In This Stillness the Lord is Near

A Sermon by Andrew Colman based on Philippians 4:4-7

One day during my hospital chaplaincy placement, during a discussion with my fellow learners, we all took a moment to recount a time when we had our worldviews affirmed—we were not all theists—we did not all believe in God—which is why the question was phrased as such. In Christian circles, we would say a moment when our faith was affirmed.

When it came to my turn, I told the story of one of a women from early in my adult Christian life at a pentecostal church, we'll call her Sister Grace, it was the story of her first time back at church after an incident that left her quite injured. The list of bones that were broken was long, and there were few places on her body where she did not have a cast.

We heard updates about her on Sunday mornings. Sister Grace is awake, doing better, but she may not walk again. Sister Grace tells us to give God the Glory, and she knows her saviour lives.

Then came the day months later, when she came back to church. It was at the very beginning of the service. The pastor handed her the microphone, and she straightened up a little bit. She said, "I give God thanks today and every day that he woke me up this morning. Because he didn't have to, and there are those who did not. I give God thanks for waking me up this morning.”

Sister Grace led worship that morning from her wheelchair, and the Holy Spirit was very present I that service.

At the end of my telling the story, one of the learners asked if she was, or I was in my telling of the story, just "bright-siding." Just looking on the bright side of things and ignoring the real stuff. This was, after all, a traumatic event for her, and it seemed like she was not honouring the hardship that she experienced. He wanted her to know that she was allowed to feel down about being injured and hurt because opportunities in life have been taken from you by no fault of her own.

By telling that story then felt like I was breaking every rule of trauma-informed care - which is a very good thing. Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus. Feeling the feelings and working through them is a good thing.

And like all good things there is always more than one good and true side to the story.

This evening, we heard the words of Paul, who was writing from Roman Prison to a community that is under considerable persecution and is in turmoil itself.

It was from that place of imprisonment into a place where /all was not well/ Paul said these words; Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 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 your minds in Christ Jesus.

Do not worry about anything, said the man in prison, the Philippians. Do not worry about anything, says the man in prison to each person—with our wounds, fears, ailments, strife, debt, and endless bad news cycles. Do not worry about anything, said the man in prison to a hurting people in a hurting world.

I can just hear the jaws drop in that hospital classroom, the cries of diminishment, and bright-siding and and and.

All of which would be utterly true if it weren't for the single reason that Paul gave. Paul gave one reason and then its outcome at the end of this letter to the Philippians.

The Lord is near. Apparently, for Paul, that is what it takes to overcome the worry of the whole World. "The Lord is near... the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

This could be, if misinterpreted, one of the most grating, maybe even damaging, statements in the Bible. Just smile and get through it, don’t worry about the injustices you are feeling or seeing - that’s bad.

But, do not worry about anything—the Lord is near? Even the most delusional optimist could be irked at least a little bit by that one. But there it is.

And isn’t it often the case that the most simple statements contain some of the most profound truths? Even if we do not understand them, which we so often do not, somehow, they break through.

This morning, in the prayers of the Pray as You Go app the person who was guiding the prayer invited the listeners to take a moment and repeat that line to themselves. "The Lord is Near.” And through nothing but the Comfort of the Holy Spirit, there was God’s presence.

So, In a moment of stillness, we can say to ourselves, "God is near," and open ourselves to God’s surrounding presence.

In any moment of stillness, bring to mind all that troubles you, say God is near, and open yourself to the promise of God's redemptive and transforming power alive in the World, working in spite of all the tragedy that abounds. —

In the midst of all the turmoil in this World, there is something ocean-deep that we cannot understand here. The fact that the Lord is Here does indeed make the World a better place!

For many, it does not directly put food on their table, ease the pain of broken bones, cure a terminal diagnosis, or any of those things. But somehow, as we see in Paul's life in prison, in the Philipi persecution and turmoil, in Sister Grace's worship in the Holy Spirit and in countless countless stories through the millennia.

Somehow the nearness of God - of which we can never escape is enough to get people through the most perilous and traumatic experiences in the whole World.

And that is where we are in this season of Advent - which is, in fact, every day of our life. The in this caught between time.

Between the time of God's presence here on earth in Jesus Christ as a child and then on a cross to when he will come again in Glory to bashish all of the forces at work that cause suffering and pain.

We live a life in the in-between times—where we can both be like Paul locked up in prison, in all of its manifestations, and still know that God is Near, which is enough to make every place we are a that we feel God’s presence. Two thousand years of saints speak to us today, saying God is near. We've felt God's presence in our lives through the worst of it, and it's true. It sounds like it shouldn't be, but it is.

God is near and will protect our hearts and minds and for that fact alone.

We'll have the Holidays Can be Hard Service in the Chapel this Tuesday at 7 pm. I know that this Holiday season is hard for many of us. And the fact that Christmas carols are blaring everywhere we go does not make it any easier.

I invite you this year's Holidays can be Hard Service if you find yourself in a place where you'd like to be able to openly voice that, like Paul, the reality of prison - whatever that looks like- is there- and that God is Near and God will protect our hearts and our minds whenever we call on him. And even at times when we forget.

Amen