A lifetime ago when I took the only preaching class I ever had in seminary, we were taught to have a single goal for the sermon; a focus so crystal clear that it could be stated in a single sentence. For the next forty years, I tried to do just that, and considered the sermon a success if people could tell me what I had just preached about. It was a bonus if it actually caused people to change their thinking or behavior.
In the short time I've been retired, and listening to someone else preach week after week, I've learned something about the sermon that I never before knew: there are times when God takes the preacher's text or theme and does something with it in the heart of the listener that the preacher didn't anticipate or imagine. That's happened a number of times as I've listened to our pastor's preaching. At least, I hope that's what is happening. Otherwise, I would have to confess to not paying attention, or letting my mind wander, and while such a confession might be fairly commonplace for most people, for a former preacher to admit such a homiletical transgression is tantamount to breaking rank and snitching on my colleagues. It's almost mutinous.
This morning, pastor Joe preached about peace, using Luke's nativity narrative, along with Mark's story of Jesus' calming the stormy sea, and Paul's words about peace in Philippians 4. It is this last text that caught my attention with something I hadn't noticed before.
In verse 7, Paul speaks about giving every problem and worry to God in prayer. Doing so, he says, will bring "the peace of God that passes understanding." A few verses later, he is encouraging us to guard our thought life, allowing only those thoughts which build us up--thoughts of what is true, noble, right, pure, admirable, virtuous, and praiseworthy. If we think such thoughts, and if we add to such thinking, doing what is right, Paul says, "the God of peace will be with [us]." Did you catch the difference? At first, he promises the peace of God. In the second statement, he speaks of the God of peace. Pastor Joe didn't delve into this, but as he spoke, it occurred to me that the difference between these two phrases is wrapped up in what he says about them. The peace of God comes from praying rightly. The actual presence of the God of peace comes from thinking and doing rightly.
It is a wonderful thing to experience the peace of God in prayer. It is even more wonderful however, to have the very presence of God, to live and walk in his shadow, to know that he is ever near. This comes not only from prayer, but also from thinking and doing what is right. Praying about things, as good and necessary as it is, isn't enough. God's actual presence is with those who not only pray, but who also think God's thoughts and live accordingly. This is something I must chew on awhile if I am to begin to grasp its implications for my own life. In the meantime, I am grateful that God speaks in many ways through his Word; sometimes through the mediation of his servants; sometimes directly as the Holy Spirit brings his Word to bear on the need of our hearts.
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