Don't Be Anxious
Sermon
On the radio this last week, I heard about an engineering firm which has ordered its staff to wear Santa Claus hoods over the festive period. The purpose is to spread jollity and Christmas cheer amongst the firm, and presumably, amongst their customers. The penalty for anyone refusing to wear a Santa hood is the loss of their Christmas bonus.
It's Christmas. You will be happy! Or else!
And perhaps that's part of the problem. For many of us, Christmas is quite an anxious time. There's so much to be done, and so many decisions to be made. What shall I buy for that elderly relative who has everything? Shall I be able to park if I drive into Norwich? Have I remembered everyone, or have I inadvertently left out someone who's going to be awfully upset? What's the last posting day for Christmas? Did I remember to order the turkey?
No wonder many people are so tired by the great day, all they can do is fall asleep in front of the telly. There's no energy left to be happy!
But of course, it's more than that. Christmas is known to be a time of increased stress in personal relationships. For perhaps the only time in the year, the whole family is at home together over Christmas. And together with no escape. There's really nowhere to go, certainly on Christmas Day.
Relate, the marriage guidance organisation, prepares for a huge influx of clients during and immediately after the Christmas season. And the Samaritans always need extra staff over the Christmas period. We're so conditioned to feeling we have to be happy at Christmas, that many people simply can't deal with not feeling happy at this particular time.
But it's not just Christmas. Anxiety seems to be a peculiarly 20th century disease, even though to some extent anxiety must be a universal human condition. Way back in the first century St. Paul exhorted the Philippian Christians to: "Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians 4:6).
The letter to the Philippians is thought to have been written round about A.D. 64, when Paul was in prison in Rome. He and his companions had previously been thrown out of Philippi because they'd threatened the livelihood of some important businessmen. The businessmen had a slave-girl who had some kind of 'second-sight', and they made a lot of money out of her sooth-saying. But Paul and Silas cured her and she lost her gift of fortune-telling, and thus lost her owners a fortune. So Paul and Silas were less than popular and were driven out of the city by an irate business community (Acts 16:11-40).
The hostility they generated seems to have continued towards the Christians at Philippi, for Paul's phrase: ..fights without, fears within.. in 2 Corinthians (7:5) refers to the Philippians. Unusually, Paul has no rebukes for the Philippian church in his letter. His only plea is that they should be united. But it's in this context of external hostility and the fear generated amongst the Christians by that hostility, that he says in his letter: Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians 4:6).
We don't suffer anything like that hostility these days, but as the pace of life has increased, and the numbers of people living in a limited space has increased, and people's expectations have increased, so the anxiety levels seem to have universally shot up. We're all anxious about something. Some of us some of the time, some of us all of the time.
According to statistics, an average person's anxiety is focused on :
40% -- things that will never happen
30% -- things about the past that can't be changed
12% -- things about criticism by others, mostly untrue
10% -- about health, which gets worse with stress
8% -- about real problems that will be faced.
In other words, anxiety is unnecessary, and as Thomas Jefferson so eloquently said: How much have cost us the evils that never happened!
It's all very well to know at a thinking level that anxiety is unnecessary, but personally and unfortunately, that doesn't stop me feeling anxious. But St. Paul goes further. Not only is anxiety unnecessary, he says, but we should rejoice. "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice."
The result, says Paul, of rejoicing and dismissing anxiety, is the peace of God which passes all understanding. So, fine words, but does it work? In today's climate, in the face of many anxious-making factors, can Christianity really bring us to a state of such peace that anxiety disappears? Can Christianity really get rid of those sleepless nights? Those tension headaches? Those knotted muscles? Is this the Good news?
It's interesting that among the many cures for stress there are on the market, one which features again and again is meditation. During meditation, brain waves change their pattern. And those people who meditate regularly are found to have a predominance of calming Alpha waves. They are more relaxed people. They suffer less from stress and less from illness than the majority of the population. They are more stable and better able to cope in a crisis than non-meditators.
St. Paul didn't need the benefits of scientific study to tell him that. He sums it up: "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests, your needs, be made known to God."
George Muller once said: The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. Because as Arthur Somers Roche described it: Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.
If you want to get rid of anxiety, if you want to dispel fear, begin to regularly spend five or ten minutes a day in quiet in the presence of God. And then you'll begin to know what inner peace is all about.
I want to finish by reading you something I found this last week floating in cyberspace, on the Internet. It said this:
Be on the alert for symptoms of inner peace. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to inner peace and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world.
Some signs and symptoms of inner peace:
+ A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences.
+ An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.
+ A loss of interest in judging other people.
+ A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.
+ A loss of interest in conflict.
+ A loss of the ability to worry. (This is a very serious symptom.)
+ Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
+ Contented feelings of connectedness with others and with nature.
+ Frequent attacks of smiling.
+ An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.
+ An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it.
These are the symptoms of the peace of God which passes all understanding. And it's there waiting for us all. We simply have to reach out and take it.
