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Praise, mercy, and love to Him, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, using the reading from Philippians as our text today, please be seated. I was talking with a student at University of Lutheran about their concern over the political climate of the world and even the possibility of a World War III they were worried about. They had a general anxiety for all the contentiousness. In our nation, and no doubt, it does seem to be a very contentious time in our nation and in the world. There’s contention politically, philosophically, culturally. Contention seems to be the norm in our nation sometimes.
And so what do we do? The student was asking, how do we respond in this contentious world? How do followers of Jesus deal with this? The Word of God through St. Paul in this Philippians reading today speaks well about how we can respond in such a contentious time. Kind of breaking it down, Paul says, Rejoice, let your reasonableness be known. Don’t be anxious, be thankful, and pray. Instead of the word reasonableness there, I want to use what I think is a little better translation there about the reasonableness. It’s being gentle.
Okay. Paul commends us to rejoice, be gentle, don’t be anxious, be thankful, and pray. Now, this response that Paul gives to us seems a little different than some responses that people today, including Christians, give to this world of contention. In fact, their responses seem to further contention. Proof of that would be social media posts, letters to the editor, radio talk shows, or the comments section of any political article on the internet. I always remind myself, don’t go in there. Don’t go in the comments section. Don’t go in there unless you’re really willing to see some contention. You know, you’ve been there, haven’t you? Yeah, I can tell.
Well, people, including Christians, can say, post, blog, or anything else, many hostile and hurtful things about those that they’re contending with politically, philosophically, culturally. But God directs us to a different response. Rejoice. Be gentle. Don’t be anxious. Be thankful and pray. Because life is full of people that you contend with—politically, philosophically, culturally, or on any other level. And we should respond in a godly way.
And I know that is not easy sometimes. When people are contentious to us, naturally we want to be contentious back. We want to fight back. We want to kind of stand up and make some sort of a stand against them. But no, rejoice. Be gentle. Be kind. Don’t be anxious; be thankful, and pray. Even with people who are contentious. Maybe especially with people who are contentious, we need to always rejoice and be gentle, not be anxious, be thankful, and pray.
We’re always going to have contentious times with people, but there’s also contention in ourselves sometimes. I guess I call it personal contention. Things like financial trouble, loss of a job, trying to find a job, worry about the future, friction in a relationship, struggles in school, health concerns, aging, any of these and more. You know all too well your own contention, your own contentious times that you have to, well, contend with. Times when you don’t rejoice. You don’t really feel gentle. You’re anxious. You’re not very thankful and just feel like you don’t even have a prayer.
But God encourages a different response. Rejoice. Be gentle. Don’t be anxious. Be thankful and pray. Now, this isn’t meant to be just a sermon that’s only about making your life better by dealing with this contentious world with a godly response. I mean, that is good, but there’s more.
We see more when we look at what causes contention in the world and what causes hostile and hurtful responses to contention. It’s sin. It’s sin. It’s that rejection of God, His disobedience, and rebellion against God, disobeying His laws, His commands, and what He has for us in our life. And we look at the world; the effects of a contentious world, the effect of sin is obvious, but it’s when we look at ourselves that we really see the cause of contention in this world, when we’re the cause of it. When we’re the cause of hostile and hurtful responses.
Because too often, we don’t rejoice. We aren’t gentle. We’re the ones that create anxiety. And we’re not thankful for good things in our life. And sometimes our only prayer is we pray for God to punish those that we’re in contention with. And you know all too well your own sinful responses in this world. And when we fail to respond to God, contention in godly ways. When we sin, we can and should respond by looking to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.
We respond by looking at the life, the death, the resurrection of Jesus. Because in that is the good news in this contentious world that we live in, including our sinful contribution to it. In Jesus is real joy in this world of contention. It’s no… what’s we’re looking for here? There’s no… It’s no coincidence. That’s what we’re looking for here. There’s no coincidence that this is the third Sunday in Advent that we light the joy candle and are reminded that in this contentious world, we have joy.
We have joy. And joy isn’t just a feeling. Joy isn’t just an emotion. Joy isn’t something we have to work at and try really hard to have. Joy is a person. It’s Jesus Christ, born, lived, suffered, died, and rose again for us for the forgiveness of our sins.
Amen. And with that, with that good news, we can truly at all times, even in a contentious world, rejoice and be gentle. We don’t have to be anxious. We can be thankful and we always have reason to pray. You know, when we look at the word again here, reasonableness, that we had here, in the reading that I’m using gentle for here for practical purposes, we look at the word reasonableness and the classic understanding of reasonableness. We consider that, you know, when it comes to our sin, God is totally unreasonable.
It doesn’t make sense. It’s not reasonable for God to forgive us. He really shouldn’t. For when we sin against Him and reject Him and rebel against Him, He should punish us, but He doesn’t. He’s gentle with us, and He gives thanks for the sacrifice of Jesus for us. And because of Him, He forgives us. And again, He’s gentle with us. And He welcomes the prayers of His people to receive that gracious gift of forgiveness by faith.
And in all of that, God rejoices. Even in our sinfulness and our contention against God, God rejoices because of what Christ has done. In Luke chapter 15, Jesus kind of talked about this rejoicing in heaven when sinners receive forgiveness. It says, maybe you’ve heard it before, Jesus said, I tell you, there is joy with the angels of God over one sinner who repents. When we repent, when we receive the forgiveness of God that He’s given us in Jesus, all of heaven rejoices. We can too.
Even in this contentious world, there is joy. Because God doesn’t contend against us. In our sin, we’re contentious against God. But He isn’t contentious against us. He doesn’t contend against us, but instead, He contends for us. Jesus contends against sin for us.
The hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” we all are somewhat familiar with it probably. If not, well, I encourage you to look at it. But verse 2 of “A Mighty Fortress” goes like this: “With might of ours cannot be done; soon were our loss effected. But for us fights the valiant one, whom God himself elected. Ask ye, who is this? Jesus Christ it is.”
Jesus fights for us. He contends for us. He fights against sin for us by dying and rising again to forgive us of our contentiousness against God. He died in our place. He took the punishment on Himself, and in that, we have huge reasons to be thankful and rejoice.
I know this world is difficult. It’s tough. It is contentious. People say and do hateful and hurtful things. So do we sometimes. But Jesus comes to give peace in that contention. Peace that Paul says surpasses all understanding. With that, we always have reason to rejoice, to be gentle, to not be anxious, to be thankful, and to pray.
During the holiday season, we’re reminded that there are people that really struggle in life. And even the holiday season is not all that joyful for them. They kind of contend for happiness. They’re looking for, wanting happiness, but this time of the year especially just doesn’t do it for them. It’s rough. It’s not gentle. It’s not a gentle time for them. They’re anxious, and they pray to survive it, and they’re thankful when it’s over. Maybe you know people like that.
And you can be the one to bring them joy, to show them the reasons to rejoice, especially at this time of year if we look forward to the birth of Christ. And the same can be said for people that we’re in contention with—politically, philosophically, culturally, or at whatever level. There’s somebody who’s in contention with you and making life tough for you, maybe even making this season hard on you.
We can bring them joy. We can keep rejoicing. We can be gentle with them, not being anxious, but thankful and praying even for them to bring them joy, because that’s how God directs us. That’s the response that God wants for us in this contentious world to keep us at peace and maybe to not have to worry about a possible World War III as well.
So give up. Give up the hateful, hostile, hurtful responses to our contentious world and look to respond differently how God directs. Rejoice. Be gentle. Don’t be anxious. Be thankful and pray.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which does surpass all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.