St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, October 8, 2006

Thanksgiving Sunday

The Eleventh Commandment – Thou Shalt Not Worry

Joel 2:21-27 Matthew 6:25-33

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At the beginning of September I exchanged emails with a young mother in the congregation as we attempted to set a date for a meeting of one of the St. Paul’s committees. We went back and forth until there was a conspicuous pause on her part.

They say that you have to be cautious with email because the messages don’t convey emotional content well, but when she returned I could almost hear the deep sigh. As with many mothers she had been multi-tasking as she wrote. Specifically, she was getting her three children ready for an important family event. It was going reasonably well until the youngest managed to fall backward into the dog’s bowl of water, soaking the dress she was wearing. So Mom was now attempting to render the dress wearable with

I joked with her that in no time the stakes will be raised and she will be wondering first of all whose car her children are in and then what country they are in. It wasn’t very helpful on my part, but she was gracious as she admitted that down the road these would be the “good old days.” She also reflected on the challenge of keeping her perspective. As she looked to the Fall, it seemed that there was so much to do that it would be easy to feel overwhelmed and anxious that she wasn’t able to savour the moment. To quote her directly, “I think of those parents with huge struggles and I hug my girls and vow to give up worrying that time is passing and just enjoy.”

More recently I asked this wise mom if I could tell the story this morning. She said yes, and then she added that she has come to realize that faith will allow her to live beyond her fears.

This is Thanksgiving Sunday which is not a religious holiday in the strictest sense except that we chose to thank God for the many blessings of our lives. So it must be that we are all so overflowing with Christian gratitude this morning that there isn’t a worry in the house.

Is that true? Are we carefree this morning, knowing that we are the recipients of grace and abundant life in Christ? Probably not. In fact there are a great many concerns we bring with us this morning. Concern for our health or the health of those we love. Concerns about employment and money. Concerns for just keeping up.

Do not fear. Do not worry. God is with you. Jesus is with you.

If that sounds simplistic, consider the passages of scripture we heard this morning. We started in the Older Testament a portion of the named after the prophet Joel. The book is only three chapters long and we know virtually nothing about the writer or when he wrote. Still he offers a rather startling invitation, not just to human beings but to the creatures of the earth and the very soil itself to live beyond fear and to experience the joy of God’s love.

The other passage is from the gospel of Matthew and what it often called the Sermon on the Mount. I have been to the hills at the north end of the sea of Galilee where Jesus may have offered some or all of the teaching gathered in chapters five through seven of this gospel. There is an area which is a natural amphitheatre where the curious and spiritually hungry crowds could have gathered with a breathtaking view out to the lake. I have been there in different seasons, but for a brief period of time in the Spring the recent rains of Winter release a startling profusion of wildflowers which quickly turn brown with the heat of summer.

We can imagine Jesus’ audience sitting in the midst of this natural beauty as he says to them, “Look above you to the birds circling overhead on the afternoon thermals. Reach out and touch the flowers which weren’t here two weeks ago and will have faded a couple of weeks along. Savour all of this. Breathe it in. Let it fill your senses. Receive it as a gift and live life as a gift”

But just so they don’t assume that a life beyond worry will fall into their laps, Jesus asks them to strive for the reign of God, at least according to the New Revised Standard Version. The King James says “seek,” rather than “strive,” as did our children’s hymn. Strive is a fine word though, because it means to exert an effort, to work diligently toward something. So living in Christ is both gracious gift and active response.

If we were asked to come up with an Eleventh Commandment, we could make a strong case for “Thou shalt not make such a mess of this beautiful planet.” On the basis of what Jesus teaches it could be “love one another” – we actually find the words “this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you” in the gospel of John. It might also be “thou shalt not worry.

Do not fear. Do not worry.

I wish that I could tell you I heed Jesus’ eleventh commandment not to worry but in fact if worry ever becomes an Olympic event I have a lock on the gold medal. I am such a skilled fretter that I have worried about hundreds of things that have never happened! Some times I worry that I worry so much because, after all, I am a minister of the gospel so worry shouldn’t even be in my vocabulary. It’s exhausting! And in my heart of hearts, I want to live beyond worry and in grateful trust in Christ my saviour and friend.

Robert Thurman who is a respected Buddhist scholar and father of actress Uma reminds us that we are encouraged to be fearful and anxious virtually every day. In the supposed safety of our own homes we watch disturbing reports from around the world. We hear of the murder of innocent children, by a stranger. Or by their own mother. We receive grim reports of the damage we inflict on the planet which is our home, followed by the statements of politicians who claim that it doesn’t make economic sense to change our ways. Then there are the wars and the rumours of wars. It is all so awful, so depressing.

Thurman maintains that these images become the mantra of our time, the repeated message of fearfulness and anxiety in the guise of information.

But it’s not just what comes at us from outside that causes us to be anxious. The very pace of our lives is often overwhelming. It seems that there is never enough time to do everything we figure we need to do, and never enough energy or money or...it goes on and on.

Not only does this rob us of the pleasure of the moment, anxiety can become the underlying tone of our lives rather than gratitude and joy and thanksgiving. It’s interesting that the Joel passage begins by says “fear not o soil” because we know that even the richest soil can be depleted over time or rendered useless by the build-up of toxins. The same is true of our human spirits.

How can this be different for us? Some of us are going through the most difficult times of our lives, with no clear path toward the future. Some of us find it difficult to face each new day. And we can’t just turn off life the way we turn off the television.

What we heard from scripture this morning is that God does not abandon us and that we are meant to live as people of hope and joy. Neither passage suggests that there won’t be times of sadness or worry or fear for the future. Jesus would have known that many of the people listening to his message lived a “hand-to-mouth” existence with no real security by our standards.

Yet not only does Jesus promise that God will be with them, he encourages them to believe that the reign of God will come through them. Jesus still tells us that we can live simply and practically, and with hope for the healing of our souls and the soul of the planet. We can all strive, not in an anxious and frantic way, but with confidence and joy in God’s Way and Christ’s Way. It is the way of truly abundant life rather than anxious existence.

If we heed the eleventh commandment, Thou Shalt Not Worry, what will our mantra, our repeated chant be? For some unknown reason the people who frame the lectionary passages stopped a verse shy of the end of the chapter in Matthew, but verse thirty four would be a good one to commit to memory, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Through the years I have read and reread verses from the fourth chapter of the apostle Paul’s letter to the Christian congregation in Philippi which also call us to joy. This is often called the “letter of joy,” even though Paul was under house arrest at the time.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7

One more possibility and then I’m done! There is a poem which my wife Ruth framed and gave to me years ago, knowing my inclination to take on the world’s burdens in the wee, dark hours. It is by Wendell Berry, a farmer and teacher and a Christian. It is called The Peace of Wild Things and you can hear Matthew six within it:

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.

Do not fear. Do not worry. Christ is with us. This is our commandment today and every day.