Henrietta United Church of Christ

Rev. David Inglis April 10, 2011

“The Eye in the Storm”

Scripture: Matthew 6:24‑34

[Jesus said,] "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.

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

Sermon:

Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus took time to help us with something as down-to-earth as our everyday worries? Fortunately, our worries about food aren’t usually more serious than, “Do I really have time to get my shopping done and make dinner tonight before Jeopardy comes on?” And our worries about clothes might be like, “Does this teal sweater look okay with my olive slacks?” The answer to that one is no, but somehow I have the feeling that’s not exactly the kind of worrying Jesus is talking about.

So what kinds of worries hound us in our world today? Let’s hear a few that come to your mind.

Now Jesus isn’t saying that we shouldn’t put forth any effort to take care of ourselves and make provisions for our needs. Jesus says to consider the birds of the air, so let’s do just that. What are they doing up there in the air? Chances are they’re catching flying insects, or scanning the ground for prey, or some yummy road-kill, or transporting a juicy worm to their nest. It’s true that they “neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,” but they don’t expect God to deliver a bag of bird seed mix to their nests every morning. They have to go out to work to bring home the grub (or grubs) just like we do.

And God has also helped our species survive by giving us the ability to anticipate future needs and problems and make provisions for them. And so we watch our diet and take medication to help keep us from having medical problems, we buy insurance to save us from financial hardships, and we save money for our kids’ college education or our next car. This is being prudent.

But this same ability to anticipate the future can easily go on overdrive, can’t it? We can imagine ourselves losing our health, and so we wonder if every little lump could be cancer or every pain could be something serious, and we buy all kinds of unnecessary supplements and remedies, and we keep ourselves from enjoying the health and vitality that we do have. We can certainly imagine ourselves losing our job, so we stress out about any little mistakes we make, we kiss up to everyone whose opinion matters, and we lose the satisfaction that offering our gifts for something beyond ourselves gives. We can imagine the children we love going down the wrong path, so we interrogate them about their friends and control all their activities and plans, and unwittingly undermine their own ability to make good choices and we turn them off to our guidance.

“Do not worry about your life,” Jesus tells us, “or about your body, or about your job or your family....Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” No, but worrying can shave time off of our span of life. Once we’ve taken prudent action, worrying about the future doesn’t make the future better. It just makes the present worse.

The root of the Greek word for worry in this passage means “split attention” or “divided concern.” Worry that splits us off from being fully alive and engaged with the present by keeping us preoccupied with the bad things that would happen in the future. But the only place we can ever be alive and do anything is in the present moment. That’s why Jesus begins this teaching by telling us, "No one can serve two masters...You cannot serve God and wealth.” Another way to say that is that you can’t make yourself available as an instrument of God’s love and truth if you’re tied up in trying to make sure all of your own present and future needs are met. You can’t hoist your sails and set out on your daily adventure of loving and serving God while you’re tied to your safe familiar dock and thinking about all the supplies for future trips you’ve got stockpiled in the boathouse and about what might happen to them while you’re not looking and about what storms and dangers might come up while you’re out on the water. You have to shove off from the dock, take your eyes off your boathouse, and open your sails to the wind.

Every day and in every situation, we have to choose between our fear and our faith. Fear can always find potential dangers and problems to run scenarios about in our mind. And all we have to do is just think about fearful things, and our brains trigger stress hormones that make our breathing a little shallower, our muscles a little tenser, and our minds a little more jittery and jangled. Or we can focus on our faith, which reminds us that nothing in life or death or all creation can separate us from the love of God; that all things work for good for those who love God; that we have received from God’s generosity, and God will continue to give us what we need when we need it. Every moment, we can allow our minds to create the turmoil of a storm of what-ifs and potential disasters. Or we can cultivate an attitude of gratitude, trust, and spiritual connectedness to God’s presence and sustenance–like the peaceful eye in the middle of the storm. We always have this choice between fear and faith.

Let me tell you about a woman named Jasmine, who was described by her physician, Dr. Julian Seifter, in his book After the Diagnosis. His book is about how some of the patients he has treated have risen above their chronic illnesses. Now Dr. Seifter views the world through scientific eyes. He believes in what can be proven, and doesn’t have any religious faith or spiritual practice himself. But he’s intrigued by how the faith of many of his patients helps them cope with their illness.

Jasmine almost died in the hospital from a kidney disease. Dr. Seifter saved her life and saw her in his office after she was discharged from the hospital. Dr. Seifter tells her that to stay off dialysis, her life is really going to have to change. She’s going to have to follow a strict diet and a regimen of medications. It's really do-it-or-else.

