I was just about to turn 14 and I was at the end of a phase. On April 12th 1984, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart had just released their latest album. The trio are known as Rush and hail from Canada. Their music in the seventies was legendary, but it seemed that they were beginning to sound a little bit like everyone else. I listened to their album and decided to leave heavy rock behind. I was struck by the title of the album, though. It was called Grace Under Pressure. I am sure that seems unremarkable to you, but it has become more meaningful to me as time has gone on. Grace without pressure is valuable. In my mind, grace without pressure is the stuff of 1950’s Hollywood. It is the Queen of England hosting a foreign dignitary. Grace without pressure is a pastor who is well cared for, adopting a child from Sudan. It is a child offering part of their bountiful packed lunch to another in their class who has little. Perhaps the most striking stories of Grace Under Pressure that I have read involve prison camps or persecution. As a child I remember reading the story of Corrie Ten Boom. I have found that less people have heard her story these days than had when I was growing up. Her story is worth reading. Her family hide Jewish people in their house at the risk of their own safety. In fact Corrie Ten Boom’s family is carted off to a concentration camp. This crucible of human degradation and torture is used by God to transform Corrie. She seems nice enough at the beginning of the story. However, the growth that she goes through is directly related to the circumstances that she endures. She does not portray herself as a saint. In fact she is quite candid about meeting a Christian prison guard after the war. God pursues her and transforms her. Her grace is remarkable because it is under incredible pressure. How does God pursue us? How do we grow? Flannery O’Connor gives us insight into human stubbornness and God’s pursuit of us in her story Greenleaf. (Textual Introduction and oral interp. Of Greenleaf) The churches in the New Testament were all under pressure in ways that we often forget. Some of these fledgling churches were under pressure from outside heresies like Gnosticism. Others of the churches had legalistic Judaizers who tried to bring a salvation by works. Most of the churches had internal pressures. There were those in the church who wanted to control and hold power. Sometimes two people would feel assured that they held the truth. When we see churches, communities, and individuals pressured by conflict we can see opportunity for growth? In the church at Philippi there was a conflict raging, but God used the Apostle Paul to write an encouraging epistle about how to find joy and peace in difficult situations. Paul was in prison – again – when he wrote Philippians. We are not sure as to where exactly Paul was in prison. Whenever he was in chains it was not pleasant. We read many accounts in Acts of the beatings, scourges, and imprisonments that he endured in Asia Minor and Greece. Philippi is one of those places. You may remember the story of the conversion of the Philippian jailor in Acts 16. The city seems to have had some anti-Semitism which would have made being Jewish in Philippi unpleasant. At this time Christianity was largely perceived as a Jewish sect, so there would be pressure from outside the church. I would like us to journey within the walls of the Philippian church. We are going to look for grace under the pressures within the fellowship. The fellowship at Philippi was not huge by our standards when Paul was forced to leave the city by the Philippian magistrates. However, just like an ideal Chicago or modern urban church, the church at Philippi was incredibly diverse. Rather than form new churches for each subgroup in Philippi, rather than focusing on one particular group within their church, the church needed to learn how to get along. According to Acts 16, it is quite possible that we have the wealthy merchant Lydia and her household; We have the jailor and his family; and we have a slave girl. As Frank Thielman writes, “Apparently by the time that Paul and Silas left, the group was meeting in Lydia’s house, no doubt the largest residence among them. This was certainly not a homogeneous social unit, but God had called each believer from his or her sphere to be part of his people, although they lived in a highly stratified society, they had no choice but to work at unity. If Paul’s letter to them is a measure of their success, then they found the task difficult.” How then do we endure with faithful joy in fellowship with people we don’t agree with? The lessons that Paul gives us in Philippians 4:2-9 are applicable today in stressful churches, in stressful schools, and in stressful households where people claim to be Christian. I think, too, that the principles that he gives hold in places where people do not know Christ. Let’s read Philippians 4:2-9 together: 2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, [2] help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. This passage is one that is familiar to many Christians but I found myself coming back to it repeatedly because of the pressures that Kelli and I had endured over the last few years. (Kelli tells story of pressures and our struggles) Firstly, Paul