Don't Worry - Stay Focused

Simba has just escaped what he thinks is an impossible situation.  He just left his family and everything that is familiar and journeyed to a distance place where he meets two interesting and upbeat new friends - Timon and Pumba.  Here’s what happens…

YouTube: Hakuna Matata

Hakuna Matata!  What a wonderful phrase

Hakuna Matata.  Ain’t no passing craze

It means no worries for the rest of your days

It’s our problem free philosophy

Hakuna Matata!

Nice in theory … right?  But in reality it’s impossible to live “problem free”?  Even Simba eventually learns that “it’s a jungle out there … problems don’t go away.  So we have no choice but to  learn how to survive difficult situations when they arise.  That seems to be the theme of this section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount - “Letting Go of Worry” or “How to Survive in the Jungle of Life”

Begin by calling to mind your “Life in the Jungle this Week."  What issues did you face – what “stressors” did you encounter:   work –  presentation to make, deadlines, hard sell;  family – tension with a child or spouse;  health – illness, doctors visit;  finances – bill that don't get paid

We all have our own special set of “stressers”?  Jesus “got that."  What’s different is how we respond.   Curt and I did Friday night at the movies, and finally got to see “The King’s Speech – the story of King George IV’s fight to overcome his speech impediment.  His fear of stuttering in public and particularly during radio speeches, had him living a life of fear that nearly drove him from embracing his role as King and leader. We’ve all experienced that kind of “hand-wringing worry” that immobilizes to one degree or another … perhaps in our own lives or maybe in the lives of people we know best.   Do you anyone who is stuck in a bad job, but won’t even think about interviewing for a new one, because “they’d never get it anyway”  Do you know anyone who is afraid of going to the doctor because they just know that’s they have some horrible disease?  Someone who’s afraid to go back to school because they don’t think that they’ll be able to keep up? Someone who’s in a really, really bad relationship, but puts up with it because they don’t want to rock the boat or risk being alone?  WORRY CAN DO THAT --- STOP US SHORT – IMMOBILIZE US IN ALL SORTS OF WAYS …even spiritually …Even the disciples in the wake of Jesus' departure are immobilized by fear … unable to continue the ministry until the spirit descends on the day of Pentecost. 

Most of us already know the truth that Jesus pointed to in scripture:  Worry gets us no where!  "Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? (Matthew 6:27 "The Message")  Thousands of yeas ago, Jesus already knew what modern scientific studies reveal today:   worry doesn’t add anything to the length of our life;   indeed we know that it reduces our life.  With that reality in mind, it seems as if everyone these days has an answer for ridding ourselves of worry, once and for all…songs about being worry free, talk shows and radio shows, self-help books galore.  It’s all nice in theory … but it seems like we are worrying more these days, not less …so is it really possible to live “worry free"?  Jesus says “Yes”  … but it’s not the result of singing a happy song or reading another book

You see most theories revolve around ridding ourselves of problems or making the difficulties of life go away.  We have a tendency to think if all our problems go away, then we can be worry free:  we try to change jobs, change lifestyles, change spouses.  Jesus is clear - that’s NOT going to happen.  In face, Jesus promises over and over again to his disciples that they will have problems, they will confront opposition, they will encounter obstacles …On one occasion, Jesus made this very point:  “In this world you will have trouble.”      John 16:33  We cannot eliminate PROBLEMS from our lives but we can choose how we will RESPOND

Towards that end I want us to engage in an old study technique we used in seminary a lot -  "A Word Study - A Worry Word Study" 

Let's start with “ANXIETY”:   According to Fred Craddock, the Greek word that is translated “anxiety” or “worry” means “split attention” or “divided concern”. Think of that in terms of the opening verse of our reading today where Jesus points out the opposing masters of God and material wealth.  Worry comes from trying to divide our loyalty … from trying to play both sides … from trying to live according to what the material world can provide for us and what is offered by God.

Then let's take “LOOK/CONSIDER”: Jesus is very poetic in his observation of the birds and the lilies, but his speech is more than pretty words. These are strong verbs in the Greek that urge us to learn something about the god of abundance by studying nature: “Jesus commands us to look … really look .. at a world where God provides freely and lavishly, a world where anxiety plays no party, where worry is not a reality.  Jesus invites us to allow our imaginations to enter such a world, to compare this world with the world in which we must live most of our lives. “ This is perhaps the most difficult thing for responsible, hard-working people – like us – to understand, and it does in fact require a lot of imagination on our part. 

Finally, consider the word “STRIVE”. Jesus ties the call to not worry to the kingdom of God – “But strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness ..and all these things will be given to you as well…” “Strive” means to exert a lot of energy and effort toward a goal.  So, far from simply saying we should rely on the eventual coming of God’s kingdom as an antidote to daily worry … Jesus is saying we should actively work for the spread of that kingdom … and as we do, some of the things we fret about are going to become non-issues because we’ve got more important things to be busy with. His words are directed to people who DID have to sow, to reap, to toil and spin .. and he wasn’t telling them to stop doing these tasks  He simply wanted them to understand that their lives were a lot more than the sum of their sowing, reaping, toiling or spinning …

None of this is to say we won’t have some normal worries – JUNGLE LIFE.  We can’t love someone without worrying about threats to his or her well-being.   We cannot be sensitive persons without occasional concern that we haven’t done all that we should.  We cannot listen to the news without some uneasiness about the direction many things in the world appear to be going.  But we can be focused enough on the things of God that we’re able to relax about our own priorities and have confidence in God’ care. 

O Great Provider,
    we love to worry,:
        we worry about our looks,
        we worry about our health,
        we worry about our jobs,
        we worry about money,
        we worry about the future,
        we worry about worrying too much.
We act as if you do not know our needs.
We act as if the birds go hungry.
    and the flowers go unclothed.
We act as if you care more for the world around us
    than you care for us.
Wake us up, O God.
Help us see our value in your eyes.
Help us feel your care for our every need,
    through Jesus our Lord. Amen.