When people get news like this, they usually take it hard. One patient kicked the wastebasket across Dr. Seifter’s room. But when he finished talking, Jasmine still had her familiar a peaceful smile on her face, and her hands were calmly folded in her lap.

Dr. Seifter says, "You're taking this well."

"I'm a person of faith," she replies.

"Can you tell me about your faith?"

"The big thing is that I'm not alone," she tells him. "I pray to God."

"What do you ask for?"

"I pray for good doctors."

"Does He answer you?"

"God and I have conversations," she explains. "He says to me, 'Who knows you best?' I say, 'Dr Seifter.' He says, 'Who knows you even better?' I say, 'Me.' And God is happy."

After Jasmine further explains how talking things over with God has helped her deal with some really tough family issues, Dr. Seifter writes that he pondered Jasmine’s faith for a long time. In one way, he said, her faith is elegantly simple: God is her ever-present friend, and wants the best for her. But her sense of how God works is fairly sophisticated. God doesn't lay hands on your suffering flesh and magically cure you. Instead He gives you modern medical technology and the free will to do the best you can with your illness. He gives you a good doctor who can see into your soul and help you with your burden. He also gives you confidence that you can face whatever comes. And he observes that Jasmine’s faith has given her the steadfast conviction that there's something beyond her day-to-day struggles, something beyond her ailing body; something, even, beyond death, and this faith helps her transcend all the turmoil and anxiety of a life-threatening illness.

Jasmine tells us “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life...or about your body.” Take whatever steps are reasonable to take care of yourself as a child of God. Pray about what you need, but don’t get tangled up in worrying about all the what-ifs, and don’t let “taking care of #1" become your life mission. “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

So what does it mean to strive first for the kingdom of God? I think of the kingdom of God as that wonderful, life-giving dynamic that breaks into our souls, into our relationships, and into our world when we invite God’s loving nature, God’s transcendent wisdom, God’s abundant generosity, and God’s creative power to reign in our lives. Love, wisdom, generosity, creative power–these things are always flowing out from God, because it’s God’s nature to freely give them. They are always available to us. But they are gifts that can only flow through us. We can’t hoard and store them up for ourselves. But no matter what the situation, we can be a living channel of God’s love, wisdom, generosity, or creative power. We can step out of our self-centered worry cycle and step into the kingdom of God, and look for the good we can create or share in any situation. And sharing God’s gifts blesses us with little glimpses of heaven as these gifts of God flow out through our lives and touch the lives, hearts, and minds of others.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés says, “Anything you do from the soulful self will help lighten the burdens of the world. Anything. You have no idea what the smallest word, the tiniest generosity can cause to be set in motion. Be outrageous in forgiving. Be dramatic in reconciling. Mistakes? Back up and make them as right as you can, then move on. Be off the charts in kindness. In whatever you are called to, strive to be devoted to it in all aspects large and small. Fall short? Try again. Mastery is made in increments, not in leaps. Be brave, be fierce, be visionary. Mend the parts of the world that are ‘within your reach.’ To strive to live this way is the most dramatic gift you can ever give to the world. [Then she ends:] Consider yourselves assigned.”

The choice is ours to make. We can stretch and open ourselves to live our lives fully and freely. Or we can choose to spend our lives turned in on ourselves by our worries and fears. We really have very little control over the future, don’t we? We don’t know what the future will bring, no matter what we plan and do. But we can trust that whatever happens, God will be there, offering us the gifts of love, wisdom, generosity, and creativity that will help us to bring good to that time and that place.

So think of something you tend to worry about. Be aware of what happens to your mind when you let worry take it over. Be aware of what happens in your body. Be aware of how worry splits you off from being fully present and alive right here and right now. Just for now, see if you can you let go of your worries about what you can’t control, and come into the peaceful eye in center of the storm. Take in the deep, unshakable truth that nothing in life or death or all creation can separate you from the love of God. Open to the mystery that all things, no matter how they seem at the time, can work for good for those who love God. Think of all the blessings you have received from God’s generosity, and feel the gratitude not only for all those blessings, but for the truth that God will give you what you truly need when you need it. And look for what good God is calling you to share in the present to bring this world a little closer to God’s kingdom.

“Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” May we have the faith and the humility to open all of our gifts, our energy, our time, and our lives to the God who always invites us to help him create the best possible future by joining him, right now, in creating the best possible present.

Prayer:

God of life and love, we give you our fears and anxieties that constrict our lives and keep them turned in on ourselves. As we breathe out, help us to release that dark cloud of worry and fear. And as we breathe in, let us draw in your eternal love for us, your abundant generosity, your goodness, and your guiding wisdom. Thank you that whatever situation we find ourselves in, because of you, we can choose faith, we can choose life, we can choose love, and we can join you in creating your kingdom, within our hear, within our relationships and within our world.