June 21, 2020 - Indigenous Day of Prayer
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Lucia Lloyd’s Sermon: Rejoice!
Indigenous Day of Prayer
June 21, 2020
Philippians 4:4-7
We have another holiday today! Happy National Indigenous Day of Prayer! There has been a lot of suffering for Indigenous People over the years, and there is a lot of suffering for them today. Still, when I looked at the scripture passages chosen for National Indigenous Day of Prayer, they are among the most beautiful and most hopeful scriptures in the Bible, especially the one from Philippians which says, “Rejoice! Rejoice always!” And as I reflected on that paradox of suffering and rejoicing, I remembered that when the Apostle Paul was writing that letter to the church in Philippi, he was writing it from prison. Paul himself is no stranger to suffering, and he talks about it freely and without shame. As he writes in 2nd Corinthians 11, he’s been through imprisonments, countless floggings, and often near death, five times receiving lashings, three times beaten with rods, receiving a stoning, three times shipwrecked, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And yet, he is the one who writes, “rejoice!” and not only that, “rejoice always.” Not simply rejoice when things are going well, rejoice always.
It may be that what appears on the surface to be a contradiction has a deep truth when we look below the surface: that those who have endured great suffering have discovered how essential it is to rejoice. It may be that when pain and adversity are the most severe, your capacity for rejoicing is not a luxury, it may be what keeps your soul alive; in the most extreme cases, it may be what enables you to survive at all.
f we want to be precise, the difference between happiness and joy, is that happiness depends on external circumstances, which are always subject to chance. The root word “hap” means chance or luck, and we see it in other words as well. So if our luck is good, it is a happy coincidence, if our luck is bad, it is a “mishap”. It all depends on what “happens”. But a lot of it is outside our control; it is “haphazard”.
Joy, in contrast, does not rely on external circumstances; it comes from within. That is what makes it possible for us even in circumstances of great suffering or adversity to be able to rejoice. Rejoicing comes from within, and it comes from deep within our souls, where God dwells in us, where the Holy Spirit dwells in us.
In some ways rejoicing is a gift, and in other ways it is a practice. It can be a valuable part of our spiritual lives to look for the places where we have access to our inner joy that comes from God. And part of that may be looking for the places where we’ve put up barriers that block our access to joy. Some of those may be mistaken perceptions that we can’t experience joy, or even that we shouldn’t experience joy.
So today’s message is to prepare for when those mistaken perceptions come up. If you only remember one word from today’s sermon, remember: Rejoice! If you can remember two words from today’s sermon, remember these two words: rejoice always! No matter what the specific circumstances of the moment happen to be, rejoice always.
You may think you can’t rejoice because there are problems in your life, and so you have to postpone rejoicing until all your problems are gone. But that day might or might not come, so don’t postpone your rejoicing, rejoice always.
You might think you don’t want to rejoice because there are problems in the lives of your family and friends. But even if everything’s not perfect, don’t let that keep dragging you down. Rejoice always.
You might think you shouldn’t rejoice if there are still problems in the country. But if you wait until every problem in the country is solved, you might be waiting forever. Rejoice always.
You might think you won’t rejoice because the world has problems. There are problems in the world in each generation. Still, rejoice always.
Our rejoicing does not depend on the particular ups and downs of the situation we happen to be in. Our rejoicing comes from something far deeper: the two deepest longings of the human soul, which are to love and to be loved. We rejoice in the Lord always, because we are loved by the most magnificent and all-encompassing love in the entire universe, the love of God. We respond to that love by loving the being that is most worthy of our love, God who is both glorious and infinitely compassionate. To love and to be loved are always a source of rejoicing.
When we look at the world and see the hostility and fear that is in it, we might think it is strange to rejoice. Still, the problem is that the more time we spend looking at the hostility and fear in others, the stronger the temptation becomes for us to respond with hostility and fear welling up in our own hearts. If we want to step in as a positive influence in those situations of hostility and fear, we will need to enter those situations with our best wisdom, and with our best and strongest inner peace. It becomes all the more important for us not to be ruled by our own fears and hostilities, but for us to balance them by strengthening their opposites: plenty of rejoicing and plenty of peace.
And what if we want to do more rejoicing, but we find it hard to rejoice because we have worries? Our scripture tells us what to do in that case. “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” In the past 24 hours, how much time have you spent worrying about something or other? In the past 24 hours, how much time have you spent praying? It does not take any more time to pray about something than it does to worry about that something. In the time you spend worrying about a problem, you can be praying about the problem. It won’t take you any more time. Sometimes it is a problem to put in God’s hands, sometimes it is a problem in which God is calling you to do something. If you don’t know, you can pray the Serenity Prayer: God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Prayer works in a variety of ways.
The scripture includes something else that is important. It says “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” That “with thanksgiving” part makes a huge difference. Praying about our problems is good, but if all our prayers ever focus on is problems, problems, problems, we make it hard for ourselves to rejoice. We don’t need to. At the same time as we pray about problems, we also pray with thanksgiving. Whenever I pray with someone, including people who are sick or in the hospital, or even people who are dying, I ask them two things: “What do you want to pray for?” and “What do you want to thank God for?” No matter how big their problems are, even if they are dying, they always have things to thank God for. Once they get started thanking God, they are often surprised by even more things coming to mind to thank God for. We remember that there is more to life than problems, that we are showered with blessings of all kinds, and that God has granted us blessings all along the way. We have plenty in which to rejoice.
