Sermon for CATM – November 2, 2008 – “Think Good Thoughts” – Philippians 4:1-8
Here you see a glass (use a glass as a visual). Is it half empty, or is it half full? It all depends on your perspective, on how you see the glass.
Now my brother Craig, after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, said that neither answer reflected his feeling, because for him, his cup was overflowing.
What is it that enables a relatively young man who knows he is dying to reflect on his ‘cup’, which of course is a metaphor for either one’s life or one’s situation, and to say that his life, as it approaches its last flicker, is overflowing? What could be going on in his mind?
The human mind is an amazing thing, capable of designing aquaducts, towering office buildings, brilliant works of art. The mind is capable of doing incredibly complex rocket science, astrophysics, of discovering the human genome, of creating the computer, of pondering black holes and of creating vehicles that can fly into space.
We’ve set up the international space station which currently hovers over us. The human mind is capable of profound mystical experiences; the human mind can be interacted with by God Himself. The human mind is capable of tremendous acts of compassion and love, of self-giving kindness and extraordinary generosity…and humour (pic of Homer Simpson’s brain)
It’s incredible, really, what the human mind can do.
Now, the human mind is also capable of the Final Solution, of Ethnic Cleansing, of 9/11, of witless wars like the Iraq Invasion. It’s capable of racism, sexism. Mass murder. The Rwandan genocide and the current Darfur genocide.
What are we to make of the human mind? What are we to do with its darker aspirations? How can we celebrate and motivate its nobler interests?
And…never mind all that…what about locally…very locally…what about our own minds and how we use them? Today’s passage, our second last look at the book of Philippians, presents us with a critical challenge.
After calling us in this letter to humility and calling us to work out, and not for, our salvation with fear and trembling; after challenging us to consider the interests of Jesus, to beware of those who would add anything to the gospel of God’s grace.
After calling us to consider what it means to share in the sufferings of Christ, and after calling us to press on in our faith…here, in his closing statements, Paul is challenging us to consider the way we use our minds, the things we choose to dwell upon.
And of course our mindset impacts how do we respond to adverse situations.
Prov 23:7 says this: For as a man thinks within himself, so he is. [Or “As a woman thinks within herself, so she is”]
There’s a story about a child psychologist who wanted to observe how different children respond to negative circumstances. They got a room and filled it with horse manure. Putting the pessimistic child in there, they observed how he responded.
Predictably, he whined and cried, and despaired that he was in a room full of smelly manure. They put the other child in there, and the little guy started tearing around the room, digging in the manure with an excitement that baffled the on-lookers.
After a few moments of watching this, they asked him why he was so excited. He replied, "With all this manure in the room, there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!"
Now Paul says:
1. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
2. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
3. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Choices, my friends. Decisions to be made…where? In the mind. Will I rejoice in the Lord always…will I choose to discipline my mind so I can grow to always have Jesus and His love and His victory over death foremost in my mind? Choices.
Will I be grow to be gentle in my responses, remembering that no matter what, Jesus is close by and enabling me to choose the gentle way?
And will I then, knowing this, reject my tendency to worry and anxiety and instead prayerfully give every situation to God so that He can give me, in return, his peace, the peace which trumps all understanding?
You can know the presence of God, you will experience that personal connection with the almighty. But how?
How can we, here on this messed-up, broken globe, experience God’s peace. His sustaining peace.
Well, we’re actually told in explicit terms how to achieve that peace.
Now we know, likely, the feel of discontent, of want, of dissatisfaction and discouragement…better than we know peace.
Someone said this: “Discouragement is dissatisfaction with the past, distaste for the present, and distrust of the future.
“It is ingratitude for the blessings of yesterday, indifference to the opportunities of today, and insecurity regarding strength for tomorrow.
“It is unawareness of the presence of beauty, unconcern for the needs of our fellowman, and unbelief in the promises of old. It is impatience with time, immaturity of thought, and impoliteness to God”. (William Ward.)
Hmm. Interesting. Kind of a bummer, yet that rings somehow true. But what about this other thing, this more alien, less attainable, more abstract, more distant thing…peace. How do I find it?
We’re told it’s in the mind. It’s how we use our thoughts. It’s what we do with that time that we’re not immediately engaged in thinking through something practical.
When we’re not thinking about what to make for dinner. When we’re not focused on some task that’s using up our mental resources.
And here’s what we’re called to think upon: whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right….lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy. You know, this list, what it includes and what it doesn’t include, reinforces something I’ve come to believe.
That is that ‘happiness’ is something that we’re no where called to pursue in Scripture, and when that word does show up in the Bible, it’s not that someone has found true happiness. It’s that they have arrived at a place of simple contentment. A place of…you guessed it…peace.
Let’s look at these things we’re called to think about: whatever is true, noble, right etc. You know, in one very clear sense this is a call to be entirely focused on the One of whom all these adjectives is true. It’s about thinking about and dwelling on Jesus.
A friend of mine pastors in the Bloor West village in Toronto and runs a “God at the Pub” where he holds open discussions on the Christian faith in a bar setting. He told me the other day that he has all sorts of people there who are not people of faith, but who have told him they want to model their lives on Jesus.
They find in Him the highest good, the most perfect relating to others, the noblest and most admirable kind of existence they can imagine for themselves. They are perhaps finding their way to faith in Jesus without knowing it.
But what about us…do we see Jesus as He is in the Scriptures. Do we appreciate the beauty of His humanity.
We focus a lot, rightfully, on His deity…the fact that He is God in the flesh. Nothing wrong with that. But what do we do, really…with His humanity.
