Sufficient for the Day
Matthew 6:25-34
Linden Heights Baptist Church
August 21st, 2016
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. 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 which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious 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 arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. – Matthew 6:25-34
INTRODUCTION
BELIEF MATTERS
What are we to make of this statement of Jesus? Do not be anxious? For some this is easier than others. There are some people who by temperament whether it is genetics or their upbringing they seem to be able to go through life without losing much sleep to worry. Others of us struggle mightily with worry. For some here today perhaps you had trouble going to sleep last night because of something on your mind robbing you of peace. Stop worrying? You want to! But how? For some here today you may worry and you not really sure you want to stop. Let me explain what I mean by this. For some of us we have learned to express our love for others by worrying. It is one of the things we can do for others. But this is not the only way we can love others. In fact what I hope you will be open to hearing today is that this is fundamentally not the way that Jesus would have you show your concern for others. And we can change. Where can we begin if we are going to stop being anxious? In some ways this call to stop being anxious seems to ask us to do something that is beyond our power. I think this is often especially how this statement can feel to a person who struggles with unwanted anxieties.
There is no question that anxiety can be crippling. Consider just for a moment the way social anxiety can be crippling. I watched an interview between a therapist and a patient discussing her struggle with social anxiety. The way her anxiety affects her life is I think a window into anxiety generally. This 29 year old woman came to get therapy because her feelings of anxiety were affecting her life. She wants to have friendships and meaningful relationships but finds that she becomes so anxious that she isn’t able to form such relationships. In the interview the therapist went through a fairly typical approach to helping the patient begin to develop better coping skills with her anxiety. One of the first steps was to keep a record of her activities especially the times throughout her day when she felt overwhelmed with anxious thoughts. The therapist then helped her explore what underlying thoughts were shaping her anxious feelings. So for example she described the anxiety she felt as she walked to work. She felt like everyone that she passed had very negative thoughts toward her. By being able to examine and talk about this she was able to see that her ideas about this were not founded on anything. She was anxious over something that wasn’t really true. But this didn’t keep her ideas from influencing her.
Ideas matter. This is an assertion that not everyone immediately accepts. There are things in life that we realize matter. Our bodies are affected but toxins around us. You don’t have to be able to even smell, feel, or taste such toxins. Radioactive material can negatively impact your body without you even realizing it. But it is not just radioactive material that affects us. When the counter in a restaurant is not adequately cleaned. Or when produce is tainted there can be profound consequences. Maybe there is some type of food that you have great difficulty eating because of such a bad experience. We realize that in life there are all sorts of things that affect us. Food safety matters. Ideas matter. And specifically I want to assert today that our ideas about God matter. When Jesus addresses this topic of worry it is in the wider context of some specific ideas about God. Jesus doesn’t say to the crowd don’t be worried because there are no dangers. Do you remember the theme song to the quirky detective series Monk. If you never saw the show the main character was a former police officer who had great powers of deduction but was crippled by his phobias. One of the lines from the theme “if you paid attention you’d be worried too.” Ideas matter.
IT WILL ALL WORK OUT
For some there is very little problem with worry. As I mentioned earlier this may be the product of a good disposition. This doesn’t however mean that one is hearing Jesus word of guidance about one’s life. It is possible that people have found a certain peace simply in the wisdom of the world. The peace the world gives is different from the peace that Jesus offers. The peace the world offers may come in a number of different sources. It might be that one simply has learned to make the most of one’s situation. It may be that one simply refuses to allow negative thoughts to crowd into their quite times of reflection. In John 14:27 when Jesus was telling the disciples of the coming presence of the Comforter the Holy Spirit, He told them that he would leave His peace with them, not as the world gives peace but a different kind of peace. The peace of the world offers some limited options for dealing with the world especially when the way the world is is not the way we want it to be. One option is to try to work with others to change things. Another option is to consider that one’s understanding is not right…it may be that we need to change. Or the only other option left is simply acceptance. This is the way it is.
