don't worry

Epiphany 8A 2011
preached February 27, 2011 at Saint David of Wales

Isaiah 49:8-16a
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Matthew 6:24-34
Psalm 131

Dear God,
Give us the courage to fear nothing but the loss of you, so that no clouds of worry hide the light of your Love.
Amen

Jesus says: Don’t serve two masters then he starts talking about worry.
At first, it seems like Jesus is changing the subject. Does Jesus want us to be total slackers who never do anything? If we didn’t worry about what we were going to eat and what we were going to wear, we would end up naked and hungry in no time.
Doesn’t Jesus know how complicated our lives are?
How can we not worry?
However we are a fractured people suffering from spiritual ADD and we cannot keep our minds off our worries long enough to experience the goodness of the God who has written us on the palms of his hands.

The word that is translated this morning as worry for us means division, He is saying: don’t be divided.

Jesus hasn’t changed the subject at all. Worrying IS serving two masters. Worry keeps you continually focused on ourselves, on our “own” family and our own future.
We need to learn how not to let ourselves be divided between the things of this world and the work of God who has written us on the palms of her hands.

Jesus has been telling us over and over in the Sermon on the Mount this epiphany about the kingdom of God we should place our undivided attention on.

We cannot be joyful and anxious at the same time, we cannot serve God and the money, to try is to be divided, to try is to worry.
If we seek first the kingdom of God there will be no room in our hearts for worry.
God calls us to unity, wholeness and singleness of heart.

Now Jesus accepted hospitality in the homes of plenty of folks who did whatever the 1st century equivalent was of paying all their bills on time.

This is not a call to stop doing today’s works, but to trust that God sends the money that we earn. So we do not think we alone are responsible for our good fortune? If we have health and education and skill, where did they come from?, if we had a good childhood and a family where did that come from?, if today we have friends and a partner, children or pets, did we make those? (Well maybe the kids but you know what I mean.)We are quick to take credit for the good in our lives and blame God for any misfortune, the God who tells us: I will never forget you. I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. while the psalmists’ soul is still like a child upon her mother’s breast, resting in the peace of God.

What could be important enough or compelling enough to pull us away from a God who writes us on the palms of her hands.
Here are Jesus’ priorities-
Loving enemies going the second mile, turning the other cheek, not calling anyone a fool, not objectifying women, and continually remembering how incredibly blessed the poor and broken and weak are to God.

Don’t worry about what we will eat, worry about the children with out enough are going to eat, don’t worry about what we will wear. Worry about our neighbor who has no coat. This is kingdom living. Today has enough problems for itself. We can take care of ourselves and take care of our neighbors today. But if we are hoarding food for tomorrow while our neighbor’s child starves, we have abandoned God, and serve only worry.

Worry says: Not like those people Lord please. Keep me from being like those people, but Jesus knows we are those people. That’s what we are worried about, keep me from falling into misfortune.
God says: you are inscribed on the palms of my hands.

We are being invited out of a life of self-sufficiency.

What if you lost everything tomorrow?
All of it gone.
Can you imagine a place where that does not panic you?
That is the place Jesus is inviting us to.
What if you woke up tomorrow with everything you have worked so hard for taken away.
Would you feel that you had lost everything, or could you say, “all that I had was a gift from God. Now I will see what else God provides.”?
When we worry about our possessions and our appearance we claim them for ourselves and we give ourselves the credit for God’s graciousness.

Everything we see is a gift, everything we are able to do is a gift, everything we have is a gift, and when we start hoarding the gifts we have been given and paying more attention to them than to the giver, we are divided.
Nothing we have is ours, Jesus says.
I think he means what he says.
Don’t worry

This is exactly what we are being invited into and I would rather we told the truth about it and said no sorry, I cant do that, than try to pretend that is not what Jesus is saying.

We are being called to trust deeply and too much. We are called to be dependent on God for everything. The only easy part is we already are, we just need to try and catch up our beliefs with the reality of a God who writes us on the palms of her hands.

This is not a promise that nothing bad will ever happen to us.

Sometimes the birds of the air do starve to death, the grass is thrown into the fire but still they sing and swoop and bloom.

Faithful people go hungry while we store up for tomorrow enough to solve today’s trouble.

So, concern yourself with what your neighbor can wear today if he is naked
And concern yourself with what your neighbor can eat today if she is hungry

We can act, we can pray, we can sing, we can work, we can cook, we can bless, we just can’t worry.

We can love all those around us friend and enemy alike with a deep singleness of heart. We can be fully present to God’s work in the world, watch the birds and the lilies, and do whatever work God sends our way.
This will take all our time if we do it well.

Then tomorrow we can wake up and do it again,
wherever we live,
whatever we eat,
whatever we wear-
seeking first the kingdom of the one who has inscribed us on his hands.