Be transformed, experience joy, know peace
This week we have entered another period of not quite full lockdown, but a time of additional restrictions. News reports tell us of rising numbers of cases of coronavirus once again and it’s a difficult time for many people who, apart from the worries they may have, may be lonely or feel isolated from family or friends, or may be concerned about family or friends. Again there all kinds of worries about money and about jobs…
It isn’t an easy time and it isn’t a time for glib answers such as ‘Trust in God and it will all be ok’, but actually there is something to say for that response ! ‘Trust in God and it will all be ok !’
‘Ok’ doesn’t mean everything will be absolutely fine immediately, and it certainly doesn’t mean that we won’t have any problems or worries in our lives at any point. Life may still sometimes be a bit tough but with God everything will be ok because ultimately ‘ok’ means that God is still holding us in his care. God’s love is unchanging and absolute.
Paul understood this when he wrote his wonderful letter to the Philippians, part of which we heard earlier (3:4b-14). It’s a remarkable letter, written while Paul was in prison in Rome.
He wrote it with an incredibly uncertain future. He wrote it when things in earthly terms looked far from ‘ok’. He wrote it having basically lost everything in material terms. He understood pain and suffering, he understood what it was to worry I’m sure.
But in this letter the most prominent subject is joy and rejoicing.
At the very time his whole world seems to have come crushing down around him, Paul writes about joy and this is evidence of someone who has found something which is far more important than his immediate circumstances,
far more important and lasting than anything that the world can offer.
In our passage today Paul is outlining his worldly credibility – circumcised on the 8th day, a Roman citizen, someone who kept and enforced the law well, someone who had persecuted troublemakers… In short, in legal terms, as he describes himself, blameless !
He was also someone who had experienced wealth and no doubt respect from many, but he’d also realised that all of these things meant nothing in lasting terms – all of these gains, as he calls them, he counts but loss, compared to knowing Jesus.
Languishing in a prison cell he knew far greater far greater peace, far more lasting joy…
As I mentioned a moment ago, he’d recognised that his peace and his joy in life didn’t depend on what was happening at that very moment – current circumstances can be worrying, upsetting, hard, but they don’t ultimately determine our lasting future – that is Jesus…
Jesus, whose gifts are much deeper, whose peace is much stronger, whose joy is much more lasting – and who is much more capable of helping us to withstand the turmoil of any worldly troubles.
As this reading makes very clear it is in finding Jesus that Paul’s life was absolutely transformed – it was in finding Jesus that he realised he’d been searching for the wrong things all along. And actually there’s a problem with those words, ‘finding Jesus’ because it’s actually Jesus who finds us – Jesus, whose invitation is there all along, to come closer to him, to get to know him better, to understand and feel his peace…
Paul’s transformation was such that he even saw his present suffering as a gift because he was doing it for Jesus. He was determined to live his life for him, pressing on because he knew the love ad grace and mercy that had rescued him.., that had saved him…
As Paul put it, he would put behind him the things he had done, the things he was ashamed of and press on for the prize of the heavenly call in Jesus… It didn’t perhaps mean forgetting the things he’d enjoyed or done well or the people that he loved or that loved him, but it meant, putting Jesus as the cornerstone of his life, the very foundation upon which he would seek to live…
And that’s the invitation to us as well – whatever worries we may have, whatever turmoil might be going on in our minds, whatever struggles and challenges we face, Jesus invites us into a relationship with him which lasts into eternity…
He calls us, just as we are, with our imperfections and weaknesses, with our worries, with our pains and struggles…
He invites us to know his peace, to trust that he who has conquered death, knows how to offer victory for all of us… And as we know his peace, as we experience his joy, our lives can be transformed day by day as well – we can focus more clearly on loving as he loves, on showing grace and mercy as he does, in being compassionate to those who struggle, just as he is….
And this is a tough concept for us at times – sometimes we struggle to see people as deserving of God’s grace and love. Sometimes we might struggle to see ourselves as deserving of those things, but that is the whole point…
It’s not about deserving – it’s about God’s desire to give. It’s all about his grace and his love and his mercy…
Our hope is in Christ who calls us, who receives us as we are and helps us to be the people he wants us to be…
Earlier in this week’s collect, we prayed ‘Almighty God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you’… If your hearts are restless at this time, hand your worries to God… If you’re struggling with anything, hand your fears over to God…
If life just seems too much, if the challenges of being transformed seem too much, think of Paul and look at that transformation….
Think of Paul and look at that letter to the Philippians and how he had allowed his life to be completely changed, but ultimately look to Jesus and recognise all of the things that the world threw at him, recognise that even death could not hold him down and know that he can carry us through any worry, crisis, turmoil, struggle, suffering and offer peace and joy for all eternity….
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