27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) – October 8, 2023

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:9, 12-16, 19-20; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43

Into the Meta Nous

For the past couple of weeks we’ve been doing a series called “Meta Nous”—which is just my really dorky way of talking about this change in mind that is so fundamental to Jesus’ preaching and teaching, to Paul’s preaching and teaching—and really, just absolutely fundamental to all of this! If any of this is going to being to affect our life, our real life; if anything that Jesus does or says, that Paul does or says, that the Church says—if anything is going to resonate, it is only going to happen if there is first a change in mind.

I gave the example of discovering that the Sun doesn’t orbit the Earth—for a kid that doesn’t change much, but for physicists, for astronomers, for meteorologists, that’s a game changer! It’s not just “data,” it is game changing! Or the example of medical treatments: yeah, we kind of chuckle about how cocaine or heroin were used for coughs, or how people actually tried milk transfusions. But in the medical field, that was literally life and death!

When it comes to physical, scientific things like that, we (as good post-scientific revolution people)—we are very content to switch things around, switch up our mindset. When technological progress is made, we’re very happy to switch our our iPhone 14 for the iPhone 15. But like we were talking last week—as quick as we are to accept scientific progress or technological progress, we’re quick to overlook the fact that technological and scientific progress doesn’t mean that we’re progressing socially or morally: atrocities are still happening, you and I still do terrible things. Humans don’t change. We careen through life with this mindset that we’re figuring things out, progressing toward human perfection; that God is nice (if you need that sort of thing), but God’s not really relevant; that what’s really important is everything that’s happening in this life, in politics, in my career. But what’s going on there? When we think like that, when we see the world like that—we have to admit that we’re operating out of a certain mindset. And that mindset has a name: it’s called being a Modern Progressive, it’s called being a child of philosophers like Immanuel Kant, and John Locke, Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson. And that way of seeing reality? It has no room for God, it has no room for our faith, and—you want to know the scary thing?—it has no room for reality.

As Modern Progressives, we think we have everything figured out. And yet, if we look around, we see things falling apart more and more and more. And not just “the county” or “the economy.” Very personally, we see communities falling apart, schools falling apart, families falling apart, marriages falling apart, kids’ lives falling apart. I don’t think I need to defend those statements—but I will. I could bore you with stats and statistics on all of these, but I’m going to bore you with just one, one I’ve shared before. Among 10-14 year olds, the second leading cause of death…is suicide (it’s up 300% in less than 20 years). Here in our community, the data from our high school says that over 50% of high schools kids have seriously contemplated suicide in the past year—25% have attempted it. So perhaps—perhaps we’re not as “in tune” with reality as we think. Perhaps something is off, and the evidence around us can support that. And perhaps what we need isn’t to keep trying the same things that aren’t working even harder. Maybe we need to have a fundamental change in mind, a change in the way we see reality. Maybe we need help to see reality a little more clearly. And maybe, just maybe, that will make all the difference.

“Have no anxiety at all.”

And so, in a lot of his letters, but especially in his letter to the Philippians, this is precisely what St. Paul is talking about! Paul has been harping on us for a few weeks through his letter to the Philippians: “Metanoiate. Meta nous. Have a change of mind. Go beyond your current way of seeing thing, and see reality differently. See it with the mind of Christ.” And I think a lot of us were beginning to give Paul some credit! We were thinking, “Yeah, I get it. I see where he’s coming from. It’s not easy, but I get it!”

And then today’s reading hits. We get to the reading today, and Paul seems to be living in La La Land. I mean, sometimes Paul says stuff and you think, “Paul, are you a human being? Do you know any human beings?” Paul says this: “Have no anxiety at all. Don’t worry about anything” (Phil 4:6). We hear this, and we immediately check out. “Ok, this is dumb. What a joke. He clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.”

Why? Because life is full of anxiety! The stats say that around 20% of the nation is walking around with clinical levels of anxiety. We have anxiety! We worry about our jobs and careers, the future of our job, job security. We worry about money (boy do we worry about money!)—money, our debt, how we’re going to make ends meet. We worry about our close relationships, whether that’s worrying about our kids and what’s going on with them and everything they’re dealing with, or worrying out our partner and all of that. We worry and have anxiety about our health, about the health of parents, and spouses, and children. Like, the list never ends! And Paul says, almost casually, “Have no anxiety at all.” 

Why does Paul have the audacity to say that? What is it? How, in the midst of all that’s going on in Philippi, all that’s going on in the world—Paul’s in prison when he writes this, remember that too, so it’s not peachy for him—how can Paul just tell us not to worry and not to be anxious? It’s because Paul is living as a citizen of the gospel, Paul has put on the mind of the Messiah, and, because of that, Paul can see clearly, see reality in a completely new and positive way. Reality, life, life after Jesus’ Incarnation, death, Resurrection and Ascension—reality is positive. Not just “has a positive outlook on life,” no! Paul sees that reality is positive.

