Worry!
Sermon
I remember as a teenager feeling extremely irritated when my parents stayed awake at night until I was in. I couldn't understand their worry, for of course I'd be all right! Neither could I understand their need to worry, for what difference could worrying about the situation make? They would be much better off just to get to sleep and see me in the morning.
Now I'm the one waiting for my family to come in, and feeling the familiar rise of anxiety if it gets later than expected. Immediately all sorts of pictures float through my brain from car crashes to hospital beds, even though I know I'm only making the situation worse.
And it's the same with all sorts of other situations. I sometimes feel the early hours of the morning should be designated "the suffering hours", for it's so often during that time that difficulties can seem insurmountable and anxieties overwhelming.
Worry is such an uncomfortable aspect of human experience. We worry so much about the future that almost all of us have insurance policies for almost every event. And if the policy doesn't cover some unexpected happening, that happening is often called "an act of God", which means the insurance company doesn't have to pay up.
In today's world, anyone who doesn't have insurance cover is generally thought at best to be foolish, at worst to be criminal. And it is indeed a crime for instance, to drive without being covered by insurance.
So how do we Christians match all this concern about the future, all this anxiety to insure against any calamity, with Jesus' statement in today's reading from Matthew's gospel, "Do not worry about tomorrow"?
And try telling your teenage daughter not to worry about what she will eat or what she will wear or about the state of her body. One tiny pimple is enough to send her into paroxysms of grief.
It sometimes feels as though stress and worry and anxiety are new phenomena, somehow caused by the pace of 21st century life. Thousands of working hours are lost each year through stress, and stress management has become big business.
Even though churchgoers tend to be healthier than the general population, church-going is no insurance against illness or stress. Christians are affected by stress or mental breakdown as much as anyone else. Indeed, sometimes they are more affected because passages like this one from St. Matthew's gospel saying there's no need to worry, can add an enormous load of guilt to those who are ill with stress.
Causes of stress and anxiety are manifold, but it seldom helps to hear someone say, "don't worry about it", even when the person saying those words is Jesus. Although some people worry more than others, there are few who really enjoy worrying. Most of us don't choose to worry. We worry because we can't help it, and we succumb to stress because we can't help it.
There are many ways of handling stress from meditation to drugs. Sometimes it's possible to affect the cause of stress, to change things so that stress doesn't occur. But many people are not a position to change the cause, so the best they can do is to learn to cope with the stress.
Jesus says, "don't worry", but does Christianity have anything concrete to offer in preventing worry or handling it when it arises?
Perhaps in today's passage Jesus is saying something about priorities. Perhaps he's not saying it's wrong to worry, simply that it's silly and unnecessary to worry about trivialities. He doesn't say don't worry about serious illness or problems in the family, but he does say don't waste your energy worrying about what you look like or what you're going to wear or what you're going to cook for dinner.
He acknowledges that human beings will worry with good cause, for he says don't worry about today, since tomorrow will have worries enough of its own.
How can we comply with his instructions not to worry about trivia? Perhaps it's a matter of faith, of trusting God to care sufficiently about us to look after our everyday needs. And perhaps by focusing on God and the truth of a situation rather than on ourselves and our feelings of distress.
Jesus handled stress by facing the cause whenever he could. For instance, he always said openly and honestly what he really felt about people, and it wasn't always flattering. Jesus wasn't necessarily nice to people, but he was always truthful. He told the Pharisees they were like whitewashed tombs - clean and perfect on the outside, but carrying death within. When it's possible to tell people what you really think, many feelings of stress disappear. But that isn't always possible. The worker or the schoolchild may not be in a position to tell those in authority what they really think.
Jesus told the rich young man to give away his money, and when the young man couldn't handle that, Jesus allowed him to leave. And Jesus didn't feel guilty that he'd failed to make a disciple, because he didn't put pressure on people, and he didn't manipulate. He was quite happy to leave people to make up their own minds. And in his turn, Jesus was able to resist other people's pressure and attempts at manipulation without feeling stressed about it. Learning to be comfortable with other people's decisions, even if they're not the decisions I would have made, relieves a lot of unnecessary stress.
Sometimes, talking things over with a good listener can help. Jesus talked things over with God, and we too can do that. But if on occasions God feels a bit remote, then a human listener can be very useful.
When things became too much for Jesus, or he was powerless to alter the situation, he took time out. When he was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of needy people, he'd withdraw to a lonely place for an hour or two, or maybe occasionally for several days. When the end was in sight and he knew he was facing a most horrible death, he withdrew to the Garden of Gethsemane. And he always returned refreshed and renewed and ready to face all the problems again. He was even able to face his own death after that time in the garden.
It isn't always easy to change the cause of stress, but taking ourselves away from the situation for a while, even for just an hour or two alone and quiet before God, will recharge batteries and help to put problems into perspective.
Some worries are silly and unnecessary, but it isn't easy even to let go of those. Perhaps a good way to start is by trying to leave unnecessary anxieties in God's hands. And after that, perhaps we'll also discover the bigger anxieties are actually held securely in his hands, and we have no real need to damage ourselves by worrying about them.
