Matthew 6:24-34   The Message translation

24 “You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.

 

25-26 “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

 

27-29 “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

 

30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

 

34 “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

 

 

We don’t often use The Message Translation, but I chose it for our gospel lesson today primarily because of how it renders one sentence, “What I’m trying to get you to do here is to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.”  Can’t you just hear Jesus saying that? I can!  Dorry, I am trying to get you to relax.  Stop worrying about getting more—more money in the bank, more invested in your retirement account, more travel, more clothing, even, dare I say it, more books!  Stop worrying about GETTING, and respond instead of God’s GIVING!

Yes, I can hear Jesus saying all of that to me.  I can imagine Jesus saying that to almost every single one of us.  We live in a time of rampant consumerism.  But we are not the first generation to struggle with incorporating the realities of living in a material world with our faith.  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, preached a sermon 250 years ago advocating that Christians 1) earn all they can, 2) save all they can, and 3) give all they can.  Earning, saving, giving—these are all good things to do!  We are to place a higher value on them than spending and consuming.  But earning, saving, and giving are not enough.  We also need to focus on receiving.

What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.  Since Easter, we have been thinking about creation, and our scriptural mandate to be good stewards over all God has made.  Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”  True!  Every piece of creation is a witness to God’s brilliance.  And yet, God has given us everything on earth so that we might live.  The fullness of earth belongs to God, yet God chooses to entrust it to us.  How will we respond to God’s giving?  Will we respond with responsibility, and care well for all of God’s creation?  Or will we respond with apathy, or worse, an unchecked license to produce more, buy more, and ultimately, throw away more?

I like how in The Message translation, Jesus indicates that the heart of discipleship is relaxing.  Relaxing in God’s love.  Trusting in God’s provision.  I wish I were better at that!  Last Sunday was an amazing day at Lima.  We had two worship services with choir practice in the middle.  Choir practice!  We haven’t had that in two years!  Plus at the second service, we had a baptism!  What a joy.

Then in the afternoon, we hosted a concert of Ukrainian music for the community, complete with authentic Ukrainian refreshments!   We haven’t had a community concert here in two years, so this was a special day just because of that.  But the concert was also an opportunity to raise money for the United Ukrainian American Relief Fund, which will be used to help Ukrainians who are suffering because of the war.  Concert goers donated $1,950!  Plus our Endowment gave a donation.  We raised almost $3,000 in one afternoon for a very worthy cause.  I went to bed last Sunday night feeling very content.  It had been a great day for Lima Church.

But I woke up at 3 am in a panic.  I remembered an important email I had not responded to.  I was worried about a couple people in our congregation who are going through a hard time right now.  I felt unprepared the tasks of the workweek ahead.  My first instinct was to GET up and GET to work! Or GET up and GET a snack.  Or GET up and GET my phone and GET informed by scrolling through some news articles and Facebooks posts.  It seemed impossible that I would be able to GET back to sleep without GETTING something to help me!  We seem to be wired to respond to stress by GETTING!

But God calls us to respond to stress by focusing on RECEIVING.  Jesus commands us, “Seek first the kingdom of God”.  The good news here is, the kingdom of God is already within us!  We don’t have to go out and get anything.  The kingdom of God is already here.  Just stop and breathe and connect to it in your midst!  Jesus commands us, “Seek first God’s righteousness,” which calls us to action, yes, but it also calls us to just be.  God’s righteousness comes first and foremost through us receiving Christ, not through anything we do on our own.  RECEIVING.  God created the universe with a holy order, and the very first thing God had Adam and Eve do is receive God’s breath into them, receive God’s provision for them, receive God’s gift of human companionship, receive God’s companionship with them.

Of course, sin entered the picture and messed all of that up. So now, instead of RECEIVING from God as our first instinct, when we are stressed, most of us respond by GETTING.  This can range from getting riled up, to getting ourselves distracted.  It can include getting ice cream, getting new clothing for our bodies, getting new decorations for our houses, getting another look at our net worth.  We are conditioned by our sinful world to GET.  But just because our habits are routine, does not mean our habits have to reign.  We can and should expect to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit!

If you have trouble RELAXING and trusting and RECEIVING all God has to offer, you are not alone!  I have trouble with that, too.  But we know God is moving.  God is at work in us. God is helping us grow.  And sometimes that growth comes from places we least expect.  Take, for instance, wildflowers.  Jesus says if we study them, we will strengthen our faith.  Take, for instance, birds.  Jesus says, if we will consider them, we will strengthen our faith.  Birds neither sow nor reap, yet God provides for them.  Flowers don’t spin or weave, yet they are clothed with great beauty.  Taking time to study creation, and in this Easter season, studying about caring for creation, can strengthen our faith because we see awe in the natural world.  We see God’s brilliant design.  We see God’s provision.  If God cares for the birds of the air and the flowers in the field with such attention to detail, will God not care all the more for us?

The next time you feel stressed, stop and pay attention.  Is your first instinct to GET something?  Get a drink, get away, get control, get distracted, get angry, get yourself a treat?  Try to interrupt your habit, and see if you can take time to RECEIVE from God instead.  Breathe in God’s love for yourself.  Breathe out God’s compassion for the world.  Stop and smell the roses, listen for birds, or look around in wonder.  Name things that are true.  Give relaxing in God’s provision a try, and see if that doesn’t help you consume less.

