Do not worry

When my mother went to University, her parents bought her a calculator. She had to leave it plugged in overnight, and it could hold it's charge for only a class or two. It calculated so slowly, that she just did most of the math work in her head to save time. She took a computer course - on the only computer at the university - in which she cut holes out of a sheet of cardboard and then fed it into the monster-sized computer to see if it would run a program.

As a child I remember my whole family sitting around our brand new PC or personal computer. I remember using the internet over our phone line and watching as pictures showed up one line at a time - just downloading at lightning speed for the time.

I'm sometimes amazed at how fast we have come so far. In less than 40 years we have moved from slow calculators the size of ovens to super-fast computers that fit in the palm of our hands.

I wonder sometimes how far away could we possibly be from flying cars and robot friends.

Todays scripture is so poignant because it reminds us how very little we have moved in the last 2000 years.

We could almost imagine if any of the 12 disciples were to show up in our modern times - we could see the cartoon-y blooper wheel as he attempts to understand our modern life and its conveniences. He would surely be out of place in our busy city, with our fast cars, and our degrees. But, any of the twelve would fit right in with our people. While they wouldn't understand the microwave, they would certainly understand our greed, lust, envy and pride. They might be confused by such simple convenience as our electric kettle, but there would be no confusion regarding our worry.

It seems that as the modern era has moved forward we have begun to worry more and more. While we work fewer hours than most generations before us, live in larger houses, accomplish more with our time, and have a greater understanding of what financial security really means - we worry just as much as we ever have.

Jesus lays out a simple plan for his followers - do not worry - and yet by and large we ignore the advice.

Now I would think that if my friend went to the doctor to complain of a serious problem - and the doctor said that he would be cured if he eats a spoon full of sugar each day - that my friend would comply with that simple advice. But instead we find so many of our friends get sicker and sicker and refuse the simple advice of the doctor.

I had friends who graduated university with 40,000 dollars in debt and immediately decided that they needed to buy a six bedroom house in a nice neighborhood. And yet they couldn't understand why they had so much stress and why they worried so much.

Jesus tells us not to worry. Jesus, the homeless carpenter/teacher, tells the gathered crowd that they shouldn't worry. Now, clearly this is a little hard to take ... because, a little worry is good. The world tells us that we should be worried about finding a place to sleep, and food to fill our stomachs. We need to earn an income and pay bills in order to be a part of normal society.

But Jesus uses the most simple and beautiful illustrations.

Take the flowers of the field for an example. All flowers are beautiful. Even the ones that sprout up as weeds are actually quite pleasant to look at. Even though they are here one day and gone the next, God gives each flower a beautiful design.

For many of us, tomorrow is a scary concept. We don't know how we're going to make it to the end of the month, we don't know how we're going to finish building our house, we don't know how many more days we can survive just eating gretchka. We don't know how we could afford to live if our parents stopped paying for things - or we don't know how our parents could afford to live if we weren't paying for things.

We simply don't know what tomorrow holds.

But we know who holds tomorrow.

As Christians we believe that God is in control. Our lives should reflect that.

Here's an example. I believe in gravity. I think that gravity is real, and I believe that it affects my life. So, if I hold this object out and drop it - and then I want to find the object again - I should look on the floor for it. I shouldn't be surprised that it has fallen, and I shouldn't live as though I expected it to ignore gravity.

When we worry, we show strong evidence of our beliefs. Worry shows that we think we are in control - or that we don't trust God who is clearly in charge.

When we trust, we show strong evidence of our beliefs. We trust that God loved us enough to send Jesus to die on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. If God loved us that much, why wouldn't God love us enough to take care of everything else? We trust in God for our eternal salvation, why wouldn't we trust God to also handle our finances? Our daily bread? Our interactions with others?

This is such a strong part of our testimony. In this postmodern world, we will rarely win people to the gospel of Jesus Christ by proving the logical facts of the Christian religion. We will only persuade people by the actions of our lives. We must show them that something in our lives is desirable.

The freedom to trust God and remove worry from our daily lives is a radical statement of faith.

I'll tell you this right now, if you leave this place and you genuinely live out the command "do not worry" you'll have people lining up behind you following you to church next week.

Take for example the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet our heavenly Father feeds them. ... but deep down, don't we all want to be a little more like them. Don't we all just want to spread our wings and fly? Don't we all wish we had the freedom to fly?

There is freedom, a tremendous freedom, in the good words of our savior this day. This week, Jesus is challenging us to set our worry aside, to trust fully in the God of heaven and earth, and to spread our wings and fly.