Do Not Worry

Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things! 22 Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield. 23 O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. 24 The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25 I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. 26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame. (Joel 2:21-27 NRSV)




"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you -- you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:25-33 NRSV)





The 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B





“WHAT CAN YOU ADD?”





Worry is a part of life. We all have concerns, but some people take it really far. Take, for example, part of the song by Randy Newman which was the theme song for the TV show, “Monk”:

People think I'm crazy, ’cause I worry all the time

If you paid attention, you’d be worried too

You better pay attention

Or this world we love so much might just kill you

I could be wrong now, but I don’t think so!

’Cause there’s a jungle out there.

It’s a jungle out there.

Maybe we know people like this, or even have been like this ourselves. Perhaps we can laugh a bit at this outlook, but there are many things in a day that can cause us to worry, from the news of the world to our own personal circumstances.

Jesus had some things to say about worry and that, by itself, is a bit surprising. Of all the great topics of faith and life, he talks about this. But it can consume us and so is dangerous, ironically as dangerous as all the things we worry about. Worry is an attitude towards life. In the extreme, it can rob us of joy and peace and make us fearful of the future and of others. So it is something significant in our spiritual lives. It matters in how we live.

Jesus’ words challenge the way many live their lives. Few would put worry on the lists of the great sins, but there it is. Don’t worry about your lives, Jesus says. Of course what he is not telling us is to be careless. This is no excuse for stupidity or laziness or bad behavior toward others. We are to exercise responsibility for our lives and choices, not neglecting the opportunities we have. Jesus did not say that life would be trouble-free, just to let today’s troubles belong to today and tomorrow’s belong to tomorrow. We worry sometimes just to avoid doing what we need to be doing today. The nature of worry is to be preoccupied with things, the future, threats—real and possible—and that is what we are to avoid.

So Jesus points out some things. The first is that worry can be about unimportant things. It often forgets what is essential and what is not. Worry changes our perspective and we forget that the birds go about finding what food God provides, they do not sit there and worry about it. They do not pass over God’s gifts because they are not the biggest or most stylish. Jesus reminds us of God’s care. Worry focuses us on us, even when things are not about us. Will it rain tomorrow? That can be an important question. But whether it does or not, we still have to face tomorrow, whatever there is in it. Or as in the old proverb, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.”

Speaking about the weather, worry often focuses on things that are beyond our control, acting as if somehow being concerned about it will change it. Now, caution is always important, but what does worry do to the weather? What does it do about other things? Does worry make you grow taller? The ancient philosopher Epictetus said, “Some things are under our control, while others are not under our control.” The ability to know what you can do and what you must simply endure is one of the most important life skills.

Worry gets ahead of itself. We imagine things and spend our time on things that do not come to pass. Worry can leave reality behind. My internship supervisor’s young son, Dale, would run up to him all bothered by something and I would hear Mark say, “Wait until you have something to worry about before you worry.”

Worry changes our picture of God. God gets forgotten in the cares of life. We forget God’s generosity. God not only provides, but it is like the lilies, so stunning in beauty, abundant in goodness. God gives us the gift of this day, among many other blessings. We are reminded of this when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. This meal we come back to month after month, throughout our lives, shows us that God is with us and continually gives us what we need, whether it is food or forgiveness or fellowship. And today we particularly recognize that we share it with millions around the world. The reading from Joel reminds us again of the great care God takes of the creatures and people of the earth. What we are not to forget is that God cares about us, cares for us.

When we worry we are not at our best. Worry unsettles our minds and that can’t help spill over into how we behave toward others. That usually robs us of their companionship and help, if we drive them away.

Worry cheats us because it robs us of today. Yes, we need to plan for the future, but when we spend all our time and energy facing it, we forget today. Today has enough challenges. Worry might motivate us a little, but it really can’t add anything to the day we have. Can it make our lives longer? Can it add a minute to the day? No, in fact, you would almost be subtracting time, that is, time lost to worrying. No, we can’t make it longer, but what we do with the day can add value to it.

Elsie Larson tells this story about what worry does to life’s priorities. She was teaching her oldest grandson, Richard, some art lessons and he only drew lines. So she changed the lesson and wanted him to draw a tiger. She wanted him to start, not with lines, but with the imagination and placing patches of tiger-like color on the piece of paper. Then once the shaped was done, could he add the eyes, nose, mouth and stripes. After seeing the picture, she realized that life is her canvas. She wants to draw in the details of her life before she has the basic design.

What if we looked at today, not like something to be rushed through on our way to tomorrow or ignored because of all the concerns that fill our minds, but the way a creator would look at it? It is a place for the birds of the air to feed and for the lilies to display their splendor. What if we looked at today as a gift from the One who cares for us? What if we looked at today not to be wasted in fretting, but to be used to accomplish and enjoy great things? What if we looked at today like an artist—like the block of stone, or blank canvas, or a lump of clay and rather than waste it, asked what we are going to create out of it? That is what we can add to the day.

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Timothy J. Gerarden