February 27, 2011
Epiphany 8
Isaiah 49:8-11
Matthew 6:24-34
(prayer)
Context is everything. What might be true and valuable in a given place and time, among a particular group of people isn’t necessarily the same when the context is different.
If you were here last Sunday, you might remember me preaching about striving for ‘The Next Level’. I spoke about the dangers of thinking that we have all we need in the here and now and not allowing ourselves the blessings that come through new growth and nurture – seeking what is over the next hill is a good thing.
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And I believe that to be generally true.
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Even as we are mindful of our continuing potential, we are not to ignore the here and now. I did mention that (in passing) last week as the focus was on the next levels.
In today’s scripture readings, we are reminded again of the importance of the current context and the need to be attentive to the life and ministry and faith that is part of this time.
Okay, I’m reading a bit between the lines. The actual context of the teaching in Matthew chapter six is about ‘worry’. The point seems to be don’t spend time worrying about the future, there’s enough to worry about right now: 34‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Worry is a miserable emotion. It can eat us inside. By definition, worry is a state of incompleteness. Something in our life is not settled and we find ourselves running over the list of potential ‘what ifs’: many of which are fraught with challenge, maybe even sadness or devastation. Worry is NO fun for anyone!
• Parents worry about their children;
• Grown children sometimes worry about their parents.
• Some worry about their health.
• Many worry about money, jobs.
Worry is often accompanied by a sense of helplessness. Worry is usually out of time: we worry now, because the future is uncertain – and we feel helpless to effect what might happen.
Worry is a miserable emotion. Although it can sometime motivate our actions in productive ways, for the most part, worrying does us little good. It creates unhelpful anxiety that can only be alleviated as time marches on and the event or circumstance comes into the present and can be dealt with.
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Jesus knew this. And the teaching in today’s gospel passage addresses the follies of ‘worry’.
The way that the gospel of Matthew lays out this teaching, Jesus appears primarily concerned with financial worries. The opening verse of the reading today was: 24 ...You cannot serve God and wealth. 25‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry...’
The Greek word translated here as wealth is ‘mamonas’. The translators of the King James Version of the Bible left the word mammon in the passage: you cannot serve God and Mammon.
The word has Syriac roots meaning ‘riches’; it is also similar to an Aramaic word used in loan transactions. In some theological literature and art, Mammon is personified as a deity: a god of riches– sometimes associated with the sin of avarice. Although, there is no Syriac reference to a mythological belief in such an actual deity.
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From the dawn of civilization, we, humans, have developed economic models to compensate for a need to exchanges goods and services in a culture of growing specialization of labour. And we have bee prone (for lack of a better phrase) to worship the power of our currency. The ‘currency’ has evolved over the eons: land, jewels, minerals, coins, paper bank notes, and now cyber-dollars, but the concept of value and wealth has been around a while – it certainly was an obvious reality in Jesus’ day, as it is in ours.
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Most people have financial worries. But worrying about how to pay for the basic costs of living is different than worrying about what effect the revolution in Libya might have on one’s [Thurston Howell III voice] diversified stock portfolio.
Mammon is usually associated with an unreasonable and selfish attention to one’s riches. I think ‘wealth’ is a good translation (as we heard this morning from the New Revised Standard Version). Wealth implies excess, beyond the basics of life. To ‘serve’ mammon is to raise one’s wealth up to the level of God. That seems to be Jesus’ point in verse 24. It is not riches that are the source of all creation, the master of our lives (as Jesus puts it), it is God. You can’t serve both!
For the most part, the audience that Jesus was addressing during the Sermon on the Mount, did not have any ‘riches’ to worship. But they may have had that attitude: if only I could find a satchel of gold coins; or if only I could win the lottery, or if only I could catch my ‘big break’ then all of my worries would disappear. So far, I have experienced the truth of the gospel – I am pretty sure that I have not added any time on to my life because of my worrying.
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Jesus’ message is really quite a hard one to hear – because worry is not easy to set aside. It’s easy to say; we can nod our heads when we read it in our scriptures, but to take it in and really set worry aside – that’s hard. We are convinced (at some level) that we have to worry, that it will do some good for us.
