Freedom from Worry

Epiphany 8A
February 27, 2011
Matthew 6:24-34

Grace, Mercy and Peace be to you from God our father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

This past week, I finished reading a novel by John Grisham called The Street Lawyer. The novel was about a young man named Michael Brock who was a lawyer at large and very successful firm who undergoes a life altering experience after being held hostage in one of the law firms many conference rooms by a homeless man who had been wrongly evicted from an apartment by a representative of this law firm. It is only after this experience that Michael Brock realizes how his life as a lawyer had revolved around chasing money and he begins to question this way of life after spending an evening volunteering at a soup kitchen. While he was there, he met and spent some time with a four year old. Wanting to help this child and his family, the next day Brock goes out to buy some clothing, toys and food for this family, only to find out that the next night that the entire family had died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their car during a snow storm. I’m not going to give all the details away, but I will say that as the novel continues, the reader gets to see the transformation of a man who started his law career working as many hours as he could chasing money and power, worrying that he wouldn’t put in enough hours to eventually become a partner at the firm…but later winds up giving up all that money to help fight for justice for the homeless of Washington D.C. In making this switch, he finds freedom.

As we gather here on this un-winter like winter morning, we do so as a church coming to the end of the season of Epiphany…the longest epiphany season that has occurred in some time. And as we are getting ready to shift from our journey through epiphany to a journey with Jesus to the cross in Lent, we do so with Jesus’ words in our ears “You cannot serve two masters” then later he tells us “Do not worry.” If you think about it, this text has perfect timing for our world and our nation.
On the news we hear about national and state budget crises. We hear about rushes to make spending cuts so that deficits don’t get bigger and the government doesn’t run out of money. We are told that we, as citizens of this country, should be prepared to tighten our belts financially, but at the same time we are also being warned that oil prices are about to sky rocket because of the protests in the middle east and that we should be ready at a moments notice to run to the gas station and fill up our cars before gas prices make travel by car prohibitive. We hear about protests in Libya and Yemen, of peaceful demonstrations being turned violent at the orders of heads of government. Meanwhile at home, we worry about possible job losses, we get calls that friends are being diagnosed with cancer or were in a car accident. And yet, in our ear we hear the word’s of Jesus this morning saying “Do not worry.”
Easier said than done right? And it doesn’t make it any easier if we listen to Jesus’ word while the song “don’t worry, be happy” play in the background, either. But if you think about it in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, as a whole, these words are words that offer us a different way to live, a freeing way to live.
Five weeks ago, when this series of Gospel texts from the Sermon on the Mount began, Jesus began to offer up to a new and radical way of living that was different than what the people were used to. It was a way of living in which the poor, the down trodden and the outcast were recipients of great blessings, it was a way of living in which people look beyond the letter of the law and the old ways of doing things and look for ways of living in which all of our relationships are as life giving and life enriching as they can be for everyone involved. It was a way of living in which people stand peacefully yet firmly against injustice and those who try to wrong them and in the end, forgive them and in doing so, release them from their power to continue to cause hurt and damage.

Throughout the entirety of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ teaching is about what it means to be people living in the Kingdom of God. And today’s Gospel text is no different. In his declarations about money and worrying, Jesus is telling those gathered around him, as well as us, that there is a danger in worrying too much. Yes, there are times and places when worrying is a valid action. When a friend takes ill suddenly, or when we have gotten into an argument with a friend, or when the choice needs to be made between paying the electric bill and putting food on the table. There are many people in this state that spend their parts of their lives worrying because they do not know when will be the next time they get a hot meal, or a warm place to sleep. Jesus is not ignoring those circumstances and these needs…they were very real and present during the time of his ministry just as they are now.
What Jesus is trying to say, however, is that the danger in worrying comes when we become overly concerned with matters of every day life…when we become so focused upon what we will eat or what we will wear or how much money we make that we lose focus on other very important aspects of life, family, friends, community and the love, trust and support that come from those places. When our worries about every day matters get to this level, it prevents us from living our lives fully, and there is an extra danger of those things, especially our money and our possessions becoming our gods…and as Jesus said in the beginning of our text this morning, no one can serve two masters.
We live in a very troubled world, one in which chaos seems to be at play more and more. And it is worrisome to think about what is going to happen in our towns, our state and our nation in the coming years. But we have hope that comes from today’s scripture texts. Hope that comes when we trust that God knows our needs before we do and that God will provide for those needs, in ways that we see and in ways that we don’t. Hope that comes when we hear from the prophet Isaiah, that we will never be forgotten because our names are inscribed on God’s hand. And hope that comes from a declaration to not worry. For if, in this midst of the chaotic and troubled world, we look not to the treasures of this earth but instead seek the life that comes when we live in the Kingdom of God, we will have that life, and have it abundantly.