Come and time travel with me – not all the way back to the first century when Jesus sat on a hillside and taught his followers about that worry and fear and even material possessions cluttered up their lives, taught them that they, even then, could now and again glimpse God’s Kingdom, God’s dream for the world, taught them that they could always find their hearts if they simply looked at what they valued most in life.
No – we will not go that far back in time. Come and time travel with me to the year 1347. The Black Plague was raging across Europe, and people by the thousands were dying each day in fields and cities all across that part of the world. However, even worse than the plague itself was the fact that no one knew what was causing the horrendous symptoms and outrageous death toll. Life was short, to be sure, but this was madness.
To say that people were worried and afraid would be an understatement. The epidemic was so much more far-reaching and capricious and malevolent than anything they had ever experienced before.
No surprisingly, some people began to suspect that a vengeful and angry God was causing the rash of deaths. They got to thinking that only by appeasing God would the spread of disease finally cease.
To that end, in Lubeck, Germany, the townspeople decided to appeal to God for forgiveness and put an end to the death all around them. They began bringing enormous amounts of money, jewels, and other miscellaneous riches to the local churches and monasteries. Surely they figured what better place to find God than in a church, and what better way to appease an angry God than by confessing their sinfulness by renouncing some of the wealth they had accumulated, often at the expense of others?
However, one monastery refused their offerings. The monks and priests were convinced that the money was contaminated with whatever was spreading the plague. Consequently, they barred the monastery gates and refused to allow the citizens to enter.
Needless-to-say, the townspeople were frantic. In their terror, they picked up their valuables - coins, gold, and jewels - and heaved them over the monastery walls. However, like I said, the monks did not want this potentially contaminated wealth, so they threw it all back. Then the citizens then tossed everything back inside, and monks threw it all back outside.
This game of catch continued for hours - riches thrown back and forth - until the brothers finally gave up and allowed the detritus of the town’s wealth to remain. As the story goes, within hours, piles 3 and 4 feet high filled the monastery courtyard, and for months following the incident – some say for years - the coins and jewels remained untouched.
Oh, the lengths that we will go to when fear and worry overwhelm us! And yet, in this Bible passage we just read, Jesus tells us that fear and worry are for naught. Both can be expressed in so many different ways, and both simply clutter up our lives. Fear and worry take up space that would be better given over to what Jesus calls the Kingdom, that way of life about which he taught and was grounded in all that he stood for. Life is too short for worries and fear, he seemed to be saying, especially when God’s dream for the world is at stake.
In this passage we just heard, when Jesus spoke about worry and fear, he used vivid examples that would have resonated with his audience. As blogger Janice Green reminds us, in ancient Palestine, “people raised their own food, made their own clothes, and lived in homes we would consider sub-standard in our day and time. The primary modes of travel was by foot, by donkey, or camel. The average person’s wardrobe would probably have fit in a suitcase. Their water was drawn in pots from public wells”.
Against that economic reality, Jesus told these people who flocked around him, hanging on his every word, “Do not worry about food….Do not worry about clothing…..Do not worry about the essentials of life.” Life is too short when God’s dream for the world is at stake.
Easy for him to say, right? Eyes would have opened wide at his outlandish statements, and heads would have shaken in disbelief at his words. After all, Jesus was talking to men who were never sure where their family’s next meal would come from, who could not always provide milk on the table for their children. “Do not worry about food.” Jesus was talking to women who knew their daughter’s sandals were too small and blistered her heels, who realized that if their son’s tunic tore one more time, it could not be repaired. “Do not worry about clothes.”
In the midst of the jaw-dropping that his sermon evoked, Jesus went on to imagine a creation where God would provide the necessities for living a simple life. And so his listeners began to imagine a world different from the one they had always known.
They conjured up a world where even the birds never hungered. They could almost hear the ravens raucously cawing out their thanks. They pictured a world where even the flowers were clothed in beauty. They could just see in their mind’s eye the white lilies swaying their gratitude in the field.
Jesus then asked the pivotal question, “How much more valuable are you than birds – than flowers?” The listeners – illiterate though they were - knew the answer intuitively: We are sons and daughters of God, made in the image of the Holy One, and we are capable of being so much more than we are. We are worth “a great deal more” than an old crow or even a lily. Surely God will provide, so we can simply live.
And then Jesus ended his soliloquy with yet another question: “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Don’t you know that life is too short for worrying and fear when God’s dream is at stake?”
Easy for you to say, Jesus. Do you understand how much we have to worry about these days – our children, our grandchildren, our nation, our world, climate change, polarization, declining church participation, mass shootings, hate crimes, job security, how we stack up against the expectations everyone puts on us? What’s notto worry about?
