Eighth Sunday After the Epiphany
Isaiah 49:8-16a • Psalm 131 • 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 • Matthew 6:24-34
Isaiah 49:8-16a • Psalm 131 • 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 • Matthew 6:24-34
[Jesus said to his disciples:] "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. 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? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today."
Jesus may not have been thinking about home organization and controlling clutter when he was preaching this part of the Sermon on the Mount. But his admonition not to worry, not to have concern about God providing for what we need, would have special resonance for a kind of person that has emerged in popular culture as the embodiment of a worry-wart: the hoarder. On TV shows like “Hoarder: Buried Alive” on The Learning Channel, we see images of people with homes so full of “stuff” that doors to rooms can barely be opened, that have become a maze of ceiling-high seas of unemptied shopping bags, and that have the most dizzyingly diverse assortment of random food, nick-knacks and clothing items anyone has ever seen.
There is now a whole home organization industry that tells us that even if we don’t have homes this cluttered, that we need to buy more stuff—more organizers, more shelving systems, more magazines—so we can get rid of our stuff! What’s interesting to watch on these hoarding shows is the kind of thought-process that hoarders go through to justify buying more stuff they do not need. “If I can just get these 5 pairs of shoes that are my 5 favorite colors, then I’ll never have to worry about having to wear dress shoes again…” “If I can just buy these 25 boxes of cookies that my mom used to buy me, I’ll have enough for the rest of the year.” Hoarders tap into fears we all deal with—the fears of letting go of sentimental objects from our past, and the fear of not having enough “just in case” items for our future needs.
Whether or not our homes are full of clutter, we all carry around fears that clutter our lives and our hearts. Fears have a way of working in us that multiply exponentially; that make us think that if we can just hold on to that memory from the past, and hold on to the way it used to be and the way we wish it would always be…or if we could just invest enough time, energy and money into protecting our future, then we’ll make it out okay. Fear has a way of putting us into a trance that says that “more” is better. “More”, advertisers tell us, will give us the joy we want right now. The trap of this thinking is that our fear will go away once we have enough. But “more” ends up making our lives a zero sum equation. “More” will not make us happy. “More” feeds our fears that can turn our hearts and our spirits numb and blind—numb to our own excess clutter, and blind to our neighbors who have nothing.
But Jesus’ words about not worrying do not paint him as the one deals out the drug of cheap grace to ease our conscience just enough to continue pursuing life in a zero-sum fashion. It is important that we put Jesus’ saying about not being afraid in the context of what immediately precedes them, where Jesus says “no one can serve two masters…you cannot serve God and wealth.” (Mt 6:24) When Jesus speaks of living free from fear, guilt and shame, he’s talking about our wealth and the use of our money reflect the zero-sum economy where there is never enough, where the balance never gets to zero, where our money manages us rather than us managing our money; or…whether our money is a reflection of the economy of God’s grace, where God is trusted as the provider of everything that we are and everything that we have, where there is always enough for everyone right now, and where God and not wealth, is what provides security, abundant life and infinite generosity.
Jesus reminds us that as our master, God promises to never let us out of the palm of God’s hand…God will provide for us as our father and our mother. Jesus’ ministry paints a picture for us of what an “economy of grace” looks like: an economy not driven by manipulation, but by unmerited gift after unmerited gift. God’s economy of grace turns us from cluttered hoarders into cheerful givers. Jesus’ promise, “Do not worry about your life”, means our lives are not in our hands, but God’s hands, and in those hands, the world has enough for all to share in the common good now…not in some bye-gone time in the past, not in some heavenly afterlife...but at this…present…moment.
But this kind of economy is so hard for us to trust in, because it is not what we see. It’s hard to trust God’s faithfulness like a flower trusts spring, and to sail on the currents of God’s infinite love like a bird does in the air. But that is why Jesus died for us. That is why it was so hard for those in power not to be threatened by the economy of God’s grace that Jesus proclaimed. It was so hard that they put him to death. But God doesn’t operate in a zero sum way, keeping track of all the ways we offend God, or looking for some kind of payment from us that will justify us. God operates on the clean, green, unmerited and never-ending abundant grace…grace that resurrects Jesus from death purely out of infinite love for us…purely so that we may all experience God’s new life…now.
As human beings, however, there is a catch to living in God’s economy: our place in God’s economy of grace does not ease the slack in the tension that will always exist in the world between wealth and poverty. Living in God’s economy of grace gives tremendous responsibility to those who have resources and wealth to ensure they are shared for the sake of the common good. In Haiti, many peasants say, “God provides, but doesn’t share” because they don’t see the world sharing its wealth with them. It is our responsibility to continually ask ourselves these two questions: “Who is our money serving, God or wealth?”, and “Does what we accumulate come at the expense of someone going hungry?” We who live in privilege compared to the majority of the world, cannot tire of asking this question.
Jesus may not have been thinking about home organization and controlling clutter when he was preaching this part of the Sermon on the Mount. But his admonition not to worry, not to have concern about God providing for what we need, would have special resonance for a kind of person that has emerged in popular culture as the embodiment of a worry-wart: the hoarder. On TV shows like “Hoarder: Buried Alive” on The Learning Channel, we see images of people with homes so full of “stuff” that doors to rooms can barely be opened, that have become a maze of ceiling-high seas of unemptied shopping bags, and that have the most dizzyingly diverse assortment of random food, nick-knacks and clothing items anyone has ever seen.
