Psalm 126
Matthew 6:25-34

Do Not Worry About Your Life
Today is the last Sunday in the Season after Pentecost. We have travelled together for the past 27 Sundays, beginning way back in May, across this long stretch of the church year. And now, we come to the end of the year. This Thursday we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, and next Sunday we begin the season of Advent.
Our readings today are Thanksgiving readings. We are encouraged to be thankful, to be grateful for our blessings, and to not worry about our life. More specifically, to not worry about worldly concerns. As followers of Christ, we are to have a different view, set apart from the values of this world.
Psalm 126
Psalm 126 is a harvest Psalm of Thanksgiving. The Psalm is filled with images of restoration. Here, restoration refers to a specific event, the return from Babylon. The Psalmist describes the ancient Israelites’ joy celebrated upon their release from the Babylonian captivity. “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion” means “When we returned from exile.” Imagine the joy they must have felt! An entire people, returning home to Jerusalem after so many years held captive in Babylon.
The second part of the Psalm is a prayer for blessing. May we be blessed, may we be revitalized, as when the desert is revitalized with sudden rainfall. The Negeb is a desert region. But occasional rainstorms will create temporary and unexpected streams. Streams in the desert. So this is a prayer to be restored, like the returning exiles were restored. Restored from hopelessness. Restored to joy.
Finally, the farmer goes out to plant seeds in the spring. Planting seeds is an act of hope and faith. If there is sorrow at the time of planting, the hope is for a joyful harvest in the fall–to be restored to joy. Plant in sorrow in spring, but in the fall, return home carrying sheaves of the harvest with shouts of joy.
Matthew 6:25-34

This morning, we end the year of readings turning to Matthew and a text from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. This beloved text reminds us to look at the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. This is a teaching on worry and anxiety. But let’s look at it more carefully.
Jesus is teaching his disciples not to worry about their lives. But this is deeper than it first appears. This is not simply a “don’t worry, be happy” teaching. “Do not worry” here does not mean “Don’t work hard to put food on the table.” “Do not worry” does not mean “Don’t work hard to take care of your needs, to earn money to buy clothes to put on your back.” In other words, it does not mean, “relax, take it easy, go lie on a beach and enjoy all the pleasures of life because God is going to take care of you.” No, this is not what it means.
Rather, it means, do not worry about the things of this world. Do not worry about worldly concerns. Do not be caught up in the things of this world. Let’s go into this a bit more:
We live in a society that gives us all kinds of messages. We are fed messages, and our thinking, our values, our outlook on life are deeply influenced by these messages. The problem is that the messages we receive from our society are so often incorrect and misleading. And yet, we internalize them. We believe them. We allow them to influence our values and our decisions. Now, what am I talking about?
Here’s an example. I call it the “Cult of Youth” or the “Cult of Vanity” or the “Lie of Immortality.” This is the lie that you are never going to die, and that it is possible to stay young forever. This lie drives huge sections of our economy. It generates the desire that propels consumerism. If you purchase these designer clothes, you will look young and beautiful, you will remain young and beautiful, and, by extension, you will never die.
Here’s another one. I call it the “Cult of Opulence” or the “Lie of Conspicuous Consumption” otherwise known as “Keeping Up with the Jones’s.” This is the lie that buying expensive stuff makes you look impressive, broadcasting your high social status, and hence, is a reason to be respected and highly regarded. When I lived in Dallas, I saw this a lot. My seminary was in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country. To get to my classes, I rode my bike from my little apartment, over the bridge crossing Central Expressway, and right into Highland Park: average price of a house there, 2.2M. It was not unusual to see a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow drive by. In a nearby shopping center, there were shoe stores selling designer shoes for $3000.00 a pair.
You get the idea. There are so many of these lies taught by our society. They weave a connected web of worldly concerns, worldly values. And one of the big problems with the values pumped out by our consumerist society is that they generate considerable anxiety. This is what Jesus is talking about when he says, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”
Remember, Jesus was preaching against the Roman values, the values of Roman society, a brutal society that idealized power, wealth, arrogance, pleasure and privilege. But the Sermon on the Mount turns all this upside down by pointing out that these things do not last. ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and dust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (6:19-21) Worldly concerns focus on things that do not last. Ultimately, they do not matter. “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?
Here is the key question Jesus asks. “Which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?” The truth is that no one lives forever, and no one is guaranteed a long life.
My friend, Ed Damon, was an old-time barber on Main Street in Norway, Maine. He loved to tell stories. I never knew how long it was going to take to get a haircut, but it was always longer than I thought. Once you got in Ed’s chair, you were a captive audience. When he really got going with a story, the haircut really slowed down. But Ed had seen a lot of life, and he had a way of summarizing his wisdom. One day, while I was in his chair, he summed up his story with “You know, Ed, Ain’t none of us going to live forever.”
Ed was a man who had made peace with his own death. And I think this is what this passage from Matthew 6 is all about. Let go of the unimportant things, the things that do not last: fame, honor, glory, riches, vanity: do not worry about those things. They are distractions from the real task at hand: to seek the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness. Do not worry about tomorrow. We don’t know when we are going to die. But we know that one day, we will. So the task at hand is to make peace with this.
We do not know what God’s will is for our life. But we can know that we are in God’s hands, and that someday, when this life is over, we will go back to God. This is the meaning of this verse: “Do not be anxious for your life.” We do not live forever.
The contemplation on death is a very powerful meditation. It can be life changing. While it may seem morbid and depressing, to think about our death, to meditate on the truth of death, is actually a great source of joy, because it makes today real. This day becomes the one day, the one day that we have, to live, and to love, and to breathe and to walk, and to see the blue sky. This one day, then, becomes the source of our gratitude, the place where we find all our blessings, and discover that indeed, we are truly blessed.
Happy Thanksgiving. Amen? Amen.