Sermon Tone Analysis

On this Third Sunday Of Advent, as many churches light the pink candle symbolizing joy, the lectionary offers one of the most encouraging passages in all of Paul’s epistles.

“Rejoice in the Lord always!” “Do not worry about anything.”

Experience the “peace that passes understanding.”

These dear words mostly float through our consciousness detached from their gritty real-life setting of danger at the Philippians’ door, doctrinal dogs nipping at their faithful feet, and strife between two of their leaders—not to mention prison chains wrapped ‘round the one who wrote them.

Noticing the sometimes-dark context from and into which these bright words are spoken will help preachers reach people in their pews who think they’re supposed to be smiling peacefully as Christmas approaches but aren’t sure why or how.

On this Third Sunday Of Advent, as many churches light the pink candle symbolizing joy, the lectionary offers one of the most encouraging passages in all of Paul’s epistles.

“Rejoice in the Lord always!” “Do not worry about anything.”

Experience the “peace that passes understanding.”

These dear words mostly float through our consciousness detached from their gritty real-life setting of danger at the Philippians’ door, doctrinal dogs nipping at their faithful feet, and strife between two of their leaders—not to mention prison chains wrapped ‘round the one who wrote them.

Noticing the sometimes-dark context from and into which these bright words are spoken will help preachers reach people in their pews who think they’re supposed to be smiling peacefully as Christmas approaches but aren’t sure why or how.

The Philippians are dear to Paul.

The genre of the epistle is a “friendship letter.”

The Philippians have been generous in supporting his ministry (, ).

But not everything is rosy for them.

Paul sees fault lines.

The specific descriptions of the Philippians’ challenges lie in three different sections of the letter.

The first mentions “opponents” (antikeimenoi, ) who have caused them suffering (paschein, ).

Whether this threat is physical or social, Paul is concerned that the church might divide in the face of it ().

The community may also be hearing alternative teachers whom Paul unflatteringly calls “dogs” and characterizes as “the false circumcision” ().

While we can’t know whether this is an on-the-ground threat or a possible eventuality, the language of Paul’s autobiography ) echoes his concern in the letters to the Galatians and Romans, namely, that a law—and circumcision—based Christianity will confuse the Philippians into imagining that they can accomplish righteousness through their deeds ().

The third struggle in Philippi is a conflict between two female leaders of the congregation named Euodia and Syntyche ().

We ought to notice on the way the presence of female leaders who were coworkers with Paul, which, contrary to widespread perception in our time, was his customary practice (see ).

These two women are at odds, though, and the interpersonal issue is also a congregational one.

To demonstrate this, Paul exhorts Euodia and Syntyche in the same language he earlier used to call the larger group to unity: “think the same thing” (to auto phronein in and ).

When Paul’s famous “Rejoice in the Lord always!” arrives in an ancient Macedonian living room, then, it is not a tranquil and untroubled company who hear the scroll read out.

The Philippians are troubled by external threats and internal strife.

They are glad to have a note from Paul, but in the face of all this struggle they may wonder if their rejoicing might need to wait for happier times.

“Rejoice… always?

Really?

Do you know what my day was like?”

But it turns out that Paul does know.

It is no accident that the apostle displays his own hardships so prominently at the beginning of the letter.

He offers himself as an example to the suffering Philippians.

Imprisoned and beset by ill-intentioned rivals (), Paul tells them his response: “I rejoice.”

His simple ground for this joy also recurs in our passage: Christ.

In his case, he celebrates the fact that Christ’s good news is going forth.

Similarly, in verse 4 the reason for their rejoicing is not pleasant circumstances but the steady good that is “in the Lord.”

“Rejoice in the Lord,” says Paul, “because prosperity and happy times and the other potential reasons for rejoicing can’t be counted on to continue ‘always.’”

A similar dynamic appears in .

When Paul calls the Philippians to prayer instead of anxiety, they might answer back that he doesn’t know how utterly valid their reasons for being anxious are—but his personal situation lies in the background refuting such a claim.

Because of the practice of prayer, even Paul’s chains, with all the uncertainties of life that they represent, do not undermine the “peace of God, which passes understanding” and “guards (his) heart and mind in Christ Jesus.”

When Paul invites the Philippians to such peace through prayer, he does so with the credibility of someone who has ample reason to be anxious but chooses prayer and peace.

Between the two exhortations to rejoice and to pray lies a less familiar one.

Paul calls his friends to a gentleness (possibly “moderation”) that they should display openly to the world ().

This outward-looking orientation “to all people” is Paul’s remedy for these embattled Christians, both spiritually and communally.

If Paul has faced his chains by celebrating the gospel’s advance (, )

and by thinking of the Philippians’ well-being over his own ();

and if Christ Jesus considered humanity’s need more important than his divine status ();

then the Philippians ought to respond to their own strife and struggle by preferring the other in community ()

and keeping their collective eye on the waiting world outside ().

All this they should do because “the Lord is at hand”—both temporally in a forward-looking expectation and presently in a spiritual nearness.

In the words of J.-F.

Collange:

“The solution to the problems of the Philippian church is not to be found in some kind of introspection but in a desire to turn outwards towards others.”

The text’s beautiful last sentence—a direction of the mind to true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and gracious and excellent and praiseworthy things—offers the Philippians an alternative to endlessly orbiting around their suffering.

And so our weary Advent worshipers, not quite sure their life warrants rejoicing, have their encouraging answer: Fear not!

For the joy we celebrate today is anchored, not in bright circumstances but in the Christ-aided direction of our minds toward joy, toward others, toward God in prayer, and toward God’s best things.

That is a joy that can withstand even the dark travails of Advent!