Nothing and Everything

Philippians 4:6,7

I love reading literature that contains paradox. Webster defines a paradox “A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion, or seemingly absurd, yet true in fact.” One of my favorite poets is T S Eliot and he is the master of the paradox. In all of his poetry he takes to opposing ideas and brings them together at a single point that makes sense. Jesus was the greatest of them all when it came to the paradox. At one time he is blessing little children and the next he is overturning tables in the temple. He talks about loving your enemies and yet in another place he says that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. Finally, he says blessed are the peacemakers and yet he says I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Jesus spoke in parables and paradoxes and by doing so made real sense of the world.

Today we are so tempted to go to the extreme. We live in a culture where partisan politics holds sway. Our two-party system is so polarized right now, and many are forced to choose one side or the other and if you choose the opposite side of a family member or fellow church member then you are criticized and ostracized. One either has to be a fundamental conservative or a flaming liberal in order to be able to find their identity. Just as a side note our identity as Christian’s are not in a political party or stance but in Christ alone. Who we are in Him! This is what we can learn from Jesus the most. He never identified with any social-political-or religious ideal or institution. He made them all mad! The reason why was He did not go to extremes. He said to the Zealots render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is Gods. Jesus was able to bring two extremes into one reality in how we are to live in this world.

In our text we see another great paradox from the Apostle Paul. Nothing and everything colliding into one reality. He says first “be anxious in nothing.” Don’t fret, worry, or get out of sorts over nothing. It is often said that 93% of the things we worry about are out of our control. In other words, we worry about things that we just simply have no power to change. For example, politics, world events, sickness, and the biggest of them all PEOPLE!!! The other 7% we can control and should do so by Gods guidance in our everyday life.

Secondly, Paul’s wrote, “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make you request known unto God.” The things that we have no control over we can pray about and be thankful in it the same time. You may experience a challenging moment in your life but yet the great paradox is with all of the situation's uncertainty you can still be thankful knowing that God can do whatever we can’t.

This takes us into the third paradox which Paul said was “the peace that passes understanding.” You mean to tell me in one of the most trying times of my life I can have peace? Yes and 10,000 times yes. When we put things into perspective like, not worrying but praying about the things we can’t control, and being thankful in all situations, it is then that we are living faith to its fullness, and we experience peace not as an emotion but real peace from a person. The person of Jesus Christ himself who is the prince of peace.

Pastor Robby