Bethlehem Lutheran Church

1 Corinthians 4:1-5   Matthew 6:24-34 

I confess to you this morning that I have a tendency to worry about things from time to time. When James was a baby, I used to race into his room each morning to make sure he was still alive... (Actually, that happened infrequently, as I remember it now, he was usually up before we were, and letting us know about it...) I remember telling an older member of Incarnate Word who came to our baptismal open house that I was grateful to see him new each morning, and he replied, "You always worry about your kids--it's just that what you worry about changes..." Grades, college, jobs, health, safety--he was right!

When I travel, I worry whether or not the plane will be on time. When I'm in India, I worry about traveling in cars on the roads... I worry about whether the seminars will go well. Sometimes I worry about Bethlehem--will we be OK financially? Will we do the things God is calling this community of faith to step out and do? Am I the right leader for these things?

Now my guess today is that I am not the only person in the world with this issue. In fact, if I may be so bold, I would assume we all have pet worries: finances, jobs, relationships, marriage, kids, health... Indeed, there appears much to worry about with our economy, gas prices, the wars we are fighting... But let me suggest to you that there are three problems--three BIG problems with worry: Worry is unhelpful, it's unreasonable and it's unhealthy.

It's unhelpful because it never accomplishes anything, it never solves anything. It is stewing without doing. It's like racing your car engine when you're in neutral--you create a lot of smoke and noise but you don't go anywhere. When Alison was back in high school, and was late coming home, I would stay awake worrying, as if by the level of worry, I could will her to be home... But worry has never solved a problem. Worry cannot change the past if you worry about it. Worry cannot control the future. It only makes us miserable today. It's unhelpful, it doesn't work.

Then, it is unreasonable. It exaggerates your problems, makes mountains out of molehills. It just makes problems seem bigger and bigger. The more you review something when you're worried about it, the bigger it gets. To use the Allie illustration again, it was- "Omigosh, she's fifteen minutes late- she must have a flat tire... she's a half hour late- there must have been a terrible accident- the phone will ring any second and it will be the police..." To worry about something you can't change is useless. To worry about something you can change is stupid -- change it. Either way, don't worry!

And, it is unhealthy. The body was not made to worry; it's unnatural. When you worry you get ulcers, backaches, headaches, insomnia. Our bodies were not made to worry. Plants and animals don't worry. The only thing that worries in all God's creation is people. We worry and we weren't made to worry. It makes us unhappy and unhealthy.

The old English word for worry is the word "to strangle" or "to choke". That's what worry does -- it strangles the life out of you. It is not natural.

You weren't born worrying. You have to learn to worry. You have to practice to be good at it. The good news is that if worry is learned it can also be unlearned, and our Gospel lesson today is one of the most helpful texts in all the New Testament. Even better, the words come straight from Jesus himself, in the Sermon on the Mount...In this passage, Jesus takes on the issue of worry directly: five times in Matthew 6:24-34 Jesus either asks us why we worry or tells us not to worry... "Do not worry about your life..." "Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?" And why do you worry about clothing?" "Therefore do not worry, saying ‘what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear...?'" And verse 34 concludes, "So do not worry about tomorrow..." What Jesus is talking about here is virtually everything we worry about: our money, our possessions, our lifestyles and our futures- and from that, we can make the assumption that Jesus is talking about everything we worry about and add our relationships, jobs, families, everything!

And he is not just telling us what to do (it's easy to say simply "Don't worry..." It's another thing actually to do it!). He tells us why: Because God will meet our needs! Lets go to the text:"Look at the birds of the air," Jesus says, "they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

"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 God not much more clothe you, you of little faith?"

"Therefore do not worry...for it is the Gentiles- in this instance we could say "unbelievers," who strive for 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..."

There are some things about which we need to be careful: Jesus is not saying just hang around and do nothing, and expect these things to be dropped on you. The birds may not sow or reap or gather into barns, but they work like the dickens to gather their food, don't they? And the lilies may not toil or spin, but they are doing what lilies do: growing into the flowers they were meant to be. The issue for us is worry- anxiety about these things. And Jesus is asking rhetorically, "Will not God meet our needs?"

St. Paul turns it around in Philippians 4:19 "My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." As you have heard me say before, this doesn't say, God will meet all of your greed. There's a difference between needs and wants. If God met all of your wants you'd be the biggest spoiled brat in the universe. You'd be spoiled and self-centered. God is not going to give you everything you want. It would be like the Midas touch. Soon you'd be miserable. But He has said, "I will meet all of your needs." God says "I will..." God doesn't say, "I might, I'll think about it, possibly." God says I will. That means God's character is on the line. God's either going to do it or God's a liar. And when God makes a promise, God keeps that promise!

Paul says that God will meet all ..." What does "all" include? Spiritual needs? Financial needs? Health needs? Relational needs? Yes. Everything. If God has promised to provide all of your needs, to protect you, to guide you when you're confused, and to correct the problems in your life, what does that leave left to worry about?

Here is something hard to consider: When we worry we're acting like atheists. In essence, we are saying: God is not going to keep His promises; God's not going to take care of my needs. Worry is simply practical atheism. It says, I don't believe God will do what God promises. And if God might not, then I better take control... And when you get right down to it, worry is all about control...

