Whatever is Praiseworthy: A Reflection on Philippians 4.1-9

There’s an old comic strip that I think about often. It featured a father sitting in an easy chair watching the evening news, which is reporting some calamity or another. His young child walks up and asks him what he’s watching. The dad’s eyes jump as though he’s just been caught watching something he shouldn’t be. “Something! not suitable for children!” he shouts. And then in the last frame, more quietly, “Or adults for that matter.” It’s hard not to feel that way. Not only is the news filled with all the usual scandals, disasters,  and looming threats, but our smartphones make the bad news of this world a constant, real-time companion, rather than something we’d check in on once or twice a day. Our technology has brought us many joys of interconnectedness and communication, but we are also now so easily put face to face with human terror, misery, and suffering. The valley of the shadow of death seems to follow us wherever we go and wherever we look. It’s no surprise that anxiety levels have never been higher. And to make matters worse, more than ever, the news is deliberately designed to ratchet up our anger and anxiety, playing to algorithms for views at the expense of all of our mental health.

Into this dynamic, today’s Epistle reading offers a helpful set of alternatives. It tells us:

• “Rejoice in the Lord always!”
• “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
• “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
• “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

On the surface, these words may seem naive. When you’re sitting in a place of real pain and suffering or anxiety, these words can sound like little more than empty platitudes, like “Don’t worry, be happy.” “Let go and let God.” “Just stay positive!” But, it’s important to remember that Paul wasn’t writing them from a place of ease and comfort. Paul wrote these words from prison, burdened with many anxieties. Certainly for his own life and freedom, but far more than that. Epaphroditus, a man the Philippians had sent to him to help him during his imprisonment had taken ill and was close to death. And on top of this, Paul is still ministering to various churches, attempting as best as he can to address their pastoral needs from prison. And, while it sounds like the church in Philippi has been doing better than most of these churches, even it is now struggling with problems of its own: they are sick with worry over Epaphroditus’s health, they are experiencing divisions over some questionable teaching, and there is a feud between two of their prominent women, whom Paul begs in this passage to be reconciled. So, Paul knows a thing or two about anxiety and anguish. And it is from this place that Paul can still urge the Philippians to “Rejoice in the Lord always”, to pray with grateful hearts, and to focus their minds and hearts on the good things: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is praiseworthy.”

Paul isn’t just telling them to be ‘positive.’ He is urging them, and us, to a holy sense of perspective and perception, to broaden the scope of our vision: to see not only what’s driving our fear in the moment, but to zoom out from that constriction in our minds and hearts and to see things as they are in the big picture. To see things as God sees them. We cannot choose our circumstances — we cannot change the news any more than we can change the weather — but we can choose how we think about them and respond to them, we can choose the lens through which we view them.

There’s a now famous story told by the beloved children’s television host Mr. Rogers that demonstrates well what I think Paul is talking about. He says: “I was spared from any great disasters when I was little, but there was plenty of news of them in newspapers and on the radio, and there were graphic images of them in newsreels.” After commenting on the safety he felt in his family, Mr. Rogers continued:

There was something else my mother did that I’ve always remembered: “Always look for the helpers,” she’d tell me. “There’s always someone who is trying to help.” I did, and I came to see that the world is full of doctors and nurses, police and firemen, volunteers, neighbors and friends who are ready to jump in to help when things go wrong.

When we see something terrible happening in our world, it’s easy to see only the worst things about human nature in it. And yes, there is unquestionably great evil happening in our world. But that evil isn’t the whole story. We can, as Mr. Rogers urged us, ‘look for the helpers,’ or in the broader terms of Paul, “think about whatever is true and honorable and praiseworthy”. We can focus on the people who in the midst of their own fears, help others to safety, or hold and comfort strangers in their pain. We can meditate on the tireless efforts of the first responders, doctors and nurses who work to heal the ill and wounded. We can look at those who courageously step into conflicts and try to bring about peaceful, more just resolutions. For every one act of evil in the world, there are many more acts of goodness, truth, and beauty in response. Even today, in our world that feels intractably divided and angry.

It isn’t about pretending the bad doesn’t exist, but it’s about making sure we don’t allow the bad to drown out the good.  I couldn’t help but be reminded as I was reflecting on this of the 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.” We all know it; many of us have probably drawn comfort from it. And I think it’s a beautiful example of the kind of perspective Paul is urging us to cultivate:

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

The Psalm doesn’t deny the reality of danger, but it rests in the recognition that God is with us in the midst of it. That there can be “goodness and mercy” in the midst of it. As Psalm 106, which is appointed for today, says: “O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. “Who can utter the mighty doings of the LORD, or declare all his praise?”

Connected to this sense of perspective comes gratitude. “With thanksgiving,” Paul says, “offer your prayers to God.” Being grateful or ‘counting your blessings’ — again it sounds on the surface too easy, and a little cheesy, like something your mother might have told you when you were whining after a toy as a child — is a very powerful tool. In fact it’s probably one of the most powerful spiritual tools at our disposal. Over the past two decades, studies have linked gratitude to better overall mental and physical health, increasing empathy while reducing negative emotions such as resentment, envy, and regret, and behaviours like revenge-seeking, and increased emotional resilience in the aftermath of major traumas.

All this to say, Paul is on to something here!

Reminding ourselves of what we have to be thankful for, to offer our prayers to God with grateful hearts for the blessings have, or have had, has the power to change our experience of life for the better and to help us through the difficult times we all go through. And if nothing else — and most of all, really — as Christians we have much to be thankful for because of who our God is. And so we can ‘rejoice in the Lord’ always — even if we can’t rejoice over our present circumstances. We can rejoice in the One Who created us, who humbled himself to live with us as a servant, who died for us and who forgives us. We can rejoice in the One Who loves us and who IS LOVE, who as in the parable in this morning’s Gospel reading, is like a King inviting us all to a great wedding feast! The One who cares for us, guides us, and provides for us. We can rejoice in the One Who watches over us and is with us, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We can rejoice in the One who reveals to us those things that are true and honorable and just, pure, excellent and praiseworthy, and we truly can rejoice in Him whatever the circumstance might be.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.