Sunday Feb.27th, sermon

Epiphany VIII

The state of the world: it flashes in newspaper headlines, 20 second blips on the radio, and in fragmented sentences on Twitter.  I am reminded of the Billy Joel song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”; a song lyric that was a rhythmic list of the state of the world from Billy Joel’s perspective beginning in the year he was born 1949 through 1989. The song pointed to “the fire” - a nod to conflict and societal turmoil.

You know the song I mean: it begins -

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell,

And so on...

The last two weeks of newspaper headlines, radio blips, and tweets could write a new version of the song many times over.

Earthquakes, after-shocks, flooding, power out

Gas price, soaring oil, lyme disease, bad cocaine

Epidemics, euthanasia, threats of a bio-terror

Propaganda, protests, sanctions, state unrest

Iraq, Iran, imams, Afghanistan

Saudi, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia

Gadhafi, Mubarak, leaders up in arms

Gunshots, streets unsafe, justice, prison breaks

Billy Joel said:

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

What else do I have to say.  I can’t take it anymore.

And then in the midst of this chaotic mess we are confronted this morning with words written in a different rhythm.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air; they neither toil nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?.....Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you –you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” for it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But strive first for the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Continuing with the chorus of the afore mentioned song:
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

We didn’t start the fire –this is true; but I wonder if we really try to fight it today –or rather do we simply grumble about the terrible mess the world is in from our removed relatively safe perspective; then we settle into our lazy boy chairs with a cup of steaming coffee -to fear, lament and worry that our pension plans will plummet and we’ll have to pay 3 and ½ cents more for a litre of gasoline. 

Worry; this has become our society’s collective protest.

Worry; it hasn’t stopped any conflict in the world, it hasn’t warmed the heart of any world leader.

Worry; hasn’t managed to control the weather, the earth’s crust, or the spreading of pandemics.

Worry; hasn’t made us feel safer.

Worry –means we have too much stuff that we are afraid of losing.

Worry –means that we have too much time on our hands and a lack of vision.

Worry –is the absence of hope and a void in our spiritual well being.

Worry – puts into question our relationship and understanding of God.

A search for the opposite of worry –returned the answers:

Peace, ...confidence, ...faith, ...trust, ...feeling love, ...calm, ...fearless, ...being happy, ...prayer

I wonder if any of these words are the answer to the epidemic of worry that has invaded and paralyzed our society and unfortunately us as well.

For weeks we have been sitting on the mountain and eavesdropping on Jesus as he speaks to the disciples.

Jesus began with the beatitudes, highlighting words like: poor, meek, merciful, pure, peacemakers, happy.

Jesus talked kingdom talk with images of the disciples being salt and light to the world.

Jesus commended the disciples to not just keep the law, but live it in its fullness –loving God, loving neighbour –doing more than simple responsibility by selflessly giving one’s cloak and walking the extra mile to relationship.

Jesus teaches the disciples to pray.

Through these teachings Jesus instructs the disciples in the “how-to” of the following command,  “do not worry”.  Jesus in wisdom proceeds the “do not worry” with the how so that the disciples have no need to fret about the how.

Taking Jesus words and integrating them into our lives will not be easy this week.

To not worry, will take discipline, faith – in fact it will be an impossible task...so let’s make a commitment to start to heal our addiction to worry.

How?

Give something away to someone who needs it more: something from your home, something useful, something you have a connection to.  This is the beginning of having less to worry about- some day it may lead to downsizing.

Take two minutes every day to sit and pray.  Pray by offering to God by name, the places of chaos in the world.  This is the beginning of letting go of things over which you have no control –they become no longer yours to worry about.

As you go to bed and are waiting to fall asleep each night, concentrate on the goodness you experienced throughout your day.  Consider how you can add goodness to tomorrow.

These are simple commitments to make; baby steps in our growing journey away from worry - heeding Jesus’ words; and in time to totally move from worry and live in the fullness of faith.

In your giving of something away, in your two minutes a day of prayer, in your concentration on goodness and bringing goodness,  -in your endeavour to rid your life of worry – may God fill the void and make you whole.