Sunday, May 25, 2008

Pentecost 2A

Matthew 6:24-34

 

GETTING GOD’S PRIORITIES IN ORDER

 

Beloved people of God, grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.

AMEN.

 

Once upon a time there was a cobbler who lived a happy and contented life.  While repairing shoes, he would sing for joy.  People passing by his shop would laugh and wave at him.  Often they would stop in to bask for a moment or two in his joyful presence.

 

A wealthy banker walked by the cobbler’s shop every day.  This banker had worked hard to achieve success.  But he never sang and seldom smiled, and it had been a long time since he had enjoyed a good night’s sleep.  At first the cobbler’s cheerful disposition irritated him.  Finally, however, he decided to stop in and ask the cobbler what was the secret of his happiness.

 

The cobbler was surprised the banker was interested in him, but he gladly told him about his life.  When the banker was about to leave, he asked one last question, “Pardon me for asking, but how much money do you make each year?”

 

The cobbler answered, “I am not quite sure.   Some days I only fix shoes; no one buys.   The shop is closed on holy days, so there is no income on such days.  But my family is seldom in want.”

 

The banker announced, “I have decided to eliminate your financial concerns for the immediate future, since you have so generously shared your life story with me.  Here are 300 gold coins as a gift from me.”

 

Overjoyed, the cobbler quickly went home and buried the gold coins in a corner of his house.  His life was not the same after that.  When his family was away from home during the day, he would leave his shop to go home and make sure the gold coins were still there.  He began to wake up at night, because he feared people were plotting to steal his gold.  He no longer sang with the same cheer, and he was more suspicious when people stopped in to chat.

 

One day it dawned on him that he was no longer a happy man.  This time he visited the banker with the bag of gold coins in hand.  “Thank you for your generous gift,” he said to the banker, “but I cannot afford to be the owner of these gold coins.  Please take them back so that I may once again enjoy music, sleep, and my family and friends.  It seems that when I buried the money, buried happiness at the same time.”[1]

 

The cobbler in this story learned the age-old truth that happiness cannot be bought.  People of faith believe that true happiness is something only God can provide.  Jesus teaches his followers in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the others, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth.”

 

As human beings, we tend to seek to secure our lives with earthly wealth or goods.  This tendency leads to excessive worry or anxiety, and a life filled with anxious worry does not lead to true joy or happiness.

 

In Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus exposes the folly of worry.  Worry is a sign of a lack of faith or trust in God.  Thus, Jesus contrasts a life filled with faith with a life filled with anxious worry.

 

As William Barclay explains, worry is needless and useless.  Worrying about the past is needless.  We cannot change the past.  Now we can learn from the past, which we can guide us in the present and into the future.  But that is different than worrying about it.

 

Excessive worry about the future is useless.  Certainly it makes sense to plan for the future.  But as we look to the future, so much is out of our control, and worrying about it will not bring it under our control.[2]

 

In Matthew 6:27 Jesus makes the practical observation that no one can add even a single hour to their lives by worrying.  Modern medicine has taught us that worry and stress can actually harm us.  Many diseases are triggered or at least made worse by stressful worry.  Worry wears down our minds and bodies.  Thus, we are more likely to be subtracting hours from our span of life by anxious worrying.

 

Caught up in anxious worry, we also fail to see what is obvious in nature.  “Look at the birds of the air,” says Jesus, “they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.  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.”  Since God takes care the birds of the air and the lilies of the fields, surely God will take care of us.

 

Jesus makes clear, therefore, that anxious toil in the pursuit of earthly goods will never secure our lives and provide us with true happiness.  Anxious toil betrays our lack of faith and trust in God, the only one who can provide true security and true happiness.  “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” exhorts Jesus, “and all these things will be given you as well.”  The point is that we need to make God’s priorities our own.

 

In striving for the kingdom of God, in devoting ourselves to God, in making God’s priorities our own, the first thing we need to do is nothing.  This is counterintuitive.  We tend to be hardworking people.  Surely we must do something to pursue the kingdom of God.

 

Consider, however, the first thing God does after creating human beings on the sixth day of creation: rest.  God rested on the seventh day.  That is why the people of Israel set aside the seventh day of every week as a Sabbath, a day of rest and no work.

 

Most Christians have adopted Sunday as a day of Sabbath rest.  Sunday is the first day of the week.  Thus, the first thing Christians are to do each week is to observe a day of Sabbath rest.

 

In Psalm 127:2 we read: “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.”  For people of faith it is pure vanity and foolishness not to observe a Sabbath day of rest.

 

Sabbath rest does not mean we sleep all day.  In Acts 2:42 we are told that after three thousand persons were baptized on the day of Pentecost, “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  That is precisely what we are to devote ourselves to on our day of Sabbath rest.  That is why we gather together on Sunday morning for worship, Christian education, and fellowship.  The Sabbath is a good day to engage in an extended period of prayer and meditation.  The Sabbath is a good day to enjoy time together with family and friends.  The Sabbath is also a good day to enjoy a hike, to take a walk along the beach, to play games, to read a good book, or simply to relax.

 

Judith Schwanz clarifies that our Sabbath day “is not simply a day off.  While time away from work is important, the distinction between `day off’ and `Sabbath’ is not merely one of semantics.  A day off conjures images of chores and simply doing whatever needs to be done, substituting home pressures for [work] pressures—hardly a picture of renewal.  Sabbath implies a deliberately restful day focused on God and filled with just the right amount of people and activities to refresh you and restore your soul.”[3]

 

Well-rested minds, bodies, and souls will more clearly discern God’s priorities for the rest of the week.  Well-rested minds, bodies, and souls are less likely to get caught up in anxious toil.  Well-rested minds, bodies, and souls are far more likely to let the day’s trouble be sufficient for the day.

 

Our St. Andrew “Ministry Plan for 2008-2009” will be presented at Part One of the Annual Meeting on June 4.  This “Ministry Plan” includes a vision of St. Andrew “as an intergenerational, multi-cultural, multi-contextual gathering place for rest, renewal, and reconciliation—A Place of Grace.”  Rest, renewal, and reconciliation are three of God’s priorities for the people of St. Andrew.  It is appropriate to list “rest” first.  Our Sabbath day of rest focuses on our relationship to God and on our relationships to one another and to the whole creation.  Our Sabbath day of rest sets the tone for the rest of the week.  It orders our priorities for ministry and mission.  It renews us and identifies where and with whom we need to seek reconciliation—be it in our homes, in our neighborhoods, or in our communities.

 

When we are well-rested, when we are clear on God’s priorities, we need not worry about what we will eat or wear; we need not worry about our lives; we need not worry about our ministry and mission.  As Jesus clearly teaches us, trusting in God and in God’s priorities is the secret to a happy and contented life.

In Jesus’ name, AMEN.