wants those who are at odds with each other in the church to put their differences aside. In this passage, Paul wants individuals to forget their own interests and to rally around their common cause in Christ. Paul’s passion is clear here. He starts by entreating or pleading with Euodia and Syntyche. Who are these people? We don’t know much about them, but there are a few things that we can deduce. They probably had some kind of public disagreement. I say that it was public because Paul calls them out by name in public. This is not something that he usually does. Even when naming an individual who needs to be corrected, like in the Corinthian church, Paul usually refrains from using individual names. Maybe he crosses that line because he has worked with these two women. They have ministered with him for the sake of the gospel. Now, however, they just can’t get along. Notice how Paul cares about them both equally. He uses the word ‘entreat’ twice, once for each woman. This is not necessary, but it emphasizes Paul’s passion that they agree. Their disagreement may be foundational to the pressures in the church. Not only does he call them out by name, but Paul uses a similar phrase for these individuals as he did in the second chapter of Philippians when calling out the whole church. I think that the way Paul draws other people into the fray shows how the church is responsible for allowing this to continue without intervening. Pressures and conflict are alleviated by facing them and not trying to brush them under the carpet. As in the church in Corinth, Paul wants someone to act as an arbiter or judge to relieve this stressful conflict. This does not sit well with our culture. However, in this case Paul wants someone to help these two people relieve the stress. As a school Academic Dean I often found myself in arbitrating circumstances. The school was a Christian school where we all worked very closely together. With the children there would frequently be times when one child would feel wronged because another child had been picked for a team, or there was an argument as to whether ‘finders keepers’ was a rule to live by. Those situations didn’t bother me as much as when staff disagreed. The most enduring harm was done when one staff member said something derogatory about another’s personal life. There were times when it was obvious that someone thought someone else was raising their children wrongly. They would have sat by and let it happen, but their daughter was in the offending parent’s daughter’s class. Trying to let grace take its course one parent would allow their child to sleep over at the other’s. It was there that someone might pull out a PG-13 rated movie. The parents were present and actually encouraged this atrocity. Therefore it was righteously justifiable that the offended parent employees were in disagreement. One would call the other uptight and the other would say that the former had no standards. Have you seen such things in your church, school, or workplace? (Kelli tells her experience of struggling in churches) In our times individualism and isolation have risen to new heights. We do not endure under pressure because we try and endure alone. Students at Moody sometimes reduce their spiritual lives to what they do in classes rather than living in a local church community. On the other hand some are embracing accountability with an authenticity that has been missing for years. Younger people are opening up to each other more. This coming generation will be more interconnected, than any before them. However, some of the things that they are open about are just shallow and trivial. What Paul wanted for the church at Philippi and God wants for us is to be into each other’s stuff for the purpose of authentic growth. Growth doesn’t occur if we never judge. I need to probably explain here that ‘judge’ is an ambiguous word. It can mean condemn or discern. I want groups to be discerning or open with each other about things that really matter. When some forlorn young man comes back from a date angry because he has no luck with women, what do you say if he asks, “Why do I keep getting dumped? I just don’t get it!” You may be aware that he smells like a sewer and has no grace in his speech, but do you tell him? I am suggesting that we need to cultivate relationships where people tell us what we need to work on, then we evaluate it to see if we agree. How do we evaluate it? We bring the supposed truth of what our brother or sister says to us to the absolute and eternal truth of God’s word. This presupposes something else. We need to be reading the Bible regularly in a way that looks for truth to be transformed by. This is not a checklist, it is relational. Dr. Van Lanningham said it well on Moody Radio in January when he said that we need to search out what brings joy from our reading. This joy would then be indicative of a point where God has taught us how to grow. What would be a first step to living successfully under pressure? Form a group and establish a meeting time. Do not force openness, but sincerely desire it. Focus on God and developing a relationship through Christ and talk about how that is done. Then evaluate the quality of your time with God and the group, not the quantity of devotionals, prayers, and Bible readings. These actions