South United Methodist Church
November 19, 2006
Krista Atwood
Scripture: 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.”
Sermon: I Have Better Things to Worry About!
Okay, Jesus, you got me! I’ll throw up my hands on this one. There is no sense in my even trying to argue. I’m a worrier, pure and simple. I worry about everything, big or small, important or inconsequential. If there is a way to worry about it, I will figure out how…. But I have a feeling that I’m probably not the only one in the room who feels a little needled by the Scripture this morning. Am I right? Any other worriers out there?
I’m probably a hopeless case, though. I come from a whole family of worriers…. and not just regular worriers, but anticipatory worriers. We worry not just about what might happen today or tomorrow, but what might happen two months from now and a year after that. The reasoning ~ if you can call it that ~ is that if you worry far enough in advance, at least you won’t run out of time.
But there are studies out there telling us that worry isn’t good for us, right? High blood pressure. Insomnia. Worry keeps us up a night. It wears us down. It drains our creativity and damages our bodies. Maybe (just maybe) Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said, “…do not worry about your life…” But still, it’s one thing to know we shouldn’t worry, but quite another to quit worrying. Knowing me, I’d worry about how I shouldn’t be worrying… and, I don’t know about you, but I have better things to worry about than that!
Better things to worry about, like our stewardship campaign, for example. Better things to worry about, like our Mission Shares. Better things to worry about, like how we will meet our church budget…. Oh, I’m sorry. Am I worrying you? Okay, so we are all probably a little worried this morning. Money is one of those things that make us worry. And it is Stewardship Consecration Sunday. Did we give too much? Did we give to little? Will we be able to keep up with our pledge? Will all the ministries of the church be funded? As one bumper sticker says, “So much to worry about, so little time.”
Yet here, in the middle of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus challenges us, “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?” My first reaction is to say, “You know, that all sounds good, but the birds of the air don’t have electric bills or mortgages or kids in college. The lilies of the field don’t have fiduciary responsibilities. They don’t have a finance committee working hard to pay Mission Shares in full.” But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He continues on saying, “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
“…all these things will be given to you as well.” Is that true? Do you think that it’s really true? That all these things, all these things that comprise so much of our worries, will be given to us as well? And if it is true, what would it mean to strive first for the kingdom of God?
I certainly don’t think that Jesus was implying that if we believe a certain thing or say a certain prayer we will get whatever we want ~ a la the ‘Prosperity Gospel’ that’s going around these days. If that were the case, how could one reconcile poverty or war or famine? In my understanding of the Gospel of Christ, need does not equal punishment. Striving for the kingdom of God will not get us a flat screen TV or an MP3 player. But I do believe that striving for the kingdom will get us something, something even better than that Nintendo Wii so many kids are hoping for under the Christmas tree. As Eugene Peterson translates this gospel passage, when we set aside worry, when we strive for the kingdom we are freed from our, “…preoccupation with getting so we may respond to God’s giving.”
I’m reminded of story about John Wesley as a young man. The story goes that he was hanging some pictures to decorate his room when one of the chambermaids came to the door. He noticed that, even though it was cold, she had only a thin linen gown. He reached into his pocket to give her some money to buy a coat, but he found he didn’t have enough because he had just spent all his money on the pictures he was hanging. From this moment on, his attitude about money changed. Later in his life Wesley preached, “Above all, do not make the care of future things a pretence for neglecting present duty.”
Now, one thing we may not realize is that John Wesley was considered a wealthy man in his day. Between his salary as a fellow at Lincoln College and his income from publishing, he made more than enough money to get by and even be quite comfortable. But despite whether he made 30 pounds or 90 pounds or 120 pounds a year he lived on just 28 pounds and gave the rest away. In 1744 he announced, “When I die, if I leave behind me ten pounds…you and all mankind may bear witness against me, that I have lived and died a thief and a robber.” When he died, nearly 50 years later, the only money he had was the miscellaneous coins found in his pockets and dresser.
I am not suggesting that we try to live like that. Planning ahead is important for our future, not to mention our sanity. But I do think that John Wesley was on to something. He gave up his preoccupation with getting so he could respond to God’s giving. God’s giving to him to sustain him day to day and God’s giving through him to reach those in need and support God’s work in the world.
It seems to me that on the Stewardship Consecration Sunday, on this Sunday before Thanksgiving, we are invited to free ourselves from our preoccupation with getting so we may respond to God’s giving. Setting aside worry, setting aside anxiety, we are invited to celebrate all that God has given us, as individuals and as a church. Despite what we may think, and what our culture tells us, our security is not in our ability to make a living or meet the budget. “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”
So what does this mean for our pledges? Our budget? Our Mission Shares? It is my hope that, though this Sunday and in the year to come we can celebrate God’s giving. God’s giving to us to sustain us day to day. And God’s giving through us ~ through the sharing of our time, our talents, and our money ~ to be part of God’s kingdom work in the world. Striving for the kingdom of God, who knows what we might do! William Klein suggests, “When we trust God we are free to be grateful. We are free from living cautiously, tight fistedly, fearfully. We are free to live gratefully.” Grateful that the God who cares so much for us will supply all that is needed.
Last Sunday I shared with you some of the reasons Gary and I are excited about giving to the church. Not least of which is that through giving to the church we can be part of God’s work in the world, joining with other Christians to do something greater than we could do on our own. Ultimately our giving is not about what the church needs (all those things that may make us worry), but about our thankfulness. By paying our pledge commitment first, before we pay any other bills each month, we celebrate God’s giving ~ God’s giving to us and God’s giving through us ~ knowing that we give not out of scarcity, but out of the great abundance of God’s gifts to us.
Now this doesn’t mean that I don’t worry at times. Heck, its hard to find a time when I’m not worried about something – bills, car repairs, finishing my sermon on time! And I’m probably not going to give up worrying cold-turkey. But I do think that Jesus’ words for us today are Good News. “Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?'” While I may think I have better things to worry about, the truth is that I have nothing to worry about at all, we have nothing to worry about at all. How about that? Freeing ourselves from, “…preoccupation with getting so we may respond to God’s giving” we realize we have everything we need, and a great abundance to share. Thanks be to God who knows exactly what we need. Thanks be to God. Amen.
