Don't worry...

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."

In September 1988 a song hit the Billboard Chart’s top 100 list and stayed there for a solid two weeks. The song went on to win the 1989 Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocals. It was a song unique in many ways but particularly for the a cappella singing and the simple message it told.

Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t worry, be happy.”

It just makes you want to kick off your shoes, put up your feet and toss your cares out the door doesn’t it? Don’t worry be happy sounds easy enough when you put it to a nice Caribbean beat that you can dance to. But actually living that simple message is far from easy.

Jesus in our Gospel tells us just as simply as McFerrin’s song “Do not worry…”

We live in an incredibly worry filled culture. No matter what we do we can’t seem to escape the worries of the world. We worry so much that worry has become a commodity that sells. The evening news certainly depends upon worries at home and abroad to attract our attention. Commercials are constantly inviting us to worry about one more thing that can be solved by buy what they are selling. I mean really how many of us worry about if our cheese comes from happy cows or not and yet worry sells happy cow cheese.

What Jesus is calling us to do is to live in God's moment, live in the present, enjoy the wonderful things that the God of abundance has given us. Wealth and money are not bad things according to Jesus, but when they become idols, when they become the measure of who we are we are crippled by worry of how to hold on to what little we think we have.

But you know the thing is we serve a God who believes in abundance. We might sometimes like to think that God’s grace and love can only go so far. Bu think about your family, once you get a new member in the family, a new child, a new dog, we don’t love the people we had before any less, our love simply grows to be enough for the new. The same is true of God.

We falsely believe sometimes that our stuff will make us happy. That if we could only get enough money in the bank, enough stored up, if we could just get a little bit more we will be happy. But the truth is all the money, fame and notoriety in the world does not save us from worry and certainly does not make us happy.

As simplistic as it may seem, as unrealistic as Jesus’ command to not worry may be, he is right. God loves us infinitely, cares for us unconditionally and accepts us joyfully. When we start letting the things of our lives take the place of God we simply find new avenues of worry. So invite you this week to look at all you have, look at the stuff, the wealth, look at your family and friends and ask yourself where do you see God’s abundance most. I suspect you will find it in the places you are most love.