Second Sunday BeforE Lent

When I was reflecting on this Gospel reading from the Sermon on the Mount, I was transported back in my mind’s eye to my young childhood.  I was born just after the war and as a child I had to be very quiet and amuse myself with my toys in an afternoon, so my mother could tune into the Light Programme and listen to Mrs Dale’s Diary. This was the first post-war soap drama on British radio, it began on 5^th January, 1948 and ran until 1969, when the world had become a far less genteel place, and Mrs Dale’s Diary was replaced with such soaps as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Eastenders, and Neighbours, which are far from genteel.  I hear the story line from Coronation Street had a tram smashing into buildings and killing people, Emmerdale had a plane crash on the village, and I’ve lost count of the number of times Dirty Den from Eastenders has been brought back to life!!

Mrs Dale’s Diary was a reflection on Middle Class England, when everyone spoke with a cut glass accent and lived awfully boring middle class lives.  The Dales lived in an imaginary sixteen-room Victorian Mansion in the imaginary London Suburb of Parkwood Hill. Which of course the BBC thought everyone did.  Remember this was the time that the radio newsreaders wore black tie and dinner jacket to read the news, even though no one could see them.

The whole concept was Mrs Dale telling us about her family, and then the characters took their part in every day life.  It always began with, “I’m awfully worried about Jim”.  Jim was Dr Dale.  Why Mrs Dale was worried about him I seem to forget but the good doctor never seemed to be the sort who would do anything naughty, so I presume her worry was about him working too hard.  Mrs Dale always seemed to be worried about her children as well, but as a parent and grandparent that’s par for the course.

What innocent days they seemed, when in reality, Britain was struggling to come to terms with a war-torn society, rationing, bad housing and extreme social problems. Perhaps for people like my mother and other adults struggling to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads in those years after the Second World War, Mrs Dale’s Diary was an innocent form of escape, just as we now enjoy watching programmes like Downton Abbey.

I always feel the previous verse should be included in this Gospel reading to give context to it. “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”.  Because when you think about it for many people their real worries are about money, whether they have enough to feed their family, pay the rent or mortgage.  Sadly of course many people have a very high expectation of what makes them happy and comfortable, what expensive car, house, holiday they can have, then the craving for wealth induces the most severe of worries and can make them ill.

Here is a trivial pursuit question for you.  What causes more ill health and premature death than any other illness?  Answer: Stress. What causes stress, worry. Now you are very unlikely to get a trivial pursuit question like that, I know, but some experts believe stress related illnesses cause more premature death than any other illness in western society.  Perhaps it’s the modern lifestyle we lead but stress, induced by worry is a real problem for us today, costing the country billions in lost days work each year, and clearly from the Gospel reading a real problem in Jesus’ time also.

“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?” In this passage worry is mentioned by Jesus six times.  Worry is big business, researchers suggest that news programmes almost always lead with bad news because  it feeds our tendency to worry and encourages us to continue watching, and then we worry even more, and these past few weeks with Egypt and Libya and turmoil in other Middle east Countries we have had a lot to worry about.

When you think about it the Sermon on the Mount is really a manifesto for what life should be like living under the Kingdom of God.  Living under the Kingdom of God we should concentrate more on eternal values and less on external values, in other words more on what life holds for us than what life demands of us, so that instead of living for the moment, and desiring expensive cars, holidays, the latest fashions, the latest electronic gadgets and fads, we should live for things that really matter, like loving our neighbours as ourselves, treating others properly, taking care of the widows, orphans and outcasts.  Showing through our lives the way Jesus lived his life in the service of others and for others.

There is nothing wrong with wealth in itself or in planning ahead for our futures, frankly that is sensible, Jesus is not addressing that nor is he saying we should abandon our lives and sit and wait for the coming of the kingdom.  We do have to live our lives in the present context, but he is telling us that we should stop worrying about things we really cannot control and worry about the things we can control. There are things that only God can control and worrying about those things is pointless really.

God is the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of this world and he takes good care of his children by providing us with what we need, and gives us the power, energy and creativity to make the things we need and to shape our lives for the good of all people, despite what Richard Dawkins suggests.  Our ultimate goal as children of God is to think and live like Christ, so it’s not a short term goal based on the acquisition of wealth, which offers us short term comfort, but eternal comfort through the promise of Christ and in how we live our lives, selflessly not selfishly.

Christians therefore have to live for the coming of God’s Kingdom, we have to live here and now in such a way that we can show to everyone around us what that Kingdom will look like when it happens, and the church, that’s us gathered here, is the living expression of that Kingdom here on earth, I am sure you remember that wonderful prayer, of St Teresa of Avila,  “Christ has no body now on earth but ours; no hands but ours, no feet but ours.  Ours are the eyes through which is to look out Christ’s compassion on the world; ours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; ours are the hands with which he is to bless men and women now”. That’s the real challenge for us from the Sermon on the Mount, are we Christ-like or Christ-less?

In this Gospel reading Jesus poses us some serious questions which he wants us to address.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Are we of not more value than the birds of the air?

Can any of us by worrying add a single hour to our span of life?

You see people who live their lives without God, who deny God, have nothing better to live for, their lives are concentrated around earthly things, more money, better jobs, bigger houses, the best food and wine, the most expensive holidays, because to those people these earthly things are a substitute for God, indeed they take the place of God’s goodness to us and squander the resources of the earth, and in the process make themselves ill through worrying. And yet everywhere around us are reminders of the providence, care and concern God has for us.  We live in a beautiful world, with so much provided for us, with enough for everyone living on this planet, and yet we destroy the resources for selfish gain, and deny two thirds of the world’s population the same things we enjoy. 

As individuals, we throw away food, waste resources and squander our wealth, while millions live on less than $2 a day.  In the recent turmoil in Egypt, which is supposedly a wealthy Arab country, I was shocked to learn that 70% of the population lived on less than $2 a day and at least 40% were uneducated, but Mubarak had managed to accumulate a vast wealth for himself.

“Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”.  This is the true antidote for worry. If God offers us all the things we need for our lives, then worrying about them is really saying we don’t trust God. But when we put our complete trust in God we have no need to worry about those things because we know God is walking alongside us through our earthly life and God will not let us down, and then we will find that food, drink and clothing look after themselves.

Sadly, because we are only human, living without worry sounds almost impossible, as impossible as living without air to breath, many people worry about not worrying, but its only when we put our faith and trust in God, through his Son, Jesus that we can begin to feel true happiness and a life free from worry.  

“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.  Today’s trouble is enough for today”.  Amen.