An Invitation to Trust in God

“Do not worry about your life…”   Matthew 6:25

Matthew 6:19-34                                  Rev. Todd B. Freeman

Bethany Presbyterian Church, Dallas              May 29, 2005

The year was 1988. A particular song won that year’s Grammy Awards for “Record of the Year,” “Song of the Year,” and for “Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male.” Do you know what song I’m referring to? Let me share some of the lyrics.

Here’s a little song I wrote

You might want to sing it note for note…

In every life we have some trouble

When you worry you make it double

Don’t worry, be happy.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with this song by Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

I hated that song. Mainly because at that time in my life I had recently lost my career as a petroleum geologist and was still living with a friend from my home church because I couldn’t even afford the rent for an apartment of my own.

Needless to say, I wasn’t very fond of today’s Gospel lesson either, which is the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 6:25, Jesus admonishes his listeners: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.”

Well I’m sorry, I literally got to the point where once I had to choose between food for me or for my cat. I chose the cat. So yes, I was indeed worried about what I was going to eat. Infinitely worse than my situation, millions of people around the world daily are actually starving to death. How, then, can take a scripture passage like this seriously.

In our own debt-ridden society, show me someone who isn’t worried and anxious about personal and family finances. And what about the issues of our church finances? I’ve done more than my share of being worried and anxious about that as well. It doesn’t help that I’m a worrier by nature.

And yet, right there in verse 34 we read, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” It sounds, then, like we all might need to take a closer look at today’s biblical text to see if we cannot get something valuable out of it for our church and personal lives.

It’s interesting that our text begins with a teaching about our priorities, especially as they relate to materialism. Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

And then comes the main point, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” This warning is actually also good advice. We are asked to consider what it is that we treasure most: that which can be destroyed or stolen, or that which has eternal qualities like love, compassion, justice, friendship, fellowship, charity and acts of kindness.

This passage about our focus on where our treasure lies is followed by the very familiar verse, “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.” (Matt. 6:24).

The word commonly translated as “wealth” or “money,” is the Aramaic word mammon that can also be translated more broadly as “possessions” or “property.”

It may help to think about this saying from a business perspective. To have two equal bosses creates an ultimately impossible situation. The result is divided loyalty. Sooner or later one must choose to follow one boss or the other, for differences in priorities will eventually be in conflict.

This statement, then, suggests that we find the meaning of our lives outside ourselves; that human life inescapably “serves” something that gives it meaning. The choice is not whether we shall serve, but what or whom we shall serve.

Jesus relates this to how it pertains to following God or the pursuit of wealth and possessions. The conclusion that sets up an opposition between God and wealth gives this proverb an unconventional twist: the popular view in Jesus’ day was that prosperity was a sign of divine favor. Most likely, then, Jesus may have been encouraging the poor while challenging the rich.

It also is a good warning that when it comes to a sense of our self-worth, we must not base it on, or equate it with, our acquisitions or the amount of money in our checking and savings accounts.

You and I have worth simply because we are children of God, not because we have more or less than someone else.

In his commentary, Matthew, Presbyterian preacher extraordinaire, Thomas Long, writes, “What our hearts really desire, of course, is to count – to count for something and to count to someone. To come to the end of a day – or the end of a life – with the satisfaction of having stood for what is good, with the joy of having been loved and having loved well in return, with the memory of having shown mercy, and with the peace of having walked with God – these are the true treasures, the treasures of the kingdom [of God], a fortune no thief can plunder.”

And he wisely concludes, “Living the good life and living a good life pull in opposite directions.”

Ultimately, whether one serves God or wealth depends upon trust and where we place our sense of security. The appeal to trust God is the goal of Jesus’ picture of the birds of the air, who are fed by God even though they neither fret nor plan, and the lilies of the field, gloriously and colorfully clothed even though they have never touched a needle and thread. If God takes care of the birds and the wild flowers, Jesus promises, then surely God will take care of us. So, not only are we freed from compulsive anxiety about vain luxuries, we do not even need to worry about the basics, about food or clothing, because our God knows we need all these things and will provide. But again, Thomas Long provides a good perspective:

At first, Jesus’ words about the birds and the lilies, lovely as they are, are not very compelling. Sure, birds and lilies don’t worry about life, but they also don’t have mortgages, [rent,] car payments, grocery bills, and college tuitions to keep them awake at night. All of us would like to be relieved of worry and anxiety, but Jesus appears to be suggesting an unrealistic strategy – “look at the birds, look at the lilies” – to which one is tempted to reply, “Yes, but look at the bills!”

Jesus, however, is not suggesting that human beings can be like birds or lilies. Indeed, he means to emphasize the difference between birds and lilies, on the one hand, and human beings, on the other. Compared with human beings, birds are insignificant creature and lilies are trifling weeds. If God cares so lavishly for inconsequential creatures, how much more will God provide for human beings.

The rent is still due, of course, and the credit card companies still expect payment, but we have seen this world of nature, this world of God’s gracious and tender care, and it promises to overthrow the power of anxiety.

We will still wonder if we can make the checkbook balance this month, but there is nothing in this world that can take away what God provides – dignity, a sense of worth, the confidence of being treasured in the heart of God.

It is fascinating that this closing section of the Sermon on the Mount on wealth ends with a statement not about wealth at all, but about worry: “So do not worry about tomorrow” (Matt. 6:34).

“Our hearts are restless,” said Augustine,” until they rest in Thee,” and restless anxiety over what tomorrow may hold [personally as well as a congregation] is a sign that our hearts have not found their true home.

Now I admit, there is a kind of worry about the coming day that is normal, even healthy. Tomorrow’s presentation at work, or job interview, or car repair bill (I had one for $900 just a couple of weeks ago) is bound to provoke concern, and this command “do not worry about tomorrow “ is not an invitation to not prepare for what tomorrow may bring.

Rather, it speaks to the deeper, more basic fear that something is out there in the future that can destroy our basic worth as a human being, something finally stronger than God’s care, some silent killer shark swimming toward us from the future.

Let us free ourselves, then, of worry; the preoccupation with and draining of our mental and physical energy and powers with things that are future, hypothetical, and beyond our control. For worry sees only the obstacles (actual or imaginary) and meditates on all the possible disastrous possibilities, while neglecting the fact of God’s divine care and provision.

This is what I want you to remember and take away from this sermon: Whatever tomorrow brings, it will also bring God with it!

Let us, then, be content to leave tomorrow’s trouble to tomorrow, to roll up our sleeves, and as children of God face the problems that walk through the doors of our homes, our workplace, and our church today. Or in the words of the Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me

– the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

– the courage to change the things I can

– and the wisdom to know the difference.

Let us accept the invitation to trust in God – that God will provide. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God…and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt 6:33 KJV).

So perhaps that song really was good advice after all, “Don’t worry, be happy!”

Amen.