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Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 6.25-33

‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.


It seems high time to compile a worry list. So, go on, give us your worries:

(anxious congregation speaks out)

In my notes I’ve included the words “anxious congregation speaks out.” And speak out you did. You guys are really stressed out. But don’t worry, by the end of this sermon I’ll have you singing that somewhat annoying little song. Can you name it?

A really fun website if you are bored is “snopes.com.” Snopes.com calls itself the “Urban Legends Reference Page” and details all those rumours and legends that get passed around by email these days. Regarding Bobby McFarrin, they say this:

The 1988 feel-good anthem "Don't Worry, Be Happy" transformed a talented artist into a household name, garnering Grammy honors as song of the year and record of the year, and winning the "best pop vocal, male" award for Bobby McFerrin. It also served to spawn a long-lived rumor: As early as 1992, whispers were afoot that the man who had composed and sung this bouncy little ditty had failed to heed his own advice and had taken his own life instead.

Now why would someone cook up such a rumour? Could it be that the message was too upbeat for the prevailing mood of the time, a message best defeated by such an ironic rumour? Whatever lay at the heart of such a rumour, I say “don’t worry, be happy” because Bobby McFarrin is still with us and recently recorded an album with Wynton Marsalis.

The one rumour I can confirm is that worry is bad for you. It seems that both the Gospel lesson and the above mentioned song are not just good advice, but good for you. Indulging in worry may have serious consequences:

Every system in your body is affected by worry. In addition to raising blood pressure and increasing blood clotting, worry can prompt your liver to produce more cholesterol, all of which can raise your risk of heart attack and stroke. Muscle tension can give rise to headaches, back pain, and other body aches. Worry can also trigger an increase in stomach acid and either slow or speed up muscle contractions in your intestines, which can lead to stomach aches, constipation, diarrhea, gas or heartburn.

Now I’m really worried. I’m worried that worry-related illness will affect all of us worried people. There is practical advice for worriers. Dr. Dorothy McCoy suggests a few things: talk to someone and talk it through; switch gears and so some activity that helps you relax; exercise; avoid “comfort food” and excessive amounts of alcohol (pioneerthinking.com/trauma.html).


***

‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

To put more simply, you might sum up this passage with these words: Acknowledge God and live differently.* On the face of it this seems to be more than a Gospel-based prescription to deal with worry, but a summary of the entire Christian life. Surely to acknowledge God and live differently is at the heart of any profession of faith, of any creed recited and any goal of faith we may choose to set. But it is deeper than all of these.

To acknowledge God and live differently is not a command or a goal that in failing to accomplish will create greater worry. To acknowledge God and live differently means to adopt a different worldview, to see things in a new way, to imagine yourself in your life in a different way. In other words, one way to understand the message “stop worrying” is as advice to change your behavior: “Don’t worry, be happy.” The other way, the way Jesus shared in the Sermon on the Mount, is to change your character.

But how? And is it even possible to change our character? Isn’t character one of those things “set” in advance, the kind of defining characteristic that is revealed in the things we do?

Look at it this way: anyone can change their behaviour. Anyone can repent of a certain set of actions and adopt a new set. In many ways this is the primary goal of parenting: to encourage certain behaviours and encourage others until the kid “gets it” and can live well on their own. But character is a different kettle of fish. Character defines us, as I said a moment ago, and tends to have greater permanence than the way we choose to act at a certain moment.

It is important to note that much of the instruction in Matthew 6 is directed at the disciples. The crowds were there, leaning in no doubt, but the primary audience for these words was the twelve. And it is here we find the biggest clue to understand Jesus’ goal: the disciples were not merely being instructed, they were being formed. They were called to follow Jesus and follow in his “way.” And to follow in his way mean to live as he lived, love as he loved, and begin to understand in the most intimate way what it meant to be a child of God. Discipleship training was (and is) about adopting a new self, dying to old ways of living and being reborn in the image of Christ.

“Look at the birds of the air” and “consider the lilies.” Do they need to exercise more and talk it through? No, because within the character of birds and flowers is an inability to worry. They can’t do it. They have mastered the art of careless disregard for the worries of the world, and we are called to do likewise.

***
Now hold on a minute. Cathy is going to suddenly stop worrying about contractors and the next sinkhole? Marg is going to stop worrying about next month’s readers and greeters? Gail and Heather are going to stop worrying about hundreds of hungry people? The finance committee is going to stop worrying about paying the bills? (You can pay the bills, right?)

It’s one thing for an itinerant preacher and his friends to wander around from village to village and adopt such a “no-worry” worldview, but we live in the real world. I can say just two words and send shivers up the spines of most moderns: Visa and Mastercard. Worked, didn’t it? Now you’re worrying. I’ve got you all stressed out.

Time for some Thomas Merton:

In our age everything has to be a “problem.” Ours is a time of anxiety because we have willed it to be so. Our anxiety is not imposed on us by force from outside. We impost it on our world and upon one another from within ourselves.

We live in an anxious age. It is contagious. For Merton the goal is live a kind of contradiction where we strive to leave anxiety behind while remaining engaged in an anxious world. For Merton, the contemplative, part of the answer is silence:

Contradictions have always existed in the human soul. But it is only when we prefer [being anxious] to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values that make them trivial by comparison.**

And so, we worry about feeding the many hungry people who live in this neighbourhood, and we also recall the ways we try to live our Christ’s call to compassion. We worry about our children, and we remember the way we know unconditional love in our relationship with them. We worry about the state of the world and we know that God desires peace and justice to reign in the world. Immersed in the light of compassion, grace, peace and justice the layers of worry peel away and we begin to transform ourselves and our approach to the world around us. We are made new.

This weekend, I encourage you to live in two worlds: the world of worry and the world of thankfulness. But I also encourage you to have a conversation between worlds, where you can acknowledge the things that trouble you and then acknowledge God and live differently. Twin every worry with a Kingdom goal and trust in God to help you find a way though. Amen.

*Brueggemann et al, Texts for Preaching A, p. 155
**Merton, Resources A, p. 80

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 7:30 AM