Phillippians 4:4-9

The day after a relationship ending betrayal —

the Spirit gifted me a profound mercy

that flowed into my shattered heart and mind.

I woke with this verse Philippians —

“The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

What shimmered that day to me

with an aching clarity was that the path to the peace

that I desperately needed,

was not going to be through seeking to understand why.

I never could fully understand.

In that morning-after a life forever changed place

it became so clear that I could choose

to let go into a peace surpassing

my human need to analyze and seek the why.

That day I wrote this poem…

Braiding

“We can see forever

when the vision is clear.”

• Cyprian Consiglio

In a house of linen and willow

I have been braiding

the rose-blonde hair

of our imagined children.

While they slept on

goose feathers

you and I walked

our land, dancing

to the star-fire of all

that our pain has grown.

Today I wake from years

of dream

come to this moment

where I lie alone

on white-cotton

fully accompanied

by morning sun-fire.

In a house of my own,

you are far away

and at last

I am right here —

gazing through the light

at the current

and only forever.

From clarity I lovingly

brush out all the tangles,

allowing hands beyond

my own to sort out

silken threads

to fine for human

grasping.

Our braided hopes slip

gently through my hands

falling into place.

I have been surprised how often in my new work as a hospital chaplain

I invoke these verses in Phil.

It seems like much of my conversation and the work is seeking to

turn our gaze and anxious bodies, hearts, minds, and spirits to the

“Hands beyond our own to sort our silken threads to fine for human grasping.”

In the face of awaiting test results, the unknown of when healing or if it will come,

when death does come, when death comes without reconciliation or peace, in that hands open why and in the wake of the impossible largeness of grief.

—

As with any verses we read it is important to center ourselves in the larger context.

Paul wrote this letter to the church in Philippi from prison where he was sent for proclaiming the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. 

It could not have been easy to be a Jew in a Roman prison.

Paul’s words come from the depths of his being.

Giving us a window into his heart and mind, written in his darkest hour,

and drenched with testimony of how knowing Jesus is a deeply personal

and a transformative encounter.

Philippi in the first Jesus community that Paul started in Eastern Europe

it was a Roman colony in Ancient Macedonia,

known for its Patriotic Nationalism.

There Paul faced resistance in announcing Jesus as the True King of the World

and thus so did his followers when Paul left,

yet within this persecution they remained a vibrant community

faithful to the way of Jesus.

Paul’s letter to them is a

series of essays centered on a poem in chapter two

that tells the story of Jesus’s incarnation, life, death, resurrection and exaltation.

Each of the essays then expands the poem.

Let’s read that stunning poem in Chapter 2 shall we (I am reading it in The Voice translation) (SLIDE)

Though He was in the form of God,

    He chose not to cling to equality with God;

But He poured Himself out to fill a vessel brand new;

    a servant in form

    and a man indeed.

The very likeness of humanity,

He humbled Himself,

    obedient to death—

    a merciless death on the cross!

So God raised Him up to the highest place

    and gave Him the name above all.

So when His name is called,

    every knee will bow,

    in heaven, on earth, and below.

And every tongue will confess

    “Jesus, the Anointed One, is Lord,”

    to the glory of God our Father!

—-

What a poem.

__

From these powerful words of orientation, let’s look at Chapter 4 where Paul gives the challenge to live the example of Jesus. (Again from The Voice)

Don’t be anxious about things; instead, pray. Pray about everything. He longs to hear your requests, so talk to God about your needs and be thankful for what has come. And know that the peace of God (a peace that is beyond any and all of our human understanding) will stand watch over your hearts and minds in Jesus, the Anointed One.

What I have been newly impressed with in this challenge/invitation is how Paul is understanding a basic need in human psychology here.

We need to get what is bottled up inside us out.

He is giving permission for our venting, our sighs and groans, and demands,

wants, hopes, longings, agony, doubts, contradictions, questions…all of it…

Get them out.

For the Peace of God that surpasses understanding — surpasses all this human ache, contradiction, need — can hold it all. And not only hold it but be a resting place, protection zone (from all that wants to clamber in and distract and disorient). The Peace “Will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

This rest and safety for then the final exhortation to lived action:

Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with beauty and truth. Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy. Keep to the script: whatever you learned and received and heard and saw in me—do it—and the God of peace will walk with you.

——

One of the ways I fill my mind with that is beautiful and true, what centers and orientates me to the script of the Jesus way is poetry.

Through most of my 20’s I had this poem of Rumi’s in my home:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
          There is a field. I’ll meet you there.
          When the soul lies down in that grass,
          The world is too full to talk about.
          Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
          Doesn’t make any sense.

God is the Field.

The Field is Beauty and Truth.

The place beyond it all.

The Field is Julian of Norwich’s

“All will be well, and all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well.”

The Field is the Peace that Surpasses Understanding.

___

I wonder where you might be needing to rest in the Field of God’s peace? z

Collectively there are a host of things to be anxious, mind-spinny and heart-achey about.

Personally we each hold so much on any given day, in any given life.

Let us bring, all of that, embodying Paul’s challenge and invitation to prayer

to “let your requests be made known.”

I will end by leading us in a guided meditation prayer…

So take a moment.

I hope you are already comfortable in your seat,

but I invite you to whatever would make you even more comfortable,

maybe it is closing your eyes, maybe just softening your gaze…

Notice in your body and mind where you are holding tension or anxiety.

Maybe you feel this with tight muscles, maybe with an overactive mind,

or a dulled and numb mind and body.

Focus on what rises most wanting attention. A sensation or emotion.

See if you can move towards this just a little bit.

Maybe this movement is through taking a deep breath

and see if you can funnel that life-breath towards the area of tension.

Go gently. If it is a physical place where you feel tension.

place a compassionate hand there.

What do you notice with this attention here?

What does it have to tell you?

What requests does it have to be made known to God?

What questions, pains, longings to name and allow to be heard?

I invite you to bring to your vision or sensation

a physical or inner place where you feel deep peace

or maybe how you feel God’s presence most.

Maybe there is overlap there.

I wonder how you might be able to bring the things

your tension spoke to this place of Peace. To this field of God.

This place where the steady compassion of Jesus, the Anointed One,

will stand watch over your heart and mind.

How does the tension feel to rest here?

In this beauty and truth.

As we come out of this prayerful space is there anything that the tension

wants you to know? Anything that you hear God speaking to you?

Any image or sensation from this place to have as a touchstone

to return to in moments of need?

—-

Let us pray

Loving and merciful God.

Thank you that you are profoundly for us.

That you know each of the layers of beauty and complexity we each hold.

Thank you that we can bring it all to be heard and held by you,

and that you are the vast limitless field of Peace that surpasses our human grasping.

Give us your Spirit’s beauty and truth, Christ’s courage and compassion

as we live and move and have our being Sourced in you.

Amen.

Benediction:

Go where your best prayers take you. Unclench the fists of your spirit and take it easy. Breathe deep of the glad air and live one day at a time. Know you are precious and learn to trust. Rest easy, so little depends on you.

Amen. Go in the Peace that Suprasses Understanding.