are a means to an ends. If you need to talk openly about disappointment with God or struggles with addictions first, do these things. Seek to be a counsel and to be counseled. Firstly, then Paul wants those who are at odds with each other in the church to put their differences aside. Paul wants individuals to forget their own interests and to rally around their common cause in Christ. Secondly, Paul admonishes those who are enduring strife. He gives a rallying set of instructions to those who are in a stressful and divided church. These four admonitions are “rejoice”, “let your gentleness be evident to all,” “do not be anxious,” and “present your requests to God”. These are four good pieces of advice that we should remember to say to each other regularly: Except, of course, that the first sounds flippant and ridiculous. How does one rejoice upon hearing that their child is dead, killed in action in some foreign land? How does one rejoice when they are unemployed and have been searching for a job for years? How does one rejoice when they are locked in prison and not sure if they will live or die? Of course, the last example is exactly where Paul is. In that case he must be shallow or superficial or insane. “Yippee! I am in prison! Let’s have a game of spot-the-rodent or name-that-stench to cheer ourselves up a bit. This kind of objection though fails to identify what Paul calls joy. I think that it is akin to what some call imperturbability. That is, it is the ability to remain positive emotionally in spite of circumstances. The ability to do that is strongly linked with the other directives Paul gives. In effect, you can have all four or you will find it very difficult to have any. How does one rejoice, exactly? It is a matter of belief and focus. If we remember that in all things, God is near we will be able to rejoice. If our primary relationship in this world is not the one with our spouse (sorry Kelli), our children, or even our church but our primary relationship is with Christ, Christ moves closer through suffering. It is in times of pressure and hardship that we are pressed into a time of relational growth with God. As James tells us in his first chapter, these hard circumstances, rightly perceived, are not a cause for despair but for joy. What is formed when you take a carbon based life form and compress him or her at 70 000 atmosopheres and 1500˚C? Probably not much, but you know that if we were pure carbon we’d become a diamond. The true belief that Christ is near is connected in Paul’s thought with the ability to rejoice in suffering. After rejoicing, Paul admonishes the Philippians to not be anxious. Another hum-dinger for me. Honestly, this one seemed ridiculous. I trusted that it was true, but how? Again the answer is ‘God’. Again, that seems superficial and trite. How does Paul expect anxiety to be lifted? The answer is that Paul wants them to shift their anxieties on to God. This echoes the thought in 1 Peter 5, where Peter writes to some impatient youths: 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. To cast something, we need to let it go. Think of anxiety like a grenade with the pin pulled. You do yourself no good hanging onto it. In fact as Edmund Blackadder once said about what to do when standing on a mine ,”Standard procedure is to launch yourself 200ft into the air and cover a wide area.” Paul assumes that the pressure the Philippians find themselves under is somewhat of their own doing. They have chosen to hold onto anxieties. They have chosen to embrace the grenade. There is a process to the casting of anxieties onto God. Firstly we engage in the mystery of prayer. A person can not cast anxiety on God unless they talk to him. One assumes then, that the topic of conversation will be the anxiety. God does not count our fears and anxieties as beneath him. He deals in our fears and anxieties. Secondly, the sincere Philippian who wants to escape anxiety must be persistent. Paul does not expect the divisive despair in Philippi to go away overnight. Casting our anxieties onto God and being anxious for nothing takes time. Godly growth, then, is not for the impatient. It can sometimes take years for God’s truth to penetrate our dull minds. Finally, they should take all of their anxieties, all of their lacking and wanting and thank God. There should be an attitude of gratitude when clouded in anxiety and misgiving. Why? God is still God. The Philippians need to think on that. If they do, future anxieties will be avoided because of a peaceful assurance that God is in control, that God protects, and that the Philippians are accepted in God through Christ. This leads to thought life and how it combats pressures. Sometimes it is hard not to dwell on the negative, but Paul gives a list to the Philippians as to where their thinking should be. This list is not to be exclusively embraced by Christians. In ancient times many would uphold these ideas. It may be refreshing to think of the opposites of what Paul is saying. We should not think about rumours or falsehoods. Just as in the opening paragraph, it is good for things to be in the open. If everyone involved can be a part of the discussion, truth will endure. Let’s seek out, write down, and contemplate the truth. There are things that are base, or rank. There are penny-pushers who