Guard Your Minds and Hearts
“Guard Your Minds and Hearts” by Pastor Rosanna McFadden
Good morning! It is the fifth Sunday of Lent, which means that we are approaching the events of Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and the dramatic and disturbing death of Jesus. It may seem odd, given that set-up, to have a scripture text which tells us to rejoice. Paul says it twice, just to be sure we get it: Rejoice in the Lord always and again I will say it, Rejoice!
So a couple things to note as we are talking about larger context: Paul didn’t write these words with any expectation that they would be read in Lent — Lent wasn’t a thing for the first century church, the seasons of the church year and Christian holidays were put in place much later. At the time Paul was writing Philippians — 85 AD or thereabouts — the church was probably observing Easter in some way, likely as an extension of Passover, as well as the time that new converts, after years of study and formation, were baptized into the church. So this letter from Paul was not intended for a season of penitence, but as all scripture, it is relevant to the Christian life, and maybe rejoicing should be a part of that. I mentioned two weeks ago, the letter to the Philippians was written from a Roman prison, which could certainly be a physical and emotional barrier to rejoicing. Clearly Paul had spiritual reserves which kept his outlook rooted in something besides his grim immediate circumstances. As we continue to consider the things which make for peace, I think we can learn some important things from this passage and the ones directly before and after.
The things which make for peace from the past two Sundays were Resilience and Transformation. I had hoped to come up with a single word to complete this trio — I can think of words which might work, but what I want to lift up from verse 7 is the idea of guarding our hearts. Paul actually writes guarding your hearts and your minds, but that is either too long or not long enough — if we are guarding our hearts and minds, shouldn’t we be guarding our actions, too? So hold on to the idea of guarding our hearts as a thing which makes for peace, and we’ll consider the earlier verses of this passage.
Like the scriptures we have considered the past two weeks, this one immediately points back to the section before it. Therefore . . . At the end of Philippians 3, Paul writes about transformation — transforming the body of humiliation into the glory of his — Christ’s — body. This is certainly a reference to Jesus’ resurrection, but it also speaks to the transformation of individuals who become the body of Christ in the community of people whose expectation and hope is in the kingdom of God. In Philippians 4:1, the therefore is encouragement to stand firm in that hope and promise.
I won’t linger and verses 2 and 3, except to note that Paul is expressing encouragement and appreciation for his co-workers, including two women, Euodia and Syntyche, who have struggled in the work of the gospel with him. It’s infrequent enough to have women mentioned by name in these accounts that it’s worth celebrating when it happens.
I believe that Paul’s exhortation to stand firm is directly related to verses 4-7, and to verses 8 and 9 which follow. Standing firm is about being strong and immovable, but Paul seems to be advocating for something greater than simply being stubborn, entrenched, or obstinate. Paul is inviting us to rejoice, to take our worries to God in prayer, and to seek God’s help. Standing firm in God has a bit different flavor than never admitting we may have been wrong. Paul invites us to allow the peace of God to guard our hearts and minds.
The idea of peace standing guard is a bit of a puzzle — at least when the image that comes to my mind is a security guard with a weapon, wearing a bullet-proof vest. Surely the purpose of guarding our hearts and minds can’t be so that nothing gets in. Being people who don’t feel and don’t think cannot be the goal here. It helps me to go back to a Jewish concept which Paul, as a student of the law, would have been very familiar with. It’s a rabbinic idea of putting a fence around the law, or Torah. The Hebrew name, asu s’yag latorah, includes the sense of a hedge, as ancient Hebrew fences were barriers made of thorny bushes to enclose livestock. Fence laws were additional laws developed by rabbis to protect Torah, so they went further than Torah — sometimes literally. If ritual handwashing meant you got wet up to your wrists, than fence law said you go up to your elbows, so if you accidentally stopped a bit short of your elbows, you’d still be OK. A fence was intended to protect the Law, not make it inaccessible. You can probably imagine the ways in which this got complicated after centrues of building fences. By the time of Jesus, there were multiple fence laws around each of the 613 Mosaic laws; all kinds of greater-than Torah restrictions to keep you from accidentally doing work on the Sabbath, for instance. Ordinary Jews couldn’t keep track of — let alone adhere to — all these laws. The Pharisees and scribes, rabbinic and Torah scholars were the ones who tracked and enforced these rules, and this was the source of some pretty stern criticism form Jesus: brood of vipers, comes to mind. So while this metaphor has some merit, it is not exactly what I am imagining as guarding our hearts and minds
Instead of legislating protection, I believe we guard our hearts by encouraging the things which are positive and life-giving — the things which are of God and the things which make for peace. Verse 8 and 9 read, Finally beloved, 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. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. What if, instead of guarding our hearts with sticks and stones and brambles, or suspicion and bitterness and disdain, we surrounded our hearts and minds with a fence of praise and excellence and other things which are pleasing? There’s no guarantee that thinking about these things will keep 100% of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune from being launched our way, but in my experience, the more I think about good things, the more good things I find to occupy my mind and heart.
This, I believe, is the way in which we find peace, because peace rarely discovers us, we have to make a conscious decision to look for it. With God’s help, we stand firm in hope, and keep our minds set on things which are good and true and praiseworthy. Anxiety and despair are not going away, it is inevitable that they will prowl around the boundaries of our hearts and minds to try to steal God’s peace from us. Prayer is part of that hedge around our hearts — the assurance that we can offer our insecurity and fear to God, and that God’s peace, which surpasses our understanding, will guard our hearts in Christ.I trust that this is something you have heard before — maybe even from me. It is a flummoxing but consistently human trait that we are drawn to things which are not good for us. This tendency can tip into compulsive behavior which amounts to addiction. In the same way that a recovering alcoholic should not go into an establishment which serves alcohol — even if he has no intention of buying a drink — if you are prone to gossip and complaining and negativity, you probably know where you can go and get that reinforced, like the character from Steel Magnolias who said, “If you can’t say anything nice, come and sit by me.” Gossip and complaining are contagious. Fortunately, the opposite is also true. I hope you all know people who are positive and encouraging, people who make you less anxious and more aware of whatever is true and honorable and excellent. I hope that Creekside is a place where you find those people; I pray that Creekside is a place where we can be those people, and point others toward God’s goodness and the peace of Christ.