Isaiah 43: 18-21
Philippians 4: 4-7
Matthew 6:25-34
Worry
Do you have a worrier in your family? We do in ours, and I suspect every family does. A young author, Kais Rayes writes that he and his wife found their whole life turned upside down when their first child was born. Every night, the baby seemed to be fussy, and many nights, it seemed that their baby cried far more than he slept. Says Rayes, "My wife would wake me up, saying, 'Get up, honey! Go see why the baby is crying!'" As a result, Rayes found himself suffering from severe sleep deprivation.
While complaining to his coworkers about his problem one day, one of his colleagues suggested a book on infant massage. Rayes immediately went in search of the book and that night, he tried the technique, gently rubbing his baby's back, arms, head, and legs until the baby was completely relaxed and obviously had fallen into a deep sleep. Quietly tiptoeing from the darkened room so as not to disturb the rhythmic breathing of the baby, he made his way directly to his own bed in hopes of enjoying a well deserved full night of sleep.
No such luck. In the middle of the night, his wife woke him in a panic. "Get up, honey!" she said as she jostled him awake. "Go see why the baby is not crying!"
Do you know anybody like that? Some people are just worriers. Even when things go well they worry, they fret, they fume. They worry that something bad will happen.
Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen tells many memorable stories in her book, Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal. In one of her stories she asked one of her patients to describe her husband. The woman laughed and told a story about a visit they made to Hawaii. An organized and frugal man, her husband had reserved compact rental cars on each of the four islands months in advance. On arriving on the Big Island and presenting their reservation to the car rental desk, they were told that the economy car they had reserved was not available. Alarmed, she watched her husband's face redden as he prepared to do battle. The clerk didn't seem to notice. "I am so sorry, sir," he said. "Will you accept a substitute for the same price? We have a Mustang convertible." Barely mollified, her husband put their bags in this beautiful white sports car and they drove off.
The same thing happened throughout their holiday. They would turn in their car and fly to the next island, only to be told that the car they had been promised was not available. They offered a substitute for the same price and each time the substituted car was an upgrade far nicer than the car they had expected. It was amazing, she said. After the Mustang, they had been given a Mazda MR-10, a Lincoln Town Car, and finally, a Mercedes, all with the most sincere apologies. The vacation was absolutely wonderful and on the plane back, she turned to her husband, thanking him for all he had done to arrange such a memorable time. "Yes," he said, pleased, "it was really nice." Then, much to her amazement he added, "Too bad they never had the right car for us." She said he was absolutely serious.
What do you do with people like that? Some people can see the dark side of any cloud, even one with a silver lining. They are worriers. They fume, they fret, they stay stressed out. Do they ever read the words of Jesus?
Can you imagine inviting twenty people to a party, but only buying enough food to serve ten? Of course not.
Would you send your child out into a snowstorm in a swimsuit? No you would not. As rude and self-centered and uncaring as we all can be, we still abide by some basics of good behavior. If we are basically good and caring in our behavior toward others, then why do we not trust God’s promises that he will always provide everything we need to do his will, and he will provide abundantly. God loves us beyond our comprehension—he will keep his promises, because of that love.
Jesus' message in today's gospel text chides his listeners for "worrying" - worrying about food, worrying about drink, worrying about clothing, worrying about covering all the bases in order to make life livable. Jesus knew the real needs for sustenance and shelter. They were a daily challenge for the average day laborer in first-center Palestine - as they are in twenty-first century United States. The number of people in our country for whom the struggle is becoming a day by day one is growing. He knows how hard it is to make ends meet - then and now.
Jesus wants us to live a life that reaches beyond the struggles for everyday sustenance. Jesus invites others to come along with him, to join him in a lifelong journey that sought first "the kingdom of God and his righteousness." Jesus wants people on that pathway first, before we become concerned about other things.
The fact is Jesus' message in today's gospel text isn't about the quest for food and clothing. As he stated, "your heavenly Father knows you need all these things." Jesus doesn't want to offer us just a daily full plate. Jesus wants to offer us an eternity overflowing. Not just a life of sustenance, but a life of abundance. A life overflowing and brimming over. A life that provides more than bread in our belly and a shirt on our back.
The journey Jesus invites us to join feeds our soul, and clothes our mind, and fills our heart. But beyond that, if we are doing God’s will our physical, temporal needs will be provided as well.
Before every car and every cell phone had its own GPS device planted in it, we used to plan trips with a series of maps and guidebooks. One of the big "perks" of an American Automobile Association membership was that they would put together your own personalized "trip-tick" for any journey you might be making on USA or Canadian roads. Anybody ever use on of those? If you needed to travel from New York to Miami they would chart the way. Need the quickest cross-country route from Washington D.C. to San Francisco? They would plot it with a magic-marker. The "trip-tic" provided both regional maps, giving you an idea of how much geography you had to cover, and small, individual maps, focusing on the next fifty or one hundred miles. Off-ramps, restaurants, gas stations, rest stops - the AAA trip-tick gave you the "heads up" on everything that you were heading towards.
When we journey with Jesus we also get our own personal guidance system. But God doesn't produce cheese sandwiches and electric blankets to see us through our kingdom-of-God journey. God doesn't send us mere sustenance. God offers us abundance. So God provides us with everything we need to continue in our kingdom walk. Unfortunately, we too often overlook the opportunities for guidance that God gives us that will lead us to his abundance.
Jesus said that the birds of the air do not sow, reap, or store. But those birds of the air do scavenge for seeds, dig out grubs, swoop up insects. The "lilies of the field" might not "toil nor spin." But they do know how to put down roots, suck up nutrients, stretch for the sun, move with the wind. Every day the birds and the flowers gain what they need by using the built in guidance system that God has given them.
Too many people never seek God’s guidance. Too many of us seek and respond to God’s guidance only for an hour or so a week, mainly on Sunday morning. The rest of the time we often fly by the seat of our pants, and doing so is what leads to our worries. If instead we daily seek God’s path, we will find ourselves much freer from worry, and our lives filling with abundance well beyond just our daily bread. Amen
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