| “NO PANIC IN HEAVEN” Mark 16:1-8; Philippians 4:4-9 Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA © Rev. Linda Jaymes, 5/16/10 |
As some of you know, Bruce Saul was scheduled to preach this morning but ended up in the hospital. And so if today’s
sermon sounds familiar it’s because I preached it in October of 2007. But since it was the Holy Spirit who brought this
message to mind, I am trusting that it will provide some comfort and encouragement for us, given the difficult week we have
just experienced.
The title of the sermon comes from a phrase I ran across a while back in one of my daily devotionals, and it’s a phrase
that reminds us of God’s absolute sovereignty regardless of any crisis that may be going on around us. I think these four little
words—“No panic in heaven”— can be an inspiration for all of us, because they speak volumes about the kind of God we
worship and serve.
At the risk of sounding flaky if not irreligious, every time I think of those words, “no panic in heaven,” a rather comedic
idea pops into my mind. First, I picture God as I did in childhood, with long, white hair, a long, white beard, and dressed in
flowing, white robes. Next, I imagine Him rushing around heaven in a panic, something like Chicken Little, muttering over and
over again, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Dear me, dear me, what am I to do?” But even as that image appears in my
mind, just as quickly I am forced to realize how ridiculous that thought is! Even the most fleeting thought that there could be
panic in heaven is so ludicrous to me, so absurd, that I am immediately reminded and reassured that God is still in control. God
is not in a panic. God is not anxious about anything. If God is God and I belong to Him then there is no need to become
anxious or get into a panic over anything.
Of course that’s easy to say. Some of the things that we have to face and deal with in this life make it very hard not to
become anxious or afraid or end up in a panic. But that’s where scripture can help. For example, there are some things we can
learn from today’s lesson from the Gospel of Mark, which describes a very worrisome, anxiety-laden situation that took place
on the morning of the Resurrection.
Early that Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome went out and bought spices to take to
Jesus’ tomb so they could finish preparing the body for burial. Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish ruling council
and a secret believer in Christ, had wrapped the body in linen and placed it in his own tomb. But because the Sabbath was
approaching at sunset, the rest of the traditional preparation of the body had to wait. In fact, the women had to wait a full day
and a half—24 hours to observe the Sabbath and then another twelve hours to wait for sunrise—so they could go back and
finish their work in daylight.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t like waiting—even if it’s for something good. So when I try to imagine the
frame of mind these women must have been in—first, having watched their Lord suffer and die on the Cross, and then second,
waiting to return to the tomb to give him a proper burial—I think they must have been practically out of their minds with
anxiety, if not in a full-blown panic. And who could blame them? They had pinned all of their hopes on Jesus; they had
believed that He was the long-awaited Messiah. And if He were dead—well—it sure must have seemed like there was plenty of
panic in heaven! And so it is no wonder that on the way to the tomb the women were anxious about how they were going to
get inside. After all, first century tombs had no doors. Instead, huge stones, like millstones, were placed in a groove that had
been hollowed out in front of the opening to each tomb, and once that stone was in place, it would take several men to push it
out of the groove and roll it away from the entrance to the tomb.
But what happened next teaches us two very important things in regard to worry or panic. The first has to do with God.
When the women arrived at the tomb, the stone had already been moved. God had gone ahead of the women and before they
arrived He had resolved the situation they were so worried about. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever spent
minutes, hours, days or even years worrying and fretting about something that never happens? How many of us spend—or
waste!—precious time worrying about things that never come to pass? One medical doctor actually did some calculations on
this subject. In an analysis of his own patients he discovered that
“Forty percent worried over things that never happened. Thirty percent of the worries analyzed were related to past
matters which were now beyond the patients’ control. Twelve percent were anxious about their health, although their only
illness was in their imagination. Ten percent worried over their families, their friends or the neighbors, although in most
cases there was no substantial basis for the fears that were causing trouble. Just eight percent of the worries seemed to have
some basis in conditions that needed to be remedied.” 1
The story of these women helps us to remember that the big things in life—the things that probably cause us the greatest
anxiety because we are powerless to do anything about them—are best left to God. God is not powerless. God is not in a
panic. And if stones or mountains need to moved, He is the one who can move them.
