"Adding Days to Your Life"
Focusing on what really matters
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Text: Matthew 6:25-34
They call him “Chairman of the Board” - Frank Sinatra! As I was listening to him on the radio singing, New York, New York, a couple of weeks ago, my mind went to a moment when I sat in a book store not long ago and picked up a book by Frank Sinatra's daughter, Tina, entitled, My Father's Daughter. It is an autobiography, but really it is a biography of her dad. In it, she talks about the last days, weeks and years of his life. Even though Frank Sinatra, over his life, had made a lot of money and lost a lot of money, and made more money and lost more money, he had in his later years been able to acquire an awful lot.
However, Tina's great concern, as her father got near the end of his career - in fact, what she says was beyond the end of his career - was that he kept singing. He kept singing because he was frightened that there wouldn't be enough money to leave for his children, his estate would be diminished and he would live in penury in his final days. He was worried and anxious, and he kept performing for fear that he would have no money for the end of his life.
It got so bad that when he performed at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, as he was singing the song Second Time Around, he forgot the words and had to use a teleprompter to finish the song. At the side of the stage there was oxygen for fear that he wouldn't be able to continue singing and might have to be revived. She said he was so anxious and so worried about having enough resources for the end of his days that he kept singing until it killed him.
In Matthew's Gospel, when Jesus takes the disciples to one side, he says something interesting to them. He says, “I don't want you to worry.” And then, he calls them a nickname. I didn't know this until recently, but Jesus created a unique nickname for the disciples. It appears 10 times in five different places in the gospels. In Greek, it is oligopistoi, which means “little faith.” He says, “My little faiths, do not worry; do not be anxious.” But he puts this in the context of what preceded it, which we looked at last week, where he says that they have to make a choice: “You either serve and worship God or you serve and worship mammon.” You serve God, or you serve material things.
As Dallas Willard rightly says, if you have decided that you are going to worship mammon, you have already fixed your fate. You have already chosen worry as the path. Why? It is because material things, said Jesus, decay “as moss and rust decay.” If you put your trust in, worship and become obsessed with material things then, by definition, these diminishing things that change over time will desert and disappoint you. If you have decided to worship mammon, then you are bound to a life of worry and anxiety. Jesus tells the disciples to choose the other part, to choose God. When you translate it, the word he uses for “worry” literally means, “having a divided mind” or “having a split affection.” If you worry, then you are going to have a divided mind and split affection, and the moment you have that, your life becomes a source of anxiety and pain. You don't have a singular goal but rather a series of things that cause you to scatter your affection, and therefore they become a source of anxiety. He says, “Now, my little faith, decide not to worry.” Then he posits a series of reasons as to why they should not worry. He builds a very clear argument but, before we look at it, there is one thing we need to get clear. Jesus does not believe that material things are inherently evil. That was the view of many of the Gnostics, who saw the spiritual life as good and the physical life as bad. Jesus was not into that kind of dualism. He is saying that the worship of those things is wrong, and the moment you make them the primary object of your life, you worry.
The first argument is the argument for time. Now, I want you to understand that in this passage Jesus has a great sense of humour. He is really being quite funny. That is the tone of the original Greek text. He says, for example, “Who can add one cubit to their height by worrying?” A cubit is about the length of your forearm, maybe a little bit more. So think about it, who can add that to their height by worrying? You can't! It is impossible.
So first, it is hard to add to your height by worrying or who can add, as another translation put it, “one day of your life” by worrying? Who can add to life by that anxiety and worrying that is accompanying it? Nothing! It can't be done. So, why are you worrying? Do you not need to, and I don't want to play on a pun this morning, adjust your time? You need to have a proportionate sense of what time is, and to know where you are in time, because so often time can become distorted.
When it becomes distorted, we lose a sense of the power and the importance of the moment, and there are dangers when we lose the moment. There are dangers when we are not focusing on the time and the moment that we are given right here and now. Our minds can be somewhere else - distorted, broken, and worried about other things. We need to have a sense of the proper place of time in order that we may know where we stand.