The root behind all of your worry is a fear that you are not in control. Worry is always an attempt to control the uncontrollable. Worry is assuming responsibility God never meant for you to have. Whenever you try to control the uncontrollable (kids, U.S., economy, environment...) you're going to worry. Worry is like a warning light. Whenever you start to worry the light should go off: Warning! You're trying to control too much. Every time you start to worry, you're trying to control something that you shouldn't be trying to control in the first place.

And if you are trying to be in control of your life you're playing God. Every time you start playing God, you're going to worry. When you start trying to control things and make them work... and force yourself to try to control the many things that are out of your control then inside there's a little voice that says "Who are you kidding? You know you're not God and you and God know that you don't have it all together." 

If you're trying to run your own life without God's direction, you ought to be worried. Most of the things in your life you can't control, and deep down- heck, right at the surface, we know that to be true! Give it up- let God go to work!

And Jesus not only tells us, he shows us: In Philippians 2, Paul writes that although Jesus was (and is!) God's equal, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on the cross.Jesus prayed that the cup of his crucifixion be taken from him, but even so, not his will, but God's will be done.

And on the cross- in incredible pain, burdened with everything that separates you and me- every human who has ever lived and ever will live- from God and from each other, Jesus cried out "Into your hands, I commend my Spirit..." When it looks as if there is no future, when things are utterly out of control, Jesus places himself in God's hands...

And God is faithful: God raises Jesus from the dead on the third day. Because Jesus lives, there is nothing that can ever come between you and God- through all your life, through your death and forever, there is Jesus, holding you and loving you!

Respond to my love, says Jesus, give up your futile efforts at controlling things you were never meant to control, let me be the Lord of your Life as I am your savior and Lord of your eternity, and begin to see how life can be lived: with great meaning, with significance, and, not incidentally, with a whole lot less worry in your life...

Many of us would say in a second that we trust Jesus with our forevers... But if we trust in Jesus for our eternal salvation, why is it so hard to trust Jesus with our money right now? Why is it so hard to believe that the God who created the heavens and the earth- who loves us- each of us so much that in Jesus, God became human- lived, died and was raised from the dead- who promises to love us forever- CAN'T meet our needs- and therefore we have to fuss and worry about them???

Let me give you two suggestions to learn to give up the control you don't have- to give up the paralyzing worry in your life. First, begin praying about everything! Pray about all the stuff you usually worry about. Just talk to God. God wants your friendship, your relationship. You don't have time to pray? Do you have time to worry? If we prayed about all the things we worry about we would have an awfully lot less to worry about. Worry doesn't change anything; prayer does... Prayer gets in touch with God who can change me. Whenever I'm worried I have two options -- I can panic or I can pray.

Phil. 4:6 "Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything; tell God your needs... if you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand."

Everything. Don't just pray about religious things. Most people, when they pray, pray prayers they think God wants to hear. Pray about everything. If it's big enough to worry about, it's big enough to pray about. God's ability is greater than your anxiety.

"Cast all of your anxiety on him because he cares for you." I Peter 5:7

Cast means to unload, let it go. The Greek word literally means drop. Unload it. Prayer is an incredible worry reliever. All -- whatever you're stressed out about, upset about, irritated about, worried about. Cast it all on God. Unload. The problem is, most of us do the casting like we do in fishing. We cast our worries out and then we reel them back in. Then, focus, concentrate and consider one day at a time. The last verse of our Gospel today, Matthew 6:34 say "So don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time."

Jesus is saying, "Don't open your umbrella until it starts raining." Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday. When you worry, you don't do anything about yesterday, you can't control tomorrow, you just mess up today. The future can seem overwhelming. Therefore, God has put it in little bite-size pieces. God just gives it to us in one little 24 hour increment at a time. Live one day at a time. 

Overcoming worry is a day to day choice. There is no pill that will make you stop worrying. There is no seminar, tape, or book that will make you stop worrying. There is no one spiritual experience you can have and you will never worry again. Worry, and the antidote to it, is going to be a daily choice, sometimes hourly, sometimes moment by moment choice in which you say, Am I going to believe Jesus is my Lord or am I going to believe I am my own Lord? Who is in control of my life? If I'm in control, I have a lot to worry about. But if God's in control, it's His problem and He can handle it.

What's got you worried? What is it that causes you to fuss and fume, toss and turn, wondering "Is it ever going to work out?" What is it that when you think about it you get the pit in your stomach? I don't know what you're going through right now, but that doesn't matter. God does. God knows exactly what you're going through.

What we're talking about is a relationship with God. That's the antidote to your worry. . You are invited into a relationship with the Living Jesus - the one who provides, protects, guides and corrects. God says to you this day, "I made you to know Me." God knows all about you, God loves you. And God wants you to know Him. That's why God gave us Jesus Christ.

Let us pray: "Jesus Christ, I don't understand it all, but I've seen that You've promised to take care of my needs. And I realize that worry is just a warning light that I'm trying to control everything. I don't want to do that anymore. I want you to be in control of my life. I want to grow in you, to know you better and better--to listen to you. Help me to cast my worries on you now- and help me to call on you whenever they reappear. Amen."