Sermon, Sun 26 March wk30: Worry...WMRBW

READINGS: Ps 34:1-10 and Matt. 6:19-7:12

Let’s pray: may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts,
be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

It was the spring – for me, autumn for you – of 1988
and no matter where you were, one song dominated:
you’d get in your car, and there it was on the radio;
you’d be on the beach, and someone nearby would be singing along to it on their Walkman – Walkman - remember those??
You’d head off to a cafe for an iced coffee or find yourself in a shopping mall...
and there it’d be, cheerfully playing in the background.
It was this song...
Let’s see if you remember it...

[we then listened to a shortened version of the following...]


‘Don’t worry, be happy’:
and once this song got into your head, it was there for the rest of the day...
ahhh, sorry about that.
It hit the charts, raced to #1 on the hit parade and seemed to stay there for an eternity
well, at least through spring and most of summer.

‘Don’t worry, be happy’:
in this continuing teaching section on prayer, in the Sermon on the Mount,
this song could almost be the theme tune –
gently playing in the background as Jesus talks of not being worried about
storing up treasures on earth;
of not being worried about being on an endless treadmill of consumption –
worrying about not having this or that or the other;
and of not being so worried, or preoccupied,
about what other folk do, that you end up acting as their judge and jury.
‘Don’t worry, be happy' sings Bobby McFerrin –
‘Ask, seek, knock,’ says Jesus.
Bring your worries to your heavenly Father who hears you...
bring your worries to your heavenly Father and in doing so, unburden yourself....

The Sermon on the Mount is the largest chunk of Jesus’ teaching gathered together in one place.
If the Sermon on the Mount were a meal –
I have a hunch it would be a bit like a banquet:
so many great courses making one amazing dinner.
Each course, in and of itself, important, and with its own individual flavour
to add to the whole.
And, here we are: on our third week working through the Sermon on the Mount:
we’ve discovered those who God would call blessed;
we’ve been exhorted to be salt and light in the world –
to flavour the world with the values of the kingdom of God.
We’ve heard Jesus teaching about the Law:
that God’s law is not about revenge,
God’s law is about justice soaked to the brim in mercy and compassion –
and that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Law –
the law of love...even for enemies.
Last week, Jesus moved onto matters of prayer:
of how to pray...
and provided a structure for prayer in the form of the Lord’s Prayer
and, along with prayer, a reminder of just who you’re praying to:
a reminder not to pray or do charitable acts in such a way to draw attention to yourself,
but rather, the purpose of prayer, of the spiritual life is to draw attention to God.
This last is teased out a little more this week, as Jesus talks of ‘treasure’:
where our treasure is, there our heart will be...
or, what is it that we are primarily focusing on – that takes all of our attention?
Is it God?
Or someone or something else?

‘Don’t worry, be happy’: says our theme song...
If your whole focus is taken up with collecting ‘treasures’,
of gathering up things,
of keeping up with the Joneses,
of buying into the fear that not having the latest thing will make you feel somehow less...
somehow inferior...
not cool,
or that you’re falling behind because you’re not keeping up with the latest trends,
well, that makes for a whole vicious circle of worry.
And, just when you do get a whole lot of stuff, there’s the added worry:
what if it gets damaged?
What if someone takes it?
The whole insurance industry is built on worry.

Then there’s a whole sermon we could have on issues around the human body:
I saw a report earlier in the week featuring a number of very different women.
The interviewer asked each woman, individually, how she felt about her body.
Not one responded positively:
all zoomed in on at least one thing that they hated:
too tall,
too short,
hair too fuzzy,
hair too straight,
eye colour,
skin tones.
Every    single   woman    was dissatisfied
and felt that somehow they’d failed –
as if it was personally their fault for what in reality was the genetic hand they’d been given:
for not being tall or small enough...
as if they were to blame for the texture of their hair or for having naturally dry or oily skin.
A whole culture of body shaming has been built upon
being worried about how you look...
or how others look...
A whole culture built around saying that you don’t measure up to what is an unreal standard.
Whole industries created upon insecurities...
Not having the right label, the right clothes, make up, shoes...
and, when you do get what some invisible group have determined is ‘right’...it changes.
But then, consumerism feeds on the fear of lack –
is built upon worry.
And it was ever thus.
Human beings have always found ways of measuring themselves against others
and falling short:
men judged for not being athletic enough...
women, for being too athletic.
And so it goes.

Responding to this overwhelming mass of worries, Jesus redefines ‘treasure’:
shines a light on what matters in life, exposes the damage that worry causes.
Things in and of themselves aren’t bad.
Jesus isn’t trying to make everyone miserable,
rather, he’s saying that completely focusing on gathering treasures,
being driven to get more and more things,
is not a particularly helpful way forward when it comes to finding happiness in life:
It leads to worry – and a sense of never really being satisfied;
of always living your life with a feeling of lacking something...
‘if I could just have that one thing more, life would be fine...’
To which Jesus responds with a ‘no’ and directs his listeners to
‘look at the birds of the air...
Aren’t you much more valuable than they?’
And, ‘consider the lillies of the field.’
‘Solomon in all his splendour’ was positively dowdy compared to these.

Jesus reminds his listeners that they are beloved –
that God, who is into details such as ensuring that birds are fed,
and that flowers and glorious and beautiful...
that God is concerned with them –
that God is concerned with us.
Loves us.
It’s a love that fills the lack
for it’s a love that never rusts,
that can’t be destroyed or taken:
it’s a love that lasts for eternity.
‘Don’t worry, be happy’:
Writer and pastor Neil Chappell notes that:
‘The opposite of worry/fear/anxiety is faith – or better still – trust. 
If we were to trust in God as simply and completely as the birds of the air 
and the flowers of the field do, we would not be anxious. 
We WOULD still have responsibilities but we would not be anxious about them.’ 

On the first Sunday of Lent, we did that wee tradition started when I came here,
of burying the ‘alleluias’...
And when we do this, when we put them away symbolically,
we take them to the foot of the Cross.
There they sit, covered over, but we all know that they’re there.
For we know how the story of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem ends –
not with death,
but with resurrection.
Love wins.
If love wins, even over death, why should we worry?
And remember the early resurrection appearances –
Jesus’ first words are designed to take away fear, and worry:
to the women,
to the disciples,
he says ‘Peace be with you.’
And we, who worship here, who go about our day to day lives as people
who follow in Jesus’ footsteps, are inheritors of his words of peace.
Even when the whole world around us seems to be going crazy,
we need not worry, nor fear....

Find your treasure in God
and there you’ll find a place from which to navigate your way through
the strange and challenging times we’re living in.
Don’t worry about anything:
live into the promise of God’s kingdom,
live like you are God’s beloved...
treasured by God –
because you are.
Make God your treasure, your centre.
Ask.
Seek.
Knock.

Wendell Berry – a poet and farmer – wrote a beautiful poem called
'The peace of wild things’ which beautifully echoes Jesus’ words about life
and all its potential worries:
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

‘Don’t worry,... be happy’:
and find your place of peace,
find rest from your cares...
in God’s care and love. Amen.