Today’s Worries

Trinity Presbyterian Church of Bethesda
05.25.08; Rev. David Williams

Scripture Lesson: Matthew 6:24-34

Of all of the passages in the Bible, perhaps none is quite so frustrating to Presbyterians as the one you’ve just heard. Presbyterians, you see, like things to be orderly. Everything you do needs to be carefully planned out, from the first moment you have a planning session to determine the parameters of an action to insuring that the survey data from event participants is correctly tabulated.

This is, perhaps, why some Presbyterians have so much trouble getting second dates. If you think about it, maybe giving her an evaluation form and a self-addressed postage-paid envelope afterwards makes it lack a little bit of...I don’t know...spontaneity.

So when we hear Jesus commending that people not worry about what’s going to happen in the future, and instead suggesting that we should focus most intently on the present, it rubs us completely the wrong way. What? But then we’ll be completely unprepared! That’s utterly irresponsible! You need to have goals, and you need to work hard towards those goals, or you’ll never ever succeed in this life, young man! This invariably degenerates into a long rant about kids these days not appreciating hard work and planning ahead, after which many Presbyterians need to go and take a nap.

It’s hard to avoid interpreting it that way, though. Don’t worry about your life? Don’t worry about what you’ll eat, or what you’ll wear? Is Jesus suggesting that we skip along through our lives just doing whatever? That can’t possibly be the case.

Just what is Jesus talking about here, then? Is he suggesting that we just do what we want now, and not pay a lick of attention to the future? Hardly. But what he’s saying here is deeply important, part of one of the most essential teachings of his ministry. How do we know this?

We know this because this little reading comes to us right out of the thick of the Sermon on the Mount, that great soaring proclamation that begins at the beginning of chapter 5 of Matthew and ends at the end of chapter 7. So here in the thick of the most vital moral and ethical teaching in this Gospel, what is Jesus saying?

The essence of his focus is clear at the very beginning of the passage, where Christ says that you can’t serve two masters. You just can’t. You either serve God, or you serve...well...Mammon. Although mammon often is interpreted as meaning any range of things, it isn’t really one thing. Mammon means wealth, or money, or power, or attainment. It means worldly prosperity, any of the measures by which we determine how we’re doing relative to the next guy. Where do we stand in the great social and economic pecking order? That’s a mammon question.

How do we succeed in the world of Mammon? Well, you’ve got to have a plan. You’ve got to be thinking ahead. You’ve got to be figuring out how to compete, how to claw your way past the other guy on your way to the top. The end goal is happiness, pure material blissful happiness, and it doesn’t matter how many skulls you have to break to get there. You’ve got your eyes on the prize, baby. By any means necessary, as they say.

But Jesus takes things in a totally different direction. He knows, as anyone who’s lived for more than thirty seconds in America could tell you, that the struggles of our day to day lives create unbelievable stresses. Our relentlessly pursuing the goals of material prosperity causes us to chew our nails to the quick, and to completely fail to embrace the moment in which we are living. And missing out on the possibility of your present moment is a pretty dangerous thing, particularly if you understand what it was Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God. In each of the first three Gospels, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, parables and teachings about God’s Reign are the central part of what Jesus taught. What does Jesus have to say about God’s Kingdom? Well, he has two things to say. First, it is just about to happen, so you’d better be ready. Second, it is happening, right here, right now. It is now and not yet. It has arrived and it is still on it’s way.

What that means, and what Jesus is trying to get across in that little passage, is that this moment and every moment of a Christian’s life aren’t just lived with the idea that some day the Kingdom of God will arrive. The awareness of the Kingdom of God has to do more than just be something that we expect will come some time after the publication of the last book in the Left Behind Series. It has to drive how we act in the now. It’s something we need to seek every single day, something that needs to guide every single action that we take. That awareness will color our tomorrows, sure. But we’ve got to get to tomorrow first, and to do that, we’ve got to make our way through today’s worries. And the thing we need to worry about, as Christians, each and every day, is that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

What does that mean?

In your life, there are countless opportunities to act as you would act in the presence of God. You may encounter some of those opportunities today, before you’ve even left this building. There might come a moment when you’re given a choice of making a remark that cuts someone down to size or saying something that builds them up. There might come a moment when you’re given the choice between ignoring that person that you’d really rather not have to waste a moment with, or actually surprising them with a greeting. If you are living into the reality of the Kingdom of God, the way Jesus meant it...how are you going to deal with those simple moments?

The answer is simple. You deal with today’s worries according to the law of the Kingdom of God, and according to the righteousness of God. Every choice, every decision, every option needs to be guided by the awareness of real and present authority of the God who is love, and whose Son preached love, and whose Spirit guides us in love.

When we fail to hold ourselves to that immediate and inescapable measure is when our world comes apart. For when we allow ourselves to seek something other than the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, we start seeking in ways that tear down others, and shatter the very peace that we yearn for.

That’s our worry for today. That’s our worry for tomorrow. But don’t just worry about it.

Act on it.