Sermon - January 24, 2010

The Word of the Lord:
Why Worry?

 I Kings 17:7-16, Philippians  4:4-8, The Gospel Matthew 6:25-34

    Elijah offered a prayer that threatened his life. He prayed against his own nation as it sunk deeper and deeper into sin. God answered Elijah's prayer with discipline, a three year drought: young and old, the good and the bad, those who worshiped the false god Baal, and those who remained faithful to the Living God, suffered alike.  All this because Ahab, King of Israel, had decided to worship Baal the god of his wife Jezebel.  When Elijah prophesied what God was about to do, the idolatrous king and his wicked queen may have thought at first that Elijah was just this side of looney-ville. But when no rain came, day after day, week after week, month by month, Ahab and Jezebel sent men to arrest Elijah to kill him. For two years he was on the lamb with a price on his head.

    We find the fugitive living beside a brook, which had just dried up. The Word of the Lord comes to Him, “Go at once to Zaprepath of Sidon and stay there.” vs. 9  I don't know if Elijah knew his geography, or that Zaprepath was a little village some 100 miles away. But he knew very well that Sidon was the capitol of pagan Phoenicia, and the hometown of Jezebel. This was good news and bad news for Elijah. The good news was that he was moving on, hopefully to a fresh water supply, but the bad news was he was heading for a suburb of his enemy's home turf! She might even have relatives living there who would gladly turn him over to authorities. Danger behind him and danger awaiting him, nonetheless, Elijah heads for Zaprepath. Now the story gets really interesting: God tells Elijah the reason: “I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” Aren't there people in Israel that would be willing to help him? There is an APB, all points bulletin, on this guy. The last time Elijah obeyed the Lord's command, ravens brought him crumbs for dinner. Meals on wings. Elijah gets up and begins the long dangerous journey to Zaprepath.

   When he finally arrives at the town's gate, he finds a widow gathering sticks. She is young, because she has a young child. She must be very poor as to have to gather wood herself. Though it was most unbecoming for a Jew to speak to a woman in public, who was not a relative, and a gentile besides, he asks her for a drink of water. Remember Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria?  We know how that story ended: she met her salvation and proclaimed it to all the townspeople. But this young woman of Zaprepath had only one husband, who died young, she is gathering sticks because she is destitute. Just as she turns to get this stranger a drink of water, Elijah calls out to her, “And bring me please a piece of bread.” vs. 11 He might have as well have asked for Grade A Iowa beef prime rib, scalloped potatoes, fresh buttered asparagus, candied carrots, and spinach salad, drenched in Paul Newman's Balsamic Vinaigrette! She replies, “As surely as the Lord your God lives, I don't have any bread – only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.” And then she tells him her plan for the meager fare. “I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it – and die.” That was the plan. She tells Elijah the sorrowful truth, swearing not by her god or gods, but by his, “The Lord Your God.” I can't do anything for you, because Your God isn't doing anything for me. I think of the people in Haiti that are injured, sick, grieving the loss of loved ones, of homes, of what little they had, down to their last handful of meal and dregs of the last oil. There are times we might feel that way too, when the worst we feared has come upon us, or when the thing we least expected has all but consumed us. “Well, by your living God, I have no more, I can do no more, I can take no more.”

    It seems like a cruel thing for Elijah to ask a starving woman and her child to give to him their last meal. But Elijah, remember, is doing what God commanded him. He is being obedient. He is trusting the outcomes to God.  He is not worried about what the woman thinks of him,. Instead, he is deeply concerned about what God wants to do for this woman and her little one. So he assures her, “ Don't be afraid.  Go home and do as you have said.  But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says “The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.” To me, it is not amazing that Elijah said this, but is is amazing that the woman, a non-believer would do exactly what he said. She made the muffin with what little meal and oil was left. And there was more meal in the jar, more oil in the jug for her and her son just as God promised.

    Nice story, right?  Not very realistic, though. Well, let me share this. A young couple and their baby boy were deep in debt, hungry, and sorely worried about how they were going make it through the week, much less the winter. They had opened an auto repair shop just six months before the recession hit, and hit everyone hard. What little they had or could eek out was promised to their creditors. It was getting dark and near supper time. All the wife had for dinner was a little soup she made from chicken neck and giblets she had in the freezer and mashed potatoes left over from a church supper the day before that no one else wanted.  Husband calls home from the shop, “Honey, there's a man here who has no place to go. It's 20 below. Ok if he comes home with me?”  She thinks a moment and wonders if they had enough soup even for themselves, much less a guest, and replies: “I suppose so. I hope he likes potato soup.”  The husband came home with the man in tow: a scraggly, displaced looking sort of fellow. The wife set table, for the three adults and the toddler. When she served the soup, much to her amazement,everyone had plenty, even seconds, and there was soup left over. The next morning, the stranger left, but that noon there was soup enough for another meal, and another, and another: for an entire week, until there was again money to buy groceries. This is no tale, It is absolutely true. Thirty years ago, when there was only enough to barely make two servings, John and I and baby Chris ate soup for a week.