The second thing we can learn from this passage in regard to worry has to do not so much with God but with the
women. Notice that the thing they were worried about—moving the stone—did not stop them from going to the tomb. It didn’
t stop them from making their plans and doing their part, doing what they could do. That’s something all of us need to
remember. Sometimes, we get so focused on what we can’t do or what we fear might happen that we forget about what we
can do—and that doesn’t help anybody or anything. But if we concentrate on doing whatever we are able to do, that helps us
from drowning in worry or becoming paralyzed with fear, which can lead to panic. Doing what is in our power to do helps us
to keep our head and our perspective and encourages us to trust that God will do his part—we just have to do ours.
The apostle Paul gives us some additional advice on this subject. He suggests that we turn our anxiety into prayer. While
we focus on doing whatever we can do in the difficult situations that come our way, we can also focus on God, who is never
in a panic. Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.” (Phil. 4:6) In other words, instead of fretting, we should take our problems to the Lord
in prayer. If we do that, if we tell God everything that is worrying us and leave our worries with God, Paul says that we will be
at peace. We will know the peace of God—not an earthly peace or a peace that can be produced by any human effort—but a
supernatural peace which comes only from God. That peace will be like a sentry, a guard at the door of our hearts, keeping
anxiety at bay. Bringing everything to the Lord in prayer keeps anxiety from overwhelming us because it keeps us focused on
and connected to God, who is sovereign over all things. He is King of the Universe, all powerful and always in control, and
there is no better place to bring our worries than to his throne of grace.
But there is one catch or oddity in all of this. Paul says that when we are anxious and come before God in order to lay our
worries at his feet, we are to come with thanksgiving. I don’t think that that means that we have to be thankful for our
worries—although that is a sign of a very strong faith—but surely it means that we need to have a thankful heart and a thankful
attitude toward God in general, in spite of our troubles. William Barclay puts it like this:
“The Christian must feel…that all his life he is, ‘as it were, suspended between past and present blessings.’ Every
prayer must surely include thanks for the great privilege of prayer itself. Paul insists that we must give thanks in everything,
in sorrows and joys alike. That implies two things. It implies gratitude and also perfect submission to the will of God. It is
only when we are fully convinced that God is working all things together for good that we can really feel to[ward] him the
perfect gratitude which believing prayer demands.” 2
I think it’s very true that when we bring our anxieties to God with thanksgiving, we are able to turn our thoughts toward
God and what He can do instead of wallowing in our worries. Prayers that are nothing but laundry lists of desires, or
complaints about our fears and anxieties, don’t help us look beyond our troubles. Those kinds of prayers sometimes even make
things seem worse than they are, because they are liable to end in a pity party instead of encouraging and strengthening us. But
when we add thanksgiving to our prayers, we are able to get outside of ourselves and our troubles and remember that God is a
big part of the picture—in fact, the most important part! That changes everything, especially our perspective, and that gives us
assurance and hope. Through thanksgiving we realize that we are not alone. This God who is Sovereign and powerful and
majestic is also with us in our troubles and already at work in the very things that worry us.
Paul wraps up his thoughts on this subject by telling us what to think about. He knows that the mind is a powerful thing
and what we think about matters a great deal. Our thoughts color everything. We can think ourselves into an illness, into
anxiety and even into a panic. We can dwell on something that has been said or done to us until we have blown it out of all
proportion and it ends up consuming us or running our life. And if we let these things continue to eat away at us, they will kill
our joy if not our spirit and even our physical body.
We would do better to take Paul’s advice. He encourages us to rejoice in the Lord at all times and take our worries and
anxieties to God, who very often is the only one who can do anything about them. And we can be thankful. Thankful that we
have a God who cares about us; a God who loves us with an undying love. He loves us so much, in fact, that He sent his Son
to earth to die for our sins and for all the terrible things that can make us anxious. Through his death, He has it all covered. We
can focus on that and on other good things, things that are true and right and noble and pure. These are the kinds of things that
give us the courage and strength to keep going and keep doing the things that are in our power to do. And if it’s of any help,
maybe we can remember how absurd it is to picture God running around heaven in a panic. That idea alone should remind us
that God does no such thing. God is not worried or anxious about anything. He is still on the throne and still in control of the
universe He created. Thank God! that there is no panic in heaven, only good plans and purposes for the people He loves, the
people He watches over always and forever.
Let us pray.
1. As quoted by Samuel Hugh Moffett & Eileen Flower Moffett in Joy for an Anxious Age: A Study Guide on Philippians. Board of Christian Education, The United Presbyterian
Church U.S.A., 1966, 51-52.
