Matthew 6: 24-34
Lynn Renner
November 25, 2018
Good morning. My name is Lynn Renner. It is an honor to be a part of the Locally Empowered and Authorized Preacher program here at First Congregational United Church of Christ. May God bless our time together. Today’s reading is from Matthew 6: 24-34.
This scripture is very beautiful and poetic, but when I first read it, it made me angry. What? I’m not supposed to worry about food and clothing? I can just quit my jobs, lounge around and wait for other people to take care of me? Give me food. Put clothes on me. Give me a house. Right (sarcasm). You see, I’m extra sensitive to this subject because I have been struggling with employment in the last several years. In 3 years I have now applied for over 20 Physical Therapy jobs with no offers. Currently to make ends meet, I am working at 2-5 different therapy locations per week. I go to senior living centers, nursing homes and a hospital. I’ve become a landlord, renting out my townhome, and I manage property that I’ve been trying to sell for over 1.5 years. Additionally, I am beginning a new job as an Adjunct Professor teaching at WSU-V. I have to pay the bills. Mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities: Comcast, Internet, PUD, water, sewer, garbage, recycle, HOA; life insurance, car insurance, gas, investments for retirement: 401, 403, TSA, money market and savings account plus donations to Children International, OPB and my church. If all I had to worry about was food and clothing, that’d be a miracle. We all have seen film footage of happy people in cultures who know nothing more than focusing on food, shelter and clothing. I have more individual wealth than 90% of the world’s population. But you see we live in this culture. This is what is expected of us and I drank the Kool-Aide. The whole pitcher! And while I was having this rant, a small voice in the back of my head kept saying “Lynn, you know that is not what this is about.” It’s about ‘not worrying’.
But you see, I have a grandmother and she is 105 years old. I literally have 50 more years of life to finance. How am I going to do that? How do I predict the future in order to prepare for it? The future is a very scary thing in these days and times. How much is it going to cost to have a roof over my head when I’m 105 years old? And another whisper occurs – “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”
Well, that is a lot easier said than done. I understand that God wants me to know that I am cherished and loved and will be cared for just like the birds who are fed and the flowers that are clothed more beautiful than King Solomon. Okay.
Birds and Flowers. I cannot think about birds and flowers without thoughts of my grandmother and my mother. My grandmother loves wildflowers. She can name any you may pass along a path. When I take a walk in the country, I find myself identifying the different flowers without even realizing I’m doing it. I’ll see Queen Anne’s Lace, bleeding hearts and wild trilliums. I once planted Forget Me Nots in honor of her. My mother is a birder. I remember when I was about 12 years old my mother teaching me how to identify a bird in our woods. “See Lynn, that bird has a black cap on its head and a distinctive call. Chick a dee dee dee dee dee. It’s called a chickadee.” To this day, I call my grandchildren ‘my little chickadee’s’. As I was ruminating about birds and flowers, my grandmother and my mother, I realized my heart rate was coming down. I was relaxing and not worrying. Work and money concerns were set aside. I was enjoying thoughts of God’s creations. Birds and flowers – Green therapy. Time with and memories of loved ones. Staying in the moment, taking notice. Quiet time with God. “You cannot worship both God and money.”
Do Not Worry. Has anyone ever said that to you ‘Oh stop worrying’. Did it ever help? Nope. Our scripture today is advising us to not worry because God loves us. God loves us even MORE than the birds and the flowers and look how well they are cared for. They don’t worry about the future. They stay in the present.
But HOW do we stop worrying? It almost feels like a platitude to be told “Don’t worry. God loves you”. “I’m sending my thoughts and prayers”. Again my sarcastic practical self surfaces and thinks ‘how is that going to help me?’. HOW do I stop worrying? (pause) Birds and flowers – Green therapy. Time with and memories of loved ones. Staying in the moment, taking notice. Quiet time with God.
According to the World Health Organization, we are currently experiencing a WORLD wide epidemic of depression and anxiety. Recent research has also shown an exponential increase in anxiety with the increase in use of smart phones. We have access to information and news at the touch of a fingertip. Remember the days when you read the newspaper or watched the 6:00 news? The rest of the day was yours to focus on work, play, meals and family. Not now. We have world news 24 and 7. We can scroll through headlines multiple times a day. We know about the starving people of Yemen. Syrians being gassed. Epic and tragic wild fires of California. The poor fleeing refugees of Central America carrying their children. And yet another mass shooting in our country. We LITERALLY have the weight of the world on our shoulders. We cannot hold that weight. But HOW do we set it down? HOW do we stop worrying? Birds and flowers – Green therapy. Time with and memories of our loved ones. Staying in the moment, taking notice. Quiet time with God. Pick ONE battle, stick with it, and turn the smart phone off.
I spoke earlier about my rant of frustration and my question, “What? I’m not supposed to worry about food and clothing?”. It is hard to let go of that drive to be independent and take care of ourselves without leaning on others. We revere independence in our culture. We admonish and denigrate those who are ‘weak’ and dependent. Widows, children and disabled. How does our culture take care of them? Do we feed and clothe them? Do we even treat them as well as birds and flowers? What do we cherish? Or do we hold our money close to our chest and expect you to do the same? “You cannot worship both God and money.”
But then I stopped to think further and I realized that yes YOU would take care of me. If I lost everything. If I couldn’t work. If I had no food or clothes or money. You would take care of me. Because you are the hands of God. Striving for independence is really the worship of money. Striving for interdependence is the worship of God. We need each other. We will take care of each other. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself”. And here is the kicker for me, the last line of our scripture reading today “For each day has enough trouble of its own”. Ain’t that the truth. Love one another today. Amen.