feelings.
And our feelings affect our attitudes.
And our attitudes affect our choices.
And our choices determine our actions.
And our actions affect what we look for.
And we look for affects what we think about.

The blessing of Tom’s friendship,
Phil went on to say,
was one of the things he like to think about
even though they hadn’t seen each other much
in recent years.

There is an old Quaker story told about a king
who asked for an inventory to be taken
of all the flowers in his kingdom.

He sent out a census taker with a clipboard
to count all his flowers.
Then the king realized the information
would be of little value to him
unless he had something to compare it with.
So he called for a second census taker.
This one was asked to count all the weeds in the kingdom.
Before long, the first census taker came back, floating into the king’s chamber, draped in smiles and warmth.
”King, whatever you do,” he said,
“don’t ever transfer me or my family out of this kingdom.
It has to be the most beautiful kingdom in the world.
It is overrun with flowers.”

Just then the door slammed
and the second census taker came stomping in,
threw down his clipboard
and demanded an immediate transfer
to another land.
”King,” he shouted, “this had got to be
the worst kingdom in the world.”
It’s overrun with weeds.
I didn’t even get past the drawbridge
and I couldn’t count all the weeds in this kingdom. I want out!”

What we look for and think about
affects our attitudes and actions.

So is a dandelion a flower or a weed?
I can see you’re going to be tough
to win over this morning!

Suppose you were in jail on charges
of creating a rather significant public disturbance
and you didn’t know whether you would live or die.
If you saw a dandelion or clover or morning glory would you call it a flower or a weed?
Or would you ignore them completely?

Paul wrote his letter to the church in Philippi across the Aegean Sea
while in jail, no doubt a rather primitive jail,
and he didn’t know whether or not his captors would put him to death.
And while his letter does not mention
any flowers or weeds for that matter,
Paul found reason over and over again
to think about the positive ways God was working in his life
and in the church in Philippi .

A few of us know the experience of imprisonment,
and most of us would avoid it at all costs.
It is difficult to imagine any experience
more isolating and constricting and humiliating.
It is difficult to imagine any experience
less likely to make us grateful to God.
Yet Paul’s thinking clearly overflows
with both joy and gratitude.

Even when Paul considered a situation of conflict in Philippi church,
Paul remained confident of what would resolve the conflict.

Often, when we are faced with conflict,
we think of it as black storm cloud that blots out all light,
rather than having confidence that the light will burn through the clouds.

Paul’s confident thinking in the face of conflict
began with his unshakable conviction
that through Jesus Christ,
God had saved Paul
from conflict with God.
You see, years earlier,
Paul had been in direct conflict with God,
when in his zeal as a Pharisee
Paul had many Jewish Christians imprisoned.
On the road to Damascus ,
the Lord called to Paul to cease his persecutions. Blinded and prayerful,
Paul let the Lord make peace with him.
Have you done likewise?
Have you let the Lord make peace with you?

Not only did Paul let the Lord make peace with him,
Paul received the Lord’s call
to share the good news of God’s peacemaking
with non-Jews.
In Jesus Christ,
God had broken down the dividing walls
between Jew and non-Jew,
between people of all races, classes, and genders.
Which is why Paul founded a church
in the Greek city of Philippi ,
proclaiming the gospel of a peace-making God.

And in the midst of a church conflict in Philippi ,
Paul again proclaimed the gospel of a peace-making God,
urging two members,
two women named Euodia and Syntyche,
to have the same mind in the Lord,
who humbled himself to the point of death
on their behalf.

Perhaps the one church member was saying,
“It is absolutely clear to me
that this is the way this should be done.”

And perhaps the other church member was saying, “Impossible.
If you only had the experience or training
that I have,
you’ll know what I am saying is right.”

To resolve this conflict,
Paul was not asking these members
to find agreement.
Rather he was asking them to remember
whose they were
and whose purpose they were serving.
Think about the peace
that God has made with you
who were in conflict with God, Paul was saying.
Think about the compassion
that Christ has for you,
a compassion so great
that Christ let go of divine privilege and power
to make peace with you.

Think about these things.

Dorotheos of Gaza, a sixth century teacher,
once preached a sermon for the monks in his monastery
who were grumbling that they were unable to love God properly
because that had to put up with one another’s ordinary, irritating presence.
No, Dorotheos told them, they were wrong.

He asked them to visualize the world
as a great circle whose center is God,
and upon whose circumference lie human lives.
Imagine now, he asked them,
that there are straight lines
connecting from the outside of the circle
all human lives to God at the center.
Can’t you see
that there is no way to move toward God
without drawing closer to each other,
and no way to approach each other
without coming near to God?

Think about these things.

Likewise, Paul said, “Rejoice in the Lord.”
Move closer to God.
And, Paul said,
“Let your gentleness be known to everyone.”
Move closer to each other.
For the Lord is not far away, but very near.

Think about these things.

And don’t worry, Paul said.
Don’t imagine that God cannot take care of your problems and concerns.
Don’t imagine that there is any power
beyond your control
that can come between you and God.
In Jesus Christ, God has made lasting peace with you.

Think about these things.

And think about all those secular virtues,
of truth and honor,
justice and beauty, goodness and excellence,
Paul urges us,
those very important principles
of respect and responsibility and courage,
for the God of peace,
the God of forgiveness,
the God of reconciliation
works through the secular world as well,
even when not clearly named and labeled.

Think about these things.

A pastor waited three minutes at the lunch counter. Waitresses passed him by;
two cooks and a busboy took no notice of his presence.
His ego was soothed only because
the truck driver seated next to him
was ignored as well.
“Maybe this counter is off-limits,” the pastor said to the truck driver.
“Maybe they are short on help,” the driver responded.

“Maybe they don’t want our business,” the pastor said.
“Maybe they are taking care of those at the tables,” was the driver’s reply.

The hands on the clock continued to move.
“Maybe they don’t like us,” the pastor insisted. “The air conditioning feels so good
I don’t mind waiting,” the driver said.

At that point,
a harried waitress stopped to tell them
that the water had been cut off
and the dishwasher was not functioning.
The driver smiled, thanked the waitress, and left.
The pastor fumed that not once had the driver supported his criticisms.

Only later, as the pastor thought about these things, did he realize that the driver had chosen to practice the good news that the pastor preached--
good news about serving God
who has made peace with us.

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