Matthew 6:25-34
Thirty-five years ago Bobby McFerrin was winning awards for his song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” I remember that I used that song as a sermon illustration, saying something like “This is great music and bad theology.” My forty-year-old self wanted people to take seriously the way the world was broken and not simply ignore major issues in order to feel good. How many sermon illustrations happen in almost 50 years of preaching and why would I remember that one? Maybe because I need to correct the record. I remember it because I got it wrong. In today’s scripture, Jesus is reminding me: Don’t worry, be happy is a good way to live.
Living without worry doesn’t mean that there aren’t things broken in the wider world or in our particular lives. It doesn’t ignore the need to make things better when we can. Jesus who said, “Don’t worry about what you will eat” fed people who were hungry. He said, “Don’t worry about what you will drink” and made wine for a wedding. He said, “Don’t worry about what you will wear” and told people who had two robes to share one of them. The early Jesus communities focused on taking care of people who were feeling the weight of a hard life. They held common meals so that those who had food could share it. They sheltered people who were on the road without a place to stay. They found work for people who had literally lost the farm and needed a new trade.
Throughout history, Jesus’ followers have taken care of people who were in crisis. They were innkeepers in medieval monasteries. They began the first hospitals to care for the ill and spread hospitals throughout the world through the missionary movement. We claim that heritage when we help people in our community. This story doesn’t let us off the hook. It reminds us that we are the hands and heart of Jesus, the love of God, in this time and place for those who need God to intervene and save their lives.
It also reminds us that the world works better when people take care of each other. Jesus lived in a world where there was a gulf between rich folks and poor, powerful folks and those who did most of the work. So do we. He critiqued his world and chastised those who had the power to make it better and chose not to. So do we. Jesus told people who had nothing not to worry, God would provide. Then he taught his followers to do the work of God and provide. There’s a vast difference of opinion today about whether we as a society are responsible for the wellbeing of all people or not. American individualism suggests that if people are hungry it’s because they are lazy. Now that we know some of the folks who are hungry, we know that’s not true. The root causes of hunger are much deeper. They include mental illness and addiction and emergency medical conditions and gaps in education and a low minimum wage. Domestic abuse and the need to flee to safety causes hunger and homelessness. So does not having a safety net of family members. We are getting pretty good at feeding people. We need to get smarter about changing policies so that people can feed themselves.
While we’re waiting for people to come together and make the world an easier place to live, we come back to Jesus’ advice to those whose lives were difficult beyond anything we can imagine: don’t worry. Don’t worry doesn’t mean “ignore bad things.” It means that when life gets hard, do what you can to make it better, but worry isn’t one of those things. Much has been written about how worry makes hard situations harder and does nothing to make them better.
Our Buddhist friends are so much better at understanding this than we are. We’re lucky to have a Buddhist sangha available to us right here on Monday evenings. We are always welcome to come learn meditation practice and join in their conversations about helpful books. Our church library is full of books left by Tamar Reed, who collected them over a lifetime. The Buddha was raised as a child of privilege and sheltered from all the harsh realities of the world. As a young man he suddenly learned about some of those things he’d never faced: illness, poverty, hardship. In compassion, he set out to learn how to alleviate suffering of every kind, taking years to meditate and learn. A very over-simplified explanation of his discovery is that life is often hard but suffering is optional. Much of the suffering we experience comes from our own worry about what might happen or how things might turn out. Scholars see a lot of overlap between the Buddha and Jesus who came centuries later and this might be one of them: don’t worry. Neither of these spiritual leaders tell us not to see what’s broken or to ignore what’s wrong. Both ask us to face reality head on. Not worrying doesn’t mean pretending there isn’t a problem. Instead it puts a space around the problem and fills that space with confidence and peace rather than with worry.
Worry tells stories that make whatever is wrong grow and become less manageable. When I was first diagnosed with leukemia, I made the mistake of reading an official website that described symptoms and disease progression. I learned that people with my diagnosis often died within 5 years and there was no medication that was particularly helpful. I went into a panic. What was I going to do? What was I going to miss in life? I set aside one evening to feel completely sorry for myself. I cried. I was miserable. Then I set that down. I went to the doctor and did what he told me to do. I learned about medications and treatments. I got better. But over the years that getting better took, I lived life a day at a time. I focused on living rather than on dying. I enjoyed the people around me. I did work I cared about – and some I didn’t.
I learned to say about life: it is what it is. I can worry and make up possible scenarios about how bad things are going to be, or I can take one day, even one minute, at a time and deal with what’s real in that moment. Not every hard reality has an easy escape route. But the events of our lives are only tragic if we decide they are tragic. Some are very, very hard. But we don’t face them alone. God is on our side. God’s people are on our side. We can learn to face facts without worry and in the process, the burden of life gets lighter. One moment at a time.
Learning not to worry about what’s hard in life sets us free to face life head on. We do what we can. We leave what we can’t do. We set aside despair and anger and fear because each of them is just a story we tell ourselves. In their place we choose stories of hope and compassion and possibility. We can’t fix every problem life sends our way, but when we stop worrying and focus instead on what we can do, we make progress. We may not be able to cure a dying loved one, but we can spend quality time with them. We can’t keep adult children from making decisions we wouldn’t choose, but we can be there to help if it doesn’t work out and to cheer if it does. We can’t personally end oppression in the world, but we can welcome New Americans one family at a time.
Living without worry gives us back our power to live life with courage and hope. Even if it doesn’t change the circumstances of life, it changes how we deal with them. It helps us see what is possible and take a step forward with strength. Don’t worry. Trust God and the goodness of the universe. We may find that we are happy.