     The apostle Paul writes to the Philippians and teaches us: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Phil. 4:6.  Do not be anxious about anything! 

Do you remember about 20 years ago Bobby McFerrin sang a song, “Don't worry, Be happy”.

Here is a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry be happy
In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy......

  In 1989 this little calypso ditty won the Grammy awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Male Pop vocalist.  But it has no substance. It is just a lark.  How desperate we are to assuage our worries when we award a pop artist who has nothing more to offer than a catchy tune.

   Preparing the power point images for sermon series on the Purpose of Christmas, I came across a picture of a high class shopping mall crowded with people shopping for the holidays. They were absolutely dismal. In that sea of faces, there was not one smile. I couldn't believe it. So the next time I went to Sioux City I took note of how many people were smiling or at least didn't look bored, weary, or worried. I saw about fifty folks, before I found a smile, on a young woman who was with her boyfriend. At the most joyous time of year, people are overwhelmed and depressed, worried.

  To a  hand wringing, brow furrowing, forehead rubbing, stressed and anxious people, Jesus implores, “I  tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.” Mt. 5:25  Jesus gives us the reason not to worry and the futility of worry. “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father fees them. Are you no much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can ad a single hour to his life?Mt. 6:27.

   Medical science has shown that worry can actually shorten your life by stroke, high blood pressure, ulcers, depression and heart disease. Notwithstanding are the effects of self-medicating for stress and anxiety such as tobacco, prescription drug abuse, and alcohol. So how can we “Not Worry, and Be Happy?”

   Worry isn't an emotional problem although it certainly has emotional ill-effects. It is not a social problem although it affects our relationships with others. It is a spiritual problem. We worry because we don't have enough: but not enough money, or time, or resources. Worry exhibits a lack of trust in God's love, a lack of dependence upon His provision, and a lack of faith in His goodness. The Creator of the universe who strew the stars in place and set the planets in motion either can't handle my issues, or can't be reached, or just plain doesn't care. Here's God's take on your issues:

 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you. Mt. 6: 30

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. Ps. 23:1

The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.  Psalm 34:10

Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me. Jn 14:1

My God will meet your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:1: 

Cast your cares upon the Lord, for He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

      The apostle Paul teaches us “everything that does not come from faith is sin.” Rm. 14:23. Worry is sin. But the good news is, today's Gospel is, Jesus  forgives and offers  the cure:  Mt 6:33 “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness...” That's it: that is the secret of the worry-free happy life. But what does it mean? What is the Kingdom of God, and how does one seek it first?  Within the next year I hope to preach a series on the Kingdom of God. But for now, simply put, the Kingdom of God, is the reign of Christ: the Lordship of Jesus: specifically, in your life. To seek first God's Kingdom is to make Jesus first in your heart and foremost in your life. To seek the Kingdom means I desire to invite Jesus to be the boss of me. Briefly here's how:

1.     Pray that the Lord would have control and rule your heart and mind.

2.     Praise God who He is. Praise gives me the perspective that I am not the center of the universe but am loved deeply and perfectly by the One who is. .

3.     Kick devil butt. Resist, reject, and renounce anything that is not of God, that does not bring Him glory.

4.     Pray  win those who are lost to God's Kingdom.

5.     Actively seek the mind of Christ so that I will exhibit the qualities of Christ in my life: to meet needs of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the outcast, and the persecuted brother or sister in Christ.

6.     Proclaim  Christ's  coming and disclaim  all other competing forces against His reign in the social, political, and economic arenas as I have opportunity.

7.     Finally, seeking the Kingdom of God first means that I submit to His plans instead of my own. That I am willing to believe, love and trust in the One who died for me, no matter where He leads me, to whom He leads me, or for what purpose. .

  If we seek first His Kingdom, personally experience His love, see firsthand His power to provide, trust against what we do see by what we can't see, and gladly walk in His will, why worry?

Amen.

 

 

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