Consider for a moment the possibility that there is some great deliverance that you might miss out on because of one’s presumption. By presumption I mean by one’s attitude that one has all one needs. In John’s Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s progress there are a series of characters who do just this. They are right beside the cross and yet rather than having their lives changed and empowered by the deliverance, they are fast asleep on the side of the road. The names of these three characters are simple, sloth and presumption. They don’t realize that they are in any danger of losing out on anything. Bunyan’s rich imagery is of course steeped in scripture. Jesus very own parables are full of such warnings. You recall the ten young ladies who took their lamps to meet the wedding party. The five foolish women took no oil. And when there was a delay they had to leave in search of oil, and they missed out on the party. They depended upon themselves only to find they didn’t have enough. In this present time we too are awaiting Jesus return. Will we have enough oil? Not if we depend upon our own supply. Even the most patient seemingly at ease of people cannot find the peace that is offered in a relationship with Jesus.
Jesus does not reassure those in the crowd by insisting that everything is just going to work out. What he does do is point to the very structure of creation. Do you not see the birds in the sky? Do you see the flowers of the field? Do you know that your Heavenly Father has a loving concern for all of creation. He knows and cares about the birds and the flowers he cares about you as well. Did you watch any of the meteor shower this week? Last week I mentioned the resilience of the heart. This of course could be extended to look at the pancreas, the liver, the kidneys in each and every cell of our body. Not just our body but of every living thing. From that which is so small that one needs an electron microscope to examine or to something in outer space. But what does it mean for us that the world has this incredible organization to it? The maker of everything that is, knows what you need. The difference Jesus points to between the Gentile striving after these things is that the people of Israel should know that this world and everything in it including each of them is the handiwork of the loving Lord.
SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD
But Jesus doesn’t just say…look at the birds….or the flowers and be well. He says that by looking at the very nature of creation one can be reminded of the faithfulness of God. This Jesus’ urges should stoke in you the desire to seek the kingdom of God. Have you built a fire recently? It starts out small. Quite often it is stuttering barely on fire. And then as the wood begins to burn the flames get higher and hotter. How about in your life? If you were to think of the desire for the kingdom of God in your life to be described with the picture of a fire, what kind of flame would you describe? Would you describe the flame as non-existent. Are you just simply a cold fire pit? Is there a flicker? Are you burning giving off heat? Or are you cooling down? Well how would you do anything about this? What does it mean to seek the kingdom of God? This might be the place you need to start. Because we don’t live in a kingdom…this language can be a little difficult to translate. What does it mean to seek the government of God? What might it mean to be governed in your life by God’s will for you? We know that the primary concern that Jesus points us to is our interaction with God and with one another. We are not made simply to eat, drink, and sleep. We are made to have relationships that flourish with love.
This is where we connect His righteousness. Sometimes we think of righteousness in the abstract. What I mean by this is we think of certain ways of living independent of specific circumstances. We might think of qualities like we find enumerated by the apostle Paul of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. There are times to look at these lists in the abstract but today I want to suggest that you take these few examples and look at them if you will through the lens of your relationships. Are you these things in relation to your husband or your wife? What about to your son or daughter? And then expand from there to relationships of less frequent interaction. What about in relation to your friends? Your neighbors? People of limited acquaintance? But don’t stop at that circle either. Then start to expand to complete and total strangers. What about people for whom you have no natural bond? People who perhaps are strangers to your community? What about people who do not even share your culture? And then let’s not stop there. What about to those people who you may find yourself not just strangers to, but people with whom you are estranged. Those who for whatever reasons and I am not just talking about those where the estrangement has come from no good reason. For those where there has been good reason. Do you find there to be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
I hope that as you start to explore these relationships in the way I have suggested that you will find that you have room for improvement. Why do I think this is important? Because for one I am sure that you do. And the only way you are going to really live into the government of God is when you realize that to do this is only possible by the act of God. We left to our own strength will change the goal post. We will make it about loving the lovable. We will make it about being in relationships of balance and mutual encouragement. We will make it about living for the present passing moments of joy without a focus on the wider needs of the entire community. Because the wider needs are so big that looking to them only leads to despair. And yet it is in looking to these very needs that we will be free of anxiety. How so, when we realize and place our hope in the unfolding work of God. This is work that will never be stopped. The very best that we construct in relationships will soon fade. Too late smart, too soon old.
CELEBRATION
Are you worried? Let your worry be a reminder to you of your need to seek the kingdom of God and to depend upon the Holy Spirit to secure in your heart in the righteousness for which we long.
Reflections 