make expedient decisions. There are the pragmatic and the practical. In contrast with these are the noble, the heroic. There are those who take the higher road in spite of its leading to ruin. There are those who make magnificent last stands. There are things that are unjust. There are times when people want their will to win out over the weak. However, there are those who focus on what is right. They weigh up the facts and they pursue the best option. Again, this shows most clearly in dark times of strife and pressure. There were impure things in Philippi. Of course, pornography wasn’t as freely available as it is now, but orgies probably would have occurred. Alcohol has flown freely for centuries and led to all kinds of impure actions that are regretted by the sober. We should think on pure things. Unblemished purity leads a mind to think of God. Sometimes it is terrifying because it highlights impurity in our own hearts. However, contemplating the pure will transform an impure heart. Unlovely I tend to think of in visual form. In other words I think of unlovely as ugly. However, the author here probably has something other than the visual in mind when he tells his audience to think on the lovely. It is probably to think on that which exemplifies love and self-sacrifice. Philippians should think about examples of love. I am sure that in the Philippian market there were those who did a half-hearted job. Obsessing on how someone fell short of expectations is a guarantee for misery and strife. Admirable, excellent and praiseworthy tend to bring to mind a job well done. I have struggled to be positive these past couple of years. I have felt like a failure. In the spring and summer of 2010 we formed a relationship with a woman who was to give birth in July. She was enthusiastic about Kelli being in the delivery room at the birth. After the birth, it was all arranged that we would bring the child home and raise it as our own. We were so excited that we gave our unborn son a name, “Jack,” after Kelli’s father who had just passed away. This would be our first completed adoption. We bought baby clothes, baby toys, and got the nursery ready for the baby’s arrival. The day came and went with no news, but our agency said that this was normal. After a few days of waiting the police were sent to her house to check and see if she was well. She was well, but she was out of state and angry. She said that she hadn’t had the baby, but they would induce her. The time for being induced came and went. That would be the end of the story, unless she hadn’t called the following Monday to tell us that she and baby were well and that they were coming back to Chicago. We were relieved, and got our act together for a baby who never arrived. We don’t know what happened to the mother and the child. I survived that to some extent, but when my wife wanted to move forward and see if we could adopt a different child I felt a flushing in my temples that I hadn’t had before. Something in me screamed, “No! No!” but all that came out was a simple, “I can’t.” I had been under pressure for years looking after Kelli’s parents, changing their diapers, helping other family members in difficulties and trying to raise a foster son. Add that to speaking at camps and being active in the church and I had become stressed and anxious in ways that I had not anticipated. I didn’t know the way back. I thought that I was broken and could not be fixed. I talked with a number of people who said that I seemed anxious. That was a struggle. To admit that I might be anxious and even depressed. How could I admit that I had tried to live selflessly for God and that it had led to me burning out and not having the strength to go on with any sense of joy. Over time through many conversations, reading, and times of prayer I was brought back to the passage that we studied today. I kept thinking about it. If I am to be free from anxiety, this passage must hold a key. One of the foundational principles I learned was to identify the anxiety and release it. I would pray to God to reveal to me areas that I had built up anxiety and stress and then I would examine them with Him. After reflection, I would ask myself if I could release the anxiety in God’s strength. Relying on God was key in my being able to let it go. If the answer was, “In God’s strength, yes,” I would ask myself, “When?” I would say, “Now” and cast my anxiety on God. This process has brought me relief. I have experienced God’s grace under pressure. Also I have found that walking this path has enabled me to be more genuine in my friendships. What is the point in building a façade? All it does is hinder spiritual growth. I have had more moments of peace recently. It baffles me because the peace does not come from opposing the anxiety it comes from releasing it. I will look at my turbulent, negative emotions and ask, “Why do I feel this way?” Often it will be because of a foundational desire to be accepted, to be in control or to be safe. I come to God with thanksgiving and I thank him for accepting me in Christ, for being in control and designating to me just what I need to deal with, and finally I thank him that I am safe. Paul knew that to live is Christ and to die is gain. On my good days I know it to, and I rejoice. I exhibit Grace Under Pressure.
Plymothian 