Beyond worry, even awe, to THANKS
Thanksgiving Sunday, October11, 2009 (Matthew 6:25-33)
The young man was standing in the delivery room of a large city hospital. His wife had just given birth to their first child- a girl baby. And now he was holding that baby in his arms. He looked into that wee one's eyes. He was amazed. He could almost swim in those eyes. He was also humbled. The young man realized that on many levels he didn't fully realize love until that moment. But immediately his mind began to race. What if he were to get sick or, God forbid, die? What would happen to this little girl? He looked over to his wife. What if she were to get sick, or God forbid, die? What would happen to their little girl then? In the midst of his mental racing he promised himself that he would purchase more life insurance, lots more – and take better care of himself and his wife. He would have to….Oh, now his mind was really going, FASTER AND FASTER AND FASTER.
Does your mind ever race? When we get so anxious we become like a dog chasing its tale. We go round and round and round, all the while becoming more frantic and more tired. As my mind races I become preoccupied with, absorbed by "my" thoughts. Such mental absorption has been happening within me this last week. I observe people whom I care about who have lost their jobs. These people are competent, hard working. And I wonder, why? I know some of the variables. Still, how can this happen? My mind races on further – to many children whose parents have died from AIDS. I realize that treatment could have been afforded to so many. What a difference that would have made for those children and this world. Again I wonder, "Why?"
My mind moves not remaining still, to another Canadian soldier's pictures being flashed over our air waves. I wonder about his or her family, their friends. And I wonder too about the thousands of Afghani people and Iranian people who have died in the last 8-10 years. It is difficult not to become jaded, filled with anger or even apathy as one faces the power of such death and evil.
There aren't easy answers in this living of our lives. Hatred, brokenness, suffering greed and death are so real, so powerful, so devastating. The loss of people who have died and the living pain of their loved ones must never be dismissed by religious platitudes. The truth of all creation and humanity is that not every lily reaches full bloom. Nor does every person who trusts God and seeks to do God's will live a full and long life. Not at all! If we are thinking, feeling persons we must know this.
Yet in the midst of all our experiences of life and death comes Jesus and even his words on this Thanksgiving Sunday, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear."
What shall we do with His words? What will His words do with us?
We who live and love, who laugh and cry, who are born, live and die, what do these words of Christ have to do with us? Can they be meaningful, real in our lives, as we think, feel and seek to live? Or are these words merely religious platitudes, even attempts to escape so much of the hardness of life? Can such words only be uttered in a "nice" place, some might say a place of irrelevance like a church? (P)
Can you still see that young man holding that newly born baby? His mind was racing. But then that wee child lets out a cry, a veritable shriek. In that second, although he loves her more than his own life, he is moved beyond himself to a much deeper reality. He is being granted new vision. He must realize that he cannot meet this wee one's needs alone or even fully protect her. Nor can he guarantee anything for her- great teachers, understanding and loyal friends, safety from misguided coaches or men who are anything but well. He thinks to himself, if both this wee baby and he continue to be richly blessed on this earth she could well live longer than he. From his perspective, that would be good.
But what then? Who will take care of her? Who will help to provide for her? From those questions he is forced to think about his own life. Whom does he belong to? Who will love this tiny, little girl now and forever? Whom does she "belong" to?
In these questions the young man is being swept up but not away, to a larger vision of reality. In this profoundly real but more cosmic vision his racing mind begins to slow. He is conscious of his own breathing, of her breathing. He can begin to actually see others. This little one he so carefully holds does not belong to him or even to her mother. She has been entrusted to them in the midst of an even larger community What a gift! What a privilege! What a responsibility!
But in addition to the gift, privilege, responsibility she is for the two of them, and for this world, this little one is first and foremost God's own child!
Do we see that God in Christ will never abandon this little one or let her simply go, come what may? The young man stands there, caught up in the crying that emanates from her being, transfixed by this larger reality. Now, from somewhere deep, not only within himself but perhaps also from the living core of all humanity he sighs. It is not a sigh of resignation but rather a sigh of THANKS. Thanks be to God for his "own" life. Thanks be to God for the life of his wife and her love. And, yes thanks be to God for that tiny baby girl's life!
In many ways his sighed thank you doesn't seem to be enough. Yet, as he grows older he realizes that his genuine thank you is in many ways for him a beginning. The rest of his life, as he employs the many gifts God has given him to help and serve others can continue to be part of his response to God for God's great goodness. After all doesn't God, love this world at least as much as that young man loves that little baby?
Over 25 years have past for this young man, now middle aged. Although on many fronts he is very thankful and attempts to live thankfully, he still worries. His worry raises its head as he thinks about all of his daughters now in their 20's. He worries when he thinks about the glaciers melting, about many children coming to school hungry, about other children who will never be able to go to school. He worries when he sees pictures of homeless people here in this country and around the world.
In the midst of this Jesus' words in Matthew's Gospel come to us: "therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?"
Perhaps, just perhaps the words that Christ is speaking to the early disciples in today's Gospel are both prose and poetry. Do not worry about your life. Maybe that's prose. Look at the birds of the air – the lilies of the field. Perhaps that's both poetry and prose. It is good to see the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. But beyond their literal visual sightings they are also symbols. Such symbols point us beyond our immediate reality to a much larger overarching reality, even as rainbows do.
God gives life because God is the life giver. Life is rarely neat and tidy. We must know that in the midst of life's wonder and awe, it's richness, there is also the reality of evil, the pain of suffering and death, such mystery beyond any and all comprehension.
But into all that is life and death for us individually and for the world collectively, comes God the Creator. God enters daring to become human. In Jesus God becomes a creature of the earth, in many ways like us. And this One who takes on our mortality fleshes out God's incredible love for all of us and for all creation. It is this Jesus, who dies on the cross for us, who on the third day is raised, that is speaking to us. To put it colloquially he says, BE CAREFUL! Don't be preoccupied with or possessed by anxiety regarding your own life or even the lives of others. For, I am with you. I will not abandon you.
Now it's important to be abundantly clear. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't work, that we shouldn't plan, that we shouldn't invest ourselves in working towards or for a future. Nor does this mean that we are not called to care for others and the rest of creation. We absolutely should and must care! This is essential to our call as followers of Jesus! But all of this, this work, this caring action can only be done as a RESPONSE to GOD'S GOODNESS that we experience in Jesus. In Him, and His life-bringing love for us our identity begins. As we live in response to Him our identity takes on life. In Jesus Christ we are and ever being made children of God. He is calling us to trust Him here and now, in our daily living.
It is only then, by God's grace, that we are enabled to let go of our preoccupation, our anxieties, about so many and so much. In Jesus we can be freed and empowered to actively love even as we are hurt and hurting; to laugh as well as cry, to dance and sing, to wail and mourn, to live with great energy, compassion and sacrifice, trusting that somehow God will take what we are uniquely offering and use it for good.
Jesus Christ is the One who fully knows us and loves us. He gives His all for us, so that we may be able to honestly and fully live with God, with others, with creation. There may be times when we lose our faith in Him. But this risen Jesus does not give up on us! There may be times when our minds race and we become preoccupied with worry. But the still small voice of God can crack through that worry and lead us beyond it.
May God help us to care deeply for others and this world as a response to the love of God that we are embraced by in Jesus. May God also free us from ourselves so to live, realizing that although God counts on us to live out our many gifts in love for this world, the rule and gracious reign of God is ultimately brought about not through us, but through God who sometimes amazingly uses even us. For all this, let us live thankfully! Alleluia. Amen.