And that maybe true to a small degree. Jesus might be hoping that the worry can remind us that something is missing from our lives: not the resources of wealth, but we are missing a stubbornness to trust and have faith that we are not alone in whatever we are facing.
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It is hard to set aside worry and trust. Believe me, I know. I have known my share of worry. The pragmatist in me is always trying to prepare for those ‘what ifs’. I have felt the helplessness that comes with not being in control.
I am sure that I am not alone – you can relate, I am sure.
The challenge from our Christ is to not just find company for our misery because we all know what it feels like to worry, but to let God into our lives and to trust that, in the theological sense: we are not alone!
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Strive first [strive instead] for the Kingdom of God. [slide] Can we focus on the hope that God has control in creation? Maybe we can even come to hope that God's realm is all around us; that we exist within the Kingdom of God right now.
As the church and its people have become increasingly aware of the power of language and how language was developed within systems and societies that were less egalitarian and inclusive as we strive for, we have learned to be cautious about the words we use.
The feminist movement was so helpful in pointing out how the use male-dominated language is a block to true equality among the gendres. And so our language evolved to the point that words like chairperson, firefighter, police officer and humankind roll easily off many tongues that, only a few decades ago, never imagined they’d utter.
“Kingdom of God” was one of those phrases in the church. King is a male. The use of this phrase subtlety implies a gendre for God. This was a good awareness to have and so we expanded our lexicon and speak about God’s Shalom and the Realm of God or God’s reign.
I consider myself (proudly) a person who tries to be ‘politically correct’. Although that phrase is actually an insult spoken by opponents of the evolution of language. I’m not a fan of the phrase: politically correct, but I believe in justice and speaking the truth – words have power and words matter.
The biblical phrase, Kingdom of God, also raises concern over the style of divine leadership that metaphor implies. Kings in the ancient world were dictators, often with no real regard for their subjects beyond the strength they could add to the army or the wealth they could generate for the kingdom.
Do we really want to view God as that dispassionate and disconnected and selfish and self-serving?
And so, in recent years I have heard a new word in some church circles [slide]: the kin-dom of God. It sounds close, it rolls off the tongue with a similar cadence. And it highlights the familial connection we have within faith. We are all ‘kin’, through God.
I also agree with the likes of Marcus Borg and Dom Crossan, who remind us to see the strong message behind Jesus’ choice of words. To proclaim the kingdom of God was to imply that Caesar in Rome was not the lord of our lives, God is. ‘Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven’ is a prayer to let faith guide us to oppose the system of domination and inequality. [slide] So, kingdom of God is still a valuable metaphor, despite its shortcomings. But other metaphors can be helpful as well. No word can perfectly describe that nature of God and the mission we share as followers of Jesus.
To expand Jesus instruction: to strive for the kin-dom of God is a good thing. [slide] In fact, this word choice might help us see what appears to be our primary mission if we find authority in Matthew, chapter 25: “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and took care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.”
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We are kin with God and we are kin of each other. Recognition of that support is perhaps a first step in lessoning the grip of worry.
The ancient Hebrews who had endured the Babylonian Exile and had returned to endure the hard work of re-building their land and culture trusted that God was with them throughout the good and the bad. God’s covenant was to be their God and they, God’s people and God was sticking to that!
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God pays attention to us: that is a promise in our scriptures today. And Jesus reminds us that as we pay attention to the things that Gods pays attention to, our lives are grounded in God’s realm, God’s kingdom – a new way of being together that is based on kinship and mutual support and compassion.
I think that as we are able to grow in our trust of God’s righteous love and care for us, we can be freed to put love and compassion first in our relationships with each other.
This echoes back to another teaching of Jesus: Matthew 22:37 ... “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
The triangle of compassion: Love for God, Love for Self and Love for Others.
Worry does not need to halt this mission in our lives.
We are not alone, we live in God’s world.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the church.
Thanks be to God.
Let us pray:
Loving God, enliven us with your spirit to trust in your ways, which always puts love first. Amen.
#652VU “Be Still My Soul”
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