2. Barclay, William. The Daily Study Bible Series: the Letters to the Phiippians, Colossians and Thessalonians. Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1975, 77-78.
sermon sounds familiar it’s because I preached it in October of 2007. But since it was the Holy Spirit who brought this
message to mind, I am trusting that it will provide some comfort and encouragement for us, given the difficult week we have
just experienced.
The title of the sermon comes from a phrase I ran across a while back in one of my daily devotionals, and it’s a phrase
that reminds us of God’s absolute sovereignty regardless of any crisis that may be going on around us. I think these four little
words—“No panic in heaven”— can be an inspiration for all of us, because they speak volumes about the kind of God we
worship and serve.
At the risk of sounding flaky if not irreligious, every time I think of those words, “no panic in heaven,” a rather comedic
idea pops into my mind. First, I picture God as I did in childhood, with long, white hair, a long, white beard, and dressed in
flowing, white robes. Next, I imagine Him rushing around heaven in a panic, something like Chicken Little, muttering over and
over again, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Dear me, dear me, what am I to do?” But even as that image appears in my
mind, just as quickly I am forced to realize how ridiculous that thought is! Even the most fleeting thought that there could be
panic in heaven is so ludicrous to me, so absurd, that I am immediately reminded and reassured that God is still in control. God
is not in a panic. God is not anxious about anything. If God is God and I belong to Him then there is no need to become
anxious or get into a panic over anything.
Of course that’s easy to say. Some of the things that we have to face and deal with in this life make it very hard not to
become anxious or afraid or end up in a panic. But that’s where scripture can help. For example, there are some things we can
learn from today’s lesson from the Gospel of Mark, which describes a very worrisome, anxiety-laden situation that took place
on the morning of the Resurrection.
Early that Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome went out and bought spices to take to
Jesus’ tomb so they could finish preparing the body for burial. Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish ruling council
and a secret believer in Christ, had wrapped the body in linen and placed it in his own tomb. But because the Sabbath was
approaching at sunset, the rest of the traditional preparation of the body had to wait. In fact, the women had to wait a full day
and a half—24 hours to observe the Sabbath and then another twelve hours to wait for sunrise—so they could go back and
finish their work in daylight.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t like waiting—even if it’s for something good. So when I try to imagine the
frame of mind these women must have been in—first, having watched their Lord suffer and die on the Cross, and then second,
waiting to return to the tomb to give him a proper burial—I think they must have been practically out of their minds with
anxiety, if not in a full-blown panic. And who could blame them? They had pinned all of their hopes on Jesus; they had
believed that He was the long-awaited Messiah. And if He were dead—well—it sure must have seemed like there was plenty of
panic in heaven! And so it is no wonder that on the way to the tomb the women were anxious about how they were going to
get inside. After all, first century tombs had no doors. Instead, huge stones, like millstones, were placed in a groove that had
been hollowed out in front of the opening to each tomb, and once that stone was in place, it would take several men to push it
out of the groove and roll it away from the entrance to the tomb.
But what happened next teaches us two very important things in regard to worry or panic. The first has to do with God.
When the women arrived at the tomb, the stone had already been moved. God had gone ahead of the women and before they
arrived He had resolved the situation they were so worried about. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever spent
minutes, hours, days or even years worrying and fretting about something that never happens? How many of us spend—or
waste!—precious time worrying about things that never come to pass? One medical doctor actually did some calculations on
this subject. In an analysis of his own patients he discovered that
“Forty percent worried over things that never happened. Thirty percent of the worries analyzed were related to past
matters which were now beyond the patients’ control. Twelve percent were anxious about their health, although their only
illness was in their imagination. Ten percent worried over their families, their friends or the neighbors, although in most
cases there was no substantial basis for the fears that were causing trouble. Just eight percent of the worries seemed to have
some basis in conditions that needed to be remedied.” 1
The story of these women helps us to remember that the big things in life—the things that probably cause us the greatest
anxiety because we are powerless to do anything about them—are best left to God. God is not powerless. God is not in a
panic. And if stones or mountains need to moved, He is the one who can move them.
The second thing we can learn from this passage in regard to worry has to do not so much with God but with the
women. Notice that the thing they were worried about—moving the stone—did not stop them from going to the tomb. It didn’
t stop them from making their plans and doing their part, doing what they could do. That’s something all of us need to
remember. Sometimes, we get so focused on what we can’t do or what we fear might happen that we forget about what we
can do—and that doesn’t help anybody or anything. But if we concentrate on doing whatever we are able to do, that helps us
from drowning in worry or becoming paralyzed with fear, which can lead to panic. Doing what is in our power to do helps us
to keep our head and our perspective and encourages us to trust that God will do his part—we just have to do ours.
