LIFE IS A BLESSING, NOT A PREDICAMENT

(Preached on Sunday, November 26, 2006)

But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.                                  -Matthew 6:33

 

CNN reported in 2004 that a study of 1,883 British men revealed that 10 percent of men between the ages of 25 and 44 Aare anxiety-ridden, worrying about employment issues and time pressures.@  It isn=t a mid-life crisis; it is an early-life crisis.  Part of the problem is the high expectations the young men have.  They hope to earn more money while working fewer hours C at the same time reducing their debt.  They worry about their ability to fund their current lifestyles and/or their retirement.

 

A thickness of anxiety hangs in the air, and many people feel exhausted as a result.  Talk to any group, and you will most likely hear about the heavy burdens they are carrying and their sense that things are getting worse, not better.  We are coping with intense amounts of chaos and fear, both personally and as communities.  We live with worries of terrorism, nuclear proliferation, sons and daughters that are called to fight wars in foreign lands.  We live with pressures, hopes, expectations, and difficulties that we experience on a day-in day-out basis.

No wonder we are anxious and worried.

 

It is extremely tough for us then to hear this teaching this morning from Jesus.  It sounds just too perky and cheerful.  Sort of like the mindless optimism of Bobby McFerrin=s bouncy tune from the 1980's, ADon=t Worry, Be Happy!@  But Jesus is not out of touch with reality, nor is he minimizing what is important to us.  In truth Jesus is more in touch with reality than our anxiety allows us to be, and he is actually valuing our lives more highly than our worrying does.

 

First, Jesus is more in touch with the reality of the presence of God, our Creator and Sustainer, who is never distant from us nor ever unconcerned for our welfare.  As an adult, making a drive from Miami, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia, I must be concerned about directions, fuel level, toll roads, speed limits, and such.  That=s reality for me.

On the other hand, if I am a child and my mom is the driver, then I do not need to be concerned about such things.  The directions, fuel, and the rest are still just as important as before; but they are not my concern.  That is the reality Jesus presents to us.  It=s a reality about God, our Creator.  It=s a paradigm that does not focus on the need but on the source.

 

Second, as with most of his teaching, Jesus is trying to put us in touch with the real value of life.  It is not that food and clothes are not important.  But if they become my purpose, my raison d=etre, then my life becomes tied to that which is temporal and passing.

Jesus is pointing us beyond the distorted vision of obsessing about our own lives to a focus on God and the things of God: which are love and people and the glorious creation with which God surrounds us.  These are the values that are eternal and which deserve our total attention.

 

Imagine yourself at a party.  Introduced to a stranger, you ask, AWhat do you do?@ and you hear in reply: AMy work is loving the world ... my work is mostly standing still, and learning to be astonished.@  What would you think?  Maybe, from what mental ward was this person just released?  Or, perhaps, how can I get a job like that?  It is an approach to life more in tune with Jesus= teaching than with the thinking of the world around us.  It is also the approach to life described in a poem by Mary Oliver entitled Messenger.

My work is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird C

equal seekers of sweetness.

Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

 

Are my boots old?  Is my coat torn?

Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?  Let me

keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,

 

which is mostly standing still and learning to be

astonished.

The phoebe, the delphinium.

The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.

Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

 

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart

and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

that we live forever.

 

This work is available to us all.  It is the work of someone who takes the time to listen, to smell, to taste, and see.

It does not matter if you don=t have sunflowers or hummingbirds in view: a city landscape of buildings and people will do just fine.  There is plenty too wonder at there, and if you look up, you may see hawks soaring in the sky.  Or storm clouds eclipsing the tops of skyscrapers.

We live in a time when anxiety and Aroad rage@ are rampant, while gratitude and wonder seem to be in short supply.  The thinking of this world is like a computer virus that has invaded our system.  The Spirit of God is like an anti-viral program that both protects us from false thinking and dismantles false thoughts once they=ve entered our minds.

 

What Jesus is trying to help us understand is that we are not separate from God; we just think we are.  What God creates is one with God forever, as an idea cannot leave its source.  God is love, and God Is All That Is.  Therefore, when we=re not thinking with love, we=re actually not thinking at all.  We=re hallucinating.  That is what we are doing when we are consumed with our anxiety and worry.  Because that is not God=s world.  That is our made up world.

 

It takes mental discipline to retrain our minds, yet such retraining is imperative if we really want our lives to change.

I began this sermon sharing the results of a CNN story about a study of British men and their high levels of anxiety.

Let me close with the results of another study that demonstrate the possibilities of such retraining of our minds..

Boston University psychologist George Stavros, Ph.D. wanted to find out the affects of repeating the Jesus Prayer  for ten minutes each day for 30 days.  So, he found 110 Eastern Orthodox Christians, gave them a battery of tests ranging from psychology to theology to behavioral medicine, and then repeated the tests 30 days later. In the interval the subjects spent 10 minutes a day reciting one of the most enduring prayers in history.  Known as the Jesus Prayer it consists of seven simple words C ALord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.@

What he discovered was truly profound.  On all the scales that showed any significant effect compared to the control group the answer was a resounding yes.  Repeating this simple prayer deepened the commitment of these Christians to a relationship with God.

Not only that, it reduced depression, anxiety, hostility, and feelings of inferiority to others.