for peace and trust can win the day

despite of all your losing

A sermon from the introduction of Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (1:1-18a):

Well, I finally saw the new marvel movie…
You know, the BIG one, with all the superheroes. 

But I’ve got to confess; I got a little bored. 

Not because it wasn’t good. It was. 

It’s just that, in those movies where the “fate of the whole world hangs in the balance,” I just tend to lose a little interest…

I’m like Emmet, in the Lego-Movie. When they’re trying to explain the significance of the magic red-block to him. It cuts to his head, what he’s hearing; and it’s just explosions. That’s how it is for me too in these movies where some stones are the key to whether humanity makes it or not…

Because the truth is, my world isn’t that big. I can’t relate to those stakes! 

My world is comprised of small things. You know, petty grievances. Short-comings. The occasional victory; that in perspective isn’t really that big…

It’s that kind of stuff that keeps my life from spinning out of orbit.

A little confessing here; I don’t wake up thinking about big things like world peace or hunger. No, I wake up remembering perceived slights; like, how out one evening with friends, she crowed, “You tried to make me look dumb, BUT I made you look dumb!” 

It’s those kind of small things that comprise my world…

The marvel movies I tend to like are the Guardians of the Galaxy and the latest Thor. Not just because they manage to be funny. Although they are. 

But because they honor the truth, small things aren’t small! 

Watch them again, at their heart they’re really just movies about family.

And it that sort of small stuff that keeps our world spinning. 

The small things in life matter to us. Don’t they???

It’s like how we know our team losing to the cardinals shouldn’t matter as much as it does; but it does matter. Especially when your least favorite in-law shows up wearing a cardinal red cap and obnoxiously grinning.

Truthfully, most of the time, the margins of our lives are pretty small. Aren’t they?

And if anyone gets that, it’s Paul.

Now I don’t mean that Paul has any winsome appreciation for the margins of the likes of you and I. No, that’s not it. After all, most of time Paul is concerned with BIG things; like the powers and principalities of the world. 

What I mean is, Paul can be as petty as the rest of us. He’s a lot like you and me!

It was Paul who once wrote — and this in our Bible; our Holy Book, by the way — that he wished those who didn’t agree with him, would just go whole-hog. get it over with, and castrate themselves!

Yeah; that SAINT Paul…

So if anyone gets how big a place the petty grievances can take up in our lives, it’s Paul…

And Paul, poor guy, has landed in the clink.

To add insult to injury, some preachers are taking advantage of Paul’s situation. Perhaps they were jealous of his success. Or suspicious of his sermons that were light on what we have to do, and HEAVY on what God has done. Or maybe both…

But either way, they couldn’t have been happier that Paul was in prison. In fact, they were using his lowly conditions as evidence that Paul wasn’t as big of a deal as everyone thought.

And reflecting on it all, Paul wonders, “what does it matter.”

But here’s the deal; his query isn’t one of hopelessness. No, it’s one of floored wonder!

…In the course of this letter to the church in Philippi, there aren’t many clues to help you figure out which jail Paul’s in. But many suspect he’s writing from the prison in Rome. Rome. Where he was beheaded.

After all, this is the letter where right from the acknowledgements, Paul feels the need to reassure us the situation isn’t as bad as it seems…

But in the course of the letter, Paul does’t spend much time on his circumstances. No, it doesn’t take long for Paul’s attention to shift! Shift from him to gushing over the folks at First Lutheran in Philippi. And then to an update on how his imprisonment has actually created converts among his prison guards!

Turns out the prison yard was as fruitful of a mission field as any other!

The folks who study this stuff say Paul’s letter to the Philippians is his warmest. That he seems to have had the friendliest rapport with the congregation. 

Although, you read the letter, and you can’t help but notice that Paul is dealing with the same problems every other congregation has that keeps him awake at night. 

No, honestly, the only real difference in this letter, seems to be Paul’s circumstances…

You know, in jail. And under a likely death sentence.

And from there, from that; Paul sends this letter overflowing with LOVE, HOPE and JOY even!

Why, not even those other preachers, preaching in spite of him, can get under Paul’s skin. Paul, who has wished worse, over less; can’t be bothered to be bothered now!

Because something has happened, and in prison of all places!

Paul saw how God USED those circumstances to spread the Gospel! How, instead of stopping the message Paul was preaching, God used his chains to set it loose! That it’s true; when our lives come to an end, the one Jesus gives us is just beginning!

And having seen that, Paul can’t help but expect God to us even those petty preachers!

Sure, they might have thought they were dampening Paul’s message, but here we are, still reading it! They might have thought they were out there overshadowing Paul, but all we have left over all these years is Paul’s announcement of the Good News!

Turns out that what happened to Paul was an illustration of the message he had been given to preach!

That GRACE is relentless!

You can’t stop it. Chains can’t hold it. Neither can petty differences. Not even Sin. And finally, not even Death!

And Paul, as he prepares to face his; he can’t help but take a load off!Because he’s found out there’s nothing left to worry about! That God has taken it all into Jesus’ hands, and Jesus isn’t about to be put off from sending abroad the message that his love is big enough for the likes of you and me. Paul, too. Even those petty preachers.

Small though our lives might be!

That night I was telling you about. You know, “you were trying to make me look dumb, and I made you look dumb.” Yeah, that was my lovely wife who said that…

And that morning, I didn’t wake up nursing a grudge; but smiling at how clever and funny she can be. Because that night was beautiful. And that morning I could hear the birds singing in the trees. And I knew it was going to be another beautiful day.

And all of that overshadowed my little ego…

It’s a beautiful thing when our world gets bigger than we could have ever made it. Isn’t it? To sit back without a care in the world. To see the scale of our slights, victories and loses against the wonder of how God uses them to tell the story of Relentless Grace.

Because that’s the thing; we can’t make our own lives bigger. No, that can only happen when we find ourselves in the presence of something larger than ourselves.

And folks, in Jesus Christ; that’s what has happened to you!

Jesus, became small for you. Left all of heaven to enter the smallness of THIS. Endured petty grievances. Presided over silly bickering. Knew the pain of backstabbing, even. 

And through it all, from the other side of the worst it, he rose again to share his life with his betrayers, backstabbers and deniers. 

You know, you and me!

The margins of your life are no greater than they are to you savior! 

Where they run thin, his love runs thick. Where they come to an end, his peace is just getting started!

What Hollywood has no interest in, your Lord and Savior died for!

The story of our lives may not be made into a summer blockbuster, but Jesus has burst heaven open for them! Our storylines may never be written into the plot of some superhero movie, but Jesus has written them into the book of life!

One day, and I pray it’s sooner than later, we’ll all join Paul. We’ll look over our lives, and all we’ll be able to do is smile and wonder aloud, “what’s it matter.”

And when we do, Paul’s answer will echo throughout all the years. Words as old as that hymn the first time you heard, you knew it. “Nothing, just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way.”

That what all this is for.

So you who are here today, get an earful of it!

The Father, Son and Holy Ghost has found no better a place to bring the fullness of heaven, than right into your life!