And yet, Jesus’ question rings true. Worry, in the end, changes nothing. What is the saying? Worry is interest on a loan you may never need to take out. Life is too short when God’s dream for the world is at stake.
For the next few moments, let’s us – you and I - be like the people who listened to Jesus long ago. Let’s imagine a different world. Let’s conjure up a world where worry and fear do not encroach on our living. Would we find a relationship between our anxieties and what scares us most, on the one hand, and our ability to live into the Kingdom, to live out the teachings of Jesus, to realize God’s dream for the world on the other?
What if, during these remaining weeks of Lent, we intentionally tried to let go of the worry and fear that clutters our hearts? What if, into that heart space we freed up, we intentionally tried to let the Kingdom in, that way of life embodied in Jesus and his ministry?
Are you game? Hope so because here are some basic questions to consider. What do you fear the most? That you won’t be as good or proficient as people think you should be? That you aren’t who people presume you are?
What do you worry about? Having enough money to retire on? Enough money to pay back student loans? How about your job? And your work-life balance?
What keeps you up at night? Your children? Your marriage? Your health? Another mass shooting? Donald Trump?
What if, instead of worrying about and fearing whatever presses in on your life, what if, for just a moment, you trusted in God or Spirit or who whatever you want to call that Something that is bigger than yourself, what if you could let go of those worries and fears? Just hand them over – and see what happens. Would you feel at peace? Would your heart fill up with compassion?
We are going to find out. You have a small piece of paper attached to your bulletin. It is disappearing paper because it dissolves in water. Take a moment now and write down one thing that worries you or that you fear. And I will invite you to come forward and drop your paper into the bowl of water, stir it around, and watch it disappear.
This ritual action, of course, is our symbolic way of giving our worries and fears to God, perhaps for just this time in worship, but that is OK. It is a chance to feel unburdened, a chance to trust in Something bigger than yourself, a chance to know that you are more precious than the birds in the air and the lilies in the field.
PEOPLE COME FORWARD
The question for us this morning – and really all through the season of Lent is this: How can we clear out the clutter in our hearts and create space for God to flourish instead? You will have to decide whether letting go of your worries and fears as we just did symbolically creates that space. It strikes me as better than tossing our possessions back and forth over a monastery wall – though getting rid of some of that excess material clutter in our lives would not be a bad thing – but that is a topic for another sermon.
Anyway, if the letting go that we did was helpful, then I encourage you to make a commitment to continue doing so regularly and intentionally during the remainder of Lent – through prayer or meditation or getting your own disappearing paper or simply finding your quiet center.
You see, in the end, as Jesus pointed out to his followers, life is too short for worries and fears we cannot control, especially when God’s dream for the world is at stake.. It is like Dr. Seuss pointed out in his poignant poem:
How did it get so late so soon,
It's night before it's afternoon.
December is here before it's June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?
My prayer for you during these last couple of weeks of Lent – even as time whizzes by - is that you can open your hearts and trustingly relinquish whatever it is that keeps you up at night – and that in the open heart space, you can live more fully and meaningfully into the Kingdom – because, after all, life is short, especially when God’s dream for the world is at stake.
Let me conclude now with some advice from Baptist pastor, Brett Younger:
· Life is short, so live every day as if it were your last, because some day you'll be right.
· Life is short, so do what you love to do and give it your best. If you don't love what you're doing and can't give it your best, think seriously about getting out of it.
· Life is short, so recognize that today is the only day you have, eat dessert first, read good books.
· Life is short, so tell the truth, take care of this day, dance.
· Life is short, so listen to the people you love, tell them how much they mean to you, visit someone else's mother in the nursing home.
· Life is short, so recognize that every day is a special occasion, do something interesting, have some fun, and choose to be happy.
· Life is short, so forgive. Look past the faults of others just like you hope they will do for you.
· Life is short, so surround yourself with gracious people, hug your friends, care for someone you haven't cared for.
· Life is short, so be courageous, take a chance, live so that when your life flashes before your eyes, you'll have plenty to watch.
· Life is short, so embrace the possibilities, try something new, see that every day is an opportunity, dream, but don't just dream, follow those dreams.
· Life is short, so breathe and think deeply, don't give your heart to that which won't fill your heart, make the changes that will make the difference.
· Life is short, so celebrate God's eternity, make time for the things that matter, don't leave yourself regretting things you didn't do.
And I would add – life is short, so clear out the clutter, so your heart is emptied of rear and worry – and filled instead with compassion.
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