Now I'm the one waiting for my family to come in, and feeling the familiar rise of anxiety if it gets later than expected. Immediately all sorts of pictures float through my brain from car crashes to hospital beds, even though I know I'm only making the situation worse.
And it's the same with all sorts of other situations. I sometimes feel the early hours of the morning should be designated "the suffering hours", for it's so often during that time that difficulties can seem insurmountable and anxieties overwhelming.
Worry is such an uncomfortable aspect of human experience. We worry so much about the future that almost all of us have insurance policies for almost every event. And if the policy doesn't cover some unexpected happening, that happening is often called "an act of God", which means the insurance company doesn't have to pay up.
In today's world, anyone who doesn't have insurance cover is generally thought at best to be foolish, at worst to be criminal. And it is indeed a crime for instance, to drive without being covered by insurance.
So how do we Christians match all this concern about the future, all this anxiety to insure against any calamity, with Jesus' statement in today's reading from Matthew's gospel, "Do not worry about tomorrow"?
And try telling your teenage daughter not to worry about what she will eat or what she will wear or about the state of her body. One tiny pimple is enough to send her into paroxysms of grief.
It sometimes feels as though stress and worry and anxiety are new phenomena, somehow caused by the pace of 21st century life. Thousands of working hours are lost each year through stress, and stress management has become big business.
Even though churchgoers tend to be healthier than the general population, church-going is no insurance against illness or stress. Christians are affected by stress or mental breakdown as much as anyone else. Indeed, sometimes they are more affected because passages like this one from St. Matthew's gospel saying there's no need to worry, can add an enormous load of guilt to those who are ill with stress.
Causes of stress and anxiety are manifold, but it seldom helps to hear someone say, "don't worry about it", even when the person saying those words is Jesus. Although some people worry more than others, there are few who really enjoy worrying. Most of us don't choose to worry. We worry because we can't help it, and we succumb to stress because we can't help it.
There are many ways of handling stress from meditation to drugs. Sometimes it's possible to affect the cause of stress, to change things so that stress doesn't occur. But many people are not a position to change the cause, so the best they can do is to learn to cope with the stress.
Jesus says, "don't worry", but does Christianity have anything concrete to offer in preventing worry or handling it when it arises?
Perhaps in today's passage Jesus is saying something about priorities. Perhaps he's not saying it's wrong to worry, simply that it's silly and unnecessary to worry about trivialities. He doesn't say don't worry about serious illness or problems in the family, but he does say don't waste your energy worrying about what you look like or what you're going to wear or what you're going to cook for dinner.
He acknowledges that human beings will worry with good cause, for he says don't worry about today, since tomorrow will have worries enough of its own.
How can we comply with his instructions not to worry about trivia? Perhaps it's a matter of faith, of trusting God to care sufficiently about us to look after our everyday needs. And perhaps by focusing on God and the truth of a situation rather than on ourselves and our feelings of distress.
Jesus handled stress by facing the cause whenever he could. For instance, he always said openly and honestly what he really felt about people, and it wasn't always flattering. Jesus wasn't necessarily nice to people, but he was always truthful. He told the Pharisees they were like whitewashed tombs - clean and perfect on the outside, but carrying death within. When it's possible to tell people what you really think, many feelings of stress disappear. But that isn't always possible. The worker or the schoolchild may not be in a position to tell those in authority what they really think.
Jesus told the rich young man to give away his money, and when the young man couldn't handle that, Jesus allowed him to leave. And Jesus didn't feel guilty that he'd failed to make a disciple, because he didn't put pressure on people, and he didn't manipulate. He was quite happy to leave people to make up their own minds. And in his turn, Jesus was able to resist other people's pressure and attempts at manipulation without feeling stressed about it. Learning to be comfortable with other people's decisions, even if they're not the decisions I would have made, relieves a lot of unnecessary stress.
Sometimes, talking things over with a good listener can help. Jesus talked things over with God, and we too can do that. But if on occasions God feels a bit remote, then a human listener can be very useful.
When things became too much for Jesus, or he was powerless to alter the situation, he took time out. When he was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of needy people, he'd withdraw to a lonely place for an hour or two, or maybe occasionally for several days. When the end was in sight and he knew he was facing a most horrible death, he withdrew to the Garden of Gethsemane. And he always returned refreshed and renewed and ready to face all the problems again. He was even able to face his own death after that time in the garden.
It isn't always easy to change the cause of stress, but taking ourselves away from the situation for a while, even for just an hour or two alone and quiet before God, will recharge batteries and help to put problems into perspective.
Some worries are silly and unnecessary, but it isn't easy even to let go of those. Perhaps a good way to start is by trying to leave unnecessary anxieties in God's hands. And after that, perhaps we'll also discover the bigger anxieties are actually held securely in his hands, and we have no real need to damage ourselves by worrying about them.