Clearly, others…others even who are lacking in their understanding of Christ’s deity, are able to connect with His humanity…able to see something truly beautiful in His conduct and His word, the profound way that He was able to connect with people, how Jesus went out of His way to love, and that that is the legacy of His humanity. He knew how to love.
So this passage points us in one sense to fix our eyes upon Jesus…His deity and His humanity.
Back to our passage. If I focus on that which is true…it means I’m going to be oriented toward truth. When I encounter deceit, I will be inclined at a gut level to recognize it, and therefore to reject it…I would hope, preferring instead to affirm what is true.
You’ve likely heard that when bank tellers are trained to spot counterfeit bills they do not primarily focus on becoming knowledgeable of all the variations that exist of counterfeit bills. They study and study and learn the shapes and contours and character (in a sense) of the real deal. That’s what equips them to spot fake, useless money.
So we’re called to dwell with our minds on that which is true. It’s necessary that we be quite sincere in our pursuit of the truth.
Otherwise we could find ourselves in a similar rut to Pilate, who when looking straight into His eyes, asked Jesus: “What is truth?” If our hearts are clinging to idols, which are inherently false, we will often miss that which is true.
Where also called to dwell on that which is noble. What does that mean? What does it mean when we say that something is noble? [worthy, full of integrity, occupies higher ground]
How often are we inclined to focus instead on things that are not noble? When we come home and flip on the TV and just sit there watching whatever is on, we’re subjecting ourselves to someone else’s idea of ‘worthwhile’ entertainment.
We know that this ‘someone else’ is a programmer who’s goal is to generate income for his or her tv station. That ‘generated income’ is the operating value. Not ‘that which is noble’. That’s why we find such drivel and poorly written and poorly executive content on tv that invariably appeals to the lust of the eye. It is, generally, NOT noble.
So we’re called to occupy our thinking with noble things. Things that aim for higher ground. Things that don’t animate our baser instincts. Think on things that are noble.
Likewise that which is ‘right’. That suggests of course that there are things that are ‘wrong’. We expect, perhaps, to see things that are ‘wrong’ in abundance in the world around us. God forbid that we as the people of God should ever call ‘good’ that which God calls evil.
We end up, of course, on the wrong and losing side of the argument, no matter how sweet our words are.
This call to the ‘right’ is not, of course, a call to be ‘right wing’. In fact we find in ‘right wing’ politics, such as we’ve seen in the US in recent years, an aggressive affirmation of systems that neglect and oppress the poor while making the filthy rich filthier and richer.
Rather, the call to that which is ‘right’, according to the worldview of Jesus, is the call to caring for and dwelling among the poor and needy. The call to oppose systems that divide people along lines of wealth and class. The call to self-sacrifice and responsibility and investment in community, not the call to self-interest.
We’re called to think on ‘whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable’ …whatever is excellent or praiseworthy. Hmm. I don’t why but every time I read those words, I feel like my brain is being washed of the garbage that’s latched on to it. This is such a high calling.
It is relentlessly positive and uplifting. It is also, if we’re to be honest, incredibly challenging. Paul writes this to the church in Philippi and God speaks afresh to us today through His Word because there is a strong human tendency to be attracted to things that are unseemly.
To be drawn to things which entice us but always deliver death. To be pulled into things which promise to satisfy the senses but which only ever have the capacity to leave us bereft. Sullied. Dirty. Fuzzy thinking.
Psychologist say there are two mental laws that contribute heavily to our mental state of being. In other words, whether we’re content or sad. They are: 1: The Law of Concentration. 2: The Law of Substitution.
The Law of Concentration states that whatever we dwell upon grows in our life experience. Whatever we think about on a continual basis becomes a part of us.
Yes, we become what we think, and the more we dwell on something, the more we have of it in our lives. The Law of Substitution states that our conscience mind can only hold one thought at a time.
It makes no difference to our mind whether the thought is "negative" or "positive," it can only hold one at a time.
However, we can choose to substitute "negative" thoughts with "positive" thoughts, thus changing our mental state of being. –[Dr. Joel B. Santos].
Perhaps it’s because we have this capacity that God gives us this direction in His Word. One last look: 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Of course this theme is expressed elsewhere in Scripture. Romans 12:2 says: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will”.
I particularly like the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases 2 Corinthians 10:3-6: “The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.
“We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity”.
Maybe that’s what this is all about. God wants us to live the best life we can live, and the best life that can be lived is a Christ-shaped life. A life that feels like Jesus, a life whose contours and hues and boundaries reflect the truth, the nobility, the rightness; the purity and loveliness and excellence of Jesus.
I think Craig, my brother, was able to say that his cup was overflowing because he chose to concentrate not on loss and regret, but on the joy in his life…his children, his wife, his many, many friends, and most of all his Saviour. His short life reflected that…and so, as much as it can be said of anyone, he was able to die a good death.
Be we who remain have decisions to make. You and me. How shall we then live?
Do you feel a need for God’s peace? Do you long for a cleansing of your mind, for a purging of negativity and doubt and anxiety and distress?
We’re called then not to simply ‘listen’ and then go away and forget, or flip on our TV’s again, forgetting all that we’ve learned. We’re called to…what? To ‘put it into practice’.
And when we do, God’s promise is that He, the God of peace, will be with us. We will know and feel His loving presence. We will dwell in His peace.
Let’s pray. Holy God, I’m glad that it matters to You that we have peace, that we live in Your shalom. Would You teach us to put what we are learning into practice? Would You help us to start, and then move us along this path, this path the early church called The Way. The way of living in communion with You, of dwelling on good things, and of fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. In His name we pray. Amen.
