05-25-2008 Don't Worry, Be....

Matthew 6:24-34

²⁴“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

²⁵“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?

²⁶Look 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?

²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸And why do you worry about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

³⁰But 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?

³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

³⁴“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

The young woman was brought to our ER by ambulance. She’d left an emotionally abusive home only to fall into the arms of a physically abusive husband. She then fell into a deep depression which would weigh her down for months.

The night she appeared in our ER, she had a broken cheekbone--from the husband--and long, deep gashes on her wrists. By her own hand.

I arrived after her family’s minister got there, but I could hear him as I approached the curtain. He told her that it was a good thing that she hadn’t died, because she would’ve gone straight to hell. He told her that her husband had acted badly because she wasn’t being a good wife--like God wanted her to be. He told her that her depression was nonsense--she just needed a better attitude. “Consider the lilies!” he told her.

I heard this, and so I grabbed him by the hair and pounded his head into the railing of the bed, and asked him, “who are you to come into my ER and mistreat my patient?”

I didn’t do that. But, I wanted to.

She sat down at the table downstairs last week with her breakfast. And her two kids. She told me that she’d had a good job and a boyfriend, and things had been pretty good.

Then, her job went south--literally--and her boyfriend went east. And the job she has now is just not enough. And that if it weren’t for free meals and food programs in the city, she wouldn’t know what to do. Sundays were hard, because nobody had meals on Sunday.

So, I told her, “Don’t worry about it! Buck up! Look at the flowers and birds. Are they worrying? Jesus said not to worry about trivial things. So, stop worrying and be positive! Relax! Look at the birds! Don’t worry, be happy!

I didn’t say that. Nor would I ever.

Both these stories tell us something about the world in which we live.

It ain’t Galilee.

Galilee in Jesus’ time was a very poor place, and yet, the situation was such that if you knocked on almost any door, you’d get a meal--maybe even a bed for the night. Jesus’ whole plan of mission counted on this. Remember, he told the disciples when he sent them out not carry anything with them, but to accept whatever hospitality was offered? There was no need for most people to get distracted with financial problems. In fact, the more the community became caring, and embodied the gospel of the kingdom the better the chances were that you would survive, at least with the basics.

Acts 2 tells the story of the early Jerusalem church, which was essentially a commune. It was. Everybody shared what they had and they all had plenty. Until the fourth chapter, of course, when things got complicated.

The point is that in Jesus’ time, this was very good advice. Don’t worry about survival. You will survive. God will take care of you, along with generous people.

Bill Loader says, “The strategy would not have worked in desperately poor areas and still does not. Starving people look with vacant faces at birds and, if anything, would want to eat them or shoo them away from the little they have. It is even worse when good Christian people imply that desperate people lack faith or are somehow left on the scrap heap because they worry and don't trust.”

We live in a world full of people who cannot help but worry and who have a difficult time trusting. They are exhausted and fearful--either of economic disaster, or of emotional or mental pain. Repeating “consider the lilies of the field,” to someone on the brink of financial or nervous breakdown, and, well, you’ll get what you deserve.

So, where does that leave us--relatively well-off--and if you think you’re not, take a look at the pictures from Darfur, if you can stomach them. We are relatively well-off, and well fed--maybe overfed. We live in decent homes--some more affluent than others. What does this passage bring to us?

The first verse of our reading addresses us. We can’t serve two masters. We can’t serve both God and money--actually, the word there, mammon, means greed for money or wealth. You either work for wealth, or you work for God. They are opposites.

To serve God is the opposite of serving greed. The issue is about idolatry--and an idol is anything you worship more than God.

Bill Loader writes:

“The contrast [that is of God and wealth] only makes sense if you really do think they are opposites. If your image of God is of one who will guarantee you blessing, here or beyond, so that you can do better than others, then your God is in close alliance with mammon. They are mates. It matters little whether your satisfaction is to be at peace in this world with possessions while others go without or to have peace in the life to come knowing that others face pain and oblivion. They are both versions of non-love. But if your God is a God of compassion, your passion and your pain will be compassionate. So we choose the God of compassion who calls for sharing or we choose the God of greed and self-indulgence, making ourselves rich and happy at others' expense. Both can be very religious.

I think that the pie-in-the-sky prosperity- Gospel type preachers who tell their audiences that God wants them to be rich are going to have some ‘splaining to do. Not only does that kind of thinking not deliver, it reminds me of a line from Harry Emerson Fosdick’s great hymn:

“Shame our wanton, selfish gladness,

Rich in things, but poor in soul.”

So, what do we do? Ignore our needs? Live outside in the park? Stop working? No, God has made us to take care of our own needs, but not at the expense of other people, not at the expense of noticing God’s creation, at not at the expense of worshiping the material world more than God.

Alice Walker wrote in her greatest novel, “I think God gets [hacked] off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” Consider the purple in the field? Not for the sake of the color purple itself, but to honor the one who created it.

Tom Wright (who wrote our Luke for everyone book) writes in his new book on Hope, “when people cease to be surrounded by beauty, they cease to hope.”

Rather than worship the idol of wealth, we are to seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness. Throughout the bible, God’s kingdom and righteousness are linked with justice. And the kingdom of righteousness & justice is the business of making sure that all have enough.

• Justice is questioning why Ohio has the highest foreclosure rate in the country.

• Justice is working to bring jobs to Mansfield

• Justice is not just providing a meal, it is seeking to change the systems and infrastructures that keep some in poverty.

• Justice is noticing the flowers and birds--the beauty given to us by God--and caring for the earth that nurtures them and us.

Then we can truly appreciate the flowers and the birds. Because, our problem isn’t that we’re too busy to notice the flowers, the problem is that we lack confidence in the God we worship. We don’t trust that our needs will be met--not realizing that our needs will never truly be met while others remain in need. Do we really believe that God will provide for us? Seek the kingdom, first, then everything else will come. Seek the kingdom in prayer, in study, in love for others, and you’ll have enough.

But, please don’t say that to someone who looks at a bird and wonders if that might be their next meal--they can’t hear that over the growling of their stomachs. Tell them that God is walking with them--and that you will, too.

You want to know what I said to those two women in the stories I told earlier? Not, don’t worry, be happy! Everything will be alright. Seek the kingdom and everything will be just fine.

No, I told them that God was hurting right there with them, and that God didn’t want them to hurt. And that there were lots of people who would walk with them.

And that is the good news for all of us--that God will always walk with us. And that there are lots of people who will walk through life with us.

Last Wednesday, about 40 of us walked the streets of Downtown Mansfield to see the places our church has called home over the years. And we remembered the people who’d gone before us, and the ways in which they had blessed our city in the past. It was a wonderful metaphor for the Christian life--we walk in paths that have been created for us by those who’ve gone before--who still walk with us, And we notice not only the beauty, but the needs. And we remember that God is walking with us, empowering us to reach out, to love, to enjoy beauty, and to serve. That is Good news, Good News, indeed. Amen.

First Christian Church Sermons Chris Whitehead 5/25/2008