There is now a whole home organization industry that tells us that even if we don’t have homes this cluttered, that we need to buy more stuff—more organizers, more shelving systems, more magazines—so we can get rid of our stuff! What’s interesting to watch on these hoarding shows is the kind of thought-process that hoarders go through to justify buying more stuff they do not need. “If I can just get these 5 pairs of shoes that are my 5 favorite colors, then I’ll never have to worry about having to wear dress shoes again…” “If I can just buy these 25 boxes of cookies that my mom used to buy me, I’ll have enough for the rest of the year.” Hoarders tap into fears we all deal with—the fears of letting go of sentimental objects from our past, and the fear of not having enough “just in case” items for our future needs.
Whether or not our homes are full of clutter, we all carry around fears that clutter our lives and our hearts. Fears have a way of working in us that multiply exponentially; that make us think that if we can just hold on to that memory from the past, and hold on to the way it used to be and the way we wish it would always be…or if we could just invest enough time, energy and money into protecting our future, then we’ll make it out okay. Fear has a way of putting us into a trance that says that “more” is better. “More”, advertisers tell us, will give us the joy we want right now. The trap of this thinking is that our fear will go away once we have enough. But “more” ends up making our lives a zero sum equation. “More” will not make us happy. “More” feeds our fears that can turn our hearts and our spirits numb and blind—numb to our own excess clutter, and blind to our neighbors who have nothing.
But Jesus’ words about not worrying do not paint him as the one deals out the drug of cheap grace to ease our conscience just enough to continue pursuing life in a zero-sum fashion. It is important that we put Jesus’ saying about not being afraid in the context of what immediately precedes them, where Jesus says “no one can serve two masters…you cannot serve God and wealth.” (Mt 6:24) When Jesus speaks of living free from fear, guilt and shame, he’s talking about our wealth and the use of our money reflect the zero-sum economy where there is never enough, where the balance never gets to zero, where our money manages us rather than us managing our money; or…whether our money is a reflection of the economy of God’s grace, where God is trusted as the provider of everything that we are and everything that we have, where there is always enough for everyone right now, and where God and not wealth, is what provides security, abundant life and infinite generosity.
Jesus reminds us that as our master, God promises to never let us out of the palm of God’s hand…God will provide for us as our father and our mother. Jesus’ ministry paints a picture for us of what an “economy of grace” looks like: an economy not driven by manipulation, but by unmerited gift after unmerited gift. God’s economy of grace turns us from cluttered hoarders into cheerful givers. Jesus’ promise, “Do not worry about your life”, means our lives are not in our hands, but God’s hands, and in those hands, the world has enough for all to share in the common good now…not in some bye-gone time in the past, not in some heavenly afterlife...but at this…present…moment.
But this kind of economy is so hard for us to trust in, because it is not what we see. It’s hard to trust God’s faithfulness like a flower trusts spring, and to sail on the currents of God’s infinite love like a bird does in the air. But that is why Jesus died for us. That is why it was so hard for those in power not to be threatened by the economy of God’s grace that Jesus proclaimed. It was so hard that they put him to death. But God doesn’t operate in a zero sum way, keeping track of all the ways we offend God, or looking for some kind of payment from us that will justify us. God operates on the clean, green, unmerited and never-ending abundant grace…grace that resurrects Jesus from death purely out of infinite love for us…purely so that we may all experience God’s new life…now.
As human beings, however, there is a catch to living in God’s economy: our place in God’s economy of grace does not ease the slack in the tension that will always exist in the world between wealth and poverty. Living in God’s economy of grace gives tremendous responsibility to those who have resources and wealth to ensure they are shared for the sake of the common good. In Haiti, many peasants say, “God provides, but doesn’t share” because they don’t see the world sharing its wealth with them. It is our responsibility to continually ask ourselves these two questions: “Who is our money serving, God or wealth?”, and “Does what we accumulate come at the expense of someone going hungry?” We who live in privilege compared to the majority of the world, cannot tire of asking this question.
What can help remind us that God invites us to live in an economy of grace, rather than scarcity, are the images of abundance, courage and trust that fill our imaginations. I’d like to invite everyone this week to take out our cameras, keep them at the ready in your pocket or purse, and snap pictures when we see God’s economy of grace at work—pictures that point our vision beyond fearful scarcity to God’s abundance that’s always more than we can see. Maybe what restores your trust in God’s economy of grace will be pictures of children or grandchildren, or maybe it’s friends, or maybe it’s just someone at work who is faithful and diligent at their job. And please, send these pictures to me! Or better yet, post them in Fellowship Hall so we can all be inspired to leave church more ready to trust God’s goodness and leave fear in its grave where it belongs.
I’d actually like to start this collection of images of God’s abundance by taking a picture of a place where I see God’s grace all the time…and that is in all of you! May this image bless each and every one of us this day, and remind us we belong in God’s economy, where no one hoards, where all have enough, and where God frees us from serving ourselves to mutually serving one another. Amen.
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