God’s love for us and our love for God are the deepest source of our rejoicing, and the more in touch we are with that, the more we discover the third thing today’s scripture tells us about: peace. When we rejoice, when we instead of worrying by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make our requests known to God, then we find the third gift from God that has been waiting for us: peace. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That is what we have wanted all along.
So I wish you happiness today. And more important than that, I pray for you to have joy today. I pray for you to have joy always. Rejoice! Rejoice always!
It may be that what appears on the surface to be a contradiction has a deep truth when we look below the surface: that those who have endured great suffering have discovered how essential it is to rejoice. It may be that when pain and adversity are the most severe, your capacity for rejoicing is not a luxury, it may be what keeps your soul alive; in the most extreme cases, it may be what enables you to survive at all.
f we want to be precise, the difference between happiness and joy, is that happiness depends on external circumstances, which are always subject to chance. The root word “hap” means chance or luck, and we see it in other words as well. So if our luck is good, it is a happy coincidence, if our luck is bad, it is a “mishap”. It all depends on what “happens”. But a lot of it is outside our control; it is “haphazard”.
Joy, in contrast, does not rely on external circumstances; it comes from within. That is what makes it possible for us even in circumstances of great suffering or adversity to be able to rejoice. Rejoicing comes from within, and it comes from deep within our souls, where God dwells in us, where the Holy Spirit dwells in us.
In some ways rejoicing is a gift, and in other ways it is a practice. It can be a valuable part of our spiritual lives to look for the places where we have access to our inner joy that comes from God. And part of that may be looking for the places where we’ve put up barriers that block our access to joy. Some of those may be mistaken perceptions that we can’t experience joy, or even that we shouldn’t experience joy.
So today’s message is to prepare for when those mistaken perceptions come up. If you only remember one word from today’s sermon, remember: Rejoice! If you can remember two words from today’s sermon, remember these two words: rejoice always! No matter what the specific circumstances of the moment happen to be, rejoice always.
You may think you can’t rejoice because there are problems in your life, and so you have to postpone rejoicing until all your problems are gone. But that day might or might not come, so don’t postpone your rejoicing, rejoice always.
You might think you don’t want to rejoice because there are problems in the lives of your family and friends. But even if everything’s not perfect, don’t let that keep dragging you down. Rejoice always.
You might think you shouldn’t rejoice if there are still problems in the country. But if you wait until every problem in the country is solved, you might be waiting forever. Rejoice always.
You might think you won’t rejoice because the world has problems. There are problems in the world in each generation. Still, rejoice always.
Our rejoicing does not depend on the particular ups and downs of the situation we happen to be in. Our rejoicing comes from something far deeper: the two deepest longings of the human soul, which are to love and to be loved. We rejoice in the Lord always, because we are loved by the most magnificent and all-encompassing love in the entire universe, the love of God. We respond to that love by loving the being that is most worthy of our love, God who is both glorious and infinitely compassionate. To love and to be loved are always a source of rejoicing.
When we look at the world and see the hostility and fear that is in it, we might think it is strange to rejoice. Still, the problem is that the more time we spend looking at the hostility and fear in others, the stronger the temptation becomes for us to respond with hostility and fear welling up in our own hearts. If we want to step in as a positive influence in those situations of hostility and fear, we will need to enter those situations with our best wisdom, and with our best and strongest inner peace. It becomes all the more important for us not to be ruled by our own fears and hostilities, but for us to balance them by strengthening their opposites: plenty of rejoicing and plenty of peace.
And what if we want to do more rejoicing, but we find it hard to rejoice because we have worries? Our scripture tells us what to do in that case. “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” In the past 24 hours, how much time have you spent worrying about something or other? In the past 24 hours, how much time have you spent praying? It does not take any more time to pray about something than it does to worry about that something. In the time you spend worrying about a problem, you can be praying about the problem. It won’t take you any more time. Sometimes it is a problem to put in God’s hands, sometimes it is a problem in which God is calling you to do something. If you don’t know, you can pray the Serenity Prayer: God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Prayer works in a variety of ways.
The scripture includes something else that is important. It says “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” That “with thanksgiving” part makes a huge difference. Praying about our problems is good, but if all our prayers ever focus on is problems, problems, problems, we make it hard for ourselves to rejoice. We don’t need to. At the same time as we pray about problems, we also pray with thanksgiving. Whenever I pray with someone, including people who are sick or in the hospital, or even people who are dying, I ask them two things: “What do you want to pray for?” and “What do you want to thank God for?” No matter how big their problems are, even if they are dying, they always have things to thank God for. Once they get started thanking God, they are often surprised by even more things coming to mind to thank God for. We remember that there is more to life than problems, that we are showered with blessings of all kinds, and that God has granted us blessings all along the way. We have plenty in which to rejoice.
God’s love for us and our love for God are the deepest source of our rejoicing, and the more in touch we are with that, the more we discover the third thing today’s scripture tells us about: peace. When we rejoice, when we instead of worrying by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make our requests known to God, then we find the third gift from God that has been waiting for us: peace. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That is what we have wanted all along.
So I wish you happiness today. And more important than that, I pray for you to have joy today. I pray for you to have joy always. Rejoice! Rejoice always!