Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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We all know that catchy little Caribbean tune, "Don't Worry -- Be Happy!" It was fleetingly popular a few years back, and now it's being recycled in a rent-a-car commercial. The song is light-hearted, fun -- doesn't pretend to be great philosophy -- but it touches a deep truth: worry and anxiety poison happiness. And that truth is at least part of what Jesus wants to tell us in the Sermon on the Mount. But he gives far more than flip advice, "don't worry." He tells us why we shouldn't worry. Because God is a God of infinite love, who cares deeply for his creation, including especially us. We know the beautiful words (Perhaps we are too familiar with them.): "Consider the birds of the air -- how God feeds them." Consider the lilies of the field -- how God clothes them. And you are worth so much more." We don't always listen.

Trusting Completely in God

Jesus was speaking first to his disciples -- the twelve. They had, in fact, given up everything. They were hanging out there. They had left their nets and their boats, separated themselves from families, risen up from tax tables, quit good jobs, stripped themselves of all earthly comfort and security. They had bet their last dollar on God. Is it terribly disillusioning for us to imagine that, from time to time, they became anxious, worried where the next meal would come from or how they could afford life's necessities? Can't we imagine the hushed and anxious conversations, at night or along the road, when the Master was out of earshot and the crowds had left: "We're out of money! Doesn't he realize it? We can't go on like this, with nothing set aside for a rainy day! Maybe some of us should work and support the others. Maybe we should take offerings." When Jesus spoke about trusting God, pointed to the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, we should know that, first of all, he was speaking to his disciples, trying to allay their immediate (and very real) fears. Many a Christian, since then, has given up everything for his Lord, and has found courage and comfort in these words.

The teachings of the Church fit together. They proclaim a way of life. Our problem is not understanding but obedience. The teachings say, God loves us, even when (and most notably when) we don't deserve it -- which is always. They say we have been given this message of love in Old Testament scripture, and have seen it even clearer in the life and teachings of Jesus. Moreover, they say, we have seen God's love "proven" in two historical events: the incarnation and the crucifixion -- the manger and the cross, Christ's coming and Christ's dying. And this love of God for us is so complete, so unconditional, so inseparable from us, that we can trustingly immerse ourselves in it, risking everything on it. We can make ourselves completely vulnerable and defenseless. We can turn the other cheek. We can love the unlovely, can even love our enemies. We can stand up to kings and princes. We can live without defensiveness and retaliation. He's got the world in his hands. We need never be afraid or anxious. We can trust him entirely and completely -- even if his love leads us to our deaths, as with Jesus. For God is good. He loves us with an everlasting love. "Consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field." Trust. Trust in God. Easy to say.

Anxiety, Vague and Unfocused, Is Simply Unnecessary

Doctors make a distinction between fear (which, they say, is a "helpful" emotion) and anxiety which, they say, is destructive. If we fear failing a test, for example, we will study harder for it and maybe even pass! If we fear being struck by a train, we will get off the tracks. So a healthy fear is good. But anxiety is a vague and unfocused fear, present not only when real danger threatens but sometimes when it doesn't. Anxiety has little or no basis in reality. It makes our hearts beat, our adrenaline flow, our muscles tense, when there is no real threat. Recognizing this difference between fear and anxiety, the Revised Standard Version replaced the King Jame's "Be not afraid", with "Don't be anxious" And that is right. Jesus is speaking of anxiety, not of reasonable fear. And his solution, his antidote for anxiety, is trust in God.

Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist, said his favorite scripture was Isaiah 12: 2: "I will trust and not be afraid." Moody said he thought there were two kinds of tickets on the railroad to heaven: second class and first class. A second class ticket said, "When I am afraid, I will trust in God." But a first class ticket, the better way to go, said what Isaiah said: "I will trust and not be afraid." I will be proactive and not reactive in my faith. What happens when we lose that childlike trust? We destroy the continuity of that Christian life we talked about. We interrupt the circle of faithful living. We hurt ourselves and (although we usually don't see it) we hurt others.

Do Not Harrass and Oppress Your Own Mind

John Wesley said something wonderful about these words of Jesus -- about the birds and the flowers, about the life that trusts God: Wesley reads these teachings, and says, "How kind are these precepts, the substance of which is only this, Do thyself no harm! Let us not be so ungrateful to him, nor so injurious to ourselves, as to harass and oppress our minds with that burden of anxiety which he has so graciously taken off." We harm ourselves when we are anxious, and we announce to all the world that we don't really believe in God's love and care.

This sermon, by the way, is one I need to hear, for anxiety is my favorite way to fail God. It is my neurosis of choice. It harms me, I know. Robs me, at times, of joy. For example, if we have a plane to catch, I will fret, and scurry around, and manage to arrive at the airport far too early. Why? Because I have imagined all manner of disasters on the way, which of course never materialize. But I do not learn from that. Next time I will be even earlier, because my anxious imagination was at work even more. And then even earlier! What I have learned about myself is that no matter how many preventive measures I take (to fend off catastrophe) -- measures designed to take away that awful feeling of anxiety -- I do not find peace, it doesn't work. Because my nature, at times like these, is to be anxious. I am working on learning to trust. God gives me what I need. One day at a time.

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on your side
Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain.
Leave to your God to order and provide
In every change, He faithful will remain.

Our Fears also Make us Ugly

But anxiety not only hurts the one who is anxious. Now comes the ugly part: it also hurts others. "Our fears do make us traitors," Shakespeare said. In truth our fears make us ugly. An anxious person, a person who is always worried about what he will eat, and drink, and wear -- or whether his health will fail, or whether he will have enough money, or whether he will be popular, or whether he's too tall or too short, too fat or too thin (It doesn't matter what the subject matter is.) -- such a person is terrible company. He needs constant reassurance, but can never get enough. He gets angry at others, blaming them for his problems. Jesus knew this. That's why he laid so much stress on trusting God. His was not a Pollyanna message. God takes care of the birds, he said, but sometimes sparrows do fall -- God knows when they do. The flowers of the field wither and fade in time. God knows that. Our lives are not without troubles. "In the world you will have tribulation," he said, "but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." There is a way to live that is sweet and kind and loving, and that way of life is directly related to our trust in God.

Keep Your Mind and Soul Fixed on God

The early Methodist circuit riding preachers were truly heroic. They were single men, riding off into the untamed American wilderness, right along with the pioneers, saddlebags full of Bibles and Sunday School material, no place to call their own, no certainty from day to day where they would be tomorrow. They often had to cross flood-swollen rivers on horseback (for no bridges had been built back then), and they used to tell how, when doing so, they would keep their eyes trained on some spot on the distant shore. If they looked down, with water swirling all around, they would become dizzy and disoriented, and be overwhelmed. But, if they kept their gaze fixed on the shore, on their destination, they would make it across safely. It was a common sermon illustration among them. That, even in the most difficult of times (when our heads are swimming) if we stay centered on God, keeping our eyes on him, trusting him, He will see us through.

This business of trusting God is not a mental trick, designed to bolster our courage. Like whistling in the dark. It is a spiritual fact, that God is love. And when we fail to relax and make ourselves at home in that love, we are denying God. And when we are anxious, we are like those who have no God.