I heard a wonderful story of a Roman Catholic priest who was coming near the end of his tenure in a church. As he neared retirement, his 25 years of service were being recognized. One of the things he did was hold a party to acknowledge all the great things that he had done. At the party, a very famous senator who was a member of the congregation was scheduled to give a great speech in the priest's honour. But the senator never showed up, causing an awkward moment after dinner when the speeches were supposed to be given. So the priest decided that he would get up and talk about his own ministry. He said:
You know, when I first came to this parish, I thought that it was going to be a deadly affair and that you were all a rotten group of people, because the first confession that I ever heard was that of a person who had murdered a member of the staff, committed adultery and perjured himself in court. I thought, 'I have arrived in the most terrible of places. It is all going awfully wrong!'
The priest continued, and said, “Wonderfully, over the next 25 years, things improved. I realized that not everyone was as bad as that first individual and that first confession.”
Just as the priest was nearing the end of his speech, the senator arrived. He said, “Oh, Father, I want to say a few words. I am sorry that I am late.” So the senator stood up and said, “This man has been a magnificent priest. I will never forget the day he arrived, and I want you to know that I was privileged to have my confession be the first confession he heard in his ministry here.”
Be careful you are not late! Make sure you understand where you are in time - to miss it can be deadly!
Jesus said, “Who, by worrying, can add one day to his life?” The problem is that when we do worry, we lose the day, we lose the moment. I mean, how many of us have had sleepless nights worrying about what may or may not happen tomorrow, only to find that we are “draggy” and depressed the next day - a bit like we are all feeling after one hour's lack of sleep - only to find that you have wasted that day? Or, that you are waiting for something in the future to happen to solve whatever problem it is that may be on your mind and may or may not be important, and those days go by without you appreciating or enjoying or living them to the fullest?
Why? It is because you are worried. That worry, says Richard Foster, robs you of the day. Who can add to their days by worrying? I would say that by that worrying you rob yourself of your days. We do it all the time! It is a human thing. But, often we are worried about things that don't really matter. Jesus is clear: the things that we own eventually disappear; all we need are some of the basic things of life. Yet, often we spend our time worrying about the incidentals. That is what mammon does to you. It is amazing how caught up we become in things that are really not essential.
The second argument is from nature. Again, Jesus is being a little humorous. He likes to play games a little bit. He talks about the birds - he talks about the birds a lot! You would think that he walked around doing nothing but staring up at the sky! But, he refers to “the birds of the air” many, many times but they are powerful symbols, and beautiful things.
I was at a coffee shop yesterday with Marial. Not my normal coffee shop - another coffee shop. I have committed adultery, I know! I have gone to another one! From where we were sitting, we could see some beams on an overpass where some doves had made a nest. They were sitting there, huddled and warm, secure and at peace. They looked tranquil. As I looked at those doves, I thought, “You know, Jesus is right! God cares for the birds of the air. He has provided even for the birds of the air.”
And then, Jesus says, “But how much more valuable are you than they?” I don't mean how much more valuable are you financially - are you worth five sparrows, are you worth three hawks, are you worth two cockatoos, or are you worth one bald eagle - although I am growing closer to that! That is not what he means. Nor does he mean that we should be slothful and not have to work because the birds don't work, but God cares for them. No. What he is saying is that we are more precious than they, and if God cares for them, how much more does he care for us?
Look at the lilies of the field that are clothed in splendour, more splendid than the glory of Solomon, the great king who had the fancy court. Even Solomon in all his glory can't compare to the lilies, and yet you are more valuable than those lilies. They are beautiful; Jesus is saying you are beautiful too. Part of our anxiety and worry in life is that we don't believe that we are beautiful in the eyes of God. Oh, we are sinful, yes. We're fallen, yes. We live “east of Eden,” as I said a few weeks ago, yes. But we are still beautiful in the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord wants for us to have what even the lilies of the field have in all their splendour and beauty.
How much more does he care for us? I believe that the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, and this is so much part of the Sermon on the Mount from which these great phrases come, and all this shows us that when Jesus came into the world, he came to reveal the power of eternity in time and in place: that God's Son, co-eternal with him, comes and dwells among us and affirms us and affirms the world. Eternity is not just something that we look forward to at a future time; eternity is something that has broken into the here and now. God is with us and Jesus is saying to the disciples, “Why do you worry? Why are you anxious? If God cares for them, just look how much God cares for you. Look at me. I am the sign that God cares for you.”
