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PPrayer for Illumination: O God of Endless Beauty, your words inspire and sustain our lives. They feed our starving souls and bring life into the midst of deathly existence. So let these words speak for you and let our ears hear for you and let our hearts then sing for you. Amen.
Play the Bobby McFerrin video—last two verses… With that still hanging in your mind, remember that our text today said Consider the lilies of the field. So let’s do just that….If I were the lily in the field, what would I see?: The wind whips around my stalk and with my ingenious design I am flexible enough to bend. Water comes up through my roots and feeds me and in due course a bud appears. The sun beats down and I grow, with no real effort on my part except to reach up toward the warmth of that ball of fire. The rain falls and I don’t run for cover, but drink it in. It collects in my leaves and fills me up with life. I will blossom and the bloom will be admired by all who pass. And it’s ok that I’m proud. God has designed me well and I am content. So you can see why from my vantage point, I find it hard to understand all this anxiety that comes from humans. I see it in their faces. I see it in their hands that come together tight and troubled. I see it in the hunch of their shoulders and the unsteady gait of their walk home after work. I see it in the lines that seem to pool around their eyes. I see it in their feet which seem to plod along as if they are nails being driven into the ground, or maybe a coffin. All day long I am here watching and being watched. All day long I see the signs of stress. They talk together and think I’m not listening, these humans. From the ground, I look up and hear their words of worry. I think the war will go on forever. I’m worried about being deployed. I won’t be able to afford gas for my car to go to work. I think my job is being eliminated. I haven’t had meaningful work in years. My relationships are in trouble. I am worn down by life. I can’t ever seem to get it right. This is why I graduated from college? To get this job? That’s what I hear. All day long, I look up and watch and listen. These humans are so unhappy. They worry about their weight. They worry about their careers. They worry about their future. They are afraid of many things and they want to feel safe. I just stand here. Waving in the wind. Blossom lifting toward the sky. Don’t worry. Be happy. This is McFerrin’s song. This is the lily’s song. They both make it sound easy……carefree……don’t they? In reality, anxiety drives much of who we are. We don’t really know what to do with this passage……it sounds beautiful, poetic, even inspiring. But Tuesday? We have to get up, go to work and start all over again. Anxiety, a closer translation than worry, by itself isn’t bad. It is our natural response to threat or danger. It is what gets the blood pumping so we can activate that fight or flight reflex---that built in security system we’ve been given by our Creator. When our fight/flight reflex goes off when there really is no threat, however, it takes a toll on our bodies. And the long term affects are catastrophic. Chronic anxiety is debilitating and clenches at our jugular like a vice. John Shea (Year A Lectionary Commentary) describes this phenomenon in theological language. He talks about ceaseless striving that leaves us unfulfilled. It is what happens when we continually “fill the God-space in us with something other than God.” Don’t worry. Be happy. Jesus’ words might not have been able to see the world we live in, where the love of possessions coupled with a voracious appetite for consumption measure a good chunk of our life….His words were directed to disciples, fishermen who’d been asked to leave boats and family and follow. Don’t worry about your boats, your nets, your customers, just follow me. I’m not sure we can conceive of this, not because it is so complicated, but because we can’t conceive of doing it. The God-space in us is filled with anxiety over the what-ifs. What if I can’t make the rent, or my bills, or get ahead? What if I lose my job? What if I am alone in this world? Jesus, you’re just going to have to follow me right now….and when I have time, I’ll consider what you want of me. I think you should stay with me, you’re probably a good resource for me….I shouldn’t say completely no….but follow you exclusively? Can’t see how that can happen right now. Consider the lily. Don’t worry. Be happy. O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, My eyes are not raised too high I do not occupy myself with things Too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with its mother; My soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
O Israel, hope in the Lord From this time on and forevermore.
