Sermons
12th August 2007 - Trinity 10
Anxiety and stress are not modern inventions, but our lives do often seem to be characterised by a high level of concern about the things of this world. It seems that the Western affluent countries have a higher incidence of this than elsewhere, as if the accumulation of wealth goes hand in hand with the accumulation of worries. And of course, we are constantly bombarded by advertising and news that encourages us to fear the worst. We are to worry about how we look, how much we exercise, what we eat, what we wear, how much we can earn, how much we can learn, and to worry about keeping safe from criminals of various sorts.
The cultures of other parts of the worlds provide a contrast. Many less ‘well-developed’ parts of the world have the benefit of a more relaxed attitude to events, but this often goes along with poor education, poor services, poor government, poor health care and so forth. In the two places abroad where I have lived I encountered two phrases that could almost sum up the difference in attitude and the apparent lack of anxiety. In Kenya, people would say ‘Hakuna Matata’, no worries, which was a nice idea until you had real worries, and in the Middle East people say ‘Inshala’ that is ‘God-willing’, which is another nice idea until you needed your air-conditioning fixing and the man would only be there today if God was willing, or more likely, if the man felt like coming.
Jesus is very firm about the dangers of anxiety. It is denounced as absurd, and pointless, and pagan. So should Christians go through life without a care in the world? Well let’s listen to what Jesus denounces first. In various places in the gospels Jesus seems to recommend a radical disengagement from anxiety. He says, ‘Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear’. And he tells his disciples to observe the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. And he asks them ‘Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?’, and in today’s gospel he tells his disciples ‘Do not be afraid little flock for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms.’ Do not worry, do not be afraid.
Jesus denounces worry as unworthy of his followers because it implies that we do not really trust that God is our loving Father. He also denounces it as dangerously addictive, after all, we might arm ourselves against persecution, but constant insecurity will just as surely undermine our faith and trust in God. And he denounces worry as pointless, it will not add an hour to our span of life (and most doctors would say that it may take away several hours if not years from that span).
There is, though, a crucial difference between a nonchalant disregard of the world and the underlying force of Jesus’ remarks. The cure for undue anxiety for Christians is not a retreat from the world but an engagement with the kingdom. Jesus’ teaching on anxiety is about putting first things first, and what we should be seeking first is the kingdom of God. Jesus teaching shows that the only possessions in the end that are worth striving for are those which the vicissitudes of our earthly lives and the inevitable approach of death will not be able to take away. Jesus says ‘Do not be afraid little flock for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom’ and the urgency with which we anticipate that gift, the urgency with which we seek out the signs of that kingdom breaking into this world are to be in proportion to the magnificence of the gift.
Jesus’ teaching says to us that our striving after the things of this world has to be displaced as our primary concern if we are fully to take up our role as Christians. And his teaching suggests that once we re-order our priorities we will find both that God provides for us, and that what we thought necessities may in the end turn out to be far from essential. Life may even be a good deal simpler than we imagined if we can seek first the kingdom of God and trust in God’s care for us. So we are being warned by Jesus against undue concern. There will always be aspects of our lives over which we trouble ourselves but if we see those troubles in the light of the gracious gift that the Father would give, we will not let an appropriate carefulness be replaced by an inordinate anxiety.
The Christian cure for anxiety is trust. And if we can begin to trust God then we can begin to recommend God to others.
St Augustine expressed this desire for trust in God in this prayer:
Almighty God, you know our needs before we ask and our ignorance in asking, set free your servants from all anxious thoughts for the future; give us contentment with your good gifts and confirm our faith that, if we seek first your kingdom, we will not lack any good thing, through Jesus Christ Our Lord.