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10/12/14
Good things arise out of bad things.
Im not a big fan of slogans, but Ive always liked the one that says, After clouds, sunshine.
You could say clouds and sunshine make up a unified whole.
I think most of us here are old enough to remember the name Norman Vincent Peale. In case you
dont, Peale was a widely known, controversial minister and radio broadcaster in the mid 20th
Century whose most famous publication, The Power of Positive Thinking, is synonymous with
his name. The gist of his message is right there in the title: keep your thoughts positive, avoid
negative thoughts, and youll achieve the success and happiness you want out of life.
Serious theologians and psychologists alike agree that Peale was a snake oil salesman - a
scammer. Why? In a word, no clouds.
Self-reliance can be a fine thing, as long as we acknowledge that it has its limits. We turn away
from facing the pitfalls and tragedies life affords us at our peril.
Our faith has nothing to do with glib sentiments, easy formulas, or egotism. Read the Gospel
carefully and you might conclude that Christ didnt bring salvation to you or me; he came to
bring it to us.
We all tend to favor certain biblical texts over others, dont we? Perhaps our desires to be all
about love and forgiveness are what lead us to ignore or rationalize texts that seem to contradict
our big heartedness. Lord knows there are countless biblical passages proclaiming Gods
goodness and mercy, Gods gentleness and kindness, and Id be just as happy if that were it.
But then we come up against something like todays parable of the wedding banquet. I like to
think Im on the side of the angels, so maybe instead of saying anything about this thin-skinned,
demanding king who comes up with, what?, vengeful murder and destruction, burning down
cities, weeping and gnashing of teeth, Ill just wander off to the sunnier message of the epistle.
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.
That message has all sorts of sunshine, but where does it leave us? . . . stuck in the bankrupt
world of the power of positive thinking?
Well no. Why not has to do with the grown up work of delving into context.
Whats the context of Pauls sunshiny exhortation to the Philippians? Reading and studying the
breadth of his writing would give us a good sense of that, but to keep things reasonably simple,
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we could just look at todays reading, where well find at the very least a heart and humbleness
that Peales reliance on human positivity precludes. The beneficent vision Paul holds up to the
Philippians is, as with everything else he proclaims, surrounded by his central focus on Gods
grace as revealed in Jesus Christ. The Pauline (as opposed to Peale-ine - sorry) power of positive
thinking is one centered in the essence of prayer . . . in a posture that never strays far from
reminding us of our dependent relationship with God. Now that can mean all sorts of things.
Each of us will perceive and apply that relationship through the prism of our individual and
collective experience, but in church, where were regularly exposed to stories and lessons we
approve of and those we dont - our subjective biases are, or at least should be, shaped by the
totality of the biblical canon. Paul invites us to think about these [sunshiny] things in the
context of the mystery of and our unity with and under God, unlike Peale and many of his new
age successors, who essentially say we can be a healing, redemptive God unto ourselves.
Jesus admonishes us, Many are called, but few are chosen. I think it isnt a proclamation to be
heard in isolation. As was the case with the disciples around Jesus, were meant to hear this
particular parable in the context of the entirety of Jesus ministry of teaching and doing. He has
more than one message, and we have more than one thing to take from him . . . unless you want
to call that one thing a lifelong quest to mark, learn and inwardly digest the breadth and depth
of his Word. In that context, the exhortation to do good works and to be disciplined and vigilant,
even fearful, that we might take from this particular passage is entirely consistent with the love
and forgiveness that characterize so much else in the same gospel. Our faith has its clouds, and it
has its sunshine.
And to me that counterpoint speaks most profoundly of unity. The body has many parts, but it is
and must be one body. To be a church in the true sense of the institution God in Christ has given
us, its not necessary that we all agree about everything, in fact its probably essential that we
dont. We evolve as I believe God intends through the dialectical process of working through
our different experiences and opposing views. We dont bask in the sun by ignoring the clouds.
We work our way through the clouds into the sunshine.
That doesnt mean we have to look for things to disagree about. Its in our nature to disagree . . .
the nature of different body parts. As the hymn says, we are one in the spirit, we are one in the
Lord. It doesnt say that were one in our like-mindedness. Our unity is all about one God
having created and blessed us as our unique selves.
And thats how it is with scripture - another body united in spirit but comprised of many, often
contradictory parts. I doubt its an accident that the happiness of Pauls epistle shows up at the
same time as the harshness of todays gospel. Thats just how it is; its the truth, and if youre
looking for something simpler, something thats only positive and oblivious to just how much
struggle and pain life has, youre in the wrong place. Our vocation is to take that struggle and
pain to the one who bore it for us, and then find the liberating truth that no matter how bad it is,
were not alone with it . . . not unknown.
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After clouds, sunshine. After death, resurrection. To borrow from St. Francis, after sadness, joy;
after despair, hope; after discord, union. It occurs to me that these juxtapositions speak to much
more that a rhythm or equation. I think what they say is that the reality of the life God has given
us reveals that all its good things, 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 . . . that all these things lack true meaning unless seen through the
lens of the cross. Paul knew what he was doing in preceding his happy list with the words
WHATEVER IS TRUE. Its Pauls deep and humble devotion to belief in the presence of the
risen Christ in him and all believers that makes all the difference between his positive thinking
and Peales.
Wed all do well to reflect often on Jesus proclaiming I am the truth. I worry that Truth with or
without a capital T gets short shrift. Truth is what links the crucifixion with the resurrection, and
truth is what enables the profound, life giving wisdom of unity, in which all thats unholy isnt
erased but rather subsumed into the ultimate gift of Gods victory. Happy, sad, pious, heretical,
condemned, redeemed and sanctified - we are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord. And
youll know we are Christians by our love.
Amen.