The challenge from both our texts today and for the life of faith is this: Which narrative will ultimately sustain our life? The narrative of faith or the narrative of the culture? We bristle at this text because it is so unrealistic. How could our Biblical writers be so naïve as to believe that we could just drop everything practical and believe? Sometimes I grow weary with the push and pull between culture and faith. I want to be able to live in this world (in all its glorious complexity) and be faithful. And so the only thing I know to do is to ask: Where are the big questions of my life being answered. Big questions like: 1. What makes me feel safe? Madeline Albright, speaking in a forum with all the former Secretary of States said this week what we’ve all been thinking. She can’t remember the world in such bad shape. If the most powerful, wealthiest country in the world cannot make us feel safe….After all the efforts through the years that would have us offer prayers this very weekend in honor of lives lost in war, and we still don’t feel safe. This narrative isn’t working to answer the big questions. Another big question: 2. What makes me feel ok about myself?. Wall Street would tell me that I’ll feel ok if I drive the right car, drink the right beer, wear the right clothes in the right size. Other parts of the culture would tell me that to feel ok I must support the right candidate or the right cause, or participate in the right movement, or drink the right wine, or coffee. The culture wants me to be either this or that, a winner or a loser, a producer and a consumer, and if I do it all----I’ll feel ok? Why isn’t that working? Why do we still feel like something is missing? This narrative isn’t answering the big questions. Another big question: 3. What brings meaning to my life? The culture would say the right pedigreed education or even the right pedigree of dog. The right size condo or home or family. The right career track. The right volunteer opportunity, even the right gym membership will bring meaning to my life. So if it’s just about making the right choices and I’m doing that and I still feel empty, then this narrative isn’t working….it isn’t answering the big questions. O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, My eyes are not raised too high I do not occupy myself with things Too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with its mother; My soul is like the weaned child that is with me. O Israel, hope in the Lord From this time on and forevermore. So far as I can tell, these questions might be answered very differently from a faith perspective. Let’s go back and take another look with today’s scriptures in mind. 1. What makes me feel safe? There are many valid reasons to feel afraid in today’s world. And Jesus’ disciples knew fear, too. And Jesus says: Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? The big questions are answered for faithful people when they live life in a narrative where the God of our ancestors has provided abundantly for our every need…..and out of that abundance faithful people find safety not in the build-up of military arms, but in the linking of human arms for support and solution and solidarity. Faithful people find safety when God’s narrative breaks in with the radical cry: You are my beloved, with whom I am well pleased. You don’t have to live our lives on constant orange alert! (Walter Bruggemann, Festival of Homiletics) 2. What makes me feel ok about myself? Ultimately, nothing in this world can accomplish this. Wall street can try, but that path will fail. Because a person’s worth isn’t calculated in terms of dollars, or degrees or accomplishments or affiliation. The God who created the lily completely beautiful and completely set for life…..creates us completely beautiful and completely set for life. It’s a gift. It’s not for sale. It’s love incarnate. I will feel ok about myself when I have internalized this message and am living full time in the narrative of God’s amazing provision. 3. What brings meaning to my life? I have calmed and quieted my soul…like a weaned child with its mother. My soul is like the weaned child that is with me….the psalmist words speak volumes. The weaned child no longer needs her mother for food. She is independent of physical need….the relationship is now based on something beyond the physical. The frantic grasping for meaning that occupies our growing up years gives way to a quiet and a calm and the contentment of being known….not provided for…..but known. The faith narrative provides meaning through being, not doing. On my way home from Minnesota this week, I stopped at a rest stop for a break. And headed into the bathroom was a woman with about ten adult charges that all had Down’s Syndrome. They had been to the Circus in Baraboo. They were stopping for a break too. As we all headed into the bathroom together I was struck by many things. These women had no fear. They had no self-consciousness. They were out for a day at the circus and all seemed perfectly comfortable. One woman came up to me with a big grin on her face and said: Hi, my name is Sarah. Look I have new glasses. She took them off to hand them to me, a perfect stranger. I couldn’t decide who was teaching me more in this experience. The Downs Syndrome women or the caretaker who had loaded them all up in a van to drive from Madison to Baraboo to go to the circus. Either way, they were all quiet and calm…..being, not doing. Very, very humbling. Look I have new glasses. At my conference, Walter Bruggemann talked about this tension of living in the world as a faithful person. He cautioned against joining the rat race…..he says: if you join the rat race, and you win, all you find out is that you are a rat! (Festival of Homiletics) We aren’t rats. We’re humans. And to find meaning as part of the human race requires more than being right or doing right or excelling in the right way. It requires retreating from a narrative that produces anxiety, and produces worry, and sad, sad people to a narrative that produces well-being. So back to my earlier quest. To be faithful living in the world. Can it be done? Really. What other choice do we have? Of course it can be done. It’s the only option we have. Our text today offers the way….In this world, feel rooted, beautiful, flexible enough to take the wind and rain upon our faces. In this world, commit to the idea today that no matter what we hear in the news, we will not live our lives on constant orange alert. In this world, be ok with your god-given beauty and give thanks. In this world, find meaning in well-being, not in anxiety producing doing. Notice the people who are calmly and quietly living anxious free lives.. In this world, let your soul be calm and quiet. Don’t worry. Be happy. Amen.
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