FORCED TO SLOW DOWN

1. The Lazy Days of Summer Anticipate The Day of Jesus Christ
The summer, as you know, is full of many diversions. The Lake, The Fire-works and The Movies are among them. And, of course, all of these leisure activities are worth the effort that we can devote to them. It’s rejuvenating to lounge at the lake. It’s thrilling to watch the night sky light up in a blaze of colors. And it’s cool, literally cool, to side-step the heat for a couple hours and be absorbed by a good drama, romantic comedy or action adventure flick. In so many ways, the lazy days of summer are ready-made for these diversions. But let me suggest to you this morning an alternative pursuit for the months of July and August and that is what Philippians 1:6 refers to as “The day of Jesus Christ.”
“For I am confident that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.”

In other words, we’re not done yet. We’re like a hamburger on the grill that’s still raw inside. We’re like the potato salad that hasn’t been mixed yet with the mustard and the mayonnaise. We’re like the ice cream in the freezer that’s frozen solid and still needs to thaw out in the sun. “The day of Jesus Christ” is something that is coming toward the Philippians and toward you and me in the future. Long before he became the object of carbon dating by Vatican archaeologists, the apostle Paul exuded this confidence: “The day of Jesus Christ” will be that time beyond all time when Jesus’ life, death and resurrection will become spectacularly obvious and radiantly apparent to everyone in every place and in every time. “The day of Jesus Christ” is what the rock group U2 means when Bono sings, “I believe in kingdom come; then all the colors will bleed into one, bleed into one…” But it’s not here yet. What we have now are the ingredients or the makings for that day. In fact, the lazy days of summer anticipate the day of Jesus Christ, and what I’d like to recommend to you as a pursuit is not the chasing after your own elusive happiness, but the contemplation of those ingredients, which include other people and suffering.

I went to a baseball game, during which a video camera roamed around the stadium and took pictures of various couples. During the seventh inning stretch, for example, Citizens Bank Park did this thing, called the Kiss Cam, and if you found yourself on the big screen, next to your spouse or your significant other, over 50,000 sports fans would exhort you to kiss. Fun, right? Anyway, we were there, when the Kiss Cam found a man and a woman in the 500 level, sitting next to each other, and we heard the roar of the crowd as these two love-birds looked at one another. But there was a problem that the crowd couldn’t quite understand, and it related to the woman who sat on the other side of the man, just outside the frame of the picture and beyond the focus of the camera. So, after a few minutes, the man pointing to his left, finally got the camera man to maneuver in that direction where the true object of his affection, and it turns out his wife of over 20 years, came into view.

Now, the reason that I’m relating this episode from the ball game is to illustrate this point: in our rush to be entertained this summer we may miss out on the larger relationships upon which God would like us to reflect. There is something beyond the pursuit of happiness. Just this week Andrea and Haitham hooked me up with a World Relief program in which recent immigrants to this country, subsistence farmers, are caught in between worlds. So, Latah Valley has a garden that needs weeding. They have the skills and the experience of growing food in harsh terrain. And over two thousand years ago, from his prison cell in Rome or Ephesus, Paul indicated his confidence in three inter-related aspects of the Christian faith:
• “the one who began a good work”
• the ingredients with which God is in process “among you,” or among us
• and the completion, “the day of Jesus Christ.”

And my suggestion is that we use up the summer days and nights reflecting on the people, the places and events which are beyond the frame.
2. Selfish Ambition Is Not The Best Reason, But God Can Still Use It
Of course, one of the ironic impediments to this kind of reflection is the fact that other people are often selfish. Rather than encouraging us to slow down, Paul notes, for example, that,
“Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry… others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but intending to increase my suffering in my imprisonment.”

So, how are we supposed to slow down? You see, there’s something happening behind these verses that could potentially be very troubling for Paul and for us. Some, it seems, are trying to frame the story of Jesus without Paul’s preaching and teaching being included in the picture. They’re excluding the one who helped to start the church in Philippi; and while Paul is in prison, he can do nothing about it. That must have been frustrating.

I remember these kids at the beach who were building competing sand castles. One of the structures had a mote around it so that as the tide came in, the water would be channeled around its wall and tunnels. This was the castle that I happened to be working on with my friends. Next to us, however, stood this amorphous lump of seaweed and debris, and to protect this rival structure from the waves, these kids from North Jersey had spent most of their time, constructing a thick wall of sand and shells. So, I want to emphasize the differing styles of construction: one castle had a mechanism through which the surf could pass through and return to the ocean while the other had an obstruction to keep the foam and froth of the wave from passing through at all. It was, in my opinion, a futile and “shellfish” effort. Anyway, here’s what happened. When my Mom forced me to take a break and rest on the blanket, those kids from North Jersey moved into our carefully created castle.

Now listen again to Philippians 1:18:
“What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true and in that I rejoice…”
While the Roman government has essentially forced Paul to slow down, he observes the “selfish ambition” of those who haven’t given him any credit. And yet, instead of letting that situation gall him, he realizes that the ocean of God’s love in Christ is still coming. The waters of baptism are still going to flow. The day of Jesus Christ is still going to inundate anything that we start or fail to start. And so, when we reflect upon what we perceive to be the “selfish ambition” of others, or even ourselves, consider this: God can still use it.

3. Do Not Seek “Suffering” For Christ, But If It Comes, Look For Ways To Communicate What You Feel

But, you see, the other scenario that may deter our reflection is suffering. One of the reasons that we try to pursue our own external happiness instead of reflecting upon the day of Jesus Christ is the suffering of people close and people far from us. Philippians 1:29 speaks to this circumstance in the following way:
“For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well—since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.”

Now, my initial response to Paul’s words here is visceral. How can suffering of any kind be considered a “privilege?” I do not have an easy answer. But I do understand that when we experience physical, emotional pain and psychological pain, God sometimes gives us the space and the time to reflect even more deeply upon where we’re going. We’re forced to slow down, and that’s good.

In the movie clip that I played earlier, you may have observed some ordinary people trying to take pictures of one another. It’s supposed to be a happy occasion. But there’s something beyond the framing of these photographs that needs to be spoken and heard and perhaps even prayed through. Maybe it’s grief. Maybe it’s anger. Maybe it’s the grace to forgive. Maybe it’s reconciliation. Maybe it’s hope beyond all hope reflection, when we’re forced to slow down and when we anticipate the day of Jesus Christ.
I’m going to show that brief clip from Ordinary People again, but this time I’m going to offer you this context. Timothy Hutton plays Buck’s little brother, Conrad. Buck, however, is not there for the holiday; he’s died in a boating accident, leaving the family in turmoil. Conrad actually blames himself. He was there, in the middle of Lake Michigan when the storm came up and capsized boat. He stayed with the boat; his brother did not. And now, the boys’ mother refuses to reflect deeply on what’s taken place. She’s in a hurry, running to work, running to play, running until Conrad has the courage to slow down. [Play Clip]

Like most of you, I take in that story and identify with the ordinary family and thank God that it hasn’t happened to me and to my family. But maybe that’s related to what Paul writes to the Philippians. “Among you,” he says, God will complete a great work and things which seem to be now unrelated and disconnected all will come together. So, we reflect upon ourselves and the way we frame our lives. We reflect upon our relationships and the castles that we build and finally we reflect upon our suffering. Whatever it is that slows you down, embrace it. Become a person who reflects upon the day of Jesus Christ. And let’s become a community of men, women and children who are confident of its coming.

Amen.