There is another argument. It is the most powerful argument of all. It is the argument for faith. Jesus says the following, and we sang it a few moments ago: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things will be added unto you.” Now, notice the language: seeking first the Kingdom, the work of God, the presence of God, and his righteousness. He uses the word dikaiosune which means, “righteousness and justice.” Seek God's righteousness, his right way and his justice, and other things will be added unto you.
How many of us genuinely worry about or are concerned with righteousness and justice? Oh, we spend our time worrying about our possessions or the money that we have or that we might have lost or we might gain again. We worry about the state of the world and the economy. We worry and are anxious on many fronts, but how much time do we actually spend reflecting on righteousness? Jesus said that the nations or the gentiles, they worry about those other things.
It was Cicero who wrote: “We do not pray to Jupiter to be good but to have material benefits.” That is what Jesus is concerned about - that the “little faiths” might get carried away in that worldly sense and become so consumed and worry about those material benefits that they do not concentrate on righteousness and on justice. That is righteousness in terms of our right relationship with God, and it is justice in terms of right relationships in the world. If only we would spend as much time and energy and concern about righteousness and justice as we do about those other things, the world would be radically different. Jesus knew that.
In the Toronto Star this last week there was a fascinating article entitled, Stressed Out? Have a Little Faith! It then goes on to say studies show religious students remain calmer in the face of errors. He goes on to show how people of faith are able to handle mistakes that they make in their lives and are able to be at peace in the midst of turmoil and uncertainty, and even when they make mistakes, they have something else on which to stand. This is what it said: “faith lowers uncertainty.” When you don't have that uncertainty, and you make an error, you just say, “Okay, that's the way the world is!” All this is based on the fact that you can say that is the way the world is, because you know that there is a transcendent God, that there is a being that sets your priorities on a different scale. Therefore, students who are religious, who have a sense of the power of God, in the end, as the study suggests, do better - less stress, less worry, more confidence in God. What a lesson!
Now, whether or not that proves itself in every single circumstance of course is for others to determine, but the sentiment is true. If you believe that you are secure, if you believe that you can be forgiven, if you believe that there are priorities greater than just that which is immediately in front of you, then your worry diminishes, and you have the power to think clearly in the moment.
But, what of those who don't have a house over their heads? What about those who are homeless and hungry and don't have these basic things? Are we then simply to say, “Oh, don't worry, be happy!” Is that what Jesus is saying? By no means! He says, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of God's righteousness, God's justice.” In other words, still be passionate, still be concerned, but be concerned about the things that matter.
This last week, I heard a tremendous interview with a young man who is going to be speaking at our Sacrificial Luncheon during Holy Week. I couldn't believe that he was being interviewed on TV! His name is Dion Oxford, and he is the founding director of The Gateway, a shelter for the homeless run by the Salvation Army. He tells a sad story of all that these people go through, many of whom die on the street. It is a heartbreaking story. The interviewer asked him a question that had me sitting on the edge of my seat: “How do we solve homelessness? How do we solve this problem of the poor on the street and the broken-hearted?” Dion answered, “It is very simple. Jesus put it this way: 'Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.'” If we practiced that, we wouldn't have to worry about the homeless and the hungry. It is that simple.
Then, the interviewer asked, “Is that what we are really concerned with in this world?”
What a challenge he put to a man who day-in and day-out spends time with the wretched of the earth! But Dion is absolutely right! That is exactly what Jesus is saying. He is saying to the disciples, “Don't just be worried about mammon and all the things that you may or may not accumulate, or all the things of this earth, but seek first God's righteousness, and then all these things will be added unto you.” Take care of the things that really matter and other things will be added unto you.
So many of us are like mini-Frank Sinatras. We spend out days worrying about all manner of things, and losing the day and losing life. Jesus said, “You will not gain one day by that worry. But, if you seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, God will take care of you because you are beautiful, and God loves you more than all of creation.” Amen.