Anxiety and Memory

Anxiety or worry: this word that Paul uses shares its root with the word “memory.” Anxiety and worry flow from our memory, or rather, from what our memory does or doesn’t focus on. If you are worried about a test in school, it can easily be from the fact that you’re not a good test taker, you don’t do well on tests, and so you’re anxious about it. If you are anxious about a certain encounter with someone, it can be because of what has happened between you, and you don’t know how this encounter is going to go. If you’re worried about the fate of the world, it can easily be because you know history and how certain things lead to other things, and so you’re concerned about how things are progressing. In all of these, and whatever other examples you can come up with, the issue is our memory, and what our memory focuses on.

I mean, case in point: think of the Philippians, Paul’s audience in this letter. They were living in the middle of the Roman Empire. They had watched people get killed for the faith. One of Rome’s tactics for instilling fear was to turn people into human lamp-posts—put a person on a street pole and set them on fire. These Christians could, I’m sure, conjure up a few recent and vivid memories of why things may not be so peachy and anxiety free. All of you, all of us, I’m sure we can think of one or two memories that give us reason to be anxious and worried. I’m sure many of us could list off a few of our anxieties.

Paul’s Memory: Jesus Won, Jesus Is Lord

So what was Paul thinking? What was he remembering? What gave him such great confidence and peace? Why could he so easily and casually say, “Have no anxiety at all. Don’t worry about anything?” Why did he see reality in this way?

Paul remembered one simple fact: Jesus already won.

I can’t remember if I shared this with you before—how winning decisive battles worked back in the day—but when you won a decisive battle, it still took time for the final victory to happen. So for instance, after his father Julius Caesar was killed, there was a civil war between his son, Octavian, and one of his generals, Mark Antony. And Augustus won! At the battle of Actium Augustus won the final victory, the decisive battle! He was hailed as Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome, Lord of the world! But news didn’t travel fast then, soldiers didn’t travel fast, and it took time to squelch the rest of the revolts. And so even though the decisive battle was won at Actium, there was still a lot of work to be done to establish Augustus’ rule throughout the Roman Empire. There was a time of tension between the decisive victory and the completion of his rule.

This is how Paul sees things. Paul knows with certainty that Jesus won the decisive battle: by his Cross and Resurrection, Jesus won the battle for the world, he won the victory over the powers of Sin and Death. By his Ascension he has been enthroned as King, the true Lord of the world. What does Jesus say, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me!” But—and this is the point—but that doesn’t mean that there are not still people revolting against his status as King, that doesn’t mean that people are willing to give up their old way of living and be part of this new Kingdom, that doesn’t mean everything is “fine.”

But Jesus has already won. Jesus is now Lord of the world. Everything is in his hands. And Paul remembers that: Jesus is Lord, and because of that, we don’t have to worry.

Even Though There Is Reason For Anxiety…

This is the vision given to us by Scripture, given to us by God. What’s everyone’s favorite Psalm? Psalm 23, right? “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.”

Have you ever actually read it, though? If the Lord is “my shepherd,” that means I’m being referred to as a…sheep. And if you know anything about sheep, you know that that’s not exactly a compliment. Sheep are interesting animals, on a whole host of levels. For one thing, sheep are dumb! Sheep are so dumb! If you leave a sheep on its own, it will make the worst decisions.

But also, sheep have no claws, no fangs, they can’t run fast, they don’t even have a creative defense mechanism like a porcupine. Sheep are absolutely defenseless. The only defense of a sheep is a shepherd. That’s it. And so what the Psalmist (what David) is saying in the Psalm is this: “The Lord”—the God who made the universe, Jesus Christ—“that’s my shepherd. And because He is… … … I’m alright. I’m not afraid.”

But look! The Psalm did not say: “…there is nothing I shall want because God will protect me from the circumstances of life and nothing bad will ever happen.” That’s not the promise! What he says is what? “Even though.” “EVEN THOUGH I walk in the dark valley, I fear no evil.” NOT, “I shall not want because God will protect me from the dark valley.” No. But because “even when I’m in the dark valley”—the death of a spouse, cancer, struggling with an addiction, losing my job, money, my children, whatever it is—“even when I’m in the dark valley, I don’t fear it, I have no anxiety.” Why? Because my life, your life, our lives no longer have to be in the hands of a doctor’s diagnosis, or the economy, or the government, or ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. Our lives can be in HIS hands! They are in his hands. And Paul sees that.

“Have no anxiety at all,” Paul says. Why? Because he sees clearly. And when you see like Paul, everything changes.