Matt 6:25-34 What, Me Worry?

Sermon preached June 2, 2013 Opening A lot of you tell me that you take trips up to New York City. Well, the next time youre in New York, there is a statue you ought to see. Its in front of the International Building, about 50th street and 5th Avenue. In front of the building, there is a large, beautiful statue of Atlas, the strongest man in the world. Portrayed in the statue, Atlas is a handsome, buff guy - enormous wide shoulders, rippling muscles, bulging thighs. But he is hunched over, weighed down, carrying the enormous weight of the world on his shoulders. Some of us this morning feel like we have the weight of the world on your shoulders. You may be anxious, worried, preoccupied, overwhelmed. Perhaps you worry about a child; perhaps you are pressured at work; perhaps your marriage is in trouble; maybe theres not enough money to pay the bills, maybe someone you love is sick. You sleep only fitfully at night; you wake in the morning with a sense of dread in the pit of your stomach, you feel a sense of panic as you move through your days. And if you dont feel any of that now, some day you probably will. But God knows that life is broken and messy; God knows that we are prone to worry; and God wishes better for us. And so, the Lord has a word for us, from his sermon on the mount. What Jesus is addressing The sermon on the mount, is the longest block of teaching we have from the Lord. And here we have the Lords vision for how we live as his followers. For how we find and live the abundant life he wishes for us. Following the sermon on the mount, is how we live as faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. But todays text - may seem completely unreasonable and unrealistic. Do not worry, says Jesus, about your life..what you will eat and drink, what you will wear... Do not worry? The Lord is commanding us - not to worry? Worry that seems to well up as involuntarily as salivating. Why, after hearing this, we might get worried that Jesus will get mad at us, because we are worrying! What is Jesus talking about here?

Well, Matthew, in translating Jesus Aramaic into Greek, uses the participle form meaning, worrying - the commentator Dale Bruner translates it as, stop being so anxious. What the Lord is describing, is anxiety that becomes a daily companion, a parasite that leeches onto our minds, worms its way into our lives and over time begins to suck the life out of us. Why we worry Some people are naturally anxious because thats the way they are wired, neurologically speaking - like how some children are anxious, you can see it in first few months of life they react with fear to strangers, then as they get older get anxious about any change in life. Some people learn to be anxious: Maybe you grew up with anxious parents who fretted over every little thing, and you learned from then that the proper response to life and its problems is to be anxious. Maybe you grew up in an unstable family - alcoholic parents, perhaps - where you didnt know if there was going to be food on the table or a roof over your head, and the anxiety of childhood has stayed with you into your adult life. Over time, anxiety can create ruts in the brain, so to speak, where if you worry and worry, you train your brain to react automatically with anxiety when stressful situations hit Worry has been defined as "a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained." For some people, life has been brutal - and they worry about the future because of real experiences in the past - life has been cruel and you worry that the future will be the same way. For some people, anxiety comes as a result of existential crises. You get older, and every time you get out of bed something hurts, and it dawns on you that youre going to die, and even if take a fistful of antioxidants everyday and eat spinach and kale and do Zumba five times a week - you may delay death, but you cant stop it. Why Jesus addresses this Uselessness of worry

There is no other human activity that creates more anguish for less purpose than worry. Worry is debilitating, demoralizing, discouraging and destructive. And it accomplishes nothing - Jesus saying cant add a single hour to ones life can actually subtract a lot of hours, literally, by shortening your life; and can ruin life the life youve been given because instead of enjoying the present and the blessings God has given you, you are worrying about a catastrophic future that likely will never happen And beyond that - can become a self-fulfilling prophecy where you get so paralyzed by your worries that you cant meet those genuine challenges that are in front of you Physical harm of worry Anxiety and stress cause the adrenal glands to excrete too much of the hormone cortisol, which causes: insomnia raises blood pressure causes body to take nutrients and deposit them in fat cells - in other words, weight gain increase in cholesterol This part of healing he wants to bring us. Jesus gives this teaching, and the means to live it out, because he wants us to live with joy and freedom - what he calls in John, abundant life. This command, is a command of grace. How we find healing Well, how do we get it? I read one suggestion that goes like this: Picture yourself near a beautiful, blue stream. Birds are chirping softly in the cool, crisp mountain air. Nothing can bother you here. No one knows this secret place. You are in total seclusion from the world. The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity. The water is clear. 3

You can easily make out the face of the person whose head you are holding under the water. Look! It is the person who caused you all this stress in the first place. What a pleasant surprise. You let them up...just for a quick breath..then Splish! Splash!...back under they go. Count the bubbles. (Take some deep cleansing) breaths. You are starting to feel better already.1 As tempting as that may be sometimes, it might get you in a little trouble. Two areas where we have to practice what I call the discipline of trust - in our minds, and in our hearts. Disciplines of the mind First, we have to change our patterns of thinking. A big part of faith, is retraining our brains to think differently - and here we need to discipline our thinking to trust that God will meet our needs as Jesus promises here 1. Leave future to God worry is really an attempt to predict the future - usually we envision a catastrophic future where we are not in control. Well, youre not in control. Thats a given. As Christians, there is only one thing we can be certain of about the future - Gods already there and in charge and we can trust him. I read a great story about a man named George McCauslin, who was a director of a YMCA, had a great track record of success. But some years ago, he was serving a YMCA out in western Pennsylvania that had terrible problems - it was losing membership, it was in financial trouble, there was awful staff conflict. McCauslin found himself working 85 hours a week. He was getting little sleep at night; he took little time off. And when he was off, he was worrying and fretting about the problems of this YMCA. He went to a therapist who told him he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He had to learn somehow to let go and somehow to let God into his problems. But he didnt quite know how to do that. So George McCauslin took an afternoon off, took a pend and a pad of paper, and took a walk in the western Pennsylvania woods. He sat down 4