The apostle Paul gives us some additional advice on this subject. He suggests that we turn our anxiety into prayer. While
we focus on doing whatever we can do in the difficult situations that come our way, we can also focus on God, who is never
in a panic. Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.” (Phil. 4:6) In other words, instead of fretting, we should take our problems to the Lord
in prayer. If we do that, if we tell God everything that is worrying us and leave our worries with God, Paul says that we will be
at peace. We will know the peace of God—not an earthly peace or a peace that can be produced by any human effort—but a
supernatural peace which comes only from God. That peace will be like a sentry, a guard at the door of our hearts, keeping
anxiety at bay. Bringing everything to the Lord in prayer keeps anxiety from overwhelming us because it keeps us focused on
and connected to God, who is sovereign over all things. He is King of the Universe, all powerful and always in control, and
there is no better place to bring our worries than to his throne of grace.
But there is one catch or oddity in all of this. Paul says that when we are anxious and come before God in order to lay our
worries at his feet, we are to come with thanksgiving. I don’t think that that means that we have to be thankful for our
worries—although that is a sign of a very strong faith—but surely it means that we need to have a thankful heart and a thankful
attitude toward God in general, in spite of our troubles. William Barclay puts it like this:
“The Christian must feel…that all his life he is, ‘as it were, suspended between past and present blessings.’ Every
prayer must surely include thanks for the great privilege of prayer itself. Paul insists that we must give thanks in everything,
in sorrows and joys alike. That implies two things. It implies gratitude and also perfect submission to the will of God. It is
only when we are fully convinced that God is working all things together for good that we can really feel to[ward] him the
perfect gratitude which believing prayer demands.” 2
I think it’s very true that when we bring our anxieties to God with thanksgiving, we are able to turn our thoughts toward
God and what He can do instead of wallowing in our worries. Prayers that are nothing but laundry lists of desires, or
complaints about our fears and anxieties, don’t help us look beyond our troubles. Those kinds of prayers sometimes even make
things seem worse than they are, because they are liable to end in a pity party instead of encouraging and strengthening us. But
when we add thanksgiving to our prayers, we are able to get outside of ourselves and our troubles and remember that God is a
big part of the picture—in fact, the most important part! That changes everything, especially our perspective, and that gives us
assurance and hope. Through thanksgiving we realize that we are not alone. This God who is Sovereign and powerful and
majestic is also with us in our troubles and already at work in the very things that worry us.
Paul wraps up his thoughts on this subject by telling us what to think about. He knows that the mind is a powerful thing
and what we think about matters a great deal. Our thoughts color everything. We can think ourselves into an illness, into
anxiety and even into a panic. We can dwell on something that has been said or done to us until we have blown it out of all
proportion and it ends up consuming us or running our life. And if we let these things continue to eat away at us, they will kill
our joy if not our spirit and even our physical body.
We would do better to take Paul’s advice. He encourages us to rejoice in the Lord at all times and take our worries and
anxieties to God, who very often is the only one who can do anything about them. And we can be thankful. Thankful that we
have a God who cares about us; a God who loves us with an undying love. He loves us so much, in fact, that He sent his Son
to earth to die for our sins and for all the terrible things that can make us anxious. Through his death, He has it all covered. We
can focus on that and on other good things, things that are true and right and noble and pure. These are the kinds of things that
give us the courage and strength to keep going and keep doing the things that are in our power to do. And if it’s of any help,
maybe we can remember how absurd it is to picture God running around heaven in a panic. That idea alone should remind us
that God does no such thing. God is not worried or anxious about anything. He is still on the throne and still in control of the
universe He created. Thank God! that there is no panic in heaven, only good plans and purposes for the people He loves, the
people He watches over always and forever.
Let us pray.
1. As quoted by Samuel Hugh Moffett & Eileen Flower Moffett in Joy for an Anxious Age: A Study Guide on Philippians. Board of Christian Education, The United Presbyterian
Church U.S.A., 1966, 51-52.
2. Barclay, William. The Daily Study Bible Series: the Letters to the Phiippians, Colossians and Thessalonians. Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1975, 77-78.