Being able to relax and receive what God is already giving us is a crucial life skill.  We are harming ourselves and our planet with all of our GETTING.  There is a lot of talk these days about sustainable manufacturing, fair trade practices, and paying more for products that are better made and will last longer.  Buying less, buying second hand, buying better quality, not buying at all—have you ever considered these options as expressions of your faith?  What does it look like to seek God’s righteousness in our consumer age?  My guess is, it looks like buying less, buying second hand, buying better quality that will last longer, and not buying at all.  Seeking God’s righteousness for our spending considers ALL the costs of each purchase:  the cost to human life if the workers did not have safe conditions and were not paid fairly; the cost to the environment if manufacturing and distribution methods were not designed with care; the cost to future generations who will ultimately have to live with the remnants of the purchase either in a landfill or hopefully recycled, repurposed, or re-used.  The more we can relax and appreciate and be filled by what God gives, the less we will be tempted to GET more to fill us.

And, the more we can relax and appreciate and be filled by what God gives, the more we will have to share.  We will have more love to share, and more money to share.  Last week we talked about “keystone species”—animals that have a disproportionate impact on the eco-system around them.  Like beavers.  They make dams that turn streams into ponds and wetlands, and without them, many other species of wildlife would not have a habitat.  I said that people are the ultimate keystone species—more than any other animal, we have a disproportionate effect on the world around us.  We have the power to create conditions that support, or destroy life.  And although Jesus of course did not use the biological term, “keystone species”, I think that is what he was getting at in this passage of scripture.  Christians are called to be people who are different, who model a different way of living.  A way of living based on trusting in God, caring for creation, and loving all our neighbors.  People of faith are a much needed keystone species!  The Holy Spirit longs to work through us to bring about healing and wholeness to a broken world.  But we have to relax and trust, or this holy order will not work.

A little over a year ago, in March of 2021, about ten people from Lima Church participated in a “zoom” virtual mission trip to Liberia, Kenya, and India.  Over the course of three mornings, we met leaders and participants from Zoe Empowers and were amazed at the transformation orphaned families experience through the support of the Zoe Empowers program.  About a month later, Lima began the process of getting a group of our own to support.  Our “Lift One Another” group was formed in Rwanda in July 2021.  They are now nearing the end of their first year in the program, and we are hoping and praying that they are being lifted up, not just economically, but also spiritually, by our support.

Since then I have participated in other zoom meetings with Zoe participants and watched over a dozen thank you videos (like the one shown earlier in our worship service today) which show how Zoe is helping orphaned children become self-sufficient, food secure, educated, and respected in their communities.  I have especially enjoyed the videos from Rwanda, because they give us the best taste of what our group is experiencing.  With each video, I marvel at the good work being done.  But I continue to be somewhat shocked by how connected to the earth life is for people in rural Rwanda.  Basically, if they can’t grow it, they don’t eat it.  If they can’t raise it themselves, or trade with someone nearby, it’s not available. There are no cans of Coke or bags of Doritos in these videos!  They do not have a consumer mindset.  They are tied so closely to creation!  This perspective is one of the many blessings the young people of Zoe have to offer us!  We got involved because we have money to share.  But we are receiving something of great value from them, too.  Something, in fact, priceless:  we get to see how it might look to live as people trusting in God’s provision.

But let’s not romanticize this.  On that zoom mission trip, I believe it was the day we “went” to Kenya—meaning we sat in Fellowship Hall and were connected by a computer link to the folks from Zoe—at the end of the presentation, there was an opportunity for the young people in Kenya to ask questions of us and the other churches on the zoom meeting.  They asked questions about school and about weather.  Easy.  But then one young person asked, “Do you have to go uphill to get your water?”  We were all stunned.  At first, no one answered.  We all felt terrible admitting, we didn’t have to even go outside to get our water, let alone go uphill.  All we have to do is turn a tap.  Finally someone answered, and I recall their answer being offered quickly and calmly, like pulling off a band-aid.  No, we don’t have to go uphill to get our water.  Ouch.  Boy did that hurt.  I don’t think it hurt the people from Kenya. I think it hurt us, to feel so acutely how much we take for granted.  We don’t have to rely on growing cassava and beans for food.  We don’t have to rely on a well for water.  We don’t have to worry about finding fabric so we can sew our own clothes.  Most of us have a closet full of clothes we hardly wear.  I think the feeling I felt in that moment, not to put too fine a point on it, but I think that feeling is called shame.

God of course calls us with amazing grace out of our shame, out of our greed, out of our anxiety, out of our selfishness, out of our ignorance, into a new kind of living.  Kingdom living, where we seek first God’s kingdom—meaning well being for ALL—and God’s righteousness—meaning right living in ALL areas of life.  The antidote to shame is trust.  The antidote to greed is appreciation.  The antidote to selfishness and ignorance is opportunities like we have with Zoe Empowers.  A new way of living is possible; Jesus said so.  A new way of living is critical—the sustainability of planet depends on us consuming less.  A new way of living is as close as our next breath, if we will relax, and stop being preoccupied with getting, and focus instead on receiving all God has for us.  Amen.

 

 

Benediction:

May the blessing of God, fountain of living water, flow within us as a river of life.

May we drink deep of her wisdom.  May we never thirst again.  May we go through life refreshing many, as a sign of healing for all, through the One who is Life eternal.  Amen.