under a tree, and began to relax. He got out his pen and paper, and he decided that he would let go of the burdens of his life. He wrote God a letter, and said, Dear God, today I hereby resign as general manager of the universe. Love, George. And McCauslin said, with a twinkle in his eye, And wonder of wonders, God accepted my resignation.2 2. Learn discipline of trust You know how people say for a preacher to preach about sin hes had to experience it? I usually scoff at that but in case of this sermon its true. Its been big struggle for me to learn to trust and not be anxious. its called Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning. One of the most important books in my own journey of faith. And in that book Manning really puts it to you - and says the only way to be freed from being tossed around by life and being eaten up by anxiety is to trust God no - matter - what. That no matter how bad the situation, how devastating the loss, how grim the future, God is always there and his presence will sustain us and even if we die, we can trust him to preserve us. This is what Manning calls a second conversion, but a conversion that has to be renewed daily. This means that every single day when you get up you tell God you trust him, and rely on Gods presence and mercy and strength to get you through whatever happens. Its a decision of will that you have to make every single day. And the great thing is, God can be trusted. We are promised in Romans that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Nothing. Doesnt mean dont work or plan ahead - Jesus points to the birds of the air and if you watch them, theyre pretty busy little creatures - but we are to work and plan within the context of a discipline of trust. Disciplines of the heart Our second big problem is what we have in our hearts. And what is there, are idols. Let me explain. St. Augustine was a great African theologian who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries and he pointed out that we human beings take good things and make them ultimate things - that is, we take the good stuff of life - romantic love, friendships, our work, sex - and make them ultimate things in the sense that they become so important that we cant imagine life without them. And Augustine said that when we do that, and when those 5

things are threatened, anxiety erupts within us. Here are some examples: Why do some of us parents have our children involved in nineteen different sports and activities? Sure, its good to help our children develop interests and discover talents, but Ive got to wonder how much of all this is motivated again by anxiety - the anxiety that comes from watching other parents do all this stuff for the children and we figure wed better do it too or were not giving our child every advantage and theyll be deprived for life because they wont have the right activities on their college apps and wont get into a good college and will wind up...living back home with us! Now THATS scary! By the way, you know what children really want? Its not more lessons and commitments. Its not more stuff. I recently read of a study that was composed of the results of one simple question posed a large group of children. The question was, If you were granted one wish that would change the way your parents lives affect you, what would that wish be? The largest group of children responded that they would wish their parents would be less stressed. Jesus said to seek first the Kingdom of God - that is, set your heart first and foremost on knowing God, loving God, obeying God - plunge into what God is doing in the world by helping the suffering, building Christs church, sharing faith; live out your faith in the everyday by loving your spouse and children, giving over to Christ your addictions and sins to be healed - live with God at the center - discipline your heart and mind to silence your nagging worries - trust God for your needs - and everything you need will be given to you. Its like the biblical scholar Dale Brunner said, While disciples seek Gods kingdom in the front or living room of their lives, possessions are brought in the back door and deposited in the kitchen. The front door of disciples lives are open to human need and the divine glory...meanwhile, the Father has a special delivery service that brings to the back door the very things for which the secular would spends its whole time shopping.3 This works best within a Christian community Remember Jesus came to bring the Kingdom of God - a new reality that was coming to life in the midst of a broken and suffering world. And part of the kingdom is the church - and its supposed to be a community of mutual care where needs are met if there is a crisis or shortfall -

Jesus is not telling us not to care if others have food or clothing...and we know from the scriptures that we are not only to care, but help so we can relieve the anxieties of others and be the means by which God provides. The early church was known for this - in the New Testament you read of how the church cared for widows - who were people without means, without family to care for them James in his letter says our faith is shown to be pure and real, when we care for widows and orphans. Closing Well, in closing, after the first service Kathi Beitsch came up and shared with me how she deals with anxieties and worries. She imagines herself writing them down on a sheet of paper, and then she crumples up the piece of paper and holds the crumpled sheet in her hand. Then she imagines herself on a stairway to heaven, and climbs up the stairs to stand before Jesus. And the Lord puts out his hand and she hands him the crumpled list of her worries, leaves it with Jesus, and then turns away and heads back down the stairs. Sounds good to me. The Lord can be trusted. Lets do it. Amen. Endnotes 1. Dynamic Preaching, July-August-September 1999, p. 29. 2. From a sermon by Thomas Tewell, The Weight of the World, preached at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, December 1995. 3. Dale Brunner, Matthew: Volume 1